The Different StrummerPAGE 22 VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE JULY 1997

Holman Guitarssigner at the company. During this de-but, various Holman guitars were dis-played and Stan White announced pro-duction to be at about 50 guitars a week.White and Reading fielded questions,and Holman also announced that nationaldistribution would be handled by theWurlitzer Music Company, the famouspiano and organ manufacturer and in-strument distributor.

Doyle ReadingAccording to Reading and others in-

terviewed, he was primarily responsiblefor the design of the Holman/Wurlitzerguitars. Reading was, by some accounts,once a woodshop teacher in the localschools, so he had a good knowledge of

the art of woodworking. He was also apretty good guitar player, specializing infingerstyle, in a Merle Travis sort ofmode. Indeed, understanding Reading’spreference for fingerstyle in many waysexplains the sound of Holman-made gui-tars, which have pretty good separationand clarity, but will never, ever push anamp into distortion. Of course, the Travis-picking country style was still especiallyinfluential in Middle America duringthose pre-psychedelic days of innocence.

A Kustom KonnectionIf the name Doyle Reading sounds

familiar, it’s because he later played apart in the production of Kustom Gui-tars, in Chanute. Reading left Holman in1967 and hooked up with Kustom tomake their guitars. Indeed, it was Read-ing who played a major role in the designof Kustom guitars.

While the subject of Kustom and BudRoss has come up, let’s talk briefly aboutthat connection. In conversations, Rossrecalled having dreamed up a guitar de-sign in around 1966 and approached thefolks at Holman about it. He never heardback from them, but later he saw one thatlooked like his, carrying the Wurlitzer

brand. In conversations withReading and others, however,Reading generally receivescredit for the design of boththe Wurlitzers and the laterKustoms. Whether Readingand the folks at Holman wereactually influenced by Ross’early design or whether thewhole thing was a coincidencewill probably never be re-solved, although given thetiming of things, the latter ismore likely to be the answer.Certainly, holding a Kustomand a Holman guitar one afterthe other would never makeyou think they had anythingin common. In any case, Rossfelt he’d been taken advan-tage of, and went on to work

on a totally new design and, with ex-Holman production supervisor and gui-tar designer Reading, began makingKustom guitars in 1968. But that’s an-other story (which you can read about inGuitar Stories, Volume 1)...

The ladiesIn a Neodesha Register article on the

industrial diversity of Neodesha, men-tion is made of the Holman-Woodellfactory. By April of 1966, Holmanoccupied two floors of the Fawcett build-

Howard Holmanand VictorWoodell

Holman-Woode l l ,Inc., was founded inNeodesha, Kansas, inabout May, 1965, byHoward E. Holman andVictor A. Woodell.Holman hailed from thelittle town of Indepen-dence, Kansas, a fewmiles to the west, wherehe ran a local music store,the Holman Music Com-pany. Woodell was themoney man, described as

a former industrialist withexperience in electronicsmanufacturing who had al-ready retired to Sarasota,Florida. The new factorywas located upstairs in theFawcett Building at 515Main Street in Neodesha.

The intent of the newHolman-Woodell concernwas to manufacture “...itemsin the musical-electronicsfield as well as electrome-chanical and other electronicassembly work.” Two otherkey players were G. S. “Stan”White, a local with manu-facturing experience whowas responsible for settingup the factory and handlingpublic relations, and HaroldWheeler, an engineer who’d worked withother electronic and manufacturing com-panies. One other management personmentioned in another newspaper accountwas Clement Hall, function unknown.Holman had plans for national distribu-tion and hope to eventually employ up to100 workers.

Holman and company were busy, andon November 24, 1965, Holman’s firstguitars were debuted in a performanceby local musicians at the Neodesha Lion’sClub. This first-everHolman guitar gigfeatured Doyle Read-ing on lead guitar,backed by RandyBlumer on drums,Norman Blumer onrhythm guitar, andLarry Blumer onbass. All were fromIndependence, Kan-sas. Reading was theHolman-Woodel lproduction supervi-sor and, based on evi-dence from inter-views and his owntestimony, probablythe chief guitar de-

Two prototype Wurlitzer Cougars owned by theirdesigner Doyle Reading; note the atypical 3/3 head and

blocks on the left. Photo: Kevin Macy.

By Kevin Macy and MichaelWright

Whether or not you think they’refrom Oz probably depends onyour tastes, but one thing’s for

certain – they’re not in Kansas anymore.But once upon a time they were. Holmanguitars, that is. Or shall we say Wurlitzerguitars, or Alray, or LaBaye, or 21stCentury, or Mistic?

