bass guitars

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Bass_guitar

ATLANSIA

Atlansia is the brand of Japanese guitar maker and genius inventor N. Hayashi, and has been active for at least 40 years. Also makes guitar making machinery. Atlansia appears to be distrbuted in Japan only.

ZON

Joe Zon founded Zon Guitars in 1981 in Buffalo, New York, as a custom guitar and repair shop in 1981. Zon pioneered the use of graphite necks in his basses. Over the following years Zon introduced a variety of instruments, including the Legacy Series and Scepter model basses, and for a short time, the Stiletto guitar. Zon's partnership with bassist Michael Manring led to the development of the Hyperbass, designed to use alternative tuning. In 1995, Zon Guitars expanded its operations to a larger facility in Redwood City, California, where its Mosaic Pro, Sonus, and Legacy basses are made.

Source: Zon webpage (7 January 2022)

Zolla

William John "Bill" Zolla (1957 - 2019) started building custom guitars, necks, and bodies in Southern California in 1979, He carried on with the business for over 30 years. During this time he made thousands of custom handmade guitars, invented the 425 TM and 426 TM Bass conversion necks, and created his own distinctive line of guitars the BZ series. In 2012 he joined the San Diego Rescue Mission as a Resident Manager.

Source: Zolla Guitars website (archived 2008)

Source: William Zolla obituary (San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 11, 2020.)

YAMAHA

The Yamaha Corporation is a multinational Japanese company with large musical instruments and electronic interests. Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and organ company and has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments.

They produce a wide variety of guitars and have a reputation for good quality control standards. They have some good beginners guitars as well as some great high end instruments.

Xotic

Xotic Basses was founded in 1998 as a one man company in Southern California, producing high-quality bass guitars and bass preamps. In 2000, in order to further grow Xotic as a brand, the corporation Prosound Communications Inc. (PCI) was established as a parent company to acquire the Xotic brand. At this point, marketing of Xotic Effects started and Xotic guitars and basses were made in larger quantities to meet increasing demand. PCI’s main focus was exporting of other US made brands to Japan to fund the continual manufacturing. By 2009 Xotic’s brand came to be more recognized throughout the market and it outgrew its garage location in San Fernando Valley. PCI moved to its current production offices in Van Nuys, CA. Today the Xotic Research and Development and manufacturing team is still based in Van Nuys California, but they also use satellite locations in Taiwan and Japan to supply some Xotic products at more affordable prices.

Wittman

Ken Wittman is a builder of electric and bass guitars. He also developed the Spinstrap system designed to alleviate problems caused by heavy instruments and traditional straps. The Wittman ProTuner is another of his inventions - it has an LED display  inlaid in the side of the neck or in the upper horn area, so it is visible to the player only.

Source: Wittman website (archived 2003)

WARWICK

Warwick was founded in 1982 by Hans-Peter Wilfer as a premium brand with a small range of models. Warwick basses were made from exotic tonewoods with Neck-through design. Warwick also produces budget versions of the original models with less exotic woods and different finishes under the Rockbass, Pro and Artist brands. Rockbass are made in China and the Pro & Artist series made in South Korea.

VIGIER

Patrice Vigier established as an independent luthier in 1978 and founded the Vigier Guitars company in 1980. In that year Vigier exhibited his instruments (including the Arpege series) at his first music show in Paris. In 1983 the Passion series was introduced, with its flat fingerboard designed for tapping. In 1984 Vigier released a carbon fiber necked guitar and in 1985 they introduced the Marilyn Series. The line-up was updated again in 1991 with the Excalibur series. In addition to guitar making, the company also imports and  distributes musical instruments, amplifiers, and accessories wholesale through its division High Tech Distribution.

Veillette

Veillette acoustic, electric and bass guitars are built by Joe Veillette, AndeChase, and Jimmy Eppard, in Woodstock, NY. Joe Veillette learned guitar making in the early 1970s with Michael Gurian and made acoustic guitars until 1975 when he founded Veillette-Citron guitars with Harvey Citron. Veillette-Citron guitars proved popular and sold well until closure of the company in 1983. Over the next 8 years Joe made very few guitars: he was performing as the singer & guitarist of The Phantoms. In 1991, he founded Woodstock Music Products with Stuart Spector, making Spector basses & starting a line of Veillette electric & baritone guitars.

VANTAGE

The original Vantage brand guitars were produced in Japan (by Matsumoku?) during the 1970s: The Avenger and Invader series had the most unusual body styles. Double cut-away VP, VS and VSH modesl were more conventional. All these models had great features with multiwood natural finish bodies fashionable in the late 1970s.  The Vantage brand name reappeared on lower quality guitars produced by Music Industries (Jay Turser) in the 1990's up until 1998.

Vaccaro

Vaccaro Guitar company was founded in 1997 by Henry Vaccaro Sr. and Henry Vaccaro Jr. as a maker of aluminum necked guitars and basses - having retained the rights to the Kramer aluminum neck patent. They stopped making guitars in 2002. The following company bio comes from their website in 2007 (the site is no longer active):

"In April of 1997, Vaccaro Guitar Company was established to propel guitar manufacturing into a new dimension through its vibrant designs and innovative manufacturing techniques. This newly formed company intends to position itself as a leading American Guitar Manufacturer by producing a unique line of guitars with its revolutionary patented V-Neck, built with the highest quality materials.

Vaccaro Guitar was born from a marriage of frustration and vision. Henry Vaccaro, Sr. and Henry Jr. saw a void in the marketplace for something new and different.

VALLEY ARTS

There are three distinct periods in Valley Arts history: the original period, the Samick era and the Gibson era.

Original Valley Arts era

The Valley Arts brand began in a music shop run by Duke Miller. Miller was a guitar teacher, and when he went off to music teaching position at the University of Southern California, two of his students Mike McGuire and Al Carness bought the music store business. Around In 1973, they moved from the shop's original location on Laurel Canyon Blvd. to Ventura Blvd.

Although they specialised in teaching, McGuire also began learning how to repair guitars quickly building a good reputation. An important watershed in the Valley Arts story was when Larry Carlton ordered a refret of his old Gibson S.G.The Valley Arts did repairs for an impressive client list including Tommy Tedesco, Steve Lukather, Robben Ford, Mitch Holder, Mundell Lowe, Al Viola and Duane Eddy.

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