Go-Grem

made

updated 8/2/2012

Godin

1987 to present

In the early 1980s Robert Godin and friends set up shop to build replacement guitar necks and bodies  for the electric market. This led to guitars and the large company now making guitars in New Hampshire, USA and Quebec, Canada. 

Dating Godin Guitars by serial number

Try this first  http://www.guitardating.com/godin.php

" Here's how you can decode our serial numbers :
first 2 digits : production year, 3rd and 4th digits : production week, 5th digit : production day (1=monday, 2=tuesday, etc...), last 3 digits : weekly production rank. Our production year begins on August 1st.
As an example, a guitar with serial number 06053168 was built in september 2005, on a wednesday, and it was the 168th guitar built during that production week.
If your guitar's serial number has 7 digits, the guitar was built in the 90's and only the 1st digit indicates the production year.
If your guitar's serial number has less than 7 digits, you'll have to email me it's serial number so I can look it up in our serial number lists.
On post 1993 guitars, the serial number is engraved behind the headstock.
On pre 1993 guitars, the serial number is stamped on the sound hole label.

The same system goes for Godin, Seagull, Norman, Simon&Patrick, Art&Lutherie and LaPatrie guitars. [source: Michel, Godin, email 23 Jan 2007]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godin_%28Guitar_Manufacturer%29

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Acoustic+Guitar/brand/Godin

Images of 1990s Godin TC Artisan from eBay 2009.

Teen Goh

Teen Goh is a luthier in Sydney, Australia.

Images 2004 Teen Goh guitar eBay:

Golden Hawaiian

1920s-1930s

Lap steel guitars ? Chicago makers [ Source: Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide ]

Goldon

German archtops around WWII. Following the war production continued in East Germany but by end of 1940s making musical toys only. [Source: Vintage Guitar Price Guide ] 

http://www.musikkeller.com/d/goldon.html

The name is still around with a 1/8 size acoustic guitar available on-line (headstock at left)

Roberto Gomes

Roberto Gomes, from Brazil

Image Salon de Guitare B

Gonzales

Image Gonzales SG guitar with built in effects, Made in Japan 1971-72 from eBay:

Casa Gonzalez

Enrique Romans Papell, son-in-law of Francisco Gonzalez, was a guitar maker active in Madrid from the late 19th century. He managed the Casa González. Enrique Romans Papell built some guitars under his mother-in-laws name as, Vda. e Hijos de Francisco González, and some under the name of his brother-in-law's name, Francisco González, Hijo.  Between 1896-1901 he used the label "Hijos de Gonzales" before adopting the label Casa González till the 1940s. [Source: Zavaletas ]

Image of Label from circa 1935 eBay. 1950 Casa Gonzalez courtesy of Trilogy Guitars:

Goodall

1972 to present

James Goodall  started making guitars in the 1970s in California.  In 1981 he set up a workshop in Mendocino, California where he made about 40 guitars a year.  In 1992, he moved to his current location in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, where he and thirteen employees ship ten instruments per week.

Dating Goodall guitars

http://www.ducksdeluxe.com/goodall.html

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Goodall

Images courtesy Stirling Guitars: eBay

Goodfellow

1980s-

Bernie Goodfellow, bass guitars since1980s  Now makes under the GB Guitars brand.  GB Guitars is an independent guitar maker located in Brighton, UK run by luthier Bernie Goodfellow. In an age of CNC routers and offshore manufacturing, we pride ourselves in manufacturing guitars in the traditional style - completely by hand, in the UK.

Goodfellow History

Bernie Goodfellow was one of the first electric bass luthiers in the UK, building basses in his shed at the bottom of his garden.

He partnered Mike Freston (Managing Director) and Phil Harris (of Star Guitars) to form what would would become Goodfellow.

Following a run of protoypes (10~15 basses), the first Goodfellow basses (with serial numbers) were marketed.

The Classic is a Goodfellow that has pretty facings, usually quilted maple, elm burr, poplar burr which were all bookmatched to give the bass it's attractive front.

The Player was a series of Goodfellows that had unusual vaneers and finishes.

The necks of both guitars are 5 core laminated necks, bolted on to the body.

Goodfellow was taken over by Lowden around 1987. Bernie was employed for 18 months to 2 years but was out by 1989.