Actually, we are speaking of productsthat all emanated from the Holman-Woodell guitar factory located inNeodesha, Kansas, gracing the worldstage from late 1965 to around 1968, atthe height of that decade’s guitar boom.

Holman may not be a brand name thatrolls off the top of one’s head when thesubject of guitars in the Swinging ’60scomes up, but the Holman-Woodell fac-tory did produce some pretty interestingartifacts and, with some deft archaeology– and a lot of help from our friends – wecan at least bring a good bit of this long-buried story to light. While a fair numberof questions remain to be answered aboutHolman guitars, we can relate enough ofthe history to give you a decent idea ofthese wonders from Kansas.

Southeast KansasUnless you’re an area native, the name

Neodesha probably doesn’t light up yourface with instant recognition, so let’s be-gin with a little geography. Assumingyou know that Kansas sits almost smackdab in the middle of the lower 48,Neodesha is a tiny little burg nestled in thesoutheastern corner of the state. Aboutthe only recognizable landmarks within a25-mile radius is another small town youmay have heard of, Chanute, home of BudRoss and Kustom amplifiers and guitars.In fact, speaking of Oz, Dorothy mightvery well have come from somewherenear these parts. Head 100 miles or sostraight north on route 75 and you’re inTopeka. Add another 20 miles or so to thenortheast and you hit Kansas City. South-eastern Kansas may seem an unlikelyplace for a couple of guitar factories, butthere it is. The Chicago of the plains.

A really bad photocopy of the May 6, 1965 account of the Holman-Woodell guitar factory in the Neodesha Register; Howard Holman

is second from the right. Courtesy of Kevin Macy.

Wurlitzer necks at the factory. Courtesy of Stan White. A Holman electronic washboard briefly used byRoy Clark. Courtesy of Stan White.

ing and employed 17 full-time and threepart-time employees, with HowardHolman as President and General Man-ager. What’s especially interesting isthat the Holman-Woodell factory em-ployed a fair number of women in itsmanufacturing process, probably a func-tion of its non-urban location. In anAugust 7, 1966, Wichita Eagle and Bea-con newspaper story on the plant, severalladies are shown assembling electronicharnesses. This would make Holman-Woodell particularly progressive forguitar companies, which were, at thetime, still traditionally male domains.

Elkhart, IndianaThe Holman story sprang from a

connection between Howard Holmanand the Wurlitzer company of Elkhart,Indiana. Wurlitzer had been a majordistributor of musical instruments sincethe late 19th century. Holman ran amusic store, so he had an opportunityto make the right connections. Ac-cording to Stan White, Holman got theidea of building guitars and set abouttrying to convince Wurlitzer to backthe venture. After some reluctance,Wurlitzer finally agreed. Inthe Spring of ’66, Wurlitzerwas identified as the exclu-sive distributor of Holman-made guitars, carrying theWurlitzer brand name. Appar-ently, the earliest Holman/Wurlitzers were built aboveHoward Holman’s musicstore in Independence, priorto the relocation to largerfacilities in Neodesha.

It’s not certain whetherthere were any early Holmanproducts other than Wurlitzerguitars, but the new Wurlitzerline, illustrated in an undatedflyer from ca. 1966, probablyrepresents the initial outputfrom the Holman-Woodell factory. Sucha conclusion is confirmed by the ex-amples of Holman guitars, which arevery similar to Wurlitzer guitars.

Wurlitzer Wild OnesA snapshot of the Wurlitzer guitars

can be seen in an undated catalog entitledThe Wild Ones: Stereo Electric Guitarsby Wurlitzer, a copy of which was pro-

vided by Stan White, former Holmanproduction chief. The copy read: “Abrand-new series of quality WurlitzerGuitars for the full-of-fun crowd! Un-paralleled Versatility. Brilliant Re-sponse. Beautiful Appearance...Whetheryou’re playing jazz, rock, or folk music,you’ll praise the extremely fine playingqualities, the unusual flexibility and rich,vibrant tone...”

Three models were offered, the Cou-gar, the Wildcat and the Gemini. Allwere two-pickup offset double-cutaways with increasingly far-out

styling. All had a six-in-line headstockthat was somewhere between JimmyDurante’s schnozzola and Gene

Simmons’ tongue, actually one of theneater interpretations.

The Cougar was a slightly trimmerFender-style offset double-cutaway.This had a large, white pickguard thatcovered both front horns, came downbehind the bridge and ended in a longarchipelago with two volumes, twotones and a jack. A fader control (forstereo effects) sat on the treble horn. Athree-way toggle was located on theupper bass horn. Above each Sensi-

Tone pickup was a rockerswitch that let you pick rockor jazz tones, basically dif-ferent capacitors. The Model

2510 came in Taffy White. TheModel 2511 was Lollipop Red.

