electric guitars

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Electric_guitar

Parker

Parker Guitars began in 1993 as the vision of pioneering luthier, Ken Parker. The Parker Fly was their first production model and was designed by Ken Parker and Larry Fishman. The Fly was an innovative design - made from light weight woods reinforced by composite materials and with a dual pickup system mixing magnetic and piezo pickups. The two systems were blended by a stereo preamp that allowed you to mix the volumes and tones on-board. A "smart" switching jack sensed stereo or mono cable and routed the signals accordingly. A more conventional and affordable version of the Fly, called the NiteFly was also introduced with solid wood body and a bolt-on neck. These original Parker guitars were made in Wilmington, Massachusetts until 2003 when Ken Parker sold his company to the US Music Corporation and production was shifted elsewhere.

EGGLE (PATRICK JAMES)

Patrick James Eggle started guitar building at the age of 15 as part of a school project. This led onto a career as a guitar designer, repairer and builder. In the early ninties he supervised production at the Patrick Eggle guitars company in Conventry, but left in 1995 to work on small scale custom orders.

He relocated with his family to North Carolina and began to build up a distribution network for his high end archtop and acoustic instruments. With a dealer network established he is now back in the UK in Oswestry, and is scaling up production with a large new purpose built workshop in Oswestry where all design and production is now completed.

There are currently six acoustic models in production, ranging in price from £1999 to £2499 with lots of options for woods, inlays and bindings.

Ovation

From 1966 to 2007, Ovation guitars, and later on Adamas guitars, were a brand of Kaman Music Corporation, a subsidiary of the Kaman Corporation, a large aerospace company. Charles Kaman, the President and a guitar enthusiast, decided that his company could apply its technology to acoustic guitar making. In 1966 after 18 months of research and development a team of Kaman engineers perfected the rounded semi-parabolic composite body. They used a similar composite technology for these rounded backs as used for aircraft rotors and called it Lyrachord - it could be molded into shape without the need for traditional bracing.

OSCAR SCHMIDT

The Oscar Schmidt Company was founded in 1871 and incorporated in 1911. By the early 1900s, the company had five factories in Europe and a factory on Ferry Street in Jersey City. They made all kinds of stringed instruments, guitars, banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, zithers, and Autoharps. The company prospered through the early 1920s. Oscar Schmidt instruments were sold in many rural parts of the country where no music stores existed. Salesmen distributed the products far and wide, making them available in general, small town furniture and dry goods stores. Country guitar pickers and blues musicians living in areas of the South and in Appalachia, far from the city, frequently played Oscar Schmidt instruments because they were both inexpensive and available locally.

Today the Oscar Schmidt brand is part of U.S. Music Corporation which also owns Washburn Guitars, Parker Guitars, Randall Amplifiers, Jay Turser Guitars and Profile Accessories.

OLP

OLP (Officially Licensed Product) was a division of Elite Music Brands and HHI Music (Hanser Holdings International). The OLP website launched in 2002, displaying OLP guitars and basses which were licensed copies of Ernie Ball Music Man models. OLP also worked with other brands like Traben Bass Company, Orange County Choppers, McSwain Guitars and Coffin Cases to produce lower cost licensed copies of their products. OLP guitars and basses were made in China and had a good reputation for quality - typically using Korean hardware. OLP Guitars were sold exclusively through a network of authorized OLP Dealers. The OLP brand was retired by HHI in 2009 when Music Man launched the Sterling brand for its entry level models.

NS Design

NS Design is a company founded by renowned instrument designer Ned Steinberger in 1990. The company specializes in developing electric string instruments, with a primary focus on bowed instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Steinberger's vision is to explore the potential of these instruments beyond replicating acoustic sounds.

NOVAX

Ralph Novak (1933-2022) founded Novax Guitars in 1989 when he was awarded the US patent for his multi-scale fretboard (fanned-fret) design. Novak had been repairing and customizing guitars since the early 1970s, working in 48th Street in down-town Manhattan in LoBue/Guitar Lab, We Buy Guitars, and Alex Music, He moved to California in 1978, and began working in Subway Guitars in Berkeley before starting his own shop in Emeryville. This was when he had the idea for a multi-scale guitar and developed and patented the invention. He noticed that longer scale instrument had better tone on the bass strings, but shorter scale instruments had a warmer tone on the treble strings and this forms the basis of his multi-scale fanned-fret design.

NYS

NYS guitars were made to custom order by Chris Hofschneider of Black Creek Musical Instrument Company. Hofshneider was from upstate New York and had gained experience building instruments with guitar makers in the Woodstock area such as Stuart Spector, Harvey Citron, and Joe Veillette. Hofschneider was also a long time associate of Michael Tobias . NYS guitars cost around $2500 circa 2001. Chris Hofschneider passed away in 2016.

Source: Black Creek Musical NYS Guitar. Lisa Sharken. Vintage Guitar Magazine. January 2001

 

North American

North American Instruments has its roots in a company founded in Millington Tennessee in 1961. Moved to Imperial, Missouri in the fall of 1963, sharing space in the corner of a race car garage, the company remained idle until 1967 when four solid body prototypes were built to obtain financing. These early models were finished with automotive paint products and sported tremolo tailpieces created by re-machining obsolete parts, once used on race cars. Unable to find suitable backing in the Midwest, most of the equipment was sold off and the patterns and designs moved to California. In 1982, a few instruments were built in California prior to the final move to Florida, in June of 1983, when North American Instruments acquired control, developed the high quality and unique philosophy of manufacturing fine instruments, moving the custom instrument line to a small facility in Florida.

Nobles (Tony)

Tony Nobles is an American luthier, who builds new instruments and also has a reputation for repairing vintage instruments. At the outset of his career Nobles worked for Austin luthier Mark Erlewine, doing warranty work for Martin, Fender, Gibson, and Guild, and also making custom guitars for Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, Joe Walsh, Alejandro Escovedo, Ray Wylie Hubbard and others. In 1993, Nobles established Precision Guitar Works, where he repaired and made guitars of all sorts. Later in his career Nobles’ efforts were focused on building “heirloom-quality” acoustics.

Nickerson

Brad Nickerson went The Berklee College of Music before working as a graphic artist for many years. He built his first guitar in 1982 and received advice and encouragement from New York luthier Carlo Greco as well as Cape Cod violin and bow maker Donald MacKenzie. Nickerson was inspired by the archtop guitars of James D’Aquisto and he specialises in that style of instrument. He taught archtop guitar building at the Leeds Guitarmakers’ School in Northampton, MA from 1996. In 2006 he relocated his workshop to the historic downtown area of Asheville, North Carolina. As well as making archtop and acoustic guitars Nickerson also teaches classes in building flat-top and archtop guitars.

Source: Nickerson Guitars website (22 August 2018)

Mouradian

The Mouradian Guitar Company was established in 1983 by Jim Mouradian and his son Jon in Winchester, Massachusetts. Jim Mouradian first began making and repairing guitars and basses in a space at his father's rug factory in the 1970s in Winchester. Jim Mouradian became well known in Boston’s music scene, repairing guitars out of Cambridge Music Center in Porter Square and worked on or made guitars for the likes of Joe Perry, Chris Squire and Kurt Cobain. Jim Mouradian died in 2017 at the age of 66.

Source: Mouradian Guitar Company website (2 July 2018)

Source: Jim Mouradian obituary. Boston Globe. January 18, 2017.

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