ukuleles

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Ukulele

Yasuma

Yasuma Musical Instrument Company was established in 1950 in Nagoya by Kimihiko Yasuma. Yasuma made guitars, mandolins and ukuleles.  The guitars most commonly seen are Martin style dreadnought acoustics and may be branded "K Yasuma & Co", Aanton or Angelica. In the 1970s Martin won a copyright infringment case against Yasuma and as a result many Yasuma guitars imported into the USA had to be destroyed. Yasuma carried on for a while after this lawsuit - but had to alter their dreadnought design.

Source: Yasuma catalogs

Source: Wesley Guitars Yasuma Page

Source: Lardy's Ukulele database

Hudson

Hudson is an acoustic guitar house brand of Cranes Music Shops of South Wales, UK. The Hudson brand was originally set up by George Ösztreicher an original founder of the Tanglewood Guitar Company and a director of Kay (Guitars) the USA based manufacturer and distributor.

Source: Hudson Guitars website

Hilo

Hilo was an Oscar Schmidt brand name used for Hawaiian lap steel guitars in the 1920s and 1930s. Most had a Weissenborn style hollow neck and were made from Koa. They were labelled "HILO Hawaiian Steel Guitar" with a picture of a smoking volcano and a surfer surrounded by palm trees. Currently the Hilo brand name is used for Chinese made ukuleles.

Harshbarger

Harshbarger Strings was established in 2016 by Jason Harshbarger (Harshbarger previously operated as Highland Strings). His interest in guitar making started in 1995 when he met local guitar builder Jamonn Zeiler and went on to apprentice with him in 1996. The next year he graduated from the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in the Spring of 1997 class. In 2005 he built a couple of instruments under the name Harshbarger Luthiery. He operated as Highland Strings from 2006 to 2016 before changing the company name to Harshbarger Strings.

Source: Harshbarger Strings website

Hess

Ernst Hess was an instrument maker established in 1872 in Klingenthal, Germany. After Ernst died his family carried on the business (adding Nach. to the business name -  Nachkommenschaft meaning descendants). Ernst Hess was best known for accordions and brass instruments but also sold stringed instruments including guitars and ukuleles. By the 1930s the company was simply known as Hess Musik.
 

Source: Lardy's Uke database

Hannam

Beau Hannam enrolled in the Gilet Guitars School of Luthiery in 2002 in Sydney Austrialia. He then joined Gerard Gilet, first as as a teacher in the luthiery school and then as a full time guitar maker. Hannam then moved to Grand Junction in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where he continues to make around 15 acoustic guitars and ukuleles per year.

Source: Beau Hannam guitars website (4 September 2017)

Gremlin

Gremlin was a budget brand of Samuel Music / Midco International (Effingham, Illinois) offering electric, acoustic and bass guitars. Available from the 1980s until the early 2000s Gremlin instruments were often short-scale length.

Globe

The Globe Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company were a St Charles, Chicago manufacturer of banjo-ukuleles and mandolins. Established around 1915 Globe became one of the biggest manufacturers of the 1920s and 1930s. Globe manufactured La Pacific, Tru-Fret and Florence brand instruments as well as making OEM instruments for other companies.

Source: Lardy's ukulele database - Globe (17 July 2017)

Source: Globe Music Company adverts

GH&S

GH&S was the brand name of George Houghton & Sons. George Houghton established his Reliance factory in Birmingham in 1888 where he made a range of banjos, banjoleles and banjo-madolins. As well as selling GH&S and Reliance branded instruments George Houghton & Sons also made instruments for other companies which were sold under other brand names across the UK and British Empire. The Birmingham factory closed in 1962 but some of the staff relocated to Kent to make banjos under the Dallas brand name.

Source: Lardy's Ukulele database - GH&S (14 July 2017)

Gallotone

Gallotone was a brand name used by the South African Gallo record company for a range of acoustic guitars and banjo-ukuleles in the 1950s and 1960s. Gallotone instruments were aimed at beginners and had laminated tops guaranteed not to split. The Gallotone brand would have faded in obscurity had it not been for John Lennon. The 14 year old Lennon bought a Gallotone Champion guitar for ten pounds from a mail order advert in the weekly Reveille newspaper. In 1999 this guitar was bought at aution for £155,000 by an unnamed New York investment fund manager.

Source: Wikipedia Gallotone (28 June 2017)

Source: Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles. Tony Bramwell. 2005

Alaya

Alaya is a brand name of Super Musical Instruments(Zhangzhou) Co.,Ltd. of Fujian Province, China. Super Musical, through their links with Taiwanese enterprises, have made OEM guitars for well known brands. Alaya is their own brand name - typically distributed in China rather than for export.

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