This list has been compiled by looking through catalogs and my own actual experiences, where I have viewed the particular artist actually using the instrument. If you look through all my endorser lists you will see artists whose names appear attached to several different brands. Understand that in some cases the artist in question either actually uses both brands or maybe he likes one brand but gets paid lots of money by a different brand therefore he uses both. In the case of  BC Rich I don't think that they ever paid out much if any money to get endorsers.

Unfortunately there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there, people who would pretend that they like one brand more than another because it benefits them financially. Young minds today are so gullible that they will believe what ever they hear and see on MTV. Most of the magazines will not expose these companies because they are always afraid of losing advertising accounts.

A particular case comes to mind. In the early 90’s a certain guitarist achieved a cult like following of dedicated fans. This guitarist actually was quite innovative and he deserved the fanfare. He played a semi obscure, radically shaped, pointy style guitar that was popular back in the late 70’s. This artist and this guitar brand became linked culturally. This artist actually went so far as to permanently tattoo a picture and the brand name and headstock on his body. This brand name actually came alive again due to the revived exposure of the product.

When this obscure brand name came back to life (so to speak). They apparently failed in their negotiations with this artist to monetarily compensate him for their success. They didn’t “SHOW HIM THE MONEY”.

To make a very long story short this artist negotiated a deal with another company. A company known for lower cost imported guitars, The company proceeded to make several pseudo imitation models, and pump them out to the unsuspecting young market.

Today the artist in question has lost a lot of credibility among his more intelligent fans. The company that produces the imitations enjoyed a major success. The company that made the original guitars is back in business enjoying a modest success building some incredibly high quality but relatively unknown instruments. These types of guitars are what I generally recommend to my customers. I believe in simple old fashioned quality and value, I am not necessarily impressed by who plays the instrument.

I want to stress something here, the artist I have been talking about was not even a mainstream guitar player, rarely can he be heard on the radio. Usually “in my circles anyway” the only time his name would come up was when that particular brand of guitar was being discussed.

In my opinion...

I believe that a guitarist should use a little common sense in making a decision to buy a guitar. I believe that most guitars on the market are well constructed and play well. (even the ones made by the big corporations) I strongly suggest that guitarists should OPEN their minds to accepting the smaller companies that still hand-build they are basically the innovators of the industry.

Ed Roman