Randall William Rhoads was an American heavy metal guitarist who was a founding member of Quiet Riot and both guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums.
Zachary Phillip Wylde is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and as the founder, lead guitarist, lead singer, songwriter and producer of the heavy metal band Black Label Society. His signature bulls-eye design appears on many of his guitars and is widely recognized. He was also the lead guitarist and vocalist of Pride & Glory, who released one self-titled album in 1994 before disbanding. As a solo artist, he released the albums Book of Shadows and Book of Shadows II. Wylde joined the reunited Pantera in 2022 as a fill-in for original guitarist Dimebag Darrell.
Jake E. Lee is an American guitarist signed to Frontiers Records. He is best known for playing with Ozzy Osbourne between 1982 and 1987 and later in Badlands with Ray Gillen. He formed the band Red Dragon Cartel in 2013. Their eponymous first album was released in January 2014 and entered at no. 69 on Billboard's Album Charts. He has also recorded solo works under his own name—examples being the instrumental album A Fine Pink Mist (1996) and cover album Retraced (2005).
A luthier is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be used already in French for makers of most bowed and plucked stringed instruments such as members of the violin family and guitars. Luthiers, however, do not make harps or pianos; these require different skills and construction methods because their strings are secured to a frame.
Jackson is a manufacturer of electric guitars and electric bass guitars that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson. The company was acquired by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 2002, which manufactures Jackson-branded guitars in its Corona, California, US and Ensenada, Mexico facilities. Low-priced "budget" models are produced by sub-contractors in Indonesia and China.
Paul Languedoc is an American audio engineer and luthier who is most closely associated with the rock band Phish.
Charvel is a brand of electric guitars founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California and originally headquartered in Glendora, California. Since 2002, Charvel has been under the ownership of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
Christopher John Holmes is an American heavy metal guitarist and songwriter. Holmes started his musical career in the Pasadena, California area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is best known as the lead guitarist of heavy metal band W.A.S.P. Together with Blackie Lawless and Randy Piper he was one of the founding members of the band. Holmes was a member of W.A.S.P. first from 1983 to 1990, and again from 1996 to 2001.
Chris Impellitteri is the American lead guitarist and founder of the heavy metal band Impellitteri. Impellitteri is heralded as one of the greatest guitar shredders. He has won Best Rock Guitarist awards on several magazines during the years for his guitar soloing.
Kramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation.
Lado Musical Inc. is a Canadian guitar manufacturing company owned and operated by Joe Kovacic. The company is based in Lindsay, Ontario and produces electric guitars and basses. Vintage-custom, hand made Lado guitars remain some of the most sought after guitars in the world to date.
The Jackson Rhoads is a model of electric guitar, originally commissioned by guitarist Randy Rhoads and produced by Jackson Guitars.
The star is a body shape of solid body electric guitar, particularly favoured for heavy metal music. It blends some features of the Flying V and Gibson Explorer, both of them much older designs.
Grover Jackson is an American luthier best known for designing and making various guitar models at Jackson Guitars, such as Jackson Rhoads and Jackson Soloist during the 1980s.
Maestro Guitars is a guitar manufacturing company based in Singapore. It is best known for creating custom-made acoustic guitars and ukuleles. The founder is Ho Zen Yong, a former Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate. Their instruments are used by professional Italian musician Franco Morone and were also used by guitarist Paul Ponnudorai.
Abraham Wechter is an American luthier who has been making custom guitars since the 1970s. He is known for building 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars and acoustic bass guitars. He was a student of luthier Richard Schneider, and for ten years he worked for the guitar company Gibson. After leaving Gibson, he started Wechter Guitars in Paw Paw, Michigan. In 2008 he moved his shop to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Mike Lipe was a master guitar luthier, known for his custom built electric guitar company, Lipe Guitars U.S.A. He worked for over 35 years as a luthier, and has built guitars for many notable players including Brian May, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Michael Angelo Batio, and Carlos Santana. He ran a boutique guitar company called Lipe Guitars U.S.A. in Los Angeles, California.
The Guitar and Lute Workshop (GLW) was a manufacturer of custom guitars, ukuleles, and period stringed instruments based in Honolulu, Hawaii between 1970 and 1976. The workshop was known primarily for the talented luthiers employed in either construction of guitars, or the musicians that taught at the workshop or that used guitars made at the workshop. Additionally, an independent piano restoration and tuning business operated above the workshop floor and studios for at least two years. The GLW was notable as a nexus of activity supporting native Hawaiian musical cultural discovery during the Second Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, with key Hawaiian musicians such as Keola Beamer and Kapono Beamer gaining starts in their careers at the GLW, as well as musical instrument restoration for instruments of Hawaiian royalty, now curated by ʻIolani Palace. Additionally, the GLW's focus on traditional period stringed instruments was, in part, responsible for the resurgent interest in the viol and traditional luthierie methods within the western United States in the early 1970s.
Gjika Amplification was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1980s, by Robert (Bob) Gjika. Gjika amplifiers are original designs, and are completely hand-wired.
Mike Eldred is an American guitarist and luthier. Eldred originally came to national attention while backing Lee Rocker in the mid-1990s. He also served as director of the Fender Custom Shop. He has put out four albums as leader of the Mike Eldred Trio.
