Name Guitar Builders Not Using Their Name

[scary groove]

Why do a lot of guys that made the most popular guitars in the 80s-90s now make guitars with a different company name?

Grover Jackson (Jackson) now makes GJ2 guitars
Wayne Charvel (Charvel) now makes Wayne guitars
Bernie Rico (BC Rich) now makes Bernie Rico Guitars
and there might be more

Did these guys sell their rights away? What happened? Are these "new" companies making better guitars than before?

 

[Ventura]

Why do a lot of guys that made the most popular guitars in the 80s-90s now make guitars with a different company name?

Grover Jackson (Jackson) now makes GJ2 guitars
Wayne Charvel (Charvel) now makes Wayne guitars
Bernie Rico (BC Rich) now makes Bernie Rico Guitars
and there might be more

Did these guys sell their rights away? What happened? Are these "new" companies making better guitars than before?

Lawsuits and legal claims, sadly.

 

[Racerxrated]

They sold their naming rights. Wayne Charvel sold the Charvel name to Grover Jackson, Jackson sold out to someone, etc. So Wayne Charvel can't use his last name to produce guitars nowadays, hence the Wayne Guitars. Grover Jackson can't use his first or last name to make his own guitars, so he uses GJ.

Not sure if the current offerings are as good as the originals. I've heard the Wayne guitars are nice. But the resale might not be.

 

[scottosan]

Why do a lot of guys that made the most popular guitars in the 80s-90s now make guitars with a different company name?

Grover Jackson (Jackson) now makes GJ2 guitars
Wayne Charvel (Charvel) now makes Wayne guitars
Bernie Rico (BC Rich) now makes Bernie Rico Guitars
and there might be more

Did these guys sell their rights away? What happened? Are these "new" companies making better guitars than before?

Because they sell out

 

[paulyc]

They sold their naming rights. Wayne Charvel sold the Charvel name to Grover Jackson, Jackson sold out to someone, etc. So Wayne Charvel can't use his last name to produce guitars nowadays, hence the Wayne Guitars. Grover Jackson can't use his first or last name to make his own guitars, so he uses GJ.

Not sure if the current offerings are as good as the originals. I've heard the Wayne guitars are nice. But the resale might not be.

Wayne guitars are killer, but different than Charvel, the necks are really flat and wide. Too wide for me.
GJ2 guitars are very nice, but I like Charvel better.
Chubtone is better than all of them.

 

[Deanmachine]

Bernie Rico Jr ..Black Friday debacle come to mind

 

[scary groove]

Bernie Rico Jr ..Black Friday debacle come to mind

I missed that one. Did he take the money and run?

 

[paulyc]

Yes

 

[Stealthtastic]

Most of them were craftsman first and not business people. They had no idea how to run a business at scale.

Once you start to scale up you have to focus on things like hiring/firing people, marketing, cash flow, etc... and most of these things are not things that interest the founders of these companies.