There are numerous tell tale signs however that give a clue to whether a Goodfellow is pre Lowden or not.

The obvious one is a low serial number. The lower the number, the greater the chance of a bass being pre Lowden. It's estimated that Bernie made approximately 150 under the original Goodfellow company in Wandswood and Depford before production was overseen by Lowden.

Looking at the headstock, the original logos were the big G logo with the Handcrafted England footer. When the production moved to Lowden, this footer was removed - however, due to the stock of parts that came as part of the Lowden deal, there is a chance that a Handcrafted England neck made it onto a Lowden era bass.

Circuitwise, the preamp was only found in Goodfellow basses. The original circuits were all handmade, as they are with today's GBs.

Finally, the pickups. The pickups are quite famous for having a thumbrest indent on the top surface and having a wooden grainy appearance.

Of course, the mix of parts depending upon availability can mask a Lowden bass but a Bernie built Goodfellow will have all the components present. Its estimated that 100-150 Lowden Goodfellow basses were built before Bernie left Lowden. As the process became more automated, Bernie's role there was removed and Bernie was left without work.

"Kit" Goodfellows exist. Parts were "leaked out" and assembled outside of the Goodfellow production line.

After Lowden, Bernie set up Nightingale guitars with Neil McDonald and with a familiar Bernie designed shape, started producing basses. These basses notable included an early incarnation of the Bernie designed GB style circuit (comprehensive circuit board (for the time at least!) with PCB mounted pots) that would evolve into what we see in the GB guitars of today.

After Nightingale, came GB Guitars.

A move from his Croydon GB workshop to Brighton followed. [Source:  Basschat UK]

Goodman

1975 to present

Brad Goodman, Brewster, New York, USA. Archtops, flat tops, electric guitars and mandolins.

Gordon Smith Guitars

1974 to present

"GS Guitars started up in 1974. The guitars are consecutively numbered, so the only way to age a guitar is to contact us to look at our records." [Source: Dave Mc., GS Guitars, email 27/3/2008]

1990-

Trevor Gore makes fine steel and classical guitars with compensated nuts and bridges in Cottage Point, New South Wales, Australia.

" I've been repairing/building guitars since 1990. I now only rarely do repairs. I make them in Cottage Point, NSW Australia

The date of manufacture is coded in the serial number. I do not reveal the code." [Source: Trevor Gore, email 27/7/2010]

Gosden

current at 2011

Gosden Guitars specialise in acoustic and electric lap steel musical instruments. All instruments are truly hand crafted by one man from start to finish.  United Kingdom

Gould

1978 to ? 2003

From the internet archive: Gould Guitars was established in 1978 by Andrew Clement in the town of Gould, Quebec, Canada. Acoustics and electrics.  Gould also produced a patented floating tremelo system the "Clemtrem". Their web site disappeared in 2003.

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Gould+Guitars

Gould

present

Cheap electrics UK, brand of Barnes and Mullins

Goulding

2007 to present

Goulding guitars are machined from 2 solid billets of aluminium in the United Kingdom.

"Although I sold my first guitar in about 1995,Goulding guitars came about in 2007. They are made in my workshop in Southend-on-Sea,Essex,UK.

Dating Goulding guitars

Each guitar has a serial number engraved on the back and I keep a log of details of the guitar [Source: Anthony Goulding, email 12/10/2009]

http://www.myspace.com/gouldingguitars

Gower

1955-

According to Jay W Gower's nephew Charles R Moore at Guitarsite in 2003"  JW Gower and his two sisters (including  Alma Moore) started Gower Guitar in 1955. When they started they built acoustic and also electric guitars. They went on to mass produce acoustics." and Gower Guitars was purchased by country player Billy Grammer in the middle 1960's . They were made of a variety of woods inc. brazilian, maple and mahogany, and a few more exotic woods if i remember correctly...some very unusual sunburst and wood figure.....[Source: Acoustic Guitar Forum 2004]

Snippet from Guitar-Closet "I own an acoustic guitar manufactured by the Nashville Musical Instrument Co. Inc., 1307 Division St., Nashville Tennessee. On the head of the guitar it says "Gower Guitar established 1955". It bears a serial number of 1050 and it is a model G-65."

