You can learn a lot about archtop guitars by going through the "sold" archive at Archtop.com. You can see descriptions and photos of hundreds of actual instruments. It's a valuable historical and educational resource that is really helping me learn about Gibson archtop guitars. What's missing? The prices. For that you need to look at the current inventory list.

What makes these Archtop.com lists so valuable is that there are so many examples of real guitars that have sold. The measurements show how the various models changed from the 1920s and '30s to the present day. They could turn the archive into a book, and I'd buy it.

Swing guitarist Jonathan Stout lays out his philosophy on swing music, the guitar, Charlie Christian, Allan Reuss, REALLY old Gibsons and Epiphones, X-bracing vs. parallel bracing and more on his Swing Guitar Blog and Campus Five YouTube channel.

His latest video was recorded on another YouTube channel because he made it at Norman's Rare Guitars in Tarzana. where Jonathan plays Harold Arlen's "It's Only a Paper Moon" on a 1929 Gibson L-5 acoustic.

Jonathan is a wonderful guitarist who explores three distinct "directions" on the guitar: swing rhythm on the acoustic archtop, swing-style chord-melody on the same instrument and Charlie Christian-style swing-to-bop soloing on the archtop electric.

They really are three different kinds of playing -- watch Jonathan's videos and see what I mean.

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I have to confess that I'd never heard of Blankenship Amp Repair and electronic tube seller ARS Electronics until just now. And both are in Van Nuys.

Ilene told me about her co-worker, a guitar collector, who bought an old Fender Super Reverb amp that might have been in a fire, but definitely didn't come with any of its four speakers.

He was taking the amp, or what was left of it, to Blankenship Amp Repair, where Roy Blankenship will fix your amp or make you a new one that's just like the old ones, only better (and with better parts). His clients include just about everybody in rock 'n' roll. To learn more about what Blankenship Amp Repair does, check out its Facebook page.

If you're more the do-it-yourself type, and need electronic tubes for anything from guitar amplifiers and vintage radios to broadcast transmitters, radar and x-ray machines and military equipment, ARS Electronics on De Celis Place near the Van Nuys Airport probably has it. They also sell connectors, speakers, capacitors (if it's old, the capacitors are probably bad, and you need new ones) and transformers.

Take a look at the ARS Electronics history and contact us pages. It looks like a great place to get just about anything made out of glass that glows and isn't a light bulb.