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for Trevor Wilkinson

Trevor Wilkinson
Also known as	Trev Wilkinson
Born	January 28, 1906
Occupation(s)	luthier, industrial designer, inventor
Instrument(s)	guitar

TEMPORARY ONLY — DO NOT USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING VERBATIM

MI Pro interview

By journalist Gary Cooper for UK music-industry magazine, September 2006(?):

Trevor Wilkinson is a remarkable man. Not many Brits have made a significant impact on the development of the electric guitar, but Trevor Wilkinson is one who has. …

INTERVIEWS: TREVOR WILKINSON

… Trevor Wilkinson lives and works in the wild North West. The North West of England. And how he got from here to there and back again is one of the more fascinating stories in the MI industry.

The Trevor Wilkinson brand first came to UK notice when his innovative roller nut started appearing on the more adventurous US guitars back in the 1980s. How had that come about?

'It all started when I was in Australia, where I'd emigrated. By about 1981, I'd started a couple of crash repair shops, but I'd had enough of cars and wanted to do guitars full-time. I started to build, repair and design custom instruments in Brisbane, and it was just at the time the locking trem had appeared. Floyd Rose was starting to hit and people were coming along with systems they'd imported from the USA, asking me to fit them to their Strats'.

…Trained as a graphic designer, but fascinated with guitars all his life, and with a strong engineering ability, Trevor Wilkinson could hardly have been better suited to the task he set himself.

'I could see why Floyd had clamped the strings at the nut but there had to be a better way. So I came up with the roller nut. I made prototypes, applied for the patent but couldn't do any good at all with it in Australia. Everybody kept saying, you need to go to America. So, I think it was in September '84, I bundled my myself, my wife and our four year old daughter plus three suitcases onto an aeroplane and flew to America. Looking back, it was absolutely insane - I couldn't do it today. I didn't know a single person in America. I think it was just blind belief in what I was doing.'

… On the second night in the country a chance meeting led to an introduction to Wayne Charvel.

'I didn't realise at the time that Wayne had sold out to Grover Jackson several years earlier and was working out of his garage in Redlands, but either way, I drove out the following week and immediately we hit it off. He liked the roller nut design, I ended-up moving out to Redlands and it went from there. I began contacting machine shops who could build the product, designed the packaging and started getting the product into production.'

'We found a guy who could make it, did some prototypes and then one day, one of the Ibanez reps came into the little repair shop that Wayne I had started. Ibanez at that time were represented on the East Coast by Hoshino, but by Chesbro Music on the West Coast. The rep saw the product, thought Ibanez might be interested and their sales manager of the time, Doug Goates, got involved. I made an agreement that he couldn't take it to Japan unless he took the distribution of it and off we went. It ended-up with me selling 6,000 pieces to Ibanez, which was a pretty good start - and just at the time when I was literally about to run out of money.'

So that meant Ibanez guitars appearing with Wilkinson roller nuts?

'No, because Ibanez had set their stall out in the Floyd Rose market and while they thought the product was good, they didn't think it fitted with what they were doing, so they never actually used it on their instruments.'

'I could see that was where we needed to be - with the product fitted as original equipment on a guitar. I was finding when I went to the stores was that they'd buy a product, but they wouldn't fit it on a guitar, it would sit in its little box in a display cabinet and then a guy would walk in ask what it was and how it worked. The sales guy would shrug and say ,"I don't really know". If a guy couldn't play it and it couldn't be demonstrated, it was going to be a real hard sell.

'By that point I was getting pretty frustrated. So I just picked up the phone one day and called Fender. They were putting the Strat Plus together and there were only two guys working on the project, Dan Smith and George Blanda. Dan asked me to come out to Brea and he said it was fantastic, just what he was looking for, as they didn't want to go the Floyd Rose route. They'd got Sperzel on board, they'd got Lace on board and the next problem to solve was the nut - nobody had been able to do that. But Dan said they wanted it as an exclusive.

'I couldn't give them my product exclusively, but I designed them a specific Fender Wilkinson roller nut. We shook hands and that was it. It was signed and sealed. They never bought less than 1,500 pieces a month.'

By now, the Wilkinson brand was 90 per cent OEM. Ask him which makers, and he says: 'Everybody. Really - everybody. We always believed in our product and Fender helped us prove our product was right. Once the big guys like Fender had picked up the roller nut, then other companies would come and ask what we had. I sold quite a lot of the standard Wilkinson roller nuts to people like Washburn and Jackson, but I had a product range by then with vibrato bridges and bass bridges, so I was selling those, too.

'It really got to a point where major guitar companies would sit down in a marketing meeting and three points would come up: "We need Sperzel, we need Seymour Duncan and we need Wilkinson" And really they'd design the guitars around those three products.'

At which point, Trevor Wilkinson's world should have been a pretty close approximation of heaven. His products were on guitars around the world, his company was turning over around $1.5 million, with every prospect of more on the way. And then Gibson decided to sue him.

'They came after me, accusing me of infringing a patent. We didn't infringe any patent, because we'd already mentioned their patent in our application and we'd already had the American patent numbers. But like anything with litigation, if somebody wants to come after you and they have a lot of money, they can make life very hard for you. I did what I thought was right. I fought it because I was in the right, but after about $150,000 you think: "Hang on - am I going to lose the company for what is actually probably five to ten per cent of my business? So Gibson and I came to a settlement that I wouldn't produce the convertible in America and they would go away and leave me alone. Which was the prudent way of doing it.'

'I came back to the UK to renew my business visa for a further five years and was told at the US embassy that if I wanted a business visa I would have to drop my green card application - which I didn't want to do if I was growing to grow a business there. So I decided to move back to the UK and wait for the green card.'

'That got me back to the UK with my family, in 1996/97. I tried to continue to run Wilkinson USA from here, but it couldn't work. I was banging my head against a brick wall. I had Gotoh in Japan, asking me if they could license the product, I had Cortech in Korea, asking if they could license products, so in the end that's what I did. That was the best way of keeping the Wilkinson name out there, and if the truth be told, Gotoh probably build better quality than I'd been building, so at that point it turned into a licensing business.

'Looking back, it was the right move. Leaving aside the obvious advantages, it freed me up to work as a consultant for other guitar companies.

'At that point, Korean manufacturers were still the ones you would go to if you wanted to buy a good quality lower priced instrument. Certain factories in Korea were, by then, virtually at the quality of Japanese manufacturers, but not at Japanese prices, and that was when I got the first big design commission, to do the first range of Italia guitars, for a small Korean manufacturing company, which had realised that the OEM business was going to drift to China, so what they really needed were guitar brands of their own that they could control. You've seen this with Cortech doing Cort guitars, Crafter and others.'

'I used to come over regularly from the States to trade shows and I'd always wander past the JHS stand and when I did, Dennis Drumm would show me a guitar and I'd make a comment like, "great guitar Dennis, but the knobs aren't right". He'd ask what knobs should it have then? And, sure enough, at the next show, he'd have changed them. Dennis is a really smart guy and he listens. What happened with Vintage was that he'd taken it as far down the road as he possibly could. We've got to a point now where Fender are at every price point in the market. Even if you're at the £169 price point, you've still got a Squier up against you and it takes a lot to win against that.'

'If you can't beat [Fender] on price, you have to beat them on quality or features or both - and Dennis's remit to me with Vintage was to achieve that. To make a better mousetrap.

'I've worked closely with Fender and they have their problems, too. … All the big brand names have to handicap themselves - even in pickups, like Seymour Duncan and Di Marzio. If you were Seymour Duncan, would you make a pickup as good in Korea as you could in America? We don't have that problem. I can do it with hardware, because my range with Gotoh, which I consider to be my high dollar hardware, is proprietary designed and protected, while the products that I have from Korea are re-works of the classic designs, that work better. That means we can produce at any price point the best working product, a tuner, a pickup or a vibrato - we an produce them better than other people can at that price point.'

'When you think back to the beginnings of the Japanese guitar, they had nobody to teach them how to do it. They had to teach themselves, which they did hugely successfully. But they priced themselves out of the market, at which point the major American distributors, who effectively drive the world market, went to Korea. But what the Koreans had that the Japanese hadn't, was a little bit of help getting started. They had some Japanese input and they had the major American brands actually saying: "Oh no, you build a neck like this." So the Korean learning curve was shorter. The Chinese have been incredibly lucky, because everybody has poured every resource into the, including the Koreans, who had learned from the American distributors.

'Chinese guitars have come up incredibly fast and some are fantastic, but are we going to see labour rates stay the same in China? How can we expect a country to build consumer goods like flat screen TVs and cars, which they can't afford to buy for themselves? That's what happened in Japan and Korea. There's a lot of people in this industry telling me that this is going to take a long while to happen, but I don't believe it.

'As for brands, to develop a brand takes more than just the product. You've got to be in the market with incredibly expensive promotional tools, which makes it very difficult to do and which is why very few Korean manufacturers have built their own brands.'

'I believe that because so many people have come into the industry buying cheap guitars, that we're about to see a mid-price boom. It's already started in the States and it will happen here. Now isn't the time to be concentrating on £150 guitars, because that is what these players already have and now they will shift up-market. Most of your readers will read this and say "he's full of shit", but time will either prove me right or wrong.'

zZounds interview

Mason, "Walking the Floor" blog (zZounds.com), 02/03/2016, "Fret-King's Trev Wilkinson":

…Wilkinson has left his mark on the guitar industry as a prolific and innovative designer of hardware. He expanded into producing his own guitars in the mid-1990s, and since then has been getting major buzz for his unique offerings in Fret-King, and for redefining the price-to-performance ratio with Vintage, his line of guitars inspired by the classics.

…the player is always at the forefront in Wilkinson’s mind. …

After graduating college, Wilkinson entered the automotive business, where he worked on all manner of cars … during the early ’80s. … “I was rebuilding a Toyota rear wheel bearing when I noticed the needle rollers and I thought, ‘if I could put that in a nut, it could allow the strings to go backwards and forwards — and that tinkering is what led to the Roller Nut,” Wilkinson explained.

Wilkinson designed and crafted a prototype…. He secured a patent for his design, and in 1984 he moved from Australia to California to market his creation in the U.S. A chance meeting with Fender gave a warm reception to his Roller Nut. Fender was just wrapping up production of prototypes of their Strat Plus, a modernized version of the Stratocaster that included features like Sperzel tuners, Lace Sensor pickups, and a new vibrato system. The Roller Nut was, as Wilkinson put it, “the last piece of the puzzle.”

The Roller Nut-equipped Strat Plus was released in 1987. It was a huge win for Wilkinson and his hardware, but his eyes were set on high-profile players.

“There were three guitar players I had in my sights: Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan,” Wilkinson said.

