Airline was a

store brand A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

of consumer electronics and musical instruments originally marketed and sold by American retailer

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

via their catalog and retail stores. Products included radios, televisions, record players, guitars and amplifiers. In the early 2000s,

Eastwood Guitars Eastwood Guitars is a Canadian manufacturer of guitars. The company specializes in making vintage-style instruments including electric guitars, basses, acoustic guitars, electric mandolins, resonator guitars, lap steels, and ukuleles. Notable ...

acquired the rights to use the "Airline" brand-name.

Musical equipment

1962 Airline Town and Country refinished

The Airline brand was used by Montgomery Ward on a range of electric and acoustic

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s from 1958-68. These were made in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, by the Valco Manufacturing Co.,

Kay Musical Instrument Company Kay Musical Instrument Company (often referred to simply as Kay) was an American musical instrument manufacturer established in 1931 by namesake Henry "Kay" Kuhrmeyer and based in Chicago, Illinois. It was formed when Kuhrmeyer bought out his fina ...

, and

Harmony Company The Harmony Company is a former guitar manufacturing company that is currently a brand owned by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. Harmony was, in its heyday, the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the United States. It made many typ ...

. Airline-branded amplifiers were manufactured by Valco and

Danelectro Danelectro is a brand of musical instruments and accessories, founded in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1947. The company is known primarily for its string instruments that employed unique designs and manufacturing processes. The Danelectro company was ...

. Valco Airline guitars have been played by a wide array of bands and artists, including:

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

,Robinson, Mike (April 14, 2014)
MyRareGuitars.com
Retrieved October 7, 2014 J. B. Hutto,

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

, PJ Harvey,

Calexico Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...

, and

Wooden Shjips Wooden Shjips (pronounced "ships") is an American experimental and psychedelic rock band from San Francisco, California. History The project has released one EP and seven albums. Guitarist Ripley Johnson also plays in two side projects, inclu ...

Eastwood Guitars reissue

After

purchased rights to the "Airline" trade name in the early 2000s, they reissued the early 1960s "JB Hutto" Airline shape as the "Airline DLX." The new version set aside the defining hollow fiberglass body of the

Valco Valco was a US manufacturer of guitar amplifiers from the 1940s through 1968. Apart from its original products, Valco also commercialised electric and acoustic guitars and basses through its subsidiary companies. History Valco was formed ...

-made original in favor of the simpler and less-costly chambered mahogany body, giving it a more traditional electric guitar feel and tone, rather than the unique playing feel and response of the original."The House That Jack Built" by Christopher Scapelliti. ''Guitar World Magazine'', edited by Brad Tolinski, May 2004, Pp.150. Eastwood Guitars later released the "Airline '59 Custom" in two- and three-pickup models in December 2008, which come with striped pickguards and rubber-bound bodies, in the spirit of the originals.

References

External links

* — home of reissued ''Airline'' guitars. * — home of ''Res-O-Glas'' guitar kits. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jb Hutto Montgomery Airline Acoustic guitars Electric guitars Instrument amplifiers

Musical equipment

Eastwood Guitars reissue

See also

References

External links