Lance Alonzo makes electric guitars and basses as well as pickups in the United States. Lance Alonzo attended the Guitar Craft program in 2001 at the Musicians Institute and shortly after graduation was hired on as a staff member.
Carella Guitars is run by Giuseppe (Beppe) Carella and Daniela Bruno in Umbria, near Orvieto, Italy. They hand-make electric guitars and basses as well as custom pickups and effects pedals for guitars, basses and keyboards. Beppe Carella is a master luthier, experienced in the production of electric guitars and basses and has had numerous collaborations with established Italian artists (Gatto Panceri, Toti Panzanelli, Valter Vincenti, etc ...).
Fred Stuart founded Stuart Custom Guitars in 2004, in Riverside, California. This was just after his partnership with Alan Hamel (A&F Guitars) ended in 2003. Stuart was a master builder in the Fender Custom Shop working there from 1987 to 2001, before establishing A&F with Hamel in 2001. Stuart winds and makes pickups, as well as building and restoring guitars.
A&F guitars was a short-lived partnership started in 2001 in Riverside, California by Fred Stuart and Alan Hamel previously of the Fender Custom Shop. A&F made a boutique electric guitar model called the Rock-it-tone based on a Stuart design done for the Fender Custom Shop - but rejected by them. They also sold A&F brand pickups designed by Hamel and made custom electric guitars to order. In 2003 they went their separate ways and founded Stuart Custom Guitars and Alan Hamel, both continuing to make basically the same products that A&F had been making.
Kepma was founded in 2009 by Jack Peng & Kevin Liu. Jack and Kevin invested in high tech machinery including an array of CNC machines to cut, mill and fabricate consistent components of their first guitar design, the A1. By 2015, Kepma was the number one acoustic guitar brand in all of China. Kepma also make acoustic guitar pickups, preamps and effects
Mark Rinder makes electric guitars and pickups in Orange County, California. He previously worked for G&L and Rickenbacker and launched Rinder Guitars in 2007. The staple Rinder model is a telecaster style electric guitar.
Göldo has its origins in 1978 when German guitar designer Dieter Gölsdorf created Rockinger Guitars as a parts sales company. He then launched the guitar brand Duesenberg in 1986 and Formentera Guitars in 1987. In 1991 internal differences led to a sale of Formentera shares and change of ownership at Rockinger. The Göldo was launched in 1991 as company focused on wholesale, production, import, distribution and export of its own and outsourced components to dealers and guitar manufacturers. Göldo is a wholesaler only and does not sell directly to customers.
Michael Reilander founded Reilander Pickups in 2007 to produce hand wound guitar pickups and electronics. Reilander's interest in guitar electronics started with a guitar building course taught by Mike Kinal where he made his first electric guitar in 1995.
Reflex Reds pickups were introduced in 1988 - they were premium active pickups made in the UK. They were sold in sets (SSH or HH) along with a separate "black box" preamp essential to their correct operation.
Neville Marten reviewed Reflex Reds soon after their launch in the May 1988 issue of Guitarist magazine as follows:
Designed by Andras Szalay in 1986-1987 the Shadow SH-075 is a quick mount guitar-to-midi convertor. The SH-075 comprises four parts: a six-pole, thin pickup which picks up all six strings separately, the converter, which is also the control unit, a small junction box with a MIDI output socket, and an external power supply which provides the low voltage to drive the system. The pickup attaches to the guitar as close to the bridge as possible, while the converter can normally be fixed via the strap peg on the end of the guitar body.
Joe Marinic founded Shadow Electronics in 1971 in Erlangen, Germany as an electric guitar and pickup maker, but initially Joe decided to focus solely on pickups. Soon Shadow invented a ground breaking undersaddle piezo pickup (called the “Shadow 1”) for acoustic and classical guitars. The 1970s saw further innovations from Shadow including the first endpin output jack for acoustic guitar and the first dual magnetic and piezo pickup system. During the late 1970s and early 1980s Shadow invented the first piezo bridge for electric guitars and the first active humbucker with a built-in equalizer. In 1987 Shadow began making electric guitars in Germany and released several guitar-to-midi converters and guitar synths. More recently, Shadow developed the NanoFlex transducer and NanoMAG magnetic pickup systems.
Perri Ink was founded by NickPerri (guitarist with Silvertide and other bands) in 2009 and his early models (Prostar and Solostar) were made in Nick's home town of Philadelphia. The Perri Ink Cartel store opened in 2011 on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California and offered custom guitars, custom motorcycles, clothes, tattoos, haircuts and piercings. In 2012 the company revamped its operations and launched new instrument and hardware lines - including cabinets, pickups and pick guards. The Perri Ink Cartel store closed in 2013, and Nick went back to working on original music, returning to the stage in 2014.
Reflex Guitar Systems Ltd. was a UK replacement pickup company, established in 1988. Their Reflex Reds active pickups were an alternative to EMGs. There was also a Reflex Blues set.
This is part of an interview given by Dan Armstrong to Jeffery Pike back in 1973:
Dan Armstrong is a man of ideas. Inventor, designer, maker, musician, he’s constantly expanding what you can do with the electric guitar. I called on him to get up to date on his latest guitars and gadgets, but he just had to tell me first about a new tuning he’s been working on!