It's well-known that Beck has been a big fan of the Roller Nut. His initial run of Fender signature models starting in 1990 featured the nut, but the second incarnation of Jeff Beck Stratocasters switched to an LSR Roller Nut in 2001. Still, Beck is often spotted onstage using a Strat with a Wilkinson Roller Nut as his main guitar. Check one for Trev.

Before his untimely death in 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan had shown interest in the Roller Nut after seeing it on Beck’s guitar. According to Wilkinson, however, Fender executives were reluctant to put any new hardware on Vaughan’s signature Stratocaster that fans hadn’t seen him play before, and so the guitar was released in 1992 with a more traditional bone nut.

“I built two gold Roller Nuts for Stevie’s prototypes and he said ‘that’s the way I want it to go’ and then a couple of day’s later the poor guy’s gone,” Wilkinson said.

Another one of Wilkinson’s guitar idols, Eric Johnson, was intrigued by the Roller nut, but was hesitant to adopt the it on his guitar.

“I couldn’t get Eric Johnson: he played my guitar for like 40 minutes at a gig in West Hollywood and he couldn’t believe that he couldn’t get this ’57 Strat out of tune,” Wilkinson said. “But he wouldn’t go with it because he didn’t want to do anything to his guitar.”

In the years to come, Wilkinson would become a known name among guitarists for all manner of parts and components: from tuners to pickups and vibrato systems. … Other manufacturers adopted Wilkinson parts for their guitars and many players upgraded their own guitars with Wilkinson hardware.

Even in the early days, Wilkinson would explore beyond guitars. In the mid-1990s, he and neighbor Don Morris (who worked with Yamaha at the time) collaborated on Electroplex amps with the goal of achieving a high-headroom amp that could achieve lush overdrive at any volume and complement both single-coil pickups and humbuckers. Though Wilkinson left the company in 1995 upon moving back to the UK, Electroplex has carried on and the boutique amps have earned impressive reviews in the likes of Premier Guitar.

…

Wilkinson started Fret-King in the mid 1990s while still residing in the US, bringing five prototypes to NAMM in 1995 and secured orders from dealers. Unfortunately, initial sales didn’t live up to what Wilkinson hoped for, as dealers were reporting light interest from shoppers. Establishing Fret-King as a new brand would prove challenging, but there were some breakthroughs in those early days as well.

Wilkinson recalled one such moment in 1999, when guitarist Page Hamilton walked into a New York guitar shop which carried Fret-King and walked out with an Esprit 5. Hamilton was on tour in David Bowie’s band on his “The Hours…” tour, and the Esprit was played on British television.

…

“I can play guitar. I’m not a great player, but I do know what it’s like to go on stage and perform. And everything I do, I try and do it for the guitar player,” Wilkinson said. “When you’re on stage, you need to be able to concentrate on what you do and you don’t need to worry about whether your guitar is going to work or whether somebody’s put the volume control in the right place.”

Wilkinson is so willing to tinker — with pickups, hardware, tonewoods and construction — because he recognizes that each guitar serves its own purpose and is suited to a certain kind of player.

“You will never hear me say something sounds better than something else; I believe everything is subjective,” Wilkinson said. “I think if you can make something sound the way people expect it to sound, that’s what you should be doing.”

…

“Whenever I voice pedals or an amplifier, I always use a single-coil pickup,” Wilkinson said. “If you voice them with a humbucker, then most pedals are going to sound good. If you voice them with a single coil then that tells you whether the pedal’s working or not.”

…

Wilkinson’s work with Fender didn’t end with the Strat Plus. Shortly after moving to California, he met Leo Fender, who at the time was designing guitars for G&L, a company he founded along with George Fullerton in the mid 1970s. Wilkinson’s factory was a short drive from G&L’s, and the two met after Wilkinson showed Fender his Roller Nut. Fender, who was introducing several innovations to his guitars at G&L, was impressed, but no deal over the nut was reached.

“And at another meeting with him, he said I really like this, but what he really wanted was his name on the patent because he loved collecting patents,” Wilkinson said. “And I’m probably one of the only guys who’s said ‘no’ to Leo Fender.”

The two would still become friends, with Fender taking on a sort of mentor role with Wilkinson.

“We did all sorts of stuff together, and suffice to say I could visit Leo anytime that I wanted,” Wilkinson said. “You know he had Parkinson’s Disease so he didn’t tolerate fools. If he was tired, he would just say ‘go away, I’m tired.’ And then the next day he’d talk to you for hours.”

…

“He always used to say to me, ‘why do people want to play my old guitars Trev? They’re piles of junk.’ And I’d say, with all due respect, maybe a couple of them weren’t that great, but you got them so right and people have gotten so used to it, that you’re not going to shake that off,” Wilkinson said. “Because G&Ls to him were like, ‘these are the ultimate guitars, these are so much better than my Stratocaster.'

As a builder, the real value in knowing Fender, Wilkinson says, was understanding the thinking behind some of his most groundbreaking decisions. For example, he learned that Fender designed his headstocks with straight string pull because it helped with tuning stability. …

Not all of Fender’s decisions were intentional, however: Wilkinson explained that the reason Fender made his guitar bodies 1 3/4″ was because the wood available at the lumberyard was 2″ thick and after planing it down, it was 1 3/4″ thick.

“He wanted to make the easiest guitar to make but the toughest guitar, so you could fight your way out of the bar and go back and play the next night with it," Wilkinson said. "And that’s what motivated him.”

Wilkinson was with Fender on the afternoon of the night he passed away. …

“He was a great mentor and I was privileged to know him,” Wilkinson said.

