Hendrix started playing on a Supro Ozark. He had to go to England to get discovered. “In the United States, Hendrix was a prophet without honor. “Racism and segregation were too pervasive," says Ivankovich. Photo by Chris McMahon.Ĭhicago-built guitars, like the bluesmen who played them, were discounted-until they received third-party validation from England. Three Kay 'Kleenex Box' pickups scream bad-ass versatility and the Dakaware selector switch offers four pickup options, the last of which creates an out-of-phase type tone," Ivankovich says. “Where else could you find highly figured maple like this at a budget price? The sharp double cutaway is what sets this Airline Barney Kessel Kay apart from other semi-hollow body guitars of the era. Maybe there wasn't a Gibson dealer in your town, but there was a Sears, Roebuck catalog or store." “I've got picture after picture of artists who played Montgomery Ward guitars because they were affordable. “Those department store guitars were very innovative," he says, referring to the building materials and manufacturing methods used to mass-produce the comparatively low-cost instruments.
Ivankovich has spent decades assembling the collection of Chicago-built guitars featured on these pages, and his vast collection includes all the major Chicago manufacturers and the dozens of brands under which their instruments were marketed. When the guys in England heard and saw these blues guys with their crazy guitars and outfits, they were copying every piece."
“British musicians were enthralled by anything black and from Chicago. “You can't deny the influence of Chicago blues and Chicago-built guitars on contemporary rock," says Ivankovich. More important, the ready availability of these guitars led to their prevalence in blues, country, early rock 'n' roll, and the British Invasion. Some of their instruments were of dubious quality, often dismissed as “dime store guitars," but others were-and are-excellent. Due to the low cost and wide distribution of their instruments, they produced far more guitars than Gibson or Fender. Those companies and others headquartered in Chicago shared and swapped parts and designs and sold to the same distributors. When the guys in England heard and saw these blues guys with their crazy guitars and outfits, they were copying every piece." -Daniel Ivankovich, Chicago musician/guitar collector “National, Supro, Harmony, Kay, Silvertone-they were all made here by the hundreds of thousands." “From the 1930s through the early '60s, Chicago was the world capital of guitar making," says Daniel Ivankovich, AKA Chicago Slim, guitarist for the Chicago Blues All-Stars, orthopedic surgeon, and medical director of the OnePatient Global Health Initiative. (for many decades America's largest retailer), Montgomery Ward, Spiegel, and others were founded there, and that these retailers played a critical role in the creation and distribution of guitars, amplifiers, and other musical instruments. It's no accident that catalog and retail giants Sears, Roebuck & Co. Lawrence Seaway, and later the rails and highways-made the city a major manufacturing, commercial, and distribution center. Chicago's centrality-with access to the Mississippi River, the St. Chicago built guitars the way Detroit built cars.įor much of the 20 th century, the United States was largely rural and people tended to buy guitars and other musical instruments from catalogs.
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