Dan Kent Armstrong was born on October 7, 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started playing the guitar at age 11, and moved to New York in the early 1960s in order to work as a studio musician and guitar repairman. In 1965 he opened his own guitar repair shop, 'Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service', on West 48th Street. The building was razed in 1968 to make room for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Armstrong relocated his shop, renamed 'Dan Armstrong Guitars', to Laguardia Place in Greenwich Village.
Rob Timmons founded Arcane Inc to produce quality hand-made guitar pickups. Timmons wound his first pickup in 1990 while attending the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery and since then he has worked for numerous companies in the guitar industry from large guitar manufacturers to small custom builders like Valley Arts and Tobias handling everything from running custom shops and artist relations programs to entire guitar divisions. For years before Arcane Inc. pickups were available in a retail setting they were being built for OEM accounts.
Antony Brajdic found the Croatian Andona brand in 1995, following many years of working with luthier Rolf Spuler from Paradis Guitars. Aandona Guitars offer solid-body electric and archtop guitars as well as the Polyharm acoustic piezo pickup.
Established in 1983 HOSCO (Hosokawa and Co.) are mainly a distributor, but they also create original musical instrument related products for factories, distributors and repairmen.
ABM is a German guitar bridge manufacturer. ABM has produced guitar parts for more than 65 years and is a long-term supplier for manufacturers like Gibson and Gretsch.
Michel Benedetti founded the Benedetti brand in 1960, initially designing microphones for violin makers and players. Moving on to design guitar pickups, rather than blindly follow the classic American designs he sought to develop his own pickups with pure tone. Benedetti now offer a full range of pickups and if you can't find a stock model you like the BENEDETTI Custom Shop can make it for you.
The Alembic Hot Rod Kit, introduced in 1973, was one of the first aftermarket pickup replacements. It was designed by Rick Turner to boost the output of Gibson pickups by swapping out the original Alnico magnets for stronger ceramic ones. The kit consisted of two ceramic magnets, wooden shims, copper tape, shielded black wire and instructions. These kits were used for pickups with under-the-pole magnets - including Gibson single coils and humbuckers, Guild humbuckers etc. They could also be used for Gibson mini-humbuckers if you (carefully) shortened the magnets.
The Player Instrument Corporation was established by Barry Lipman, N.S. "Buck" Brundage (Al DiMeola's guitar tech), Steven DeTone and Harry Pellegrin to make and sell an electric guitar built around a modular snap-in pickup system (the MDS-1) as well as a boutique distortion pedal (the Power Plant).
I just finished making a magnetic field scanner and this is my first test of a guitar pickup. The pickup is a cheap single coil one - it does not have individual pole piece magnets like a Fender, instead it has steel pole pieces connected to a single ceramic bar magnet underneath the pickup. The first picture is a scan of the plane around 2mm above the pole pieces, I then flipped the pickup over and scanned it again. I did not correct for the background field or the misaligment of the X,Y and Z sensors.
British guitar builder Kevin Chilchott has been making guitars since 1980. Kevin Chilcott learned his trade with luthier Chris Eccleshall. During the period 1981 to 1989 Chilcott made around 125 guitars most branded "Royal" but some were labelled Chilcott. A notable model from this period was the Electra guitar with a series of holes routed through the body. In 1987 the company became - Regal Guitars UK Ltd and production was moved to an Exeter industrial estate. In 1988 Kevin and his wife Lyn moved the guitar production to Wales.
Musicorp was a leading American wholesale distributor of musical instruments, accessories and lighting equipment owned by the Kaman Music Corporation (KMC Music, Inc). Musicorp owned other brands such as Barcus-Berry, J.B. Player, J. Reynolds, Percussion Plus, Stageline, MBT Cases, Arbor Guitars, Amigo, Lauren and MBT Lighting & Sound. Musicorp also partnered with international brands such as Yamaha portable keyboards and guitars, Dean Guitars, Remo Crown Percussion, Samson, Zoom, Hartke and Luna Guitars in exclusive distribution arrangements.
My CNC winder needs 2 stepper motor drivers: the original Egg-bot has an integrated EiBotBoard which can easily control 2 stepper motors (plus lots of servos). But in initial tests I was unable to get the EiBotBoard from my Egg-Bot to spin the motors fast enough, and I also wanted to use limit switches and wire-break and emergency stop switches. I'm sure the EiBotBoard could accomplish all this, but I would need to reprogram its firmware (an interesting project but I'd like to finish this one first!).
Multi award winning luthier, Perry Ormsby, has been manufacturing his custom hand-made instruments in Perth since 2003. Located in Beaconsfield, just south of sunny Fremantle, Ormsby Guitars is a local success story, striving forward despite the global downturn. All instruments are custom made from a variety of exotic and Australian timbers, their own hand wound pickups, and top shelf hardware.
Classic Amplification (TM) is an enterprise run by Brad Burt (Burt Systems LLC) offering guitar/amplifier custom builds and repairs. Brad also makes, repairs and rewinds pickups and guitar electronics. Classic Amplification (TM) is a registered trademark of Brad Burt / Burt Systems LLC and the concept of "classic" (being an outstanding exemplar) as applied to the genre of amplification is copyright Burt Systems LLC all rights reserved. Guitar-list is not affiliated with either of these entities in any way.
Almuse make handcrafted electric mandolins and offer repair services to musicians in the Grantham area. They also make electric mandolin pickups (using neodymium magnets) and export them worldwide.
[Press Release]. Mansons Guitar Shop and UK custom pickup manufacturers, Bare Knuckle, have collaborated on a set of unique pickups aimed at the contemporary player that seeks tight tone, huge bass response and powerful output.
With more kick than the existing MBK-1 and MBK-2 pickup sets, as featured on the company’s custom guitars and used by artists such as Matthew Bellamy and Josh Homme, the new Manson MBK-3 pickup sets feature a tech spec to delight the player to whom the word ‘d-jent’ needs no further explanation.
Manson Guitar Works has been making custom guitars and accessories for over 30 years and is known for its reputation for innovation and quality. They have a number of high profile clients, which include Dave Grohl, Jethro Tull, Stereophonics, Biffy Clyro, The Stranglers and many more. They famously make signature guitars for Matt Bellamy of Muse as well as John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.
