banjos

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Banjo

DALLAS

Dallas was a UK musical instrument manufacturing and distribution company, founded by John E. Dallas. Dallas began making banjos in 1873, eventually moving to premises at 415 Strand. In 1905-1906 Dallas' three sons were given directorships and the firm's title changed to John E. Dallas and Sons.

By the late 1920s, Dallas instruments were being mass produced under the brand name "Jedson." derived from Dallas' initials, "J.E.D", and "Sons". When John Dallas died in 1921 the form became a private limited company

In 1926 The firm moved to larger premises, at 6-10 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2, and became a wholesale importer and distributer of musical instruments. They moved again to Dallas moved to Ridgmount Street in 1937 (concinding with the introduction of the Ridgmount brand), before eventuallu settling in Clifton Street, EC2.

SUPERTIMBRE

The Chinese Supertimbre Company was established in 1988. Supertimbre specialize in the production of musical instruments, also providing OEM manufacturing services. Products include wood wind, brass, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, keyboards, percussion and accessories. Supertimbre export to Europe, America, Oceania and Asia.

TENAYO

Tenayo is a Korean/Chinese brand with a full range of instruments and accessories. They make some interesting models including the Koyabu 12 string tap guitar and a budget version of the Yamaha silent guitar. The German Thomann company is a major distributer of Tenayo instruments. The tap guitars are available from http://tap-guitar.eu/

Kent

Kent brand guitars were made in Korea and Japan during the 1960’s for distribution in the USA. There was a full product line of Kent acoustic and electric guitars as well as banjos and mandolin. Some of these early Japanese made Kent guitars were built by either Teisco or Guyatone. Some time after this the distributors of the Kent instruments decided to go upmarket and had Hagstrom produce versions of their Solid Electric Hagstrom I, II and III and electric Bass guitars as Kents for distribution in the USA.

Source:Hagstrom.org.uk

Aiersi

Aiersi is the retail brand name of the Chinese Sinomusik company. They are a large OEM professional guitar supplier and exporter from China whose guitar range includes: classical guitars, children's guitars, flamenco guitars, 12-string guitars, parlor guitars, acoustic guitars, Hawaiian guitars, Dobro guitars, bass guitars and electric guitars. 

Gold Tone

Gold Tone Banjos was founded by Wayne and Robyn Rogers in 1993. Both were active folk musicians in the 70's and 80's, they opened Strings N' Things Music Center in 1978. In 1993 Wayne designed the original TB-100 Travel Banjo and began manufacturing and distributing the "Traveler" mail order. Golf Tone now produce  5 string Banjos, 6 string Banjos, Banjitars, Mando Banjos, 4 strings, Weissenborns, metal bodies, resonator guitars and mandolins.

Luna

The Luna brand name is a Dean Guitars (Armadillo Enterprises) derivative originally fronted by Yvonne De Villiers a stained glass artist. De Villiers designed some inlay patterns for Dean and and they were spun into a product line of guitars. Many Luna guitars feature laser etched designs. De Villiers left the company in 2015. Circa 2018 the Luna range included guitars, basses, ukuleles and bluegrass instruments.

Source: Luna Guitars website (22 January 2018)

Stewarts Banjo and Guitar Journal

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The University of Rochester have made available online issues of S.S. Stewart’s banjo and guitar journal from the 1890s. S.S. Stewart was a banjo and mandolin manufacturer and this magazine was intended to promote his instruments though a network of dealers. Taking a closer look you find many interesting  (and weird) stories from a time when there was nothing much on T.V. 

SX

The SX brand was launched in 1998 by an established Taiwanese guitar company. They founded a new company Team International Music Co., Ltd. in the 1990s when making guitars in Taiwan became too expensive and they moved production to China. They had originally planned to use the Essex brand name - but that was already taken so they settled on SX. The new brand proved to be a success and by 2003 the company were able to stop taking OEM orders to focus exclusively on SX instruments. Although Team does not own the Chinese factories they have their own quality control staff at each factories to oversee the production and make initial inspections.
With 4 drying rooms in their warehouse, capable of drying 6000 guitars at the same time. All the guitars are dried for 7 to 15 days (depending on the climate of the destination) and inspected before they are shipped out.

Source: SX website (28 July 2021)

VEGA

The company was started in 1881 by Swedish-born Julius Nelson, his brother Carl. Vega were best known for their banjos but also made acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments. Quality declined in the 1940s and 1950s and in the 1970s the CF Martin company bought the Vega company, with a view to producing Vega banjos. Some Martin designed Vega acoustic guitars were made in Sweden by the Levin company in the early 1970s. Later in the 1970s some Vega acoustics were made in the Netherlands.

More recently a Korean company acquired the Vega brand name for Korean built instruments.

HARMONY

The Harmony Company was founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Schultz. In 1916, it was bought by Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was to become the largest maker of stringed instruments in the country. It was a large producer of house-brand instruments, under many brand names (La Scala, Stella, Sovereign, Vogue, Valencia, Johnny Marvin, Monterey, Silvertone are just a few!). Their models were often sold through Montgomery-Ward, Sears-Roebuck and Alden catalogues.

Cheaply produced foreign instruments led to the closure of the Chicago factory. Production of Harmony brand instruments moved to Asia after 1975. It is estimated that between 1945 and 1975, the Chicago firm had mass produced about ten million guitars.

Comprehensive database of Harmony guitar models

STAGG

The Stagg brand was introduced by distributor EMD Music, as their first house brand in 1995. Global sales of Stagg products expanded to the point that Stagg now provides most of EMD's revenue.

Regal

The Regal Musical Instrument Company was one of the big American musical instrument makers. The Regal brand had its roots in Indianapolis in the Lyon & Healy company but was spun off as a separate company in 1908. The Chicago Regal factory made stringed instruments for Lyon & Healy, but also supplied many other distributors with house brands including the Montgomery Ward catalog. Regal was well known for making resonator instruments but this ceased at the start of World War II and by 1955 the production of all fretted instruments stopped.

The Regal brand name was revived by Fender in 1965 for a series of banjos. In 1987 the Saga Musical Instrument Company aquired the Regal brand name and resumed production of Regal resonator guitars.

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