resonator guitars

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Resonator_guitar

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.

BELTONA

Beltona was established in 1990 as a partnership between Steve Evans and Bill Johnson.  Evans and Johnson (a luthier and engineer respectively) shared an interest in resonator instruments, and set out to produce a couple of instruments for themselves replicating the best features of the originals but also making adjustments and improvements where they were needed. The business grew from this, producing high quality metal instruments at a time when these were not being made by anyone else. Beltona continues to break new ground by producing quality, handcrafted carbon and glass fibre instruments. The idea for this came in the mid 1990s primarily to cut down on production costs and time to be able to keep the instruments affordable.   The unexpected discovery of the other advantages of this material over metal was a huge bonus. The improvements are in the areas of sound projection, weight, strength and ease/speed of production.

James Trussart

James Trussart is a musician-turned-luthier. His career began in the 1970s as a violin player in his native Paris. He turned his attention to making violins and then guitars in the 1980s. He is now a resident of southern California, where he makes custom steel-bodied guitars, basses and violins out of metal.

Instruments come in a variety of finishes: from shiny chrome to weathered and rusty. Trussart's "Rust-o-matic" technique involves leaving the guitar body exposed to the elements for several weeks, allowing it to corrode, then sanding it to replicate years of distress, and then finishing it with a clear satin coat. The metal construction leads to a distinctive tone: and many leading players have a Trussart metal guitar in their collection.

To date your Trussart guitar look at the serial number: the first two digits are the year the guitar was made, and the rest are the number of guitars produced to that date.

Timm

Jerry Timm started his business in 1981, designing and building custom fine furniture.  His work has been featured in newspapers, magazines, galleries, and specialty shops throughout the United States.  After building over 1000 pieces of furniture of different styles and types; he built his first acoustic guitar. He found a new passion in his work. The transition from furniture designer/craftsman to luthier (around 1998) was a natural progression for Jerry. Timm Guitars use a traditional X-frame bracing, but are braced as lightly as possible. Timm Guitar necks use an U channel Martin style adjustable truss rod.  In addition, Timm guitars have a bolt on neck that  provides easy maintenance in event work needs to be done on the body or the neck. Two bolts hold the neck in place , there is no glue used.  One feature that distinguishes Timm necks from the rest of the field are Semi-Hemispherical (rounded) fret ends.

Scheerhorn

Tim Scheerhorn has been making resonator guitars since 1989 - he showed his first instrument to Mike Auldridge who was suitably impressed. His instruments are played by Jerry Douglas, Mike Auldridge, Sally VanMeter, Rob Ickes, Ben Harper, Phil Leadbetter, and Jimmy Stewart.

SAMICK

The Samick Musical Instrument company is an important guitar manufacturer, at the start of the 21st century. When large scale production of guitars became uneconomical in the USA and Europe, many western brands outsourced their manufacturing to highly automated and cost effective Korean manufacturers like Samick. The instruments are then distributed under a variety of brandnames (like Epiphone or Washburn for example).

The very first Samick guitars were made around 1965, by what was then the Samick Piano Company. Many of these instruments were made for other companies, and were branded as such. The Samick Piano Company became the Samick Musical Instrument Company in 1973. The name change reflected the diverse range of instruments made by Samick. Towards the end of the 1970s the international importance of Samick was reflected by their establishment of offices in the USA and Germany, and the opening of a large guitar manufacturing facility in Korea.

Nobles (Tony)

Tony Nobles is an American luthier, who builds new instruments and also has a reputation for repairing vintage instruments. At the outset of his career Nobles worked for Austin luthier Mark Erlewine, doing warranty work for Martin, Fender, Gibson, and Guild, and also making custom guitars for Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, Joe Walsh, Alejandro Escovedo, Ray Wylie Hubbard and others. In 1993, Nobles established Precision Guitar Works, where he repaired and made guitars of all sorts. Later in his career Nobles’ efforts were focused on building “heirloom-quality” acoustics.

Morrell

In 1960 Joe Morrell opened a music store in Bristol, Tennessee and later founded the Joe Morrell Music Distributing Company. In 1983 Joe Morrell built the Grand Guitar on West State Street, Bristol - a 3 storey guitar shaped building, which housed a country music museum. In 1989 Morrell purchased radio station WOPI which he moved to the Grand Guitar building. Since the late 1970s Morrell has distributed their own brand of lap and pedal steel guitars. Morrell lap steel guitars are made in the USA but Morrell brand acoustic and resonator guitars sold via Morrell Music Store are most likely not.

Source: Morrell Lap Steel website (26 June 2018)

McGill

Paul McGill attended the Earthworks School of Guitar Making in Vermont, run by Charles Fox, for six weeks in 1976. He then set up a workshop in his basement in Wisconsin in 1978, soon moving to a local violin shop in 1979 where he repaired violins as well as making guitars. From 1985 to 1988 he went to work in the restoration shop of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville.  During his early years he made mostly steel stringed acoustic guitars but in 1984 switched to classical guitar making. During the his time in Nashville he  has made many classical guitars for Earl Klugh, as well as some Del Vecchio style resonators. This led to him making several resonators for Chet Atkins in the mid 1990s.

GONSTEAD

Sven Gonstead attended the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery after graduating from University. After Roberto-Venn, Sven was determined to make a career as an instrument maker. Sven went to work for the Santa Cruz Guitar Company.
In time, he moved home to the Midwest and started his own guitar workshop. Sven now lives in Big Bay, Michigan where he specializes in producing high quality acoustic and resophonic guitars.

Source: Gonstead guitars website (19 July 2017)

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Forbidden Fruit Guitars is owned and operated by Paul Norman. Paul worked as a finish carpenter, an architect, an actor, a theater technician, a theatrical scene designer and software engineer before studying guitar making with Al Carruth. Forbidden Fruit offers a 12-string resonator guitar which can cut through the noise of even the loudest bar room. Also offers custom carbon fiber biscuit bridges.

Source: Forbidden Fruit Guitars website (19 May 2017)

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