What guitar does Bo Diddley play?
In the television performance of roadrunner, (available on you tube), Bo and Peggy Jones, (Mrs Bo), have matching guitars.
They have Gibson style headstocks yet look like fender Airlines with less pickups and switches.They look like a lot of Japanese guitars but would pre date that industry. What are they?
These are not the Gretsch or Kinman rectangular guitars Bo was famous for. I know he played an L5 Gibson for a time but I can not place these instruments.
Bo Diddley’s trademark instrument was the rectangular-bodied Gretsch, nicknamed “The Twang Machine.” Although he had other similar-shaped guitars custom-made for him by other manufacturers, he fashioned this guitar himself around 1958 and wielded it in thousands of concerts over the years.
In a 2005 interview on JJJ radio in Australia, Bo implied that the design sprang from an embarrassing moment.
In an early gig, while jumping around on stage with a Gibson L5 guitar, he landed awkwardly hurting his groin.
He then went about designing a smaller, less restrictive guitar that allowed him to keep jumping around on stage while still playing his guitar.