The Johnny Smith Award model was available from 1957 to 1961. The inlay was composed of 4 pieces of mother-of-pearl surrounded by 12 pieces of abalone to form a rectangle situated between the tuner posts. The artwork consisted of pitcher and star motif in the upper half and "Johnny Smith" in script and "Award Model" in the lower half. The pitcher usually was filled with cross-hatching, sometimes to the point of being almost completely filled in. The star was a simple 5-spoke design that looked more like a starfish and was changed to a typical 5-point star in 1961. The artwork and lettering was done by hand and was not standardized so it varied on each individual guitar depending on the craftsman responsible. The headstock was fitted with Grover Imperial tuners and bound with 7-ply white-black binding. In 1960, the binding was reduced to 5-ply. A standard Guild 1950s style truss rod cover (looks like a planarian for you biologists) was used on the earliest examples and was quickly changed to an elegant tulip-shaped truss rod cover that mimicked the headstock shape.

Sometime in 1961 the 4-piece mother-of-pearl panel was changed to a 2-piece panel, probably to save a little production time. Note the continued variation in the "pitcher and star" motif, Johnny Smith signature and "Award Model".

In 1961, the model name changed to Artist Award after Johnny Smith dropped his endorsement with Guild in favor of Gibson. Note the continued variation in artwork.

In 1964, the inlay was simplified again by reducing the number of pieces of abalone from 12 to 10 and then finally to 6. In addition, the elegant tulip truss rod cover was changed to a large shield cover in 1963-64. Most of these covers were engraved with "Custom" because the Artist Award was only available as a special order guitar, i.e. - on custom basis. By 1966, this cover was discarded in favor of the thin metal truss rod cover with silk-screened shield silhouette as used on most Guild models of the day. Note the continued variation in the artwork.

The Artist Award remained Guild's only acoustic archtop after the A-series archtops were discontinued in the early 1970s.  Note the continued variation in artwork.

The artwork remained variable during the late 1960s and early 1970s with the notable addition of the "starshine" graphic in 1971. In addition, 1969 marks the year that the Artist Award changed from a 24 3/4-inch to 25 1/2-inch scale length. The 1970 example shown here has an optional 18-inch wide body that was only available for 2 or 3 years. Note it was fitted with the fancy tulip truss rod cover and a rosewood headstock veneer with 7-ply binding.

The "pitcher and starshine" motif proved popular and was retained from 1972 and thereafter. The headstock binding was upgraded from 5-ply to 9-ply at this time and the truss rod cover was the same "hump top" unit used on other Guild models of the day (how ordinary!). Most importantly, the engraved artwork was finally standardized and consisted of a larger pitcher with the classic Guild "G-Shield" logo, aforementioned starshine motif, and "Artist Award Model" in script. This artwork would be used until the Artist Award was discontinued.

Here are some examples of the Artist Award headstock that illustrate how the inlay work and artwork remained consistent until the end of its production life. The Artist Award was redesigned by Bob Benedetto for the 2000 through 2002 model years. It retained the key elements that cosmetically identify it as an Artist Award, but was structurally different (X-braced, top carve, woods used) and fancier (9-ply headstock and 13-ply body bindings). Another fun factoid to consider - the dimensions of the headstock varied slightly over time as did body width and depth.

In 2003 and 2004, Guild once again secured Johnny Smith's endorsement and the Artist Award was dropped from the catalog in favor of the Benedetto-designed Johnny Smith Award. Finally, in 2013 and 2014, Guild offered a limited edition Artist Award as part of the Patriarch series. This guitar was cosmetically a near-clone of the 1961-62 Artist Award right down to the elegant tulip truss rod cover and cross-hatched pitcher and star motif. That concludes the history of the Johnny Smith Award/Artist Award headstocks until Guild decides to re-boot the model.