Airline Les Paul-Style Semi Hollow

I read the last review and it sounded similiar to my old Airline except mine has two pickups. hey are the "kleenex" box type. I found this at a pawn shop in the backwoods of Minnesota about 20 years ago and paid $35 for it. It was by far the best deal I hve ever gotten for a guitar. It has a 4 position "chicken beak" selector switch and two volume and tone controls. There is a trapeze tail piece with a wooden bridge. I have no idea what sort of wood this is. There were originally pickguards both above and below the strings but the upper one was gone when I bought the guitar. I saw one identical to this on eBay go for about $400 but it had the upper pickguard still. I know nothing about the woods this was made of but the designers were genius. It is a small guitar, about the size and shape of a Les Paul but much light and more comfortable to play and LOUD WHEN UNPLUGGED!!! Not sure exactly how old this guitar is but it must be around 50 and all of the parts are original. The body is completely bound as is the neck.

I play blues/jazz and cover some old rock standards. This baby has the most beautiful tone I have heard clean. It is a blues savage. I like to play it unplugged almost as much as plugged in. Even on a cheap little Washburn practice amp I have when I run this thing through clean it screams. I have two Ibanez electrics, an AF75 jazz boat and a 1981 blazer Strat and this has by far the most soul.

The action is unbelievable on this guitar. It is extremely easy to play and there is no buzzing ANYWHERE. The finish is chekered after 50 years but this is understandable. There are the usual little dings and scratchs. I give it a 9 here but this is mainly due to it's age.

I have no problem with this guitar staying in tune for long periods. I put some vaseline in the machine heads and that is all I have done. The only problems were there when I bought it. The neck pickup has a missing screww and the wood is stripped. I am using some poster wax that I bought at OfficeMax to hold it in place. This works very well. On the position switch on of the settings does not work and one of the tone control knobs is long gone. The metal post is there but I doubt I will ever find a replacement. Everything else seems to work fine. As for a backup, I use all of my guitars for different purposes but could use them interchangeably if I had to. But I do trust this axe.

Ha ha ha!!!

I have been playing guitar sine around 1975. I have a Samick acoustic, a 1981 Ibanez blazer and a 2006 Ibanez AF75. I also have an Ibanez Roadstar bass and an Epiphone bass. I only buy vintage guitars, though I made and exception with the AF75 because I got a bargain price ($175) I do not think this guitar could ever be replaced. I would never sell it. Some day I may get it rewired but I am paranoid about it getting damaged. I have owned much more expensive guitars in the past, a Gibson L6, an Ibanez Artist, a Gretsch Country Gentleman. None of them has the wonderful tone this guitar has. I don't know what was going on at the Airline factory around 1960 but it was magic. This is the only Airline I have ever owned though and so maybe I just got very lucky.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what kind of guitar this is. It looks like an early 60's, maybe late 50's guitar. It's Les Paul shaped with a tobacco sunburst and one pickup in the neck position. The pickup is about the size of a Gibson Thunderbird pickup, although I think it's a single- coil, unlike the Gibson. It's semi- hollow bodied and made of wood. These were sold at Montgomery Ward's, and I have seen a Silvertone (Sear's) that looks just like it. It's got a trapeze tailpiece and an off white plastic bridge, white pickguard, with a volume, tone, and a coil splitter toggle. It's a bolt on neck but it has three bolts, not two like other Valco/ Supro manufactured guitars I've seen. The fretboard seems to be rosewood (it's dark) but actually it looks like it's made from the same wood as the neck-- I can't see the joint where they would have laid the fretboard on. I have no idea what kind of wood they would have used on a guitar like this-- the grain reminds me of a school desk! It came with a form fitting tweed case.

I love it. It has a very warm, full, well balannced tone. I play blues- influenced soul music and I get a good George Thoroughgood or G. Love bite with it. It really performs well in music where hearing the interaction of the wood and the strings (read: not TOO MUCH distortion) is a good thing. The semi- hollow body makes it really responsive and transfers the emotion from my fingers better than most solid guitars. I have a percussive element to my music and the sound of the strings hitting the neck or whatever-- anyway it translates that well. I can dial in a really jazzy warm tone or a crunchy rock tone on the guitar without fooling with the amp or effects. The pickup has some buzz and the input gets scratchy in some positions. I'm thinking of redoing the electronics but I don't want to blow the sound I've already got. It's cool....

Beautiful. It's got to be about 40 years old now and it's in perfect shape-- even without a truss rod the action is awesome!! The electronics are scratchy in some positions but once you get it set, it doesn't go out on you while you're playing.

Sure. I have trouble keeping it in tune when I'm really wailing on it-- especially leads tend to send the G and B strings out quick. The strap buttons are on great. The finish seems pretty thin but it's held up great over 40 years with only one little scratch. I probably wouldn't gig with it-- at least until I figured out a way to keep it in tune better-- but then, definitely!!!

NA

I've been playing for 14 years and seldom come across a guitar with this much soul or personality at any price. It just has that indescribable "something"-- it just wants to communicate! I wish I knew what it was called though, or what year it was made. Can anyone help me with that? If I lost it I would probably save up the money to get a Gibson ES 335 or 125 or something like that, simply because those have a bit more options on sound and the feel a bit more substantial, but for $150 bucks, this guitar can compete with Gibsons six times the price. I'd definitely miss it. However I wish the pickups were a little louder and the electronics not so scratchy and that it stayed in tune better. BUt it rules....