Ziata Guitars was founded in 1999 by George Ziatas, Luthier. George Ziatas has been making lattice-braced classical guitars since the year 2000 - he used the Ziata brand name on his classical guitar labels. Ziata Guitars is now exclusively focused on manufacturing electric guitars & pickups.
Witkowski custom guitars and pickups are made in Poland by Marek Witkowski. It was established in 1981 building solid body electric guitars to order. As time progressed Witkowski began to offer his own designs as well as custom made pickups.
Fidelity Guitars is a boutique electric guitar brand - hand made in Cambridgeshire in the UK by Matt Oram. Fidelity designs are retro inspired but still unique.
Mr Glyn's Pickups was founded by Glyn Evans in 2020 in New Zealand as a hand made guitar pickups brand. Evans has been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995. He wound his first pickup under the guidance of guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making & repair at City of Leeds College of Music in the UK. As a guitar repairer he has studied, rewound and repaired some of the great vintage (and modern) pickups.
Retrovibe is a budget bass brand founded by David Konig. Retrovibe basses are designed in the UK and made in China. This brand has some association with Chowny.
Mike Vanden makes archtop guitars and mandolins in Argyll, Scotland. Varden has been making instruments since 1979 - inspired by Gibson archtop mandolins and early archtop guitars. Mike Vanden has also designed pickups for acoustic instruments since 1988 - including the Mimesis pickup.
Swing Guitar Technology is a Korean company who established their first factory in 2001 and within a few years were the number one selling electric guitar company in Korea. They opened an Indonesian factory in 2008 and later a custom shop producing signature models.
Stephan Schertler founded his company in the 1986 specialising in audio transducers. Scherler was a double bass player who was inspired to made his own amplification system due to the lack of suitable equipment. By 2000 there were 10 people working in the company and they had developed a range of transducers as well as loudspeakers and amplifiers. Schertler entered the Pro Audio world in 2016 with a new analog modular mixer. There were Schertler guitars made from around 2006 and designed by Claudio Pagelli. The vision was to create a smaller sized electro-acoustic guitar for the stage, equipped with a reference quality Schertler Dual Source pickup system.
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.
