Musical instrument manufacturers - Gt to G9

Musical instrument manufacturers - Gt to G9

GTRC Services

USA based company, Delaware listed but actually based in California. Primarily a music instrument and PA retailer trading as Guitar Center and Music & Arts with more than 300 retail outlets in the USA, also using the “Musician's Friend”, “Woodwind & Brasswind”, Music123, Zzounds, Private Reserve Guitars and the Lyons Musical Instruments (LMI) names as an on-line/print catalogue retailer of musical instruments. The company also owns rehearsal studios and other music related holdings.

GTRC holds out a number of house brands that they use to re-brand musical instruments and PA related products, these are mostly budget Asian sourced products although the company from time to time makes inroads into the mid-range. Their brands include Etude that is used on student instruments, primarily classical string and wind instruments, Giardinelli that is used on wind instruments and accessories, Rouge, Lucero and Mitchell that are used on guitars, basses amps & folk instruments, Pulse, Baja and Sound Percusssion (SP) that they use on drums and other percussion instruments, Agazarian that they use on cymbals, Lazer is used on percussion accessories such as mallets and beaters but has in the past also been used on brass instruments, Simmons that they use on electronic percussion, Williams is used on pianos and other keyboard instruments, Acoustic is used on guitar and bass amplifiers alongside Palomino and Multivox. The Silver Creek, Karl Willhelm, Bellafina, Florea, The String Centre and Otto Benjamin names are used on classical string instruments and accessories while Arcolla and Allora are used on woodwind instruments, Live Wire is used on cables and related accessories, Sterling Audio and Digital Reference are labels that they use on microphones and accessories, a variant of Digital reference is DR Pro and in addition to mics it is sometimes seen used on guitar parts, Studio Trends that is used on furniture, Tantrum, Wolfpak and Road Runner are used on instrument cases, Stickbrick and Grabbers are used on drumsticks. Other brands they own include Black Label used on smoke fluid, Easypick that is used on guitar picks and other small accessories, Laguna is used on sundry MI and DJ products and accessories, Venue is used on lighting products, Control Acoustics is used on acoustic materials and insulation products, Proline is used on all kinds of MI accessories, Fretrest is used on guitar stands etc., Musician's Gear is used for home recording gear, stands, covers and related accessories, Raven and Protege that they use on protective cases, racks and similar products, Deltalab is used on effect pedals, electric tuners and similiar accessories, LMI and Lyons that are used on childerns musical instruments and educational products and Harbringer that they use on PA loudspeakers.

GRTC have also recently registered brands that they have not put into use when this was written, such as Ventus, Keytech, Adesso, Independence, Rocketeer and Crumar. The Woodwind & Brasswind division also has brands that feature products that are made in the USA by subcontractors and some of them are distributed wholesale outside of the company such as Jo-Ral mutes, Woodwind wind instruments annd accessories, these are more mid-price than budget models unlike most otthe products from the company, WWC, Guardala, Jet-Tone and RIA mouthpieces and Grime Gutter accessories. The company and/or its subsidiaries has in the past used other brands such as Valdesta that was used on pianos, Verve that was used on drums, some of them only for a short while like Mainline Audio and Tangent that they used on PA stuff like amps, speakers and wireless microphones and Ocean that they used on basses in the latter half of the 00's. They also used Strobel on classical string instruments, Fullerton was used on folk instruments and accessories such as banjos etc., Chicago Jazz Series was used to brand saxophones and brass instruments, Axman was used on stands, Guitar Man was used on guitar & bass guitar accessories, Roadkill was used on pedals and accessories, Spectral was used on computer related accessories Paradise appears to have been used on guitars for a very short time and RAM was used on MI amplifiers.

The company is the owner of Harmony Central as well, it had tried to build something similar with other front ends in the past like Musician.com between 1999 and 2003, but gave up on those and purchased HC in 2005. Note that it is often listed that the company acquired certain trademarks from defunct companies like Simmons, Multivox, Strobel, Crumar and Deltalab, but while they did buy the Acoustic name it does in fact appear that they simply registered the others as trademarks in the USA rather than bought the rights, they tried to register some other famous names from the 70’s and 80’s such as ADA, Fretsling, Earth III and Polaris at the same time but failed.
Distribution: Jo-Ral Distribution: In Austria by Musikhaus Karl Schagerl, in the UK by Bill Lewington Ltd. Non-exclusive distribution/wholesaling in the USA by St. Louis Music and Conn-Selmer
Homepage: http://www.guitarcenter.com -- Woodwind & Brasswind -- Lyons homepage -- Musician's Friend site -- Harbringer -- Sterling Audio page -- Simmons site -- Music 123 -- Music & arts -- PRS guitars page.
GTRC Services Inc. 5795 Lindero Canyon Road, Westlake Village, California 91362, USA.
Musician's Friend, Inc., PO Box 4370, Medford, OR 97501-0168, USA.
Woodwind & Brasswind/Lyons Musical Instruments, 4004 Technology Drive, South Bend, IN 46628, USA.

Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co.

Chinese company that manufactures grand pianos and uprights under the Pearl River, Kayserburg and Ritmüller names, these range from budget uprights to fairly ambitious grands built around European soundboards and mechanisms. The company also has a fully owned subsidiary called Guangzhou Kapok Guitar Co. Ltd. that manufactures guitars branded as Kapok and another called Guangzhou Kapok Violin Co. Ltd. that manufactures classical string instruments, accessories and parts under the Kapok, Pearl, Cotton Tree and Miller brands, note that the Pearl name is only used in China, for export they use the full Pearl River name.

The company is unusual in that it is state owned but almost all other musical instrument manufactures in China are in private ownership, it is also the largest piano manufacturer in China in no small part thanks to the leadership of Huang Wei Lin who took over the helm in 1991 and started to improve the quality of the products and the organisation of the company. Another unusual issue is that they are not as focused on export as other Chinese companies but exports count for much less than 50% of total piano sales, their Kapok guitar brand even more so, it is almost exclusively sold in its home market. They do act as an OEM in a limited fashion though, building pianos for Steinway & Sons for instance but also for a number of house brands for larger chains of piano and other MI retailers.

Guangzhou Pearl River was founded in 1956 by the Association of Reed Organ Dealers and supplied pianos of very indifferent quality to state schools made out of imported parts, it was nationalised during the cultural revolution and ownership transferred to the Guangzhou City office of the National Enterprise, in the 1980's the company started to manufacture its own parts and in response to a government initiated plan to increase the use of western style musical education in schools upped production considerably and in 1987 constructed the worlds largest piano factory. The loss making Guangzhou Kapok Guitar Co. was taken over in the late 1990's and in 1999 the company bought the rights to the Ritmüller brand name and opened up a USA sales office.

There is a lot of misinformation spread around the web about the company and it's relationship with Yamaha, both in a positive way with salesmen and distributors of PR particularly here in the UK and in the USA maintaining that Yamaha and PR pianos are the same product, and on the negative side there have been articles on Wikipedia and elsewere that state that PR illegally took over a Yamaha piano factory with the help of the Chinese state. These claims are all bogus but for background info on the issue read: Guangzhou Yamaha-Pearl River Piano Inc.
Distribution: In Australia by Australis Music , in Indonesia by Melodia Musik, in Portugal & Spain by Enrique Keller and in Thailand by MBA International Co.
Homepage: http://www.pearlriverpiano.com -- American PR Musical Instruments, Inc. (USA office) -- Kapok Guitars -- Classical string instruments.
Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co. Ltd, Yu Wei Xi Road, Li Wan, Guang Zhou 510388, China.
Tel: +86 20 8150 7678, +86 20 8150 3507 and +86 20 8150 6422. Fax: +86 20 8150 2649. E-Mail: wmk AT pearlriverpiano.coma
Guangzhou Kapok Guitar Co. Ltd., 2440 Xin Gang Dong Road, Hai Zhu, Guang Zhou 510330, China.
Tel: +86 20 34094993, +86 20 34092324 and +86 20 34092424.Fax?+86 20 34094673 and +86 20 34094933. E-Mail: joezheng (AT) pearlriverpiano.com
Guangzhou Kapok Violin Co. Ltd., Red Star Industrial Road is No. 15, Shi Jing Town, Guang Zhou 510430, China.
Tel: +86 (0)20 36386353 and +86 (0)20 36386740. Fax: +86 (0)20 36386292 and +86 (0)20 36386450. E-Mail: violin AT pearlriverpiano.com
American PR Musical Instruments Inc., 3949 East Guasti Road, Suite A, Ontario, CA 91761-0739, USA.
Tel: 800 435 5086 (toll free, USA only) or +1 909 673 9155 (Int.). Fax: +1 909 673 9165. E-Mail: info _at_ PearlRiverUSA.com

Guangzhou Romance Musical Instruments Co. Ltd.

