The guitar could have been a studio prop, or belonged to someone Johnson knew in Memphis where the photo was taken (Hook's Brothers photography shop on Beale Street).[4] People who knew Johnson (like musicians Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Honeyboy Edwards, Calvin Frazier, William Moore) said he played Stella and Kalamazoo guitars, and perhaps a wood-bodied resonator early in his career (thought to be a Stella instrument).Gibson acquired the "Valley Arts" name in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and also introduced a reissue of their L-1 flat top acoustic in a signature Robert Johnson series.Features include: 25-inch scale length, small body, solid Sitka spruce top, mahogany back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, pearl inlays, nickel Gotoh white button tuners, and a Robert Johnson signature inlay at the end of the fingerboard.He has had a limited edition L series style flat top acoustic guitar that was produced and offered by Gibson from 2010 to 2015.