British Music Strings Ltd began life in 1918 as a subsidiary company of Barnett Samuel & Sons. The London company were manufacturers of strings including the "Cathedral" and "Summit" Brands, for the Violin, Banjo, Mandoline, Guitar, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass, Jap Fiddle, Zither, Auto-Harp and Harp. At one stage they also offered strings for tennis rackets.

In the 1960s British Music Strings was taken over by George Osztreicher. Osztreicher pioneered importing and exporting guitar and violin strings into the United Kingdom. He ran British Music Strings (based in South Wales) after working for General Guitar Strings and Cardiff Music Strings. He soon discovered he could have a business based completely on exporting. The first American company to order from George was WMI in Chicago, which owned the Kay brand name. In later years George owned the Kay brand name and was the first to import guitars from Korea into the UK.  In the 1980s BMS owned the Korean made Marlin brand. Osztreicher also owns the Caparison brand.