Old Paint

Many young buckaroos in the 1930's learned to strum guitars covered with painted stencil designs. A recent book captures the era when Old West themes ruled: horses, vaqueros, cacti... and water-skiing???

Acoustic Guitar magazine recently profiled the book "Cowboy Guitars," by collector & guitar historian Steve Evans (with Ron Middlebrook). The book paints a detailed picture of the stenciled-guitar phenomenon, which started in 1932 with Sears' "Gene Autry Roundup" model (silhouetting the famed film cowboy twirling a lariat while riding equally famous Champion). Other manufacturers (including Harmony, Kay and Regal) saddled up, mostly with inexpensive beginner's instruments, and rode along until the trend faded in the 1950s. On the best examples, a well-designed stencil could create intricately detailed scenes with minimal amounts of paint, and usually only one or two colors.

The subject matter expanded greatly from western themes to include night clubs, the canals of Venice, the brand new sport of water-skiing, and tropical paradise.

Evan's own sizeable collection, which also includes many of these non-cowboy-themed stencils, is on display at his Jacksonville Guitar Center in Arkansas.

Visit the Jacksonville Guitar Center online

Examine the Cowboy Guitars book at Amazon.com, including illustrations and customer reviews

Browse the Oct. 2003 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine [free access, but not all content online]