L.R. Baggs was founded by Lloyd Baggs who started out In 1973 by buying, modifying, refinishing, retuning and then returning old Gibsons and Washburns - this led to L.R. Baggs fine-handmade-guitar-and-guitar-repair business being launched. After Lloyd finished his first guitar in a Berkeley, California garage, he took it to his guitar idol, Ry Cooder, and received his first commission. Lloyd's list of customers for his L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar included Jackson Browne, Janis Ian, Graham Nash and two instruments went to Ry Cooder. The guitar featured on Cooder's "Jazz" album is an L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar.
Dimitar Georgiev, alongside two of his brothers, founded Kremona in 1924 in Bulgaria. Georgiev had apprenticed as a violin maker in Markneukirchen, Germany. Over time, the brothers welcomed other master builders into the Kremona workshop and Kremona instruments spread across Europe. Circa 2017 Kremona is best known for acoustic guitars, which are widely distributed in the USA, but they also made some electric and bass guitars in the past.
Larry Fishman etablished the Fishman company in 1981 - to produce acoustic guitar pickups. He soon had orders from Martin and began to branch out into pickups for other acoustic stringed instrument. From the early 1980s Fishman also made amplifiers and other guitar related products. Fishman also provide OEM parts to many other guitar makers - particularly transducers and preamps tor acoustic guitars.
The Japanses Fernandes brand was first used in 1969 on flamenco guitars. The company expanded to produce a range of acoustic and electric models, and became Japan's largest maker of Fender copies. The 1970s Fernandes Stratocaster copies were well regarded. In 1992 Fernandes USA was established in Los Angeles, California and in 1996 the Fernandes USA Custom Shop was founded - but it has since closed.
Larry DiMarzio introduced the Super Distortion and Dual Sound pickups around 1971. These were the first mass market replacement guitar pickups and started a revolution of guitar hot-rodding in the 1970s. The high output Super Distortion pickup made it easier to get an overdriven distorted sound than with most stock humbuckers of the period. Located in Staten Island DiMarzio now produces a range of nearly 200 different pickups, as well as cables & straps.
Dean Markley was a music store owner who began selling his own designed instrument strings in 1972. He went on to develop the voice-box effect as used in the 1970s by Peter Frampton. The company now also produceds pickups, amplifiers and other guitar accessories.
Bill Lawrence, was born Willi Lorenz Stich in Germany in 1931. He made his first magnetic pickup in 1946. In 1965, Bill Lawrence, Nathan Grossman and Jzchak Wajcman started Lawrence Electrosounds in Munich Germany. The company made pickups for different guitar manufacturers, including Framus. In 1966, Jzchak Wajcman bought the shares from Grossman and became the majority stockholder. By 1970, Jzchak closed the company, and sold the equipment to Hoyer Guitars. Jzchak moved to Israel, and Bill moved to the USA.
Johnny Mørch began making electric guitars in 1972 - alongside his father Arne Mørch. To increase productivity, Mørch subcontracted the bodies to a carpener and the spray finishing to a painter, but did final assembly and setup himself. In the mid 1970s Mørch colaborated with the guitarist Thomas Puggård Muller to design the Mørch “curl” models (with a scroll top horn like an F-style mandolin) which were included in the Danish Design Index to worldwide acclaim. Mørch now sells direct to the customer and all instruments & pickups are handmade in Mørch’s workshop.
