the Top 10 most successful (and current) Guitar Companies?

[kulardenu]

 

The long-since discontinued Yamaha DX7 synthesizer is still to this day the single biggest selling keyboard synth model of all time and it's the only synth model to have been produced in excess of one million units. That's a record that's been standing for about 20 years.

 

 

I have one of them!

 

I would bet world wide Yamaha beats Gibson & Fender. They have a pretty big lock on Asia & Europe.

[Radar-Love]

 

False. When FMIC bought Kaman Music, Gretsch drums came along with that.

 

 

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my original post, but, my "they" = the company that Fred Gretsch owns called Gretsch Guitars.

 

The drum making part of the old Gretsch company was sold off to Kaman, then Kaman Music was bought by Fender a few years after Fender had begun distributing Gretsch Guitars.

[faberbz]

 

I have one of them! I would bet world wide Yamaha beats Gibson & Fender. They have a pretty big lock on Asia & Europe.

 

 

Well, what is "most successful"? most guitars sold? most profits earned form guitar sales? or most profitable company that also happens to make guitars? Yamaha sells a crapload of guitars (they probably have a bigger market share in the acoustic world than electric--just my guess), but they also sell tons of wind instruments and orchestral strings, as well as pianos. (I have a Yamaha clarinet and trumpet that I use for practice, and a tenor sax that I play out with--all fine instruments.)

 

So maybe it is Yamaha. Good call.

[csm]

We still haven't established our criteria. Turnover dollar volume? Number of units shifted? Overall profits? Profit per unit?

[scott944]

Nobody here belongs to NAMM? Bet they have the answer, at least in terms of US business.