Parris

Bryan Parris Guitar Repair began in South Carolina as The Guitar Mod Shop. In 2009, when Bryan’s other career brought him to Knoxville, he began working under his own name.  Bryan has over 25 years repairing and modifying acoustic and electric guitars. Parris also makes custom guitars.

Teigen

Ross Teigen has been building and repairing guitars in Florida since 1984. After decades in Naples, the Teigen Guitars shop is now open at the new location in Hawthorne, Florida. A formally trained luthier, Ross builds electric and acoustic instruments based on his own innovative design. Models currently available include acoustic guitar, semi-hollow electric guitar, and acoustic bass.

Ross Teigen specializes in vintage guitar repair and conservation, including neck resets on Martins, repairing Gibson headstock breaks, refretting old Fenders, repairing National & Dobro resonators, and many other jobs. Ross accepts repair work both from local customers and by mail order.

Martin Taylor

The Martin Taylor 'Joya' Guitar is a hand-crafted, small-bodied archtop guitar designed by Martin Taylor and built in London by Fibonacci (who were previously the UK design team of Peerless). Peerless and Yamaha also made Matin Taylor signature models.

Fibonacci

Fibonacci Guitars evolved as a result of a difference in direction taken between Peerless Guitars in Korea, and its marketing and product development team based in the UK. This team developed archtop instruments for Peerless including the Martin Taylor Maestro & Virtuoso Signatures, the Retromatic ‘P’ & ‘B’ series, and most recently, the Jezebel and Retromatic 131 range. These designs are now manufactured  independently and branded under FIBONACCI GUITARS, or under the artist's own signature (like the Martin Taylor Joya).

Source: Fibonacci Guitars website (13 January 2021)

S.S. Maxwell

The S.S. Maxwell brand was owned by the Targ & Dinner Music Company of Chicago and lasted from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. S.S. Maxwell instruments were made by Regal and Harmony - who built standard flat-top acoustics & ukuleles, but Kay also made S.S. Maxwell acoustic guitars with f-holes and resonator guitars.

Source: Guitar Stories: The Histories of Cool Guitars. Michael Wright. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1 Jan 2000

Targ & Dinner

Targ & Dinner Inc. was a musical instrument distributor established in 1920 in Chicago. Their brands included: Marveltone, SS Maxwell, Olympian, Arch Kraft and Biltmore.

Arch Kraft

Arch Kraft was one of the budget guitar brands produced by Kay for Chicago distributor Targ & Dinner.

Marveltone

Marveltone was a brand name of Targ & Dinner a wholesale instrument distributer from Chicago, used from 1926 until the early 1990s. Up to the 1960s Marveltone acoustic guitars would have been made by the big Chicago factories such as Kay, Harmony and Regal, whereas later Marveltones would have been made in Japan or Korea.

Source: Guitar Stories: The Histories of Cool Guitars. Michael Wright. 2000. Hal Leonard,

Source: Marveltone catalog 1960

Source: Targ and Dinner catalog 1950

Grez Guitars

Grez Guitars are made by Barry Grzebik in Petaluma, California. Since the 1990s Grzebik has worked as a Product Designer, Acoustician and Sound Designer: he was the Director of Engineering for Apogee Sound before founding Grez Guitars and Grzebik Design Group.

Source: Grez Guitars website (4 January 2021)

Tagima

Tagima Guitars was founded in Brazil the early 1980s by Seizi Tagima. In 1996 Marutec (an electronics and musical instrument distributor) aquired the rights to the Tagima brand name and began to build it into an international brand - with instruments manufactured both in Brazil and abroad. Circa 2020 well known Brazilian luthier Márcio Zaganin,was responsible for overseeing Tagima production, quality control and new product development.

Source: Tagima Guitars website (22 December 2020)

Sweetwood

The Sweetwood Guitar Company was founded by Glenn Sweetwood in 2002 in San Francisco, CA. It is now based in Soquel, CA. Sweetwood provide design and prototyping services to other companies (Supro, Buzz Feiten, B-Way Guitars, Carl Harvey Instruments among many others). Sweetwood also have a parts and hardware business and are well known for their aftermarket necks. They also produce their own line of guitars and basses.

Source: Sweetwood Guitars website (17 December 2020)

Togaman

Togaman GuitarViols is the creation of Jonathan Wilson of San Fernando, California. During the 1990s Wilson experiemented with several designs for a hybrd electric guitar / viola with a fretted neck but played with a bow. Wilson patented the GuitarViol in 2003, the current version has a 21 inch scale length with specially designed Graphtech intonable bridge, piezo saddles and MIDI options. GuitarViols are available in acoustic and electric models.

The GuitarViol features on several films and TV shows including: CSI Miami, Curious George and Madagascar.

Sunrise guitars

The Sunrise Guitar story starts with Patrick Murphy, who received training as a luthier while stationed in Germany and also worked with classical guitar maker Rainer Krempel. In 1971, he opened the Instrument Repair Shop (IRS) in “the back closet room” of the Sound Factory (later ProCo Sound, Inc.) on East Kalamazoo Avenue. In his words,

“Originally, I did no work on electronics, as I wasn’t too impressed by them. I was a true-blue acoustic person. Later, I figured out that if I wanted the shop to remain viable, I had to expand to electronics.”

SUNN

Oregon-based Sunn Musical Equipment Company was formed in 1965 to provide rock and roll musicians with loud, roadworthy amplification. Sunn amps were used by such '60s bands as Mountain, The Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Sunn also sold budget Strat style electric guitars in the 1980s and 1990s under the Sunn Mustang brand name. Sunn was ultimately acquired by Fender, who discontinued production of the line in the early 2000's.

Source: Sun Amps website (archived 2000)

Sundberg

David Sundberg makes acoustic guitars in Sweden, under the brand name of Sundberg Guitars. Sundberg's clients include Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Mark Olson, Ulf Wakenius, Ane Brun, Lars Winnerbäck, Anna Ternheim and many more.

Source: Sundberg Guitars website (9 December 2020)

Rob Williams

Rob Williams started making guitars as a teenager in 1984 and two years later, at the age of 21, he went to work with John Diggins at Jay Dee Guitars in Birmingham. He worked there for about 18 months repairing, restoring, fret dressing, wiring and do set-ups, before leaving for the USA to work with Hideo Kamamoto at his instrument repair business in San Jose. On his return to the UK he worked for Patrick Eggle Guitars in Coventry for 5 years before setting up on his own in 1994 in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Over the years since then Rob Williams has established a reputation as one of the UK's finest custom electric guitar builders. He's now based outside of Newtown, Powys.

Source: Rob Williams Guitars website (8 December 2020)

Rick Kelly

Kelly Custom Guitars are made by Rick Kelly in New York. Kelly majored in sculpture in college and started making Appalachian dulcimers in the late sixties before switching to electric guitar building around 1972. He began making 1952 style telecasters in the early 1970s and has specialised in this design ever since. As well as the traditional Telecaster, he also has his own newer design where the horn on one side is actually lopped off, and it has a paddle head stock. Kelly has been collecting reclaimed lumber since the early seventies, and uses this old wood for his guitars. He says that with old wood the resins crystallize in the wood, so it becomes more resonant. In the 1970s Kelly's shop was located in Downing Street, in the West Village, New York City but he moved around the corner to Carmine Street in 1991 where he operates Carmine Street Guitars. Kelly's customers include: Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Bill Frisell, and guitarist Lenny Kaye.

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