http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/guitar/

http://leonrhodes.com/leonrhodes.html

Images eBay

Goya Guitars

1954 - 1996

"Goya" brand guitars started in 1954 by the Hershman Musical Instrument Company of New York (Goya Guitars Inc.). Distribution went to Kustom Electronics Inc. in 1970 and then to Dude Inc. (both of Chanute, Kansas) in late 1972. Most of the acoustic guitars during this period were handmade in Sweden by the Levin company.  The Goya brand went to Martin Guitars in 1974, the year they acquired Levin, and lasted until 1996. These Goya guitars were made in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. [Source: Goyaguitars ]

Levin/Goya information pages Sweden

Goya guitar serial numbers

http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/goya_serial_no.htm

http://vintageguitarpro.com/goya.shtml

Goya guitar catalogs 1957-1980s http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/goya_catalogs.htm

http://www.hagstrom.org.uk/images/mkt/hag%20speedomatic.jpg

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Goya

see Hagstrom

Images eBay

Graal

2003 to present

I started to repair and construct guitar 20 years ago, but starting since 2003 the work became I started my brand, Graal Guitars (www.graalguitars.com), and this year I started a new brand, that is G Coils (www.gcoils.com), related to pickups and electronics for acoustic and electric guitars and basses.

The date of manufacturing is on a label inside the guitar quoting the year of the construction and the serial number." [Source: Valentino Lamorte, email 3/8/2008 ]

Alessandria, Italy

Gracia Guitars

1925 to present

Guitar maker from 1925. Aristides Gracia was the only luthier in charge of ANTIGUA CASA NUÑEZ SA until 1992 when it was sold.
[Source: Guitarsite]

Aristides Gracia, Buenos Aries, Republic of Argentina.

Currently makes electric and acoustic guitars.

Image eBay:

1973 to present

Because of this system I don't have a complete, continuous count of my instruments , I estimate it be about 380 guitars. [Source: Oskar Graf, email 20/3/2008]

Grammer

 1965-1972

In 1964 Billy Grammer (d 2011) a well know musician and Clyde Reid, music shop proprietor from Donelson, Tennessee, sought to build a medium priced quality guitar.  They sought the assistance of local luthier JW Gower. The RG&G factory was set up at 715 Poplar Avenue in Nashville. The first Grammer prototype was built in March of 1965 and the first guitars were shown to the public in 1966.  In 1968 Ampeg purchases the company and factory. Soon after the factory was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt and manufacture continued till 1972 when financial difficulties ended the business.   [Source: Grammerguitar.com ] 

In memoriam

The best resource for Grammer guitars

http://grammerguitar.com/index.html

Then Grammer guitar examples

http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/guitar/

http://webpages.charter.net/manomusic/grammer.html

Images National Music Museum

Granada guitars

1970s-1980s

Japanese acoustic, electric and basses from 1970s and 1980s [Source: Vintage Guitar Price Guide]

According to MusicGear Review two reviewers bought Granada Brand Les Paul copies in 1977 from the United Conservatory of Music (Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) It was their house brand.

From Guitarsite a wine red hollow body Granada electric guitar had "a paper in the case says 1978"

Granada guitars were made by Matsumoku [Source: zontartfc, email 29/6/2009]

Images courtesy of Larryshideaway:

Granados

Granados guitars made by Francisco Esteve, Spain

Image Granados label ebay:

see Esteve

Granata Guitars

1989 to present

Peter Granata, Oak Ridge, New Jersey, USA

Grand

Grand or Grand-Suzuki Guitars by Kiso Suzuki Violin Co. Early 1970s - copies of American classic acoustic guitars (Martin, Gibson)

There are also Grand brand guitars reported made in Korea in 1990s.

Images Yahoo auctions:

Grande

1975-1978

Jerry O’Hagan imported Japanese Yamaki guitars under the brand Grande in 1975 till about 1978.  [Source: Vintage Guitar ]

see O’Hagan

Grassi Custom

Vintage Grassi Custom Solid Body Electric Guitar.  By Alex Di Grassi.

Images eBay:

Gravity

Gravity is a brand of Rondo Music.

Thanks to Ben van Dyk, Canada for passing this brand on.

1969 to present

Maker of ukeleles and guitars.  Ukeleles currently made in Santa Cruz, California USA.

