guitaradslead

Inspired by a recent post on reverb.com, I jumped down an Internet rabbit hole of vintage guitar ads. Naturally, there’s a ton of wonderful stuff to be found, and I was surprised, despite how niche a market these ads were trying to reach, at how little they differ in look and tone from any other ads of their times. ‘50s ads tended to be bland product shots surrounded by expository text, by the mid-‘60s ads started getting more creative, and ‘70s ads were often rainbow-hued blowouts executed by illustrators who owed their livelihoods to Milton Glaser. Which is basically to say that a lot of them could just as easily have been ads for cars or small appliances. Why this surprised me, I don’t know—they were crafted by the same agencies, using the same broad theories as to what worked, as all other ads. (And if those cultural transitions interest you, I cannot recommend Thomas Frank’s The Conquest of Coollysergic, in a study-hall kinda way.

Domino, early ’60s

Vox, 1964

Silvertone, 1965

Kent, 1965

Fender, 1965, interesting to compare to the 1958 ad below.

Silvertone, mid ’60s. I had one of these! For hardboard bound with wallpaper, it sounded great, and the amp-in-case worked perfectly. I got it for $85 in the early ’90s (Nancy Sinatra not included), probably sold it for about the same a year or two later. Current values can reach $600. That rhythmic sound you’re hearing is me repeatedly head-butting my wall.

Harmony, mid ’60s, and we’re guessing that amp isn’t quite to scale.

Vox, 1967

Epiphone, 1967. Interesting how the more stolid Epiphone company has the psych ad while the more experimental Vox company ran an ad the same year that, apart from the model’s sartorial hipness, would have been at home in an earlier decade.

Gibson, 1973. Five’ll get you ten that moustache is glued on.

Fender, 1972

Fender, 1973

Fender, 1973

Fender, early-mid ’70s

Fender, 1977

Fender, 1977