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ISANA 'Elvis Model' Jazz-Guitar

Respected luthier Josef Sandner hand-built ISANA guitars in small quantities in his 'Specialist Workstation For JazzGuitars' in Nauheim, Near Frankfurt, Germany from 1951-1974.

Several models were produced, the most famous of which is the stylish Black Archtop (produced c1957-61) seen pictured repeatedly with Elvis Presley, who owned & regularly played one whilst stationed a few miles away in Bad Nauheim, near Frankfurt, Germany 1958-1960.

"Elvis' father Vernon bought an 'Isana' guitar at the music shop 'Hummel' in Frankfurt on 12-20-1958, a noble instrument finished with black piano lacquer at the price of DM 225,00, and gave it to Elvis as a Christmas present. Later Elvis added a floating neck pickup to the instrument and played it through a Dynacord amp."

(translated from http://www.elvisforever.de)

For many years (pre-c.2004) this guitar's maker was notoriously unidentified.

c.2005, Elvis' alleged personal guitar came on the market, being at that time mistakenly termed a 'Jsana' through a mis-reading of the company logo. This guitar spent time as part of the Smithsonian collection, and was on display in the Memphis Museum of Rock 'n' Soul, before being repeatedly offered for auction by Heritage Auctrions. A press-release from the time claimed it to be 'possibly the only remaining example in the world'.

It is more likely that a total of 150-250 were built, as known production dates span NOV 1957- MAI 1961. Month and Year of manufacture is ink-stamped (quite small!) inside the guitar, on the inside face of the backplate, directly underneath and visible through either (or both) soundhole(s). The most common finish appears to have been the Red-black or Orange-Black Sunburst, with slightly less in Tobacco Brown Sunburst or Orange Sunburst. Only a very few examples (I know of four including Elvis') have surfaced in Black finish.

The above example in Glossy Black finish shows the earliest known production date-stamp for this model, 'NOV 1957'

This 'Black Rose' sunburst example bears a date-stamp 'OKT 1959'

Other ISANA Archtop Models, and Speculative Timeline

Josef Sandner is believed to have produced these guitars either alone, or in a small-workforce workshop, and is believed unrelated to Franz Sandner of FASAN Guitars, and similarly beleived unrelated to Alois Sandner who made ALOSA Guitars, although speculation abounds as to there having been collaborations or business relationships between them... fuelled by their relative geographical proximities and broad stylistic similarities... however in the details and subtleties in the output known from these brands are many distinct differences...

However, there are also many other similar guitars that display Isana-like features, but which bear no branding, or a variety of other names, such as 'Oscha', 'S und S' - It was common practise for a distributor or even the original seller's shop to add their own perfectly professional-looking decal labels to guitars in these days, so the situation is by no means clear cut.

Here, I will focus on known Isana-branded archtop models

Years as 'stated' may refer to a model produced for several years either side of that date!

I have tried to chronologically sort the pictured guitars according to: