Banker electric guitars are made by Matt Hughes in Georgia, USA. Banker Custom Guitars was founded in 2016 with the aim to recapture the magic of vintage Gibson electric guitars, using old school American Craftsmanship. As far as possible they build their instruments with the methods, hand tools and power tools from the 1950s golden era of electric guitars. Their necks are hand carved with rasps and spokeshaves. Matt Hughes was the first boutique builder to officially sign on with Gibson as part of the authorized partner program. This means Banker guitars can legally use Gibson trademarks, body shapes, and headstocks.
AMUMU is a Chinese guitar accessories brand name. It has been around since 2017 and was registered in the US in 2020 by Cuijuan Ding (Eaglevox Corporation) of Guandong, China - but currently has an address in Hong Kong. The word AMUMU doesn't mean anything!
Vuorensaku Guitars is a Finnish electric guitar brand established by luthier Saku Vuori in 2012. Vuori graduated from Arts & Crafts school in 2008 and went on to work with other luthiers for the first few years. He opened his own workshop in 2012 in Jyväskylä, to repair stringed instruments and make his own guitar & bass models and custom pickups. In 2019 he passed his masters exam and became the youngest Master Luthier in Finland, at the age of 35.
He launched the T-Family collection of instruments in 2014 loosely based on a combination of classic designs like the Fender Jazzmaster, Teles and Mosrites. His inspiration for reliced and aged style guitars is drawn from old Finnish houses and furniture from 1950’s. He also makes each pickup himself and has been working on some new concepts including a low-output pickup called “El Kamiina” using old Finnish wires from the 1970’s.
Liutart is an Italian musical instrument brand, established in 1990. They make high quality electric, acoustic and bass guitars and also pickups & strings. They also have a Tube Art brand name for effects and electronic accessories.
Smitty Custom Guitars is a boutique electric guitar and pickup brand made in Nieuw-Vennep in the Netherlands by Eric Smid. Smitty guitars are custom made to your specifications and the range includes original designs (the Model 1 and the Model 2) as well as classic Tele, Strat and Jazz style models.
Dunable Guitars was founded by Sacha Dunable, the guitarist and singer of prog-metal band Intronaut. Dunable has been making guitars since 2011: he started out in his garage and by 2014 he was able to go full time as a guitar builder. Dunable USA Custom Shop instruments and pickups are still built in Southern California by a small team of 6-7 people. There are also mass produced Dunable instruments like the DE series introduced in 2020 which is made in South Korea. They also make effects pedals and previously made amp heads.
Bare Knuckle Pickups was founded by Tim Mills - a professional guitarist who began winding his own pickups. Bare Knuckle Pickups are scatter wound by a team of hand winders in their Cornish factory,. They also make their own humbucker baseplates.
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.