The Model 2512 was sun-burst.

The Wildcat was almostthe same, except it had amore exaggerated offset cut-

away body, with a larger up-per extended horn and a morerounded lower horn, plus amuch narrower waist than theCougar. The effect is muchmore like an Alamo Fiesta.The Model 2520 was Taffy

White, the 2521 Lollipop Red, the 2522sunburst.

The Gemini was definitely the cooldude, with equal, very pointed doublecutaways, with a pointed lower bout,plus a German carve around the edges,definitely George Jetson. The electron-ics were identical to the Cougar andWildcat. The Model 2530 was Taffy

White, the 2531Lollipop Red, andthe 2532 in Lico-rice Black.

Whether or notthere was ever aWurlitzer bass isunknown. We doknow the Holman-Woodell factoryproduced somesolidbody basses by’67, so even thoughWurlitzer did notpromote them, don’tbe surprised if youfind a Wurlitzer-brand bass made inKansas.

1966 Wurlitzer Cougar, the most conservative shape. 1966 Wurlitzer Gemini,definitely a classic! Photo: Bob Karger.

Holman featuresThe Wurlitzers all had characteristic

features that distinguish Holman-Woodell products. Except at the end,which we’ll cover in due time, mostHolman-made guitars were solidbodyelectrics. According to newspaper ac-counts at the time, they used a mix oflocally-available material plus lumbersfrom Canada and Brazil, presumably Ca-nadian maple and Brazilian rosewoodfor the fingerboards. These had maplebodies and bolt-on maple necks withrosewood ’boards. Headstocks weremostly six-in-line, in a couple styles,usually with Kluson Deluxe tuners. Thefingerboards were generally bound, withdots. A distinguishing feature is a com-mon, if not exclusive, use of red dotposition markers set into the binding.The necks are usually fairly thin – not asslim as contemporary Kapa or Hagstromguitars – but quite comfortable.

The Sensi-Tone pickups used onHolman guitars were also quite unusual.They look a bit like DeArmonds, butthey were actually made by Holman-Woodell at the Kansas factory. Thesewere large P-90-size single-coils with achrome top cover and adjustable exposedpolepieces. The strange thing about themwas that the neck was bolted in at a slightbackward angle, requiring differentheights. This was achieved by stackingdifferent amounts of thin, white plasticshims or spacers, sort of like surrounds,under the chrome top of the pickup. Noother manufacturer used such a tech-nique.

Most Holman guitars, regardless ofbrand name, featured their version of aBigsby vibrato, called the Wurlitzer

Vibratron, with a W cutout in the base.These passed over plastic saddles in theTunemaster adjustable bridge. The Wurl-itzer guitars were wired for mono orstereo output, although other brands pro-duced by the factory – possibly later ones– were simply regular mono. Neckswere maple with truss rod adjustment.

Pulling the plugIt’s not known for sure how long

Holman/Wurlitzer guitars lasted, butprobably not long. The whole chronol-ogy of the period is sketchy at best, butwith a little intelligent speculation, wecan probably deduce what happened. Itwas Holman who made the contact withWurlitzer, probably through his musicbusiness in Independence. This was thevery period when large companies sawthe potential in guitar manufacturingand wanted to get in on the action.Ironically, of course, the guitar boom ofthe ’60s was almost over, but no onesaw the looming precipice yet in 1965.It was in ’65 that CBS bought Fender.Baldwin, spurned in its own bid to takeover Fender, promptly purchased firstBurns of London, then Gretsch.Seeburg, the big juke box company,purchased Kay. It probably didn’t takemuch to convince Wurlitzer to get intothe game, too.

In any case, Holman talked Woodellinto fronting the money to start a factory,and Wurlitzer agreed to take the guitars.The first Wurlitzers started rolling offthe line in late 1965. These were prob-ably produced through 1966, possiblyinto 1967, but certainly by ’67 the bloomhad worn off for Wurlitzer. By 1967,Wurlitzer had switched suppliers to Ital-ian-made Welson guitars, leavingThe Holman-Woodell factory in Neodesha. Courtesy of Stan White.

1966-67 HolmanClassic, same body

as the WurlitzerCougar.

VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE JULY 1997 PAGE 23

has a sort of bizarro squarified Strat-style headstock shape. These are seen onother later Holman factory guitars.

The Wurlitzer Wildcat (page 25) wasalso produced bearing the Holman brandname. While we don’t have an exampleto show, so, too, undoubtedly, was theGemini, since it survived into the Alrayera.