Premier Guitar interview

Lindsay Tucker, Premier Guitar, Nov 16 2011 "Builder Profile: Trev Wilkinson":

(Throughout his long career, Trev Wilkinson has always made a point to remember the beginner, and he considers every skill level when making such product decisions as adding features and pricing instruments. Recently, Wilkinson combined forces with one of Britain’s premier independent distributors, John Hornby Skewes & Co., to oversee their affordable Vintage guitars and add his own, more upscale Fret-King brand to JHS’s catalog. The idea behind Vintage is to offer accessibly priced, vintagelooking guitars with great finishes, quality parts, and features that are typically found on guitars costing upward of a thousand dollars. These instruments include Wilkinson-designed hardware, a bubinga neck extension that runs into the body to add rigidity and enhance acoustic resonance, and a Roll Control knob that allows variable coil splitting.

(“I think the unfortunate truth of our industry is that an awful lot of things have been taken out [of affordable guitars] in order to achieve a price point,” Wilkinson says, “but the reality is if you go in at the beginning wanting to achieve all those things, the price point isn’t actually that different. So you say, ‘Why don’t we do it then?’ And I think that’s really behind an awful lot of the success of Vintage guitars.”

(When it comes to Fret-King, Wilkinson keeps his designs classic without being forced into “nostalgia corner” as he describes it—the phenomena of guitar players snubbing useful innovations in exchange for blind loyalty to Fender and Gibson designs. According to Wilkinson, Leo Fender himself was a victim of this phenomenon. “In conversations I had with Leo,” Wilkinson says, “he could never understand why people held his early guitars in such reverence, when in his mind the [G&L] guitars he built before he died were far superior to his previous guitars. He couldn’t understand that he’d already created that nostalgia.”

(It’s too soon to tell, but Wilkinson might be fostering some nostalgia for his own pioneering technological advances in the music industry. He’s been described as “Britain’s one-man think tank.” And at 62, he’s certainly not throwing in the towel anytime soon— asserting that there’s always more work to be done when it comes to improving guitar playability.)

[When joining JHS/Vintage,] I took about 57 models and kind of went through each one, spec’ing it and putting what I considered to be the right pickup with the right guitar, and choosing the right vibratos, tailpieces, and tuners. I went through all the body shapes and all the body designs. Some obviously are paying homage to past classic designs and some are unique to Vintage guitars.

…

There came a point in our industry where prices came down so low it was actually impossible to make a reasonable guitar cheaper than what the big brands were doing. So the sensible distributors—the people who were in control of their own destinies—looked at the situation and said, “Well, we’ve got to change. We can no longer compete on price, so we have to compete on quality and features.” And I think that was the key for the Vintage brand. We concentrated on the quality of the product and the features. It’s part of a long-term plan and probably the most important way that we went from a “me too” guitar to a brand that people ask for by name because they know it’s a quality product.

…the major problem with all vibrato-equipped guitars is keeping them in tune, hence the original invention of the Floyd Rose system. My systems have always been the alternative to a Floyd Rose. I’ve never asked a guitar player to clamp anything, and I’ve never asked a player to use a wrench to change strings. But I’ve always endeavored to keep him as perfectly in tune during his performance onstage as he possibly can without all the other paraphernalia around it, and I think that is key to the success of the guitar. This applies to a semi-pro or a professional player and even the beginner. We shouldn’t leave the novice out of the equation because why should beginners have to play something sub-standard? We try to give all players equal footing to be able to play onstage in front of any audience, no matter what level.

I think our industry is steeped in nostalgia—it has never really moved forward. There have been some fantastic innovations in the guitar industry, but very, very few of them have actually been successful because they always seem to just go one step too far. I think guitar players are very conservative, even though they might be outlandish in the way they look and dress. Their choice of instruments can be incredibly conservative. There’s so much nostalgia out there that if the companies that tend to be associated with major players try to innovate or make things different or better, people say, “Well, that’s not a real such-and-such guitar now because you’ve changed the bridge, you’ve changed the tuners, and you’ve changed the pickups.”

As far as custom options go, I’m a little bit wary, because I don’t believe we can always give our customer the sound he’s got in his head. He comes to a custom builder and says, “Well, I’d like a double-cut bolt-on with a swampash body, and a maple neck with an ebony fingerboard, and I want it to have this style of pickup in the bridge, and I want it to have this style of pickup in the middle, and I want this vibrato bridge or this fixed bridge.” When that guitar goes together, I don’t believe it can possibly deliver the sound that’s in the player’s head. Instead, I prefer that the player looks at our guitars, plays our guitars, and then chooses something that suits what he wants to do.

I think custom building a guitar is guesswork. You can make a very pretty guitar, but you’ll notice on our website there aren’t too many guitars in there with fancy tops, or what I refer to as furniture guitars. I think guitars should be chosen for playability and sound. I don’t think they should be chosen because they have an outrageous flame-maple top. That is not a reason to buy a guitar for me. That’s a reason to buy something that you have on the wall to look at. I don’t believe guitars should be hung on the wall and looked at. I believe they should go out and earn their living.

…it started with the Roller Nut. That started me on the path. I was looking for a purpose. I’ve played in bands, I know what it’s like to play onstage, and I know what its like to go onstage with a guitar you don’t trust. It’s a panic. So when I developed the Roller Nut, I could then actually take a guitar with a vibrato system and know that when I used that system—if I went to a lead break, or if I decided to do an arpeggio—all six strings would be in tune. That’s a huge relief when you’re onstage performing, no matter how big or small the club is.

