This page last edited January 12, 2024.
Messenger guitars were built in small numbers in the 1967-68 by Musicraft Inc. initially located at 156 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. The company principals were Bert Casey and Arnold Curtis. Intending to expand production, the company relocated to Astoria, Oregon, but disappeared shortly thereafter (this historical information by courtesy of Art Thompson, from an article in Guitar Player Magazine dated April 20, 2006). The instruments incorporated a number of unique features including a metal neck which extended right through to the guitar’s tailpiece. This neck had a resonant frequency of 440 Hz. One model has a switch beside the tailpiece which converts the output to stereo, using two adjacent jack-sockets.
These two Messenger guitars are each fitted with two pickups that are based on soapbar versions of the DeArmond model 55, but with white infills in the slots instead of the normal black, using woodscrew fixings in place of rivets, each mounted on a hardwood timber base.
This example has two Diamond-grille pickups, each one seated on a hardwood base. The Mono/Stereo change-over switch is clearly seen.
A pair of soapbar versions of the Model 40 pickup, but without a DeArmond Logo and with white infills and woodscrew-fixed through a timber base.