Other Countries' Lesser Known Music Manufacturers

[BobLoblaw]

First of all, knowing that this is a U.K based forum I want to tip my hat to the British in particular who not only gave us the world's greatest rock bands, but also for allowing such visionaries as Jim Marshall and Vox amplification to succeed and give us that "sound" that defined many rock bands. Equally, kudos should be given to the good ole U.S.A for allowing such icons as Leo Fender, Les Paul, and both Gibson and Martin guitar manufacturers to do their thing as well.I mean we all know that if you take a British Marshall, and pair it with an American Les Paul and you have match made in Heaven.The list can go on for both countries as I have excluded Laney amps, and both Line 6 and Roland electronics.

Now I would like to know about about other countries.

What has spawned this thread is that when I was growing up here in Canada, and I was sporting a mullet and black levis jeans it was a thing for young axe slingers to be carting around these 50 watt amps made by "Traynor". If you had one, it wasn't a bad thing..You may of had some cheap Korean guitar, but if you were plugging it into a "Traynor" amp, you were considered "Golden"...I think Traynor amps may have been a regional thing, and I'm not not sure how well known they were outside of Canada, but they sure were popular and affordable here. Good sounding amps from what I remember.I'm glad that they are attempting a come-back with their Dark Horse amps etc...Another Blast from the past was this "Lado" guitars out of Toronto..Before he mass produced his guitars J.K Lado used to hand-make his guitars and there was an actual signature on the head-stock..I had one, and I believe Iron Maiden even endorsed them for awhile. Seeing as this forum is fairly International I'm just curious to know if anyone else ever heard of both of these Canadian manufacturers..Other manufacturers here in Canada are Godin, Larivee, and Norman guitars..as well as an electronics company on our left coast called "Radial" who makes the "Tone Bone"...

Now what about other countries manufacturers?..I'm curious to hear if there are companies like say in Australia that may make very popular instuments or electronics there, but are virtually un-heard of elsewhere.Call it "Regional" if you will.Same as Germany, France, more American/British etc.

Just curious, and this could make for good convo s'all

[ICBM]

I'll do some more British ones that were often the mainstay of working bands from the 1960s to the 80s, but you hardly hear of now and aren't even really considered 'vintage'. (Especially not the amps.) They were mostly thought of as second-rate in their day, compared to the mostly American guitars and the big four (Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt, Orange) amps used by name bands.

Burns, Hayman and Shergold guitars
Carlsbro, HH, Selmer and WEM amps

Somewhere in the middle were Sound City and Laney amps, and Colorsound pedals. You'd sometimes see pros using them, but they were still considered a bit crap usually.

By the 80s you had Gordon-Smith guitars (although I think they'd been going for longer, they really only became popular then), Maine and Ohm amps, Wal basses (super high quality, and a descendant of the Shergold/Hayman), Trace Elliot bass amps...

And whole host of others that never really became widely used, even though some of them were well-made (but some weren't) - Simms-Watts, Roost, Carlton, Sola Sound, Pro-Amp, Torque, Impact, KMD, Peterson. Probably loads more I haven't remembered!


Traynors are great, by the way. The old ones have some of the highest build quality and easiest serviceability of any amp I know of from the period, and the new ones are well-thought-out and sound good... although sadly the serviceability aspect has gone totally the other way, they're not nice to work on.

[ESBlonde]

Into Germany and you get some great guitar makers like Hofner, Framus etc. Italy had amps made by Davoli among many and the swedes had Hagstrom guitars. Octo will no doubt be able to sing the praises of some Australian makers to. Dynacord are another European amp maker.

Traynor (owned by Yorkville) are known around here as are Radial but more among the Pros rather that the masses. Yorkville PA systems represent stunning value for a quality sound in North Ameriky, but by the time they get here the costs seem to have rocketed making them less atractive to the masses, shame really.

[zenzeypher]

I had an old ]H[ amp - loved it!

[evilmags]

Maton guitars from Australia are pretty decent. Played an early 60s model a couple of weeks ago and it sounded nice.

[clarky]

I'll do some more British ones that were often the mainstay of working bands from the 1960s to the 80s, but you hardly hear of now and aren't even really considered 'vintage'. (Especially not the amps.) They were mostly thought of as second-rate in their day, compared to the mostly American guitars and the big four (Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt, Orange) amps used by name bands.

Burns, Hayman and Shergold guitars
Carlsbro, HH, Selmer and WEM amps

my first decent amp was a HH IC100 [open back, 2x12 combo]
weighed an absolute ton...
it's the only piece of kit I deeply regret selling

[ICBM]

my first decent amp was a HH IC100 [open back, 2x12 combo]
weighed an absolute ton...
it's the only piece of kit I deeply regret selling

You could get another one in perfect condition for under £200 these days.

I know it maybe wouldn't quite be the same...

[ESBlonde]

my first decent amp was a HH IC100 [open back, 2x12 combo]
weighed an absolute ton...
it's the only piece of kit I deeply regret selling

I was but a boy when they were first released, and next to a sound city or a marshall of the day they seemed positively space age. Then they released the VS range.

[Cruz]

Gladius amps
Hartung Guitars
Huber guitars

All those 3 literally jump to mind.

And i don't want to discredit the vision of people like Jim Marshall, but let's call a spade a space: his original vision was to build a fender clone, and he changed the parts only to reduce costs or because he couldn't find those parts in the UK.

[Rocker]

Nolan [Ireland] built good sounding guitar amps in the 1970s.

Marmac [also from Ireland] built robust decent sounding PA amps [back in the days when 100 watts was enough for PA].