I’ve always worked with players. I’ve never looked at the commerciality of our industry, probably to my detriment. I’ll say to a player, “This is a design. Does it work for you?” And I’m talking about serious players—I’m not talking about a local guy down at the pub. I like to use their ears, and I like them to confirm my theories. When I invented the VS100 Vibrato System, I knew it worked, or I felt it worked, but it wasn’t until a lot of guitar players of some stature would actually turn around and say, “You know what, Trev, this is a great vibrato bridge. It works, it stays in tune, and I’ll use it.” Like Scott Henderson, he was really, really helpful to me at the time, and he’s a superb guitar player and an absolute tone monster. So that gives you confidence. You feel you’re doing something right when you get people— top players—actually say, “This works and I can use it onstage.”

NAMM interview

descriptive note for video "Trevor Wilkinson," part of NAMM Oral History project:

Trev Wilkinson began painting cars as a teenager and soon there after painted his own guitar, which started him on the road to guitar restoration and building. His long and fascinating interest in guitar design has resulted in many musical product innovations including the Wilkinson Brass Roller Bridge. As reported by Gary Cooper in MI Pro Magazine, Trev “probably understands more about branding and the international manufacturing and marketing of guitars than anyone else in the UK.” This is but one reason why his Oral History interview was so important to our growing collection.
Interview Date: January 16, 2011
Job Title: Founder
Company: TWDA (Trevor Wilkinson Design Associates)

Entwistle memories

from Entwistle Custom Pickups site, "Alan Entwistle In His Own Words" (dated 2015):

In 1980 I moved to Brisbane Australia, and set up a guitar workshop underneath the house I rented. I did guitar repairs and customising at night and worked at a place called Toombul Music Centre during the day. One day a young Trevor Wilkinson walked through Toombul Music's door. Trevor was working over the road spraying and panel beating cars, but his real love of course was guitars and he showed me this strange Aluminium sand cast body and neck, which had exchangeable wooden wings. It could be a flying V, an Explorer or a Les Paul Jnr. He also had a Perspex Tele that he had made whilst he was at Southport Art (College).

Trev and I approached the Owner of Toombul Music with the idea of him investing in the Ally project. Barry was an incredibly successful business man and someone that I count as friend. But unfortunately Barry had the imagination of a hard nose business guy (which basically meant no imagination at all!) and so Trev got no further with that one.

In time I left Toombul and, with a partner, opened a shop of my own. It was in the Red Hill district of Brisbane and we aptly named it the "Guitar Garage". In fact it was Trev who painted our massive shop sign and he did "Guitar Garage" in a kind of Gibson script. It was wonderful to behold but, as we all stood outside admiring the finished product, a mutual friend of our's, Paul, said "shouldn't Guitar be spelled Guitar not "Giuter"! (which he pronounced as Gihooter Garage).

At the Guitar Garage we built a lot of custom guitars, did repairs, customising, rewinding pickups, making custom pickups, as well as selling guitars of course. Trevor did our finishing and refinishing. In fact he actually hand made his first (Wilkinson) tremolos in Brisbane after which of course he eventually headed off to LA and then back to UK to make his superb range of Wilkinson hardware and his FretKing guitars. …

After Frankfurt [1991] Hohner had set up a "guitar team" which was made up from a mixture of our available guitar people (Wolfram Kriel, Peter Storch, and myself - later Trevor Wilkinson would join us). The rest of the team were mainly sales personnel with Phil Sutcliffe heading the team. … Trevor and I designed the bolt on neck RTXs and RTS Revelations with 24 frets and these were in production before the set neck 27fret ATX. The ATX was the first Hohner guitar to retail for over £1000.

Fret-King Guitars

Initially known for innovative hardware, Trev Wilkinson “designs in” the kind of features and value to Fret-King guitars that all guitarists really appreciate.

Premier Guitar, "Editors Pick - Fret-King Esprit III"

Trev Wilkinson is a tinkering genius. And his Fret King guitars always seem to offer some cool, unexpected twist on a classic.

Vintage Guitars

About the legendary designer, Trev Wilkinson

[T]o design an industry-leading line of professional but affordable guitars, Trev Wilkinson joined forces with JHS over a decade ago. …

… Trev doesn’t have a high-dollar pickup range to protect, so he can produce pickups that will sound as good as any company can wind anywhere in the world.

Trev has been described as “Britain’s one-man think tank.” Asserting that there’s always more work to be done when it comes to improving guitar playability! We’re here to attest to the fact that’s just who Trev is.

Switch Music guitars

The early Switch Music website has some comments from Trevor Wilkinson himself, & even a few photos. On other pages, he says the Innovo & Ultima were the first two releases of his design -- without naming brand, he admits they were based on the Strat & Tele -- & the Futur being third.

The proper name of the corporate entity appears to've been SwitchMusic.com, Inc.

Trev Wilkinson, SwitchMusic.net, 15 Oct 2002

When "SWITCHMUSIC.COM" first approached me to design a range of guitars utilizing their new and revolutionary material it was a challenge I couldn't resist.

Being able to start with a clean sheet of paper, to not only design uniquely styled guitars, but also, to create a totally new identity including, Image, Brand name, Logos, Headstocks etc is a guitar designers dream.

