Buddy Guy has also tossed his guitar up in the air and caught it on exactly the same chord he was previously fretting. Other guitarists such as Joe Satriani and Zakk Wylde employ these techniques and Steve Vai has played with his tongue on several occasions. Jimi Hendrix, who spent his early career touring with R&B show bands, used some of these gimmicks in his rock sets, such as playing his guitar behind his back, in between his legs, and making it look as if he were playing it with his teeth. My co-editor, Nicholas Austin Ferrell, surely remembers our trip to upper Manhattan to acquire a single pickup, which nearly fell through because the seller overslept and left us waiting on a street corner for more than an hour.Blues musicians such as Charley Patton used stunts such as playing the guitar behind their back, and touring R&B performers further developed these stunts. I began slowly assembling all the parts I needed to complete my guitar, mostly through Craigslist. As luck would have it for me, however, Eastwood Guitars, a company that also copies classic Res-O-Glas guitars (albeit in shape, not in materials), was beginning to take off, and was selling their excess Res-O-Glas necks f on eBay. Shortly after my purchase, Guitar Kits USA went out of business. My purchase from Guitar Kits USA came with the plastic shell for the guitar, a maple block for the center, and some smaller wooden blocks to connect the back to. In hindsight, I think that Guitar Kits USA understated the skill required to complete the kits. The kits were advertised as requiring a “moderate skill level” to put together. I discovered that a company called “Guitar Kits USA” had recently acquired the patent that would enable it to produce the plastic Res-O-Glas frames. What Drew Me to Res-O-Glas GuitarsĪlready being inspired by the anti-purist nature of the Res-O-Glas guitars, I decided to research whether it would be possible to make one of my own. While the classic Res-O-Glas guitars are not made out of exotic rainforest trees, they have a unique and wonderful sound. These days, one would be lucky to find an original for less than $5,000. The guitars were sold with “Airline” on the headstock, and retailed for $99 in 1964. For a brief period in the 1960s, the Valco Guitar and Amplifier Company produced a line of guitars made out of a material that they called “ Res-O-Glas.” These fiberglass instruments are essentially hollow, held together with screws covering a hard strip of maple running down the center of the body. While guitar afficionados argue about which tree produces the best guitars, Jack White takes the stage with a plastic guitar. Opinionated guitarists with resources can be very particular about their instruments – spending upwards of $40,000 for guitars sourced from a single tree in the Honduran rain forest. Anyone who has partaken of the guitar community is familiar with the internet debates about which kinds of guitars sound best and which guitar-building materials are preferred. Guitarists are often prone to purist sentiments.
White revives classic folk and blues standards, I thought the materials for this guitar were perfect for a home build. I chose to build a guitar inspired by Jack White’s famous Airline guitar for a number of reasons. How I Came to Build My Airline Res-O-Glas Copy Similar to every other time I finished work on the guitar and closed it up, I vowed that this time would be the last. Content that it wouldn’t move, I screwed the guitar back up. I replaced the strap button, found a new screw, and soldered the wire in place. I also realized that the wire that connects to the screw could be loose. It occurred to me that the strap buttons, while metal looking, could easily be some sort alloy, or even plastic, and not very conductive. The screw that holds the strap button on this guitar is the only access to something metal that evenly touches the strings. Traditional guitars are usually grounded to the bridge, but since the bridge on this guitar quite literally “floats,” it requires a different set-up. Its grounding wire is attached to a screw that holds the strap button to the tail piece. My Airline Res-O-Glas guitar copy is peculiar. This guitar is the first guitar I ever built (or rather technically assembled, as I personally did not cut any of the components). I only say “started construction” because, with the frequency I have needed to make revisions, I can hardly call it complete. I started construction of my Airline Res-O-Glas guitar copy in 2013.
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