The Holman brand continued to bemade for some time. It’s not clear whetherit was simply a transitional brand be-tween Wurlitzer and Alray or whether itactually ran concurrently with the laterAlray name. This may be an academicconsideration because the entire factoryhistory wasn’t really very long, anyway!The reason this issue is even raised is thatas you can see from examples picturedhere, at some point Holman-Woodellcame up with a semi-solid guitar andbass design with models known as theLong Horn and Short Horn. While theseappear in the Alray catalog, there areexamples also bearing the Holman name,often engraved into the pickguard. Gen-erally speaking, the Holman versionscontinued using the sort of bizarro Strat-style headstock, whereas Alrays tendedto favor a wide three-and-three head.However, so much variation exists in thefew examples known to us that firmconclusions are hard to draw. The un-solved mystery is: did the Holman folksdesign the semi-solids right after losingthe Wurlitzer business? Or did Al andRay, whom we’re about to meet, comeup with the idea after taking over, andcontinue to make both Holman and Alrayguitars (possibly using up necks with theHolman head)?

Down by the BayAt some point, late in ’66 or early in

1967, the Holman-Woodell company wasput in touch with Dan Helland, a youngphotographer, music teacher and would-be guitar designer living in Green Bay,Wisconsin. Dan worked for HenryCzachor, of Henry’s Music in Green Bay,and had this idea that an electric guitar isjust a piece of wood with a neck, right?The wood could be anything, even a 2 X4. Why not slap a neck on a 2 X 4 andhave a guitar? The LaBaye 2 X 4 was

born. Why the name LaBaye was chosenis unknown, but there are a lot of folks ofFrench heritage in northeastern Wiscon-sin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, andGreen Bay is, after all, situated on “thebay.”

The LaBaye 2 X 4 guitar was called, inquotes, the Six, while the bass was called– dare to guess? – the Four. Ta dum.

Basically, except for the novel body,the LaBaye 2 X 4 guitars and basses weresimilar to Holman-brand instruments,with Sensi-Tone pickups and mono out-put. Unlike Holmans and Wurlitzers, theLaBayes did not feature the jazz/rockrocker switches. Also, in a design night-mare, the 2 X 4s put the three-way toggledown on the bottom of the log, so that theslightest movement while playing it waslikely to knock the pickup selector out ofposition. The Wurlitzer Vibraton vi-brato was used, and the neck was prettymuch standard Holman, though the head-stock had a more narrow arrowhead pro-file. One cool thing, however, was thecontrols, which were round rollers set ontop of the guitar and which – in a gesturethat would be sure to please Nigel Tufnelof This Is Spinal Tap – go to 12! Giventhe crummy output of these pickups,that’s a real joke!

Though it wouldn’t much matter. Likeso much else produced by Holman-Woodell, LaBaye 2 X 4s failed to excitemuch interest. Helland took some 45prototypes to the Chicago NAMM showin ’67, where exactly none were sold,and no more were ever ordered fromHolman. Basically there are only about45 LaBaye-brand 2 X 4s. Apparently,the factory must have made more partsthan were assembled and delivered, be-cause a few were seen later, carrying the21st Century brand name. Estimates arethat there are fewer than 100 2 X 4s,regardless of brand name.

One-offs and protosBoth the inconsistencies among

Holman and Alray guitars and weirdtangents, such as LaBaye, bring up an-other confounding feature of the Holmansaga. There are a great many, well,proportionally speaking, one-offs andprototypes. We know of at least one

PAGE 24 VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE JULY 1997

An unusual Holman Classic with only one pickup, in translucent green, obtainedfrom Doyle Reading by Kevin Macy. Photo: Kevin Macy. A rare one-off Holman

with a Playboy bunny headstock. Courtesy of Stan White.

Holman-Woodell in the lurch. It was in1967, you’ll recall, that Reading knockedon Bud Ross’ door, having left Holman-Woodell, perhaps a victim of Wurlitzer’sdeparture.

The exact reason Wurlitzer abandonedHolman-Woodell is unknown, but ifyou’ve ever handled one with the finishpeeling off, you probably have a goodclue. While the guitars were not poorlymade, they did have finish problems.Apparently quite a few units were re-turned with the finish flaking off, mainlydue to inadequate priming. Guitars re-turned for refinishing will very quicklyeat into your profits and dealer loyalty.Whatever the reason, Holman/Wurlitzerslasted only about a year, max.

Holman guitarsAt some point, the Holman-Woodell

folks began to sell their guitars carryingtheir own Holman brand name. It’s notknown if these appeared concurrentlywith the Wurlitzer brand, but it’s moreprobable that Holman-brand guitars ap-peared in 1966 or later. A good guessmight be that when Wurlitzer pulled theplug, Holman-Woodell was left with lotsof stock, and decided to try to marketguitars under its own name. After theWurlitzer episode, Holman-Woodellditched the idea of stereo-mono output,favoring more traditional mono output.