Building guitars from other materials other than wood is not new. There have been many attempts in the past, some more successful than others. The belief that wood is the only material that a good sounding/playing guitar can be made from is not something that I subscribe to. Whilst there are combinations of woods that have become classic construction styles, there is not one type that is best. All combinations have their own tone and sound qualities and whilst you may be a fan of a particular style of guitar there are many more styles that other people may prefer. Even the same woods when either bolted or glued together give completely different tonalities and string response.

The advantage of "Vibracell" is that we have complete control of the density and consistency of what we build an instrument from. The key word here is consistency. Certain species of wood can vary by as much as 300% in weight alone! so how can anybody say guitars built in a particular type of wood will all sound the same? Of course some people may find the challenge of sifting through a multitude of the same style of guitars to find one that sounds OK enjoyable, personally I think there is a better way.

Italia Guitars

https://www.italiaguitarsusa.com/maranello-series/ "The Maranello Classic – designed in collaboration with famed guitar designer Trev Wilkinson, was inspired by an early 60’s Hagström model."

for Harmony Company

The Harmony Company manufactured a wide variety of musical instruments which were popular during most of the 20th century. This article is devoted to documenting these instruments.

Sales and distribution

Harmony sold instruments under its own name and as well was an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for several other brands, most notably Silvertone and Airline. Harmony-built instruments were sold as Regal, Holiday, Barclay, and Fender. Smaller store chains and distributors could obtain Harmony-built instruments under their own brand in lots as small as 100. At one moment in time, Harmony was building instruments with 57 different brand names.

All models were the same as Harmony-branded guitars with only cosmetic differences (e.g., sunburst tinted tops) and sometimes with sightly different headstock shapes, some with plastic overlay.

Suppliers

Pickups for almost all Harmony electric guitars and basses were DeArmond, manufactured by Rowe Industries (later Rowe DeArmond) in Toledo, Ohio, from the mid-1940s until the closure of Harmony in the mid-1970s.

Most instrument amplifiers carrying the Harmony brand were produced by the Sound Projects Company (Cicero, Illinois).

Numbering conventions of model and date stamps

Harmony hollow-body instruments were marked with inkstamps within the body of the instrument. The model/batch number is of the form nnnnHmmmm, where nnnn is a batch number and mmmm is a model number (6072H950 would be an H950 model).

Instruments also received a date stamp, the final two digits indicating year of manufacture (F-45 would indicate 1945 manufacture.)

Only F-xx and S-xx are found as date stamps. These likely indicate whether an instrument was part of a lot built during the "first" or "second" half of that year. A common belief is that these represent "Fall" and "Summer" to synchronize production with the largest catalogues of its major retail-chain buyers (namely Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward). A former Harmony employee mentions an alternate interpretation: "We worked ten hours, five days a week, and eight more every Saturday. That was both shifts. I believe the 'F' and 'S' on the serial numbers was for first or second shift."

Examples: acoustic

Harmony H1260 Sovereign. Solid mahogany back and sides. Solid spruce top. Six steel strings. Jumbo sized (16 1/4 inch wide lower bout) dreadnought shaped acoustic guitar. Ladder braced through 1970.

Harmony Sovereign H1203. Solid mahogany back and sides. Solid spruce top. Six steel strings. Ladder braced through 1970.

Harmony H1401. 00-sized tenor tuned acoustic guitar. Solid mahogany back and sides. Solid spruce top. Rubber stamped rosette. (H1201 has inlayed plastic rosette.) Four steel strings. Ladder braced.

Harmony H162 (3/4) Youth size or beginner's guitar. Solid mahogany back and sides. Solid spruce top.

Harmony H174 Classical. Solid mahogany back and sides. Solid spruce top (same for H177). Six nylon strings. Inlayed plastic rosette (same for H177). Fan braced. Mahogany neck.

Models

Guitars

Acoustic flat top guitars

• H106G
• H116G HD - Spruce-topped Martin-style dreadnaught
• H162 - Spruce-topped 000-sized guitar. Very common.
• H165 - Similar to H162 but all mahogany.

Sovereign

The Sovereign logo on an H164.

The Sovereign series was Harmony's higher-end flat-top line. Also sold under the Silvertone (Sears Roebuck) and Airline (Montgomery Ward) brands.

Noted players who recorded with this guitar include Ryan Adams (H1264 - "Jet Set" Sovereign Jumbo), Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin (Stairway to Heaven), Pete Townshend, Keith Richards, Howlin Wolf, and Mance Lipscombe.

• H164 - Similar to H162 but with Sovereign logo and black finish.
• H1203 - Natural and Sunburst finish. Spruce Top, Mahogany back & Sides, sharp-edged pickguard.
• H1204 - Spruce Top, Mahogany back and sides, Natural and Sunburst. Note: Black H1204 model had Birch back and sides.
• H1260 - Natural and Sunburst finish. Spruce Top, Mahogany back and Sides.
• H1266 - Same as 1260 but the double, decorative pickguards only in sunburst finish. However the Silvertone model (made by Harmony for Sears) offered the sunburst finish without the double pickguards which tended to deaden the sound somewhat. In addition, the Silvertone model had the more standard pinless bridge of the 1203 and not the mustache bridge of the H1266.
• H1270 - 12 string
• H55 - Acoustic/Electric flat top

Acoustic archtop guitars

Harmony's archtop acoustic models differ most significantly in the woods used, the body size, and the finish. Mahogany, spruce, or birch were used on most models (or a combination thereof). The body sizes were termed by Harmony as "auditorium" (16" body width?) and "grand auditorium" (17" body width?) sizes.

Some common features displayed in these models are solid wood construction, F-shaped sound holes, and a steel non-adjustable truss rod.