Chinese company that manufactures small musical instruments and MI accessories such as strings, hardware and picks under the Alice brand.
Distribution: In Indonesia by Wijaya Musik. Non-Exclusive wholesaling/distribution by worldwide by Sanhe Musical Instrument Co. and in the UK, France, Belguim and Holland by Electrovision
Homepage: http://www.china-alice.com .
Guangzhou Romance Musical Instruments Co. Ltd., No.10, Xihuanbei Road, Longtan Village, Xinjiaonan Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China.
Tel: +86 20 34047323. Fax: +86 20 34047325. E-Mail: zheng [at] china-alice.com

Guardala (Mouthpieces) See --> GTRC Services

Guardian (Cases) See --> Shanghai Chaobo Musical Instruments Co.

Guild See --> Fender (Guitars & amps)

Guisama S. L.
Spanish company that manufacture classical, cutaway, flamenco and Cuban style acoustic guitars under the Prudencio Saéz brand, in addition the company manufactures traditional Spanish instruments such as lutes, bandurrias and requintos. Guisama also wholly owns another Spanish luthier called Sáez Marín S. L., that although a distinctive company on its own is managed and distributed by Guisama as their own brand, but classical and flamenco guitars are made using the Sáez Marín name.

Company was founded in 1963 by Prudencio Saéz Armengot and is currently controlled by his grandson D. Prudencio Saéz Marín.
Distribution: In France by SML and in Turkey by Kivilcim Grup
Homepage: http://www.guisama.com -- Sáez Marín homepage.
Guisama S. L., Carretera Picanya 8, 46900 Torrent, Spain.
Tel: +34 961 55 07 91. Fax: +34 961 56 34 59.

Guitare-Veena See --> Georges Alloro

Guitarras Artesanas Azahar S.L.
Spanish producer of classical guitars, bandurrias & lauds sold under the Azahar brand, despite being hand built these are like so many Spanish instruments primarily student and mid priced rather than high end instruments athough the company has concert level models in their catalogue.
Distribution: In France by Algam
Homepage: http://www.guitarras-azahar.com .
Guitarras Artesanas Azahar S.L., Camí de Torrent, 36 Apdo. Correos 108, 46960 Aldaya, Spain.
Tel: +34 96 150 11 82. Fax: +34 96 150 11 82. E-Mail: azahar [at] guitarras-azahar.com

The Guitar Workshop Inc.
USA based company that manufactures high end classical guitars both on a custom order basis and from stock, the guitars are usually marked with the name of the luthier rather than the company but his name is Paul H. Jacobson. While the company no longer offers repairs services they do offer what they call "intonation upgrades" to classical guitars whereby they modify fretboard, nuts and saddles etc., to improve the intonation and other tuning problems with guitars.
Distribution: In Japan by Rokkoman
Homepage: http://www.pjguitar.com .
The Guitar Workshop Inc., 21116 SE Clover Hills Road, Cleveland, MO 64734-9239, USA.
Tel: +1 816 658 3701. E-Mail: paulj_website ¬at¬ pjguitar.com

Guntram Wolf
German manufacturer of woodwind instruments, best known for historical instruments but actually makes modern and even children’s instruments as well. The company also is a well konwn woodwind repair workshop and is sometimes branded as just Wolf.
Homepage: http://www.guntramwolf.de
Guntram Wolf Holzblasinstrumente, Im Ziegelwinkel 13, 96317 Kronach, Germany.
Tel: +49 9261 506 790. Fax: +49 9261 52782. E-Mail: info _at_ guntramwolf.de.

Gurian Instruments
USA based company that makes acoustic guitar building materials and parts, primarily purflings, rosettes and the like but also endpins and specialist tools. Founded in 1982 by Michael Gurian who prior to that had been working as a builder of acoustic guitars for some 15 years or so, although he was actually better known for his guitar building courses.
Homepage: http://www.gurianinstruments.com
Gurian Instruments Inc., 5350 30th Avenue NW Suite H, Seattle, WA 98107, USA.
Tel: +1 206 467 7990. Fax: +1 206 467 8288..

Gustave Bernardel (Rosins) See --> Savarez

Guy Hawkins (Clarinet & Sax mouthpieces) See --> J.J. Babbit

Guy Laurent (Bows) See --> Shar Products

Gypsy Rose (Ukuleles, guitar kits & tutorials) See --> Team International Co.

G7th
British manufacturer of high tech guitar capos.
Distribution: In Greece by Soto OnstageIn Ireland and the UK by Barnes & Mullins, in Japan by Korg and Rokkoman & in Scandinavia by Luthman Scandinavia. Non-exclusive distribution/wholesaling in the USA by St. Louis Music
Homepage: http://www.g7th.com .
G7th Ltd., 58a London Road, Leicester, LE2 0QD, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0)116 255 7492. Fax: +44 (0)845 009 7492.

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The site was last compiled on Sun Nov 10 2013 at 9:15:00am