Terminology: The Joe Edwards Model/Reverse Fireglo
Neither of which actually exist
Here’s a hot take: there is no such thing as a Joe Edwards model. Probably. Maybe? Certainly not in the way we think of a “signature model” today.
Don’t get me wrong—Joe Edwards was a real person, and he did have at least one guitar made for him. And it was a quite…distinctive instrument. But a “Joe Edwards model”? I don’t believe it actually existed as an instrument that you could order.
“But the internet is full of references to the ‘Joe Edwards model’”, you protest. Sure it is. Just like it’s full of references to the “Polynesian”, the “Vagabonds 4000”, the “Suzi Arden 360/12”, and the “John Paul Jones 4001”—real instruments associated with real (if not necessarily famous today—or even in their own period) people—but not “official” models. Association is not the same as designation.
So here’s what muddies the waters around this particular guitar: unlike all the guitars I just listed above, more than one guitar with “Joe Edwards” features exists. So let’s talk about them—and why I don’t think the facts add up to a “signature model”. Probably.
First: Joe Edwards. Later in life, Edwards would go on to play fiddle and guitar in the Grand Ole Opry house band from 1968 to 1999, but at the time he received his 1958 365 Capri from Rickenbacker, he was a Rickenbacker endorsee and mostly known as a sideman for a number of minor Nashville stars like Martha Carson and Wilma Lee.
So a real person—a working musician—but far from a household name. Exactly the kind of musician F.C. Hall liked to give a free guitar to in order to build brand recognition—remember, Rickenbacker was still a new player in the electric guitar market and something of an also-ran. But was he a big enough name to have been given an official signature model? I doubt it.
But let’s zoom in on that pickguard…
To bolster the case that it’s a signature model, people point to that pickguard. You’ll have to forgive the quality of the photo, but you can still clearly see it right there, “Joe Edwards”. And that’s how it came from the factory.
But here’s the pickguard on another so-called “Joe Edwards model” guitar from 1958:
No “Joe Edwards” here. But…at least one other guitar exists that does have the “Joe Edwards” imprint. So what gives?
First, let’s acknowledge that putting your name on a custom-built guitar was not a new idea. Here’s Merle Travis with his 1948 Bigsby:
Now Paul Bigsby made lots of custom guitars for people with their names on them—and they were truly custom-built instruments. But it wasn’t just Bigsby. Here’s Travis with a custom-built 1952 Gibson Super 400.
That’s just one guy. More broadly, the point is you could custom-order a guitar with your name on it then—just as you can today—if you were willing to pay for it. Travis probably didn’t have to pay Gibson for his, though.
The point is this: a name alone doesn’t make a guitar a “signature model”—it makes it a custom-ordered guitar with a name on it. Which brings us back to the “Joe Edwards model”.
What really sets the Joe Edwards guitar apart isn’t the signature, it’s the finish.
It’s a reverse sunburst! Instead of the normal dark-to-light burst pattern, it’s light-to-dark. It’s not something you see every day.
But if we look closely at this guitar—which is not Edwards’s personal guitar, but one that most people still call a “Joe Edwards model”—we can learn some interesting things about it.
First, all of the so-called “Joe Edwards model” guitars are very early Capris. The “off-the-shelf” tailpiece (rather than the more familiar trapeze-style), single level pickguard, and medium-length slash soundhole tell us these were made before October/November of 1958.
Second, this was indeed a custom finish. Standard Capri finishes at this time were limited to two: Two Tone Brown and Light Natural Grain—the grandfather of today’s Mapleglo.
So while the existence of a number of guitars made at roughly the same time, all sharing this unique finish, may suggest some sort of “special” model, there’s a much more obvious fact that argues against it: Joe Edwards’s personal guitar was a Deluxe 365, but all other known “Joe Edwards models” are 330s.
Interestingly, just after these guitars were built, the first Autumnglo guitars (which would replace Two Tone Brown) were produced.
So here’s my theory—and that’s all it is, a theory, but it fits the facts pretty well. Rickenbacker was testing new finishes. They sprayed a few guitars with this unusual reverse sunburst, took a look at the results and said “er, no.” Meanwhile, F.C. Hall was putting guitars in artists’ hands for publicity—and what better to give away than one with a rejected finish? They offer Edwards a guitar, and he says “Great—would you put my name on it like Merle Haggard?” And thus, the singular Joe Edwards 365 Capri was born. Not a model, just a moment.
There is, however, one inconvenient fact I’ve left out that pokes a hole in this theory: this guitar.
Or rather, the pickguard on this guitar. Which bears the name “Joe Edwards”.
I don’t have a good answer. It absolutely could be original. It also—having surfaced and gone through Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, where Edwards was a bit of a local fixture—could just as easily be a tribute to the man. We just don’t know.
But we’ve left out the most compelling argument against this being a “signature model”.
Les Paul’s first contract with Gibson netted him $5.00 per guitar sold in return for attaching his name to the headstock. We don’t know the exact amount, but Chet Atkins also received royalties from Gretsch for each guitar sold with his name attached.
That’s the defining feature of a true “signature model”: the artist is compensated for the use of their name as part of a formalized endorsement. Joe Edwards just got a free guitar with his name on it.
So if not “Joe Edwards model”, what do we call these guitars—or more properly, this finish? Well, I’m going to take apart the conventional wisdom on that as well.
The most common term you’ll hear is “Reverse Fireglo”. Which makes sense—Fireglo is a red-to-natural sunburst, and this is a natural-to-red sunburst. There’s just one problem with that: Fireglow (with a “W”, as it was called until 1967) didn’t exist in 1958—it wouldn’t debut until 1959.
And there’s the connecting theme: collectors make up terms that just make sense when an official answer isn’t available. Joe Edwards had a guitar with that unusual finish, so any guitar with that finish becomes a Joe Edwards model. That same finish looks like Fireglo in reverse, so it becomes Reverse Fireglo.
As for me, I’d call it Reverse Sunburst—because I’m a bit of a pedant. Thus this article.
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