JB Hutto Montgomery Airline - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Airline Guitars were a brand of electric and acoustic guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

s made in the United States from 1958-68 by the Valco

Valco

Valco was a manufacturer of guitars, guitar amplifiers, and other musical instruments from the 1940s through 1968. Only other relatives alive today live in Staffordshire England.- History :...

Manufacturing Company, and sold through the Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...

mail-order retail company. (The Valco company is known for its flagship National

National String Instrument Corporation

The National String Instrument Corporation was a guitar company that formed to manufacture the first resonator guitars.-National resonator guitar designs:...

and budget Supro guitar brands, which were in production up until the companies' demise in 1968.) Today, old Valco guitars are played by a wide array of bands and artists including David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, The Cure

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...

, PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...

, and Calexico, yet they are most popularly associated with Jack White

Jack White (musician)

Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...

of The White Stripes

The White Stripes

The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

. Due to their re-emerging popularity in contemporary rock music, and their relative scarcity in the guitar-sale market, original Res-O-Glas guitars (models made with fiberglass bodies) in excellent condition are known to sell for as much as $1,500-$3,000 U.S.

In the world of guitar collection, the angular red Airline model associated with Jack White

Jack White (musician)

Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...

is sometimes referred to as the "JB Hutto" model, after the bluesman and slide guitar artist J. B. Hutto. Hutto was the first most visible musician to regularly use the guitar in live performances and recordings.

In the early to mid 2000s, the Eastwood guitar company acquired the rights to use the "Airline" brand-name; however, the Eastwood guitar company has never been directly affiliated with the long defunct Valco company. Original Valco Airline guitars were all made in the United States, whereas today's Eastwood Airline guitars are made in factories based in South Korea or China.

Reissue by Eastwood Guitars

Though Eastwood guitars is not affiliated with the modern day National Reso-Phonic

National Reso-Phonic Guitars

National Reso-Phonic Guitars is a manufacturer of resonator guitars and other resonator instruments including mandolins, ukuleles and 12 string guitars.The company was formed in 1989 by Don Young and McGregor Gaines, in a Californian garage...

guitar company, the early 1960s JB Hutto Montgomery Airline model has been "reissued" by Eastwood Guitars

Eastwood Guitars

Eastwood Guitars is a Canadian / Korean company set up by Michael Robinson which reproduces an array of classic electric guitar designs.The company was established by Michael Robinson in 2001 because he wanted to re-create affordable and playable versions of rare vintage electric guitars that have...

in the early 2000s under the name of the Airline DLX; however, the reissue has many noticeable structural and aesthetic differences. Most notably, Eastwood guitars are built with chambered mahogany bodies as opposed to the hollow fiberglass (or "Res-O-Glas") bodies used for the originals. This difference in body materials gives the reissue a much more traditional electric guitar feel and tone, whereas the original Airline is noted for its unconventional playing feel and response. Also, the reissue has an adjustable truss rod which is accessed from the headstock, while the original had an non-adjustable steel reinforced neck. The aesthetic differences between the original and the reissue include having different tuning heads

Machine head

A machine head is part of a string instrument ranging from guitars to double basses, a geared apparatus for applying tension and thereby tuning a string, usually located at the headstock. A headstock has several machine heads, one per string...

, the newer model having greenish knobs as opposed to the originals' white knobs; different pickups (original pickups were single coils in the shape of humbuckers while the reissues have actual humbuckers; although Eastwood now offers "vintage-voiced single-coil" or "VVSC" units, with large Gibson

Gibson

Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

-style mounting rings), a slightly different shaped pickguard (the original pickguard extended further into the center of the body between the pickups and always included a black stripe along the edge), Gibson-type block inlays on the fingerboard (original inlays were smaller and more rectangular), and finally, original Airlines were usually equipped with white volume and tone knobs.

To attempt to further approximate the look of the original JB Hutto Airline beyond the first "reissue", Eastwood Guitars released the "Airline '59 Custom" 2 and 3 pickup models in December 2008, which come with striped pickguards and rubber bound bodies, in the spirit of the originals.

Res-O-Glas Guitars by Guitar Kits USA

In 2005, Guitar Kits USA purchased the "Res-O-Glas" trademark and began manufacturing fiberglass guitar bodies in the popular J.B Hutto / Jack White style of the Airline guitar, as well as the Belmont body style originally made by the Valco

Valco

Valco was a manufacturer of guitars, guitar amplifiers, and other musical instruments from the 1940s through 1968. Only other relatives alive today live in Staffordshire England.- History :...

Manufacturing Company. The premise of Guitar Kits USA's new "Res-O-Glas" bodies is to enable old Valco guitar enthusiasts the chance to build their own personally customized fiberglass guitars, by allowing them to configure their own hardware, electronics and neck preferences. Like the old Valco guitars, Guitar Kits USA bodies are manufactured in the United States, and are made to accept standard Fender

Fender

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to as simply Fender, of Scottsdale, Arizona is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster...

-sized 2-3/16" wide bolt-on electric guitar necks.

Reissue by Eastwood Guitars

Res-O-Glas Guitars by Guitar Kits USA

See also