Archtone

• H1213
• H1214
• H1215
• H1215T (tenor guitar)
• H1222
• H6415

Broadway

• H954
• H955
• H961

Catalina

• H1220
• H1221

Cremona

• H1300
• H1301
• H1302
• H1303
• H1304
• H1306
• H1307
• H1308

Master

• H1439
• H1444
• H945

Monterey

• H1320
• H1325
• H1327 - spruce top, unknown (probably birch) back and sides, rosewood fretboard. Earlier examples featured a 15.5" lower bout but later the model was given the larger 16.5" lower bout. There is an intricate wood inlay all around the top edge binding in a "herringbone" pattern.

  

  Closeup of the inlay work on the H1327.

• H1456
• H1457
• H1820T (tenor guitar)
• H6450
• H950 "Leader" - birch top, back, and sides. Tiger flame red sunburst against black. Sunburst is smaller on older models.
• H951
• H952 "Colorama"
• H953 "Colorama"
• H996

Montclair

• H956

Patrician

• H1403
• H1406
• H1407
• H1408
• H1410
• H1414
• H1415
• H1450
• H1453

Electric guitars

Stratotone

The Stratotone logo on an H47

• H44 "Stratotone" - One of the more sought-after electric models. Used by several popular musicians such as Ritchie Valens and Tom Waits.
• H46 "Stratotone Mars" - hollowbody, two DeArmond pickups. Used by several popular musicians such as Brian Jones and Spencer Davis.
• H47 "Stratotone Mercury" - hollowbody, one DeArmond "goldfoil" pickup.

Rocket

These are thin hollowbody electric guitars with one to three pickups.

• H53
• H54
• H56 (with vibrato bar)
• H56-1 (sometimes with no vibrato, sometimes with Bigsby vibrato)
• H59
• H59-1

Meteor

These are thin hollowbody electric guitars with two to three pickups.

• H70
• H71
• H72
• H75
• H76 (with Bigsby)
• H77
• H78 (with Bigsby)
• H79 (12 string
• H90D (rare)

Other models

• H61
• H66 "Vibrajet" with built-in electronic tremolo
• H80 inexpensive Strat copy
• H80T inexpensive Strat copy
• H106G

Dulcimer

• HD2

External links

• Harmony Guitars - New company that owns Harmony name

for First Act

First Act Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people	Bernard Chiu (Chairman
Number of employees	50 (2015)
Parent	Jazwares
Website	http://firstact.com
Footnotes / references

Volkswagen First Act Guitar

First Act bass guitar and electric guitar

The company manufactures products for children's musical education which at one time included clarinets, saxophones, and trumpets.

Custom Shop

Chief Luthier Kelly Butler ran an apprentice program providing mentoring and guidance to recent graduates from accredited schools of luthiery. The custom shop has made one-of-a-kind guitars and basses for over 130 artists including Cheap Trick, Franz Ferdinand, System of a Down, Mastodon and High on Fire.

External links

• Official website
• First Act on Twitter
• First Act on YouTube
• Corporate Blog
• First Act Corporate Bios

Roland Corporation salvage

Timeline of noteworthy products

1970s

1972

• AF-100 Bee Baa: a fuzzbox with four knobs on the rear panel
• AS-1 Sustainer: the ancestor of today's compression/sustain pedals.
• Rhythm 33 TR-33: drum machine intended for mounting underneath a piano or organ keyboard
• Rhythm 55 TR-55: tabletop version of the Rhythm 33
• Rhythm 77 TR-77: an update of the Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR-7L., also known as the Hammond Rhythm Unit; essentially an expanded Rhythm 55

1973

• AD-50 Double Beat: an early multi-effects pedal, combining wah-wah, fuzz and a simple phaser
• AG-5 Funny Cat Harmonic Mover & Soft Distortion Sustainer: envelope follower (auto-wah) pedal
• AW-10 Wah Beat: wah-wah pedal
• EP-10 Combo Piano: Japan's first fully electronic piano
• EP-20 Combo Piano: Japan's first fully electronic piano
• RE-100 Space Echo: tape-based delay effect
• RE-200 Space Echo: tape-based delay effect
• SH-3 Synthesizer: earliest Japanese example of a "classic" monophonic analog synthesizer
• SH-1000 Synthesizer: Japan's first commercial monophonic analog synthesizer keyboard

1974

• EP-30 Roland Piano: the world's first touch-sensitive electronic piano.
• RE-101 Space Echo
• RE-201 Space Echo: one of the most popular tape delay-based echo machines ever produced
• SH-3A Synthesizer: monophonic analog synthesizer with a new VCF and VCA
• SH-2000 Synthesizer: a pressure-sensitive preset monophonic analog synthesizer designed to compete directly against the ARP Pro Soloist (1972–1977)

1975

• AF-60 Bee Gee fuzz pedal
• AP-2 Phase II phaser pedal
• AP-7 Jet Phase: phaser pedal with four 'Jet' modes alongside two conventional phasing modes
• Revo 30: the "Revo Sound System" family was intended to imitate the sound of a Leslie rotary speaker system
• Revo 120
• Revo 250
• RS-101 Strings: the first appearance of what would become Roland's trademark Ensemble effect
• SH-5 Synthesizer: analog synthesizer with innovative features
• System-100 Synthesizer: Roland's first attempt at a modular analog synthesizer
• TR-66 Rhythm Arranger: analog drum machine
• Jazz Chorus-60 JC-60 Guitar Amplifier: 60 watt
• Roland Jazz Chorus-120 JC-120 Guitar Amplifier: two channel, 120 watt amplifier equipped with two 12-inch (30 cm) speakers, built-in stereo chorus, vibrato, reverb, and distortion effects and a 3-band EQ per channel, renowned for its super-clean sound and durability, it has remained in production for over 35 years.

