Electric guitar (Dan Armstrong model)

By the 1960s, industrial designers had begun to incorporate acrylic plastics into the production of not only furniture, but also mechanical objects. The material's transparent quality shed light on previously unseen inner workings, allowing them to be perceived as part of the overall aesthetic. Guitar designer Dan Armstrong may have conceived this clear acrylic guitar as a way of emphasizing the inconsequential nature of an electric guitar's body, as it has very little acoustical affect on the instrument's sound quality. The maple neck and rosewood fingerboard would have made the instrument feel more natural to players, but they also provide an attractive visual contrast to the see-through body.