Grazioso

1950s but reborn

Brand name used by Selmer in UK.  Made in Czechoslovakia, replaced by Futurama brand

http://www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/gear/index.php?m=jimmy-early-days

see Resonet, Jolana

GRB

GRB Guitars is a high-end custom designer of meticulously crafted guitars located in Madison Wisconsin

GRD Guitars

1978-1982

see Charles Fox

Great Divide

Greco (NY not Japan)

The original Greco brand named guitars were owned by the Hershman Musical Instrument Company of New York (Goya Guitars Inc) in the mid to late 1960s. [Source: Goyaguitars ]

This author believes this is a different brand to the later Japan Greco.

Greco catalogs

http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/greco_catalogs.htm

Greco

1973-75 head (eBay)

1960 Japan to ?

Kanda Shokai was established as a distributor and trading company for musical instruments in 1948. The GRECO brand was first introduced by Kanda Shokai in 1960. In the beginning, GRECO manufactured guitars of their own design. [Source:  music trade ]

Greco guitar history and resources

http://www.guitarsjapan.com/grecoinfopage.html

http://www.orangeguitar.com/aboutgreco.htm

http://homepage3.nifty.com/greco/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco_guitars

Dating Greco Guitars

http://www.cosmikdebris.co.uk/grecoinfo.htm

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Greco-guitars

From Harmony-Central forum the following deduction made:
Greco code J830405 translates to October 1983, production number 405

More

Greco resource site Japanese http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~shake/greco/greco.html

http://www.cosmikdebris.co.uk/grecoinfo.htm

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/Page%201%20history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco_guitars

http://ushigomepan.cool.ne.jp/photo/guitar.html

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/teisco/ refer to the Category Box LHS

Greco guitar catalogs

http://psyco.jp/greco/siryo.html

1968-1983 Greco catalogs (hard to read) http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~shake/greco/catalogue/catalogue.html

1968  http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/catalog68_1.htm

1973 Greco and Canda acoustic catalog http://www.t-shiga.com/sub7-5-1.htm

1979, 1980, 1981 http://brochures.yokochou.com/index.html

1996 Greco Mirage catalog http://vintageibanez.tripod.com/greco.html

http://guitar.webinjp.com/70guitar_catalog/6070.htm

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Greco

Greco Forum http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/

Aaron Green

1990 to present

Classical and Flamenco guitars by luthier Aaron Green, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

Images courtesy of Guitar Salon International:

Ged Green

1999

Ged Green Custom Guitar Builder, Manchester, United Kingdom. 10-15 instruments per year.

Jeffrey Greene

2000-2002

Jeffrey Greene made guitars in West Kingston, Rhode Island from 200o to 2002.  He then formed Greene & Campbell Guitars, which he left in 2005.

see Greene and Campbell

Greenfield Hawaiian Guitars

http://www.notecannons.com/greenfieldguitars/index.html

Greenfield Guitars

Michael Greenfield, Canada

Reviews http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Greenfield+Guitars

Green Man Humming

Web site was greenmanhumming.com and some pages are at the internet archive for 2002-2006.  Following info is from there.

GMH Lutherie is a joint venture between Mark Fitzsimons (formerly New Zealand), and Oregon luthier GD Armstrong. We are making a line of solid body electric zouk/citterns, based on the instruments we had each built of this sort prior to our current collaboration.  Based out of GD's workshop near Yamhill OR.

Catalog of instruments with a few GMH instrument photos

Green Mountain Guitars

Glen DeRusha, Vermont USA

Forum http://www.luthierforum.com/

Greene and Campbell Guitars

2002-2005

From the internet archive:

Greene & Campbell Guitars was founded by Jeffrey Greene and Dean Campbell in Blackstone Valley New England , USA. Affordable, high quality, American-made guitars.

2003 Greene and Campbell specifications and prices

2003 Precix spec sheet

see Campbell American Guitars

Greg Bennett

see B for Bennett

Christophe Grellier

2000 to present

I started manufacturing in October 2000, in Chemere ( 44680 ), France. The date of manufacture of my guitars is written on a paper label that can be seen through the soundhole." [Source: Christophe Grellier, email 11/7/2008 ]  Image courtesy Christophe Grellier:

Grem

Grem USA guitars were built in Fort Wayne Indiana USA

Grem USA myspace

Images eBay:

Gremlin

Images ebay. Thanks to Ben van Dyk, Canada for passing on this brand name.