George Gruhn

Jan 7, 2025 | vintageguitar.com | George Gruhn |Walter Carter

As had been the case with tenor banjos, mandolins, and classical/minstrel banjos in earlier eras, the best-selling fretted instrument attracted the most attention from makers, and the growing competition among guitar makers toward the end of the ’20s sparked a flurry of innovations, the most radical of which were the resonator guitar and the electric guitar.

Mar 27, 2024 | vintageguitar.com | George Gruhn |Walter Carter

It wasn’t an instant change, however, from the New Yorker and Excel (models handed down from D’Angelico) to the Centura and Avant Garde. D’Aquisto first retreated from the traditions of ornamentation to arrive at what he felt was the essence of the archtop guitar. Only then did he let his imagination drive his designs. The New Yorker Classic show here, from 1986, represents D’Aquisto’s bridge between the traditional and the modernistic – the end of one era and beginning of another.

Feb 8, 2024 | vintageguitar.com | George Gruhn |Walter Carter

Because pre-World War II dreadnoughts have been the most highly sought and most carefully studied Martin models, their spec changes are the most familiar to vintage Martin aficionados. But anyone who assumes that changes in dreadnoughts (or any other size, for that matter) were uniform across the line will be in for some surprises. As this 1937 0-21 illustrates, many of the 0-size and 00-size models did not change in step with the larger models.

Jan 14, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | George Gruhn |Charles Saufley

While these two beautiful instruments are almost never played together within the same song, they certainly reflect the breadth of Los Lobos’ influences, the band’s willingness to stake out new musical territory, and their dedication to folklórico’s rich traditions. Cesar Rosas’s Telecaster-bodied bajo sexto was born of necessity, when he grew tired of watching his treasured Macias bajo sexto take a beating on the road.

Jan 7, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | Teja Gerken |David McPherson |Greg Olwell |George Gruhn

This lavishly appointed Yamaha L-53 was custom-made for John Denver in 1977. Having previously played several stock Yamaha guitars, Denver ordered a matching pair of six- and 12-string instruments during a tour of Japan, and they were delivered sometime in 1978. During this period, Yamaha’s L-Series (“L” stood for “luxury”) was the company’s high-end line of guitars, available only as special orders. Crafting a set of guitars for one of the era’s biggest stars was certainly a coup for Yamaha.