Carl Harvey prototype custom ESP Rastacasta electric guitar and case: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a prototype custom ESP Rastacasta electric guitar (.1) with case (.2a), played by Carl Harvey of Toots and the Maytals. The guitar has a wood body finished with three stripes in red, yellow and green. The neck and headstock are a natural wood tone. It has a black pickguard, and red, yellow and green pickups with gold toned hardware. The black hardshell case (.2a) is rectangular with fasteners along the sides and a single black handle. It has a grey padded interior molded to fit the guitar. Inside the guitar case was a plastic zip-lock bag of the following items: a gold colored whammy bar with a black rubber tip (.2b). An unopened black cardboard box of guitar strings manufactured by Tite-Fit (.2c). On it is white text that reads "TITE-FIT / 9.5 -44 / THE HANDMADE STRING / DR." Three extra tuning knobs in red, green, and yellow (.2d-f).The red and the green knobs have black text that reads "VOLUME" while the yellow has text that reads "TUNE."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 2012
• Manufactured by: ESP Guitars, Japanese, founded 1975
• Used by: Carl Harvey, Jamaican Canadian, born 1958
• Subject of: Toots and the Maytals, Jamaican, founded 1962
• Type: cases (containers)
• Type: electric guitars
• Medium: wood with metal and plastic
• Dimensions: H x W x D (.1: guitar): 38 3/8 × 12 5/8 × 1 9/16 in. (97.5 × 32 × 4 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (.2: case): 43 11/16 × 15 9/16 × 5 1/8 in. (111 × 39.5 × 13 cm)
• Cultural Place: Jamaica, Caribbean
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
• Topic: Reggae (Music)
• Topic: Rock and roll (Music)
• Object number: 2021.102.6.1-.2a-j
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.