![]() ![]() ![]() Gibson, Martin, and Fender sold only through franchised dealers, while Harmony, Kay, and Danelectro were “open” lines, meaning anyone could sell them. ![]() In the 1950s and ’60s the ever-growing guitar market meant United had enough business to support this plan. Compared to larger firms, United lost some economy of scale, but ran a more-economical operation, concentrating on production with no sales department and the accompanying marketing and distribution headaches. Kay and Harmony did it, but they also mass-marketed their own products, sometimes competing with themselves. In retrospect, it seems a limited strategy, building only for re-sellers, though it’s common in other industries. In ’52, it made one brief attempt to compete in the market, but quickly retreated to its original business plan. Operating from 1939 into the late ’60s/early ’70s, United was a wholesale firm that built instruments exclusively for others to sell. In the history of guitars, the tale of United Guitar Corporation is a ghost story – little documented and lost in partially self-imposed obscurity. Premier’s 1960 catalog spotlights the Bantam Deluxe. A typical Orpheum electric archtop (left) and the glittering face of a 1960 Bantam Deluxe, with Gibson bridge.
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