The Holman Classic shown on page 23(SN 155226) has ’66 pot dates, thoughthat, of course, only establishes an earlydate for the manufacture of the pot itself.If Wurlitzer left Holman-Woodell55holding the bag, they may have had alarge supply of pots that lasted a longtime). This guitar is a blond natural-finish Strat-style double-cutaway

solidbody with most of the typicalHolman-Woodell features. It has a 243/4" scale, string tree, six-in-line KlusonDeluxe individual covered tuners withchrome buttons, truss rod adjustment atbody with covered access hole, blackpickguard with gold-colored imprintedlogo, two Sensi-Tone adjustable polesingle-coil pickups with plastic and metalcovers marked Channel A and ChannelB, two volume and two tone controls(lead tone pot has two capacitors – .022and .001 – yielding thin single-coil soundat 10 and fatter humbucker sound at 1,but which adds highs to the rhythm pickupwhen set at 10; go figure), three-waypickup selector, and Wurlitzer VibratronBigsby-style vibrato. Unlike its Wurl-itzer brothers, this guitar had only monooutput. Also, unlike the Kiss-Tongueheads seen in the Wurlitizer flyer, this

230. The ca. ’67 Alray catalog showing the Sting Ray, Traditional, Long Horn, Short Horn, the Bob Cat, Short Horn Bass,Classic and acoustic guitar. Courtesy of Kevin Macy.

guitar made for Lucille Shukers, the wifeof a Holman employee memorialized ina guitar inscribed with her name. DoyleReading has a 12-string with a very un-usual, pointed, six-and-six headstock.And, speaking of headstocks, Stan Whitesent along a photo of a one-off whichplaced a Playboy Bunny head atop aHolman Classic! Indeed, it is reportedthat Lucille Shukers actually posed forpromotional photos with this guitar. Thepoint is that just because you find some-thing that doesn’t fit the standard cata-log, that doesn’t mean it’s not original!

At this point we should also mentionanother weird Holman project that faredeven less well than the guitar venture: theelectronic washboard. Little is known ofthis device except that Roy Clark appar-ently liked the idea, but it quickly disap-peared from the musical instrument hori-zon!

Enter Al and RayThe next chapter of the Holman-

Woodell story was about to unfold, star-ring two shadowy figures named Al andRay. Alas, their surnames are lost toposterity, unless someone out there knowswho they were (please get in touch with usat if you do).

According to some sources, Al andRay were brought in by the managementto whip things into shape after the exodusof Wurlitzer. Reportedly, the ownerswere unhappy with Howard Holman, andpresumably around this time Holman leftthe picture. The date of this occurrence isalso unknown, but we do know that theHolman-Woodell name lasted until theend of November, 1967. So, backing upfrom this, it’s a reasonable guess that Aland Ray took over in around the begin-ning of 1967, give or take.

During their tenure, Al and Ray changedthe brand name to the combination of theirfirst names: Alray. As mentioned previ-ously, some Holman guitars were madebearing features characteristic of the Alrayline; it’s not known if these features weredesigned before the change to Alray, orwhether the new designs can be attributedto Al and Ray, and the Holman brand wasused simultaneously. An Alray flyer in-troducing “A New Guitar Line,” which is

The ca. ’66 Wurlitzer guitar line catalog, with the Cougar, Wildcat and Gemini. Courtesy of Stan White.

our only evidence of their management, isundated but, based on our assumptions, isprobably from 1967. The factory is stilllisted as being in Neodesha, but the salesoffices were now at 524 North Broadwayin Pittsburg, Kansas. Pittsburg is a littletown 50 miles or so due east of Neodesha,right on the Missouri border. PresumablyAl and Ray, the new owners, hailed fromPittsburg.

Based on the offerings shown in theflyer, they seemed to know somethingabout guitars, because the Alray line wasthe most ambitious to come out ofNeodesha during its brief existence. Someof the models were clearly derivatives ofthe early Wurlitzers – why trash the tool-ing? – but some were new, including thefirst and only acoustic guitar and includ-ing some semi-solidbodies which bring tomind the later guitars of Kustom!

Alray/Holman solidbodiesThe ca. 1967 Alray line basically con-

sisted of three solidbody electrics, foursemi-solidbodies, and one acoustic. Elec-tric models were available as six-stringguitars, 12-string guitars and bass guitars.The electrics all continued to sport typicalHolman post-Wurlitzer monaural elec-tronics, with Holman Sensitone pickupsand the old Wurlitzer Vibratron vibrato,except on the 12-strings and basses. Nomention of finish options, but the photo-copied flyer shows guitars in natural, sun-burst and a solid color,probably red.

