Closer Inspection


Sorry, folks, this $10,000 Taylor Chambered


SolidBody Electric Guitar isn’t for sale. It’s a custom- made prototype that’s part of Spellman’s personal collection.


When acoustic guitar designer Bob Taylor wanted to create an electric guitar style of his own, he didn’t want to replicate the iconic Telecaster or Les Paul formats. So he built one with a chambered body — it’s part hollow inside, “which gives it a full, woody resonance that you don’t get as much


from the solid body guitars,” Spellman says.


Most harp guitars cost about $5,000, but because this is an original 1903 Harp


Guitar by Orville Gibson, founder of the Gibson guitar company, Spellman says it could be worth twice as much.


T e right hand plays the six guitar strings normally, and the leſt hand


can play the 10 accompanying harp strings or leave them to vibrate on


their own along with the notes played on the regular strings.


Spellman says that before he obtained it, this 1952 Fender Telecaster had been owned by bluesman Roy Buchanan, redneck jazz guitarist Danny Gatton, G.E. Smith (formerly of the Saturday Night Live Band, now touring with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters) and Cesar Diaz (who played with Bob Dylan). It’s worth about $50,000.


Another example the Tele was well-used?


T e cigarette burn along its


headstock. “Roy


and Danny would put the cigarettes up in there when they were playing, and that’s what happens,”


Spellman says. T e guitar’s


swirl pattern is the natural style of the Bastogne


walnut wood — a rare variety.


Mother of pearl adorns its body. “A guitar has to be playable,” Spellman says. “However, we do have eyes. We just like beautiful art objects.


… You could hang that guitar somewhere and just look at it, even if you never played a guitar.”


T e guitar’s black pick guard is made of


T e steel rod was there to


preserve the structural integrity of the bulky instrument.


T e circles on the body refl ect the aesthetic of the time. “T ese guys had


Rare guitar Treasures from a shop’s special collection


BY KRIS CORONADO Walk up a worn fl ight of stairs, turn a corner, and you’re there: a musician’s mecca otherwise known as The Guitar Shop. The Dupont store is packed fl oor-to-ceiling with instruments and memorabilia. Classical guitars from the 1800s line one wall, while an autographed picture of Little Richard adorns another. A few wooden stools are popular perches for those who want to talk six- strings with Stephen Spellman, 66, who owns the shop with his wife, Lynda. “We welcome anybody in here who loves


their own sense of design, and they were having fun,” Spellman says. “More show than go.”


guitar and loves music,” he says. The store has 2,000 guitars in its


collection, ranging from $100 starter instruments to rare collectibles that go for upward of $50,000. “These are things you can pass down to kids and grandkids. They’re not going to really have any interest — I don’t care what you say — in your Lexus in 30 years,” Spellman says. While there’s plenty to gawk


at in the store, the real gems are locked away out of sight. Here, Spellman lets us take a peek


at the good stuff.


Spellman has had this 1930s National Resonator Guitar for 20 years. “It has a haunting sound. It has more complex overtones,” he says.


T e square neck indicates that it’s meant to be played across your lap, rather than upright.


Resonator guitars were


developed as a way to boost the instrument’s sound before electric guitars and amplifi cation. Within the body is a spun cone of very thin metal that vibrates like a speaker cone would in an


electric amplifi er. NOVEMBER 14, 2010 | THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 7


Bakelite, an early plastic.


T e light, yellowy hue is a result of the alder wood from which the guitar is made.


PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN C. TANKERSLEY


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