Silvertone Electric-Acoustic Guitar, used by Jesse Fuller

Description:

This electric-acoustic guitar was made for Sears around 1962 by companies like Danelectro and Harmony. Silvertone guitars were popular because of their solid construction and inexpensive pricing.

This guitar was owned and played by Jesse Fuller (1896-1976), a one-man-band folk and blues singer from the San Francisco Bay area who accompanied his guitar-playing with singing, harmonica, percussion, and a foot-operated bass instrument called a fotdella. Fuller played guitar as a child but didn’t become a professional musician until the early 1950s. As a songwriter, Fuller is best known for his songs, “San Francisco Bay Blues” and “Beat It on Down the Line.”

Jesse Fuller purchased this Silvertone guitar in 1962, from a Detroit Sears, after his original Maurer guitar was stolen and he needed another guitar to be able to make his playing engagement that evening.

Date Made: ca 1962

User: Fuller, Jesse

Place Made: United States

Subject: African American

Subject:

See more items in: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments, Popular Entertainment, Music & Musical Instruments, Guitars, Artifact Walls exhibit

Exhibition: Sounding American Music

Exhibition Location: National Museum of American History

Credit Line: Gift of Alice Robinson

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1994.0053.01Accession Number: 1994.0053Catalog Number: 1994.0053.01

Object Name: guitar

Physical Description: wood (overall material)Measurements: overall: 107 cm x 40 cm x 10 cm; 42 1/8 in x 15 3/4 in x 3 15/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a4-449b-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_607587

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