The solidbody electricswere basically the oldWurlitzer line but with thebizarro Holman headstockdesign. The Alray Clas-sic was the old WurlitzerCougar, a conservativeoffset double-cutaway,Strat-shaped guitar. TheAlray Traditional was theslightly more whimsicalWurlitzer Wildcat, withnarrower waist and wider,Alamo-style cutawayhorns. The Alray StingRay was the old WurlitzerGemini, with the groovyangular body styling.

Another Kustom connection?No description of the construction of

the semi-solid models is offered, howeverthese have wide, center-pointed, three-and-three heads that sure look likeKustom’s. Also, the semi-hollow bodies

have rounded edges, not hard edges as ona typical thinline guitar. The sound hole,on the lower bass bout, was a sort of chili-pepper-shaped affair set curiously insidea piece of papaya-shaped plastic pick-guard material. Kustom guitars, you’ll

VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE JULY 1997 PAGE 25

Ca. 1967 Alray Long Horn guitar, Holman Long Horn guitar, and Holman Long HornBass semi-solidbody. Photo: Kevin Macy.

Ca. 1967 Holman Traditional, Alray (?) Classic, and Wurlitzer Cougar. Photo: Kevin Macy. Ca. 1967 semi-hollowbody bearingthe name Lucille on the Alray-shaped headstock, owned by Lucille Shukers, the wife of a Holman worker. Photo: Kevin Macy.

1967 LaBaye 2x4 “Six,” one of only 45 or so designed in Green Bay, made in Kansas.

possibility he provided a direct or indirectadditional link between the two companiesfrom Kansas.

In any case, Alray guitars did not lastlong – a year at the most. It is also notknown how many were made, but laterevidence of the decreased number of em-ployees suggests the number of these pup-pies is very low. Roy Clark’s calling hisguitars prototypes also may serve as con-firmation of our assumption that, despitethe full-blown flyer, Alray guitars nevermade it very far. When’s the last time youplayed an Alray?

A new ageHolman-Woodell, Inc., appears to have

struggled on until November 29, 1967,when the company was sold to another pairof owners, who changed the name to Mod-ern Age, Inc., a name typical of the year ofthe Summer of Love! No mention is madeof either Al or Ray in the press notices ofthe event, so it’s safe to assume they didn’twork out and were already gone by the timeof the sale. The new owners were LloydCrumley, a native of Neodesha, and BurnCersley, of Spokane, Washington, wherehe was associated with the 21st CenturyMusic Company. As reported in theNeodesha Register, 21st Century had aguitar-organ combination product andplanned to move production into theHolman factory, which remained at 5151/2Main Street, “over the Davis Paint Store!”The plan was to liquidate all existing guitarstock and switch to guitar-organ manufac-turing.

Presumably, it was this liquidated exist-ing guitar stock that yielded the 21st Cen-tury 2 X 4s. No mention is made ofWurlitzer in the ’67 takeover notice, con-firming our speculation that Wurlitzerswere long-gone by this time. Since theHolman name drops from the company inlate ’67, presumably ’67 would be theoutside date on any Holman-brand guitars,too. No information exists on what consti-

A ca. 1967 Wurlitzer thinline, looks to be of European origin. Photo: Greg Wells. Ca. 1967 Alraythinline, possibly with body made by someone else, and Alray Short Horn guitar. Photo: Kevin Macy.

Closeup of a Holman neck jointshowing the “label sticker”with serial number. Photo:

Kevin Macy.

we see as the Alray semi-solid Short Horn,with a bound head. Presuming the claim iscorrect, and we have no reason to doubt it,the new semi-solids were perhaps, at leastin part, the brainchild of Roy Clark. Roy’scalling the guitar a Holman and his asser-tion that his “prototypes” were never mar-keted suggest this was probably developedbefore Holman-Woodell sold out to Mod-ern Age in November of ’67. We do knowthat Clark visited the factory of severaloccasions, either participating in instru-ment design or having a guitar made to hisspecifications.

Indeed, the involvement of Roy Clarkbrings up a tantalizing suspicion about theseeming similarity between Alray semisand Kustom guitars, which debuted in 1968.As we know, Doyle Reading was involvedin designing and producing the originalHolman products and Bud Ross’ Kustomguitars. Clark briefly endorsed Kustomamplifiers around this time, so there’s a

try/western. It’s not known if the neckwas glued in or bolted on, but it had thewide three-and-three shape of the semi-solids.

