Electric guitar (Pro II U series Urchin Deluxe model)

The dramatic curves of the Urchin guitar might have been inspired by the spiny points of the instrument's sea-dwelling namesake, or they might suggest the sinister fins of a shark. Regardless, the reference to ocean life is evident, with the deeply shaded blue-black varnish over a striped maple veneer that suggests ripples in a sandy beach as the ocean breaks over it. Various other guitar models from the 1980s experimented with abstract, pointed designs, as heavy-metal bands sometimes used their instrument's weapon-like appearance as a visual complement to the loud, thrashing music that was their trademark. Probably inspired by the work of B.C. Rich, a California guitar maker who started building guitars with similarly spiky outlines a decade earlier, the Urchin never sold as well as the company's more traditionally shaped models of classic American guitars.