Brian Watson

Brian Watson is a luthier from Minnesota. Watson made his first guitar at the age of 15  and with each consecutive instrument he refined his skills. In 2017 he became a full-time guitar maker - specializing in acoustic guitars.

Source: Brian Watson guitars website (2 August 2021)

SX

The SX brand was launched in 1998 by an established Taiwanese guitar company. They founded a new company Team International Music Co., Ltd. in the 1990s when making guitars in Taiwan became too expensive and they moved production to China. They had originally planned to use the Essex brand name - but that was already taken so they settled on SX. The new brand proved to be a success and by 2003 the company were able to stop taking OEM orders to focus exclusively on SX instruments. Although Team does not own the Chinese factories they have their own quality control staff at each factories to oversee the production and make initial inspections.
With 4 drying rooms in their warehouse, capable of drying 6000 guitars at the same time. All the guitars are dried for 7 to 15 days (depending on the climate of the destination) and inspected before they are shipped out.

Source: SX website (28 July 2021)

Millimetric

Millimetric instruments are hand made in Montreal by Florian Bouyou. Bouyou studied graphic and furniture design and this design background is evident in his well thought out and unique electric guitars. Millimetric intruments have a clean and simplistic style - the peghead and bolt-on neck show a Travis Bean influence. The guitars are usually made to order: you can choose your pickups, neck profile, colors, wood.

Source: Millimetric Instruments website (28 July 2021)

Donner

Donner was established in 2012 by Guangzhou Jinpin Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. - as a budget musical equipment and accessory brand marketed worldwide.

Source: Donner website (27 July 2021)

Nacho Guitars

Nacho Banos has been making authentic looking aged telecasters since 2009.  Before starting to make guitars he researched the detailed historical specs of the telecaster model and published his findings as The Blackguard Book.

Source: Nacho Guitars website (26 July 2021)

Walsh (Chris)

Chris Walsh build custom guitars in Danielson, CT. Walsh specialises in archtops and left handed guitars.

Rex Aragon

Using Michael Wright's Guitar Stories Vol. 2 as a reference, a photo of a Rex Aragon with the deluxe style headstock is shown on page 112. Wright dates this one to 1948. Gretsch made the Rex brand during the 20's 30's, and Kay may have distributed some of them. (Remember Kay was a huge distributor with contracts with Montgomery Ward and Tonk Brothers). Kay made a lot of instruments in Chicago and out-sourced more to meet demand. I have a "Kay Superb" archtop with the deluxe style headstock. My best guess is that this was a transitional piece post 1938 when Gretsch discontinued supplying Kay, maybe post 1948, the date Wright attributes to his deluxe Rex Aragon.

GIRL

Girl brand's James C. Larsen makes guitars as they should be made, each one is a work of art and great fun. Money is not the bottom line with this guy! The guitars are loosely telecaster shaped, but in James Larsen's hands the telecaster is clearly a canvas for artistic expression. Necks are maple with ebony or cocobolo. The bodies have an outside rim of anodized aluminium, with a wood core. The backs are phenolic or formica on birch plywood, and the tops can be almost anything: formica, linen, plastic, zinc, rusted steel, street signs!

Kim Schwartz (KLS)

Kim Leland Schwartz (KLS guitars) began repairing and building guitars as a teenager and went on to become one of Chicago's top luthiers. He was best known for his acoustic, archtop and classical guitars but also made electrics under the KLS brand. He has since relocated to Albuquerque,New Mexico. where he is a yoga instructor and no longer makes guitars.

Mars

Would be interested in any info on this brand

Loxley

Matthew Loxley runs a small, bespoke guitar building business, based in Sheffield, England.  He hand makes a small number of electric and acoustic guitars each year. Every guitar is made from start to finish in his workshop, from resawing timber to hand finishing the guitars to a very high standard.

​Source: Loxley Custom Guitars website (6 July 2021)

Ivison

Neil Ivison makes high quality electric guitars by hand in Worcester, UK. Ivison was a guitarist and guitar tech for more than 20 years, who retired from international touring in 2018 to set up his repair and luthiery shop.

Source: Ivison Guitars website (6 June 2021)

Seth Baccus

Seth Baccus is a luthier producing high quality electric guitars in Cornwall, UK. Seth grew up in a guitar making family: his step father is Andy Manson and his uncle Hugh Manson. He began working at Mansons guitar shop as a teenager and started making guitars in 2004. Working at Mansons gave him the chance to get his hands on the best vintage guitars and also led to some guitar tech work for top guitarists like John Paul Jones. He left Mansons in 2009 and moved to Portugal to work alongside Andy Manson, and established his own Seth Baccus brand name. He has since relocated his workshop to Cornwall.

Source: Seth Baccus website (6 July 2021)

Hawai

12 string full size guitar w/ zero fret

Walter Verreydt

Walter Verreydt is a Belgian luthier who was born in Lier in 1958. He worked as a woodwork and technical drawing teacher and in 1985 made his first classical guitar. From 1988 onwards Verreydt has taught guitar making at ‘Centrum voor Muziekinstrumentenbouw’ in Puurs, Belgium. Verreydt fostered good contacts with reknowned guitar makers like José Romanillos and Daniel Friederich. In the early 1990s he visited Rolf Eichinger's workshop in Granada many times, where he observed the Spanish guitar making traditions. He is active in scientific guitar research and also organises international competitions and conferences.

Source: Guitar Salon -  Walter Verreydt. 3 June 2021

Petschulat

David Petschulat is a legendary Nashville luthier best known for his "Little Guitars" - the mini Les Paul style instruments he made for Eddie Van Halen in the early 1980s which Eddie played on the recording of the song "Little Guitars" and on tour. In 2021 Petschulat began plans to reissue these instruments. Petschulat was introduced to guitar making as a 21 year old college student when he visited the famous Nashville Picking Parlor in search of help. He was making an electric guitar and needed a hand to cut fret slots in his fingerboard - Danny Ferrington showed him how to cut inlays and install frets. The luthiers at the Picking Parlor took him under their wing and soon he was hired to learn on the job while working on repairs. He finished his first guitar, his second sold to Nancy Wilson of Heart. He also sold guitars to Dave Hlubek, Jackson Browne, Mick Jones, Howard Leese and Steve Morse.

Marma

The Marma company was founded by Karl Bauer in Mainz in 1920 and soon opened another branch in Vogtland. The company traded in bowed and plucked instruments, strings and accessories under the Marma, Guitarola, Guitarion and Silverin brand names. After the Second World War the company completely relocated to Markneukirchen, its original location in Mainz having been bombed. After Karl Bauer's death, his wife Elisabeth took over the business. In the years following the Second World War, MARMA began building its own guitars: it had its own production facility but early on there were also homeworkers who made guitars for MARMA. Frank-Peter Dietrich was responsible for purchasing and export from 1961-1964. In the 1960s, MARMA had its own workshop in which made various models of classical guitars and banjos, as well as steel stringed and electric guitars.

Vola

Vola (voice of life & arts) Guitars is based in based in Hong Kong, and was co-founded by Ryan Wong and Cho Shi Hyung. The guitars are made in Japan but there is also a USA Custom Shop.

Source: Vola guitars website (21 June 2021)

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