At least one other model, presumablyan Alray, has been seen, another more

traditional semi-hollowbody (orperhaps evenhollowbody).

This is shownhere in a 12-string

version with a redES-335-style body with

twin f-holes and the Alray-style six-and-six flared

pointed headstock. Thishad a clear plastic pick-guard. Electronics were

otherwise typical of Alrayguitars. It is quite possible that

this body was purchasedfrom another manufacturer,possibly evenfrom Japan, apractice that in-creasingly oc-

curred at the end of the ’60s. Asimilar practice happened in’69 at Kapa, in Maryland. TheJapanese bodies were just asgood as the American ones andwere cheaper. Whether thismodel, too, was ever offered instandard six-string or bass ver-sions is unknown.

Roy ClarkActually, there may be a con-

nection between Holman/Alrayand picking genius Roy Clark.In a November ’75 article inGuitar Player, Roy discusseshis guitar collection. By the by,it’s pleasing to see that, at thetime, he had both Gibson Super400s and a Ventura L-5 copy!But there, against the diningroom table, was a guitar identi-fied as a Holman prototype, oneof two “Designed by Roy butnever marketed.” This was what

recall from Guitar Stories Volume 1, werecarved out of a front and back, which wereglued together, and featured a cat’s-eyesoundhole. Alray semi-solids sure looklike they could be similarly constructed.With Kustom guitars soon to be madejust up the road in Chanute, it’s tempt-ing to suspect a connection...

The four Alray semi-solids in-cluded the Sting Ray, Bob Cat, ShortHorn, and Long Horn. The StingRay was not illus-trated, but presum-ably was based onthe solidbody de-sign. The Bob Catwas the same bodystyle as the AlrayC l a s s i c(Wurlitzer Cou-gar). While al-most all Alrayguitars came with twopickups, the Bob Catguitar and bass were alsooffered with a single-pickup option. TheShort Horn had a wider body than theother Alray guitars with two equal cut-away horns, the upper slightly thickerthan the lower. As suggested, the hornswere short only in comparison to the newLong Horn, which was virtually the sameexcept the horns were more pointed andextended forward a bit more. There’ssomething slightly Rickenbacker-ish tothese (as there is with Kustom guitars),and, indeed, the controls sat down on alittle football-shaped plate that looksvaguely Rick-ish.

The acousticThe Alray Acoustic Guitar was a large,

almost dreadnought-shaped affair withsomewhat awkward upper shoulderssquared off, almost like a Harmony Sov-ereign. The copy states that this was ahandmade instrument, with the finestwoods “...worked and matched by hand.”A fancy rosette surrounded the sound-hole, and a large, goofy mustache bridgecentered on the belly, looking very coun-

PAGE 26 VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE JULY 1997

tuted the 21st Century line, but it’s safe toassume that it was pretty much the same asAlray. Since none of these latter-dayHolman products turns up in any quantitiesat all, production was probably down tobare bones by this time.

By the way, if you en-counter a 21st Century gui-tar-organ, it will be housedin the Alray/Holman-Woodell thinline guitar.However, given the num-ber of these babies that turnup in the vintage market,this idea, too, proveddoomed.

Getting misticalIn any case, the Modern

Age itself did not last long.By February, 1968, theNeodesha Register wassaluting Neodesha’s latestnew musical instrumentmanufacturing business,Mistic Music, Inc. Basi-cally, this was a repackag-ing of Modern Age, withsome infusion of newblood. Control was stillheld by Burn Cersley andLloyd Crumley, with theaddition of Lloyd Andrew.Plans to make and marketa guitar/organ instrumentcontinued as before, butplans now included mak-ing a “high-quality guitar”as well. These were to be distributed out ofWashington. No mention of brand names,but a good guess would be these continuedto be 21st Century guitars. Quite a bit shy

of the 100 employees projected in the earlydays of Holman-Woodell, there were sevenemployees at Mistic in ’68, down from the17 in ’66. How long Mistic Music survivedis also a matter for speculation, but again

the answer is probably notlong, probably not beyondthe end of the year.Dating Holman etc.

guitarsGuitars built by the

Holman-Woodell factorycame originally with alittle metallic sticker withthe factory name and aserial number stampedinto it. There does not,however, appear to be anyrelationship between theserial number and the dateof manufacture other thanbeing consecutive. Forexample, the LaBaye 2 X4 Six shown here has aserial number of #155540and we know it is from1967. Obviously there isno date code. The HolmanClassic shown here isprobably from 1966 andhas a serial number of#155226. Assuming thisdating is correct, 226 isbefore 540, suggesting se-quential numbering andcorrelating to the time ofmanufacture, in that man-

ner. Since each of the brands lasted prob-ably a year, max (often much less), this isprobably another of those academic ques-tions, a moot point. About the only way to

