Gretsch’s Astro Jet appeared in 1965 with a unique design that today looks like an early casualty of the drug culture that would permeate rock music by the end of the decade.

The double-cutaway body had elongated bouts on the upper bass and lower treble side, but they bulged awkwardly where the guitars of other makes had sleek, angular lines. The peghead appeared to have been left out in the sun too long, to the point that only two tuners would fit on the treble side.

Unfortunately for Gretsch, the Astro Jet was not just an aberration in an otherwise successful history of solidbody design. Instead, it was the model that, for all practical purposes, signaled the end of Gretsch’s prominence in the solidbody market.

Two years later, the Baldwin piano company acquired Gretsch and wisely deleted the Astro Jet, but aside from a pair of Chet Atkins solidbodies in the mid-1970s, none of Gretsch’s subsequent owners ever came up with another respectable solidbody model.