TYPE
Electric Hollow Body Single cutaway guitar
FEATURES
Layered body, hardwood neck
Black stained maple fretboard
One single-coil pickup
INFORMATION
Aldens was a Chicago mailorder company operating from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Unlike Sears Roebuck and other mail order companies that sold guitars, it didn’t use a specific brand name: its guitars didn’t carry a label, but the headstock was decorated with a floral pattern arranged around the letter ‘A’. Most of Alden’s guitars were simple existing models that were mainly produced in the Harmony factory which was also located in Chicago
The guitar was sold in the Aldens catalog as the 9908 Tuxedo. It was produced by Harmony, who sold even more copies of this model under the name H45 Stratotone Mars. The 9908 Tuxedo was a single-coil guitar, available from 1958 to 1965.
The instrument was not a solid body, although it does look like it, but it had a hollow body construction. The fretboard was made of maple, which was stained black. The neck was made of hardwood and had a built-in steel trussrod to provide reinforcement. On the models with the Harmony label, the controls for volume and tone were located on the lower part of the body, on the models with the Aldens label, the electronics were located on the pickguard, close to the bridge.
This guitar cost about $72. For an additional $10, a matching guitar case could be purchased.
Models with the Aldens label are rarer in value than those with the Harmony label.