1967 Alray Sting Ray solidbody guitar (Gemini)1967 Alray Sting Ray solidbody 12-string guitar (Gemini)1967 Alray Sting Ray solidbody bass (Gemini)1967 Alray Sting Ray semi-solid guitar (Gemini)1967 Alray Sting Ray semi-solid 12-string guitar (Gemini)1967 Alray Sting Ray semi-solid bass (Gemini)1967 Alray Bob Cat semi-solid guitar (Cougar/Classic)1967 Alray Bob Cat semi-solid 12-string guitar (Cougar/Classic)1967 Alray Bob Cat semi-solid bass (Cougar/Classic)1967 Alray Bob Cat semi-solid guitar (1 pu, Cougar/Classic)1967 Alray Bob Cat semi-solid bass (1 pu, Cougar/Classic)1967 Alray Short Horn semi-solid guitar1967 Alray Short Horn semi-solid 12-string guitar1967 Alray Short Horn semi-solid bass1967 Alray Long Horn semi-solid guitar1967 Alray Long Horn semi-solid 12-string guitar1967 Alray Long Horn semi-solid bass1967 Alray Acoustic Guitar1967 Alray “thinline” 12-string guitar1967-68 21st Century (2x4 “Six”) solidbody guitar1967-68 21st Century (2x4 “Four”) solidbody bass1967-68 21st Century “Cougar” solidbody guitar1967-68 21st Century “Wildcat” solidbody guitar1967-68 21st Century “Gemini” solidbody guitar

Here is a list of the known models of guitars and basses to have come fromNeodesha, Kansas made by Holman-Woodell et al. Probably these are theonly models produced, although you might encounter versions with different

brand names, including Wurlitzer, LaBaye, Holman, 21st Century, Alray, andpossibly Mistic, as well as one-offs and prototypes. These are, as we’ve seen, onlyestimates, so take them as a rough guide only.

Years available Model1965-66 Wurlitzer Cougar solidbody guitar (2510 white, 2511 red, 2512 sb)1965-66 Wurlitzer Wildcat solidbody guitar (2520 white, 2521 red, 2522 sb)1965-66 Wurlitzer Gemini solidbody guitar (2530 white, 2531 red, 2532 sb)1966-67 Holman Classic solidbody guitar (or Cougar)1966-67 Holman Wildcat solidbody guitar (or Traditional)1966-67 Holman Gemini solidbody guitar (or Sting Ray)1966-67 Holman “Long Horn” semi-solid guitar1966-67 Holman “Long Horn” semi-solid bass1967 LaBaye 2x4 “Six” solidbody1967 LaBaye 2x4 “Four” solidbody bass1967 Alray Classic solidbody guitar (Cougar)1967 Alray Classic solidbody 12-string guitar (Cougar)1967 Alray Classic solidbody bass (Cougar)1967 Alray Traditional solidbody guitar (Wildcat)1967 Alray Traditional solidbody 12-string guitar (Wildcat)1967 Alray Traditional solidbody bass (Wildcat)

Guitars of the Holman-Woodell factory

Kevin Macy in hiding. Photo: Kevin Macy.

A prototype of the Kustomguitar, with Gretsch-style

pickup covers, owned by itsdesigner Doyle Reading.

Photo: Kevin Macy.

date them is roughly by pot date. Theentire output of the factory only lastedfrom late 1965 to very early 1968, two anda half years at most. The chart of esti-mated dates included here should helpyou, but these dates must all be taken witha large grain of salt.

FinisAnd that’s about all she wrote regarding

Holman guitars from Kansas. As the ’70sbegan, the market shifted toward inexpen-sive Japanese copies of Gibson, Fenderand Martin designs. There was little placefor American-made, beginner-level gui-tars. Even though Holman-Woodell et al.promoted its guitars as “...for profession-als,” they really rank as well-made, low-to-mid-range guitars, similar to better Kays or

some of the other weirdness of the era, likeMurphs or, for that matter, Kustoms.

No estimates are available on quanti-ties, but, taken in toto, as it were, they wereprobably pretty small. After all, at itsheight, Holman-Woodell employed fewerthan 20, and in later days fewer than 10.About the only models showing up thesedays are the Wurlitzers, followed by theodd Holman. 21st Century, Mistic (if thatbrand was ever even used) and Alray gui-tars are rare birds, indeed. As are the fabledLaBayes.

Still it’s a curious corner in the closet ofAmerican guitar history, and the next timeyou land on one of these guitars fromKansas, click your heels together and gofor it.

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