In 1922, British archaeologists opened King Tutankhamen's spectacular tomb. The fascinating discoveries within served as a portal of insight into ancient Egyptian traditions rich with style and mysticism. Such archaeological digs helped form a renewed appreciation of ancient megalithic cultures, which directly influenced product designers to incorporate ancient Babylonian and Egyptian decorative motifs in the design of consumer goods. This style, called Zigzag Moderne, also became a leading influence on many elements of American culture during the 1930s, from skyscraper architecture to film sets and props to guitar construction, opening up a new pathway in American design.

Zigzag Moderne emphasizes exotic geometric forms. "Zigzag" refers to the geometric stylization of ornamentation using repetitive angular patterns, abstract motifs derived from nature, astrological imagery, and sunburst iconography. Zigzag Moderne was never established as a formal program with published manifestos, like Germany's Bauhaus school of design. Rather, it was the result of individualized creativity. Architects, designers, and artists communicated and defined their work with open-mindedness, consciously segregating themselves from established European art traditions.

In the ancient Egyptian world, symbolism took precedence over conceptualization. In order to portray a comprehensive view of existence, the predominant focus was on imagery rather than logic. The Egyptians believed that the purpose of all true symbols was to direct viewers away from the mundane concerns of life and lead them toward a deeper understanding of being. The true symbol always points beyond the here and now, for it is the signpost to another reality. The awe-inspiring pyramids of Egypt represent not only a deeper look into life but also the profound spiritual materialism of the Pharaohs. All kinds of treasures and goodies that would put Rodeo Drive to shame were housed inside these megalithic wonders.

In the 18th century, Americans fought for independence from an oppressive European culture. In the 19th century, Americans fought amongst each other to define freedom for themselves. And in the 20th century Americans fought for American unity and cultural identity. As America began to develop its own cultural identity in the 1930s, zigzag architecture became the dominant style of modernism. Some of the most prominent examples of this movement are the Chrysler Building in New York City, the recently restored Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and Hoover Dam in Boulder, Nevada. When the Zigzag Moderne style was adapted to mass-produced goods, it found a large audience of consumers attracted to its uniquely inherent decorative eclecticism. The Zigzag motif was popularly injected into set design in Hollywood and became a dominant style in cinema. For example, director John Huston chose the Zigzag style for the design of the mysterious black bird used in his 1941 film noir classic, The Maltese Falcon. In ancient Egypt the soaring falcon was one of the most important images and served as a symbol of divine kingship. Conversely, in The Maltese Falcon, the bird symbolized corruption, greed, murder, and the elusive quest for "the stuff that dreams are made of."

This mystical geometric style also heavily inspired modern guitar manufacturers such as D'Angelico, Stromberg, National, Regal, Gibson, Epiphone, and Martin. By tracing the development of the Zigzag Moderne style in American guitars, we can link ancient design, technology, and symbolism with the rise of modernism in America. These indigenous icons of American commerce and communication deliver a rich aesthetic spectacle that delights the eyes as much as the ears. During the Thirties the guitar grew tremendously in popularity, quickly becoming an American icon symbolizing the soul and rebellious spirit of American culture. Thirties guitars designed with Zigzag appointments have an enigmatic quality that transcend the time of their origin. Despite many of the developments that have come since then, these guitars possess musical capabilities that have yet to be surpassed.

In 1929 Gibson departed from the Art Nouveau style that influenced the design of their musical instruments. Gibson's earliest example of the transition to the Zigzag style was the replacement of the dot inlays in the fingerboard of their L-5 guitar with rectangular pearloid position markers. The block-inlayed neck on the L-5 was symbolic of the architectonic quality of skyscrapers.

Gibson, determined to remain in the forefront of modern design, developed the Super 400 guitar in 1934, a tour de force in the Zigzag style. The following abstract and geometric features can be seen in the Super 400: split-block fingerboard inlays, architectonic engraved tailpiece, and exotic sunburst finish. The headstock design is representative of abstract figures tightly locked in a dance. The gold-plated cats-eye engraved G-111 gears are particularly good examples of the symbolic references used throughout the Zigzag Moderne period. In ancient Egypt the eye was considered one of the most important symbols, representing knowledge, authority and fire.

National, with its introduction of the triplate series guitars in 1927, created a fully developed Zigzag design. The triplate guitar consisted of a nickel-plated (nickel plating was a popular choice of Zigzag Moderne designers) case-stamped brass body that incorporated modern exotic materials such as spun aluminum resonator cones. With its geometric construction, the National triplate body featured angular diamonds, pyramids, and rectangles reflecting the best attributes of the Zigzag Moderne style. The National tricone's headstock borrows heavily from abstracted skyscraper imagery. American guitars manufactured during the Zigzag period shift away from naturalism toward abstract symbolism-a change precipitated by the development of modern music and visual culture.

Imagine the New York skyline in the 1930s, gracefully dominated by the Art Deco style. John D'Angelico, inspired by this megalithic landscape, created musical and aesthetic history when he introduced the Excel in 1934. The guitar had cubistic fingerboard inlays, a zigzag shaped pickguard, geometric headstock design, abstract f-holes, and an Egyptian theater marquee-like tailpiece.

By 1940 D'Angelico had perfected his New Yorker model, a pinnacle in modern zigzag design. With the introduction of ziggurat peghead inlays, split-block neck ornamentation, and the stair-step tailpiece, the New Yorker represents Zigzag at its finest. The Grover De Luxe tuners with their engraved ziggurat-shaped buttons were used almost exclusively on the D'Angelico New Yorker model from 1937 to 1965. D'Angelico's oeuvre can be regarded as a symbiotic assimilation of the aesthetic forms in the world existing beyond his work bench window.

It may be no coincidence that John D'Angelico's exquisite-looking and -sounding creations adopted the Zigzag Moderne style. His design, especially the ziggurat inlay form in the peghead, relates not only to the Zigzag skyscrapers but also to ancient imagery. The megalithic construction of pyramids of ancient civilizations is thought by some to be more than just eternal burial sites for pharaohs and kings. They are thought to have been facilitators for a global and possibly inter-galactic communication network, pointing to the distant stars of Orion's Belt.

Zigzag underwent a transformation when components from a myriad of styles and cultures were combined. When Stromberg introduced the Master 400 in 1940, he either borrowed heavily from D'Angelico's design or possibly assimilated his visual environment in a stroke of genius independent of his contemporary luthiers. Stromberg's guitars were constructed with Zigzag appointments: vertically emphasized split-block fingerboard inlays, zigzag pickguard movement, and gold-plated, die-cast, stamped suspension bridge tailpiece. These masterpieces of design continue to resonate with the romanticism that helped to define the diversity of Zigzag Moderne and shape America's cultural identity.

Zigzag Moderne decor has been incorporated in the construction of American musical instruments by fusing ancient forms of design with modernistic geometrical ornamentation. Innate to this style are symbolic references to civilization which transcend aesthetics and represent a soulful voice that guided our destiny through the 20th century and beyond.

The acoustic guitar can be regarded as a prime example of the zigzag visual form and can be viewed as one of the most important communication devices of the 20th century. It significantly helped define a universal musical language that has enriched the origins and development of American culture, just as blues, jazz, rock, and country transcend ethnic and national boundaries and foster insight into human existence.