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. Other ISANA Archtop Models, and Speculative Timeline This 'Black Rose' sunburst example bears a date-stamp 'OKT 1959' The above example shows the production date, 'NOV 1957' None are yet known to me in Blonde or Natural finish.Įarliest known black example, dated OKT 56 Only a very few examples (I know of seven including Elvis') have surfaced in Black finish. The most common finishes appears to have been the Red-black or Orange-Black Sunburst, with slightly less in Tobacco Brown Sunburst or Orange Sunburst.
Since the known production date of the 'Elvis' model spans 5 years (OKT 1956- MAI 1961), it seems a reasonable guess that a maximum of 1000 of this model may have been built, perhaps less than one fifth (200 examples) in black. It is usually very faded and faint, and hard to locate and read - try using a very bright torch! Month and Year of manufacture is ink-stamped (quite small!) inside the Archtop models, on the inside face of the backplate, directly beneath and visible through either (or often both) soundhole(s). It would appear more likely that his personal one has been on display at the newly-opened Elvis Presley Museum Dusseldorf since 2012 (below) The above guitar is not unversally agreed to be Elvis' own guitar. It was subsequently loaned for display at the Memphis Museum of Rock 'n' Soul. This guitar with it's dubious provenance repeatedly failed sell when offered by Heritage Auctions. A fanciful press-release from the time claimed it to be 'possibly the only remaining example in the world'. In 2006, an Isana alleged to be Elvis' personal guitar came on the market, being at that time mistakenly termed a 'Jsana' through a mis-reading of the company logo.
Later Elvis added a floating neck pickup to the instrument and played it through a Dynacord amp."įor many years (pre-c.2004) this guitar's maker was notoriously unidentified in the Elvis fan and guitar collector worlds. "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. Several models were produced, but the most desirable is the stylish Black Archtop owned by Elvis Presley whilst stationed a few miles away in Bad Nauheim, near Frankfurt, Germany 1958-1960. ISANA JAZZ-GITARREN REFERENCE PAGE Photos and Contributions welcome!įrom 1951-1974, Josef Sandner hand-built ISANA guitars in his 'Specialist Workstation For JazzGuitars' in Nauheim, Near Frankfurt, Germany.
All are now SOLD, but please check my FOR SALE page for currently available items! Photos of beautiful and unusual guitars that I have owned or worked on.
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