1976

• DC-50 Digital Chorus: analog chorus ensemble similar to Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble (which is derived from the chorus/vibrato circuit of the JC-120 amplifier). Because it is a BBD-based chorus it would today be advertised as "analog". May also have appeared as the Multivox CB-50.
• RS-202 String Ensemble
• Jazz Chorus-160 Guitar Amplifier
• System 700 Synthesizer: Roland's first professional-quality modular synthesizer

1977

• GA-series 20, 30, 40, 60, 120W guitar amplifiers
• GB-series 30, 50W bass amplifiers
• JC-60A and JC-120A Jazz Chorus guitar amplifiers
• DC-10 Analogue Echo
• RE-301 Chorus Echo: an RE-201 Space Echo with two additional features: sound-on-sound recording (allowing it to be used as a looper) and an analog chorus circuit
• MP700 Piano
• MPA100: Amplifier for the MP700
• VK-6 and VK-9: Hammond-style drawbar organs, predecessors of the clonewheel organs
• MC-8 MicroComposer: early digital sequencer, Roland's first product to utilize a microprocessor.
• GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer & GS-500 Guitar Controller: Roland's first commercial guitar synthesizer system.

1978

• Cube 40 guitar amplifier (40W)
• GA-series 50 guitar amplifier (50W)
• JC50, JC200 and JC200S Jazz Chorus amps
• RD-125L Revo
• RD-155L Revo
• SB-series 200 bass amp (200W)
• DC-20 analogue echo
• DC-30 analogue delay
• GE-810 graphic EQ
• GE-820 graphic EQ
• PH-830 stereo phaser
• RV-100 reverb
• RV-800 reverb
• MP-600 Combo piano
• MRS-2 Promars monosynth
• RS-09 Organ/Strings keyboard
• RS-505 Paraphonic Strings
• SH-1 monosynth
• SH-7 monosynth
• CR-68 Human Rhythm Player
• CR-78 CompuRhythm: user-programmable drum machine
• Jupiter-4 JP-4: Roland's first self-contained polyphonic synthesizer
• Roland VK-09 Electronic Organ: early attempt to emulate a Hammond organ

1979

• SH-1 monosynth
• SH-2 Synthesizer: dual-oscillator monosynth
• System 100-M Roland Studio System: semiprofessional modular synthesizer, fully modular successor to the System-100
• VP-330 Vocoder Plus
• SDD-320 Dimension D: rack-mounted stereo chorus effects unit.

1980s

1980

• CR-8000 CompuRhythm
• VK-1 Combo Organ: clonewheel Hammond B3 emulator
• TR-808 Rhythm Composer: One of the most popular programmable analog drum machines; its distinctive analog sounds, such as its cowbell sound and its kick drum, have become pop-music clichés, heard on countless recordings.
• GR-300 Guitar Synthesizer & Roland G-303 and G-808 electric guitar synthesizer controllers
• SH-09 Synthesizer: small single-oscillator monosynth; reduced-function SH-2

1981

• VK-09 Electronic Organ: Hammond emulator
• MC-4 MicroComposer: successor to the MC-8
• TB-303 Computer Controlled Bass Line: synthesizer with built-in sequencer; manufactured from late 1981 to 1984
• TR-606 Drumatix: programmable analog drum machine designed to be used with the TB-303
• Jupiter-8 JP-8: 8-voice programmable analog synthesizer after the hugely successful Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Oberheim products
• SDE-2000 Digital Delay: Roland's first digital effects unit

1982

• Juno-6 Polyphonic Synthesizer: Roland's first synthesizer with digitally controlled oscillators.
• Juno-60 Programmable Polyphonic Synthesizer: Roland's first synthesizer with digitally controlled oscillators and memory
• Roland G-505 & G-202: third generation of Roland electric guitar synthesizer controllers. These Strat-style guitars came with the matching GR-700 and PG-200 pedal boards, which also work as a regular guitar effector as well as a MIDI synthesizer bank
• SH-101: keytar with an optional "neck" modulation attachment

1983

• JX-3P Programmable Preset Polyphonic Synthesizer: first Roland synthesizer to support MIDI
• Jupiter-6 JP-6: 6-voice programmable analog synthesiser
• PG-200: programmer for the JX-3P, MKS-30 and GR-700.
• DXY-100R Expandable Intelligent X-Y Plotter
• MC-202 MicroComposer: monophonic analog synthesizer/sequencer similar to the TB-303 and SH-101, featuring 1 voltage-controlled oscillator with simultaneous saw and square/pulse-width waveforms
• MSQ-700 Digital Keyboard Recorder: world's first MIDI-compatible sequencer
• TR-909 Rhythm Composer: drum machine popular during the early 1990s. The world's first MIDI-equipped drum machine, Roland's first to use digital sample playback combined with analog sound synthesis
• CMU-800R Compu Music: controlled by Apple II or C64.
• CMU-810 Compu Synth: monosynth

1984

• MKB-1000 and MKB-300: world's first dedicated MIDI controller keyboards
• MPU-401: interface for connecting MIDI-equipped devices to a computer
• MKS-80 Super Jupiter: rack-mounted eight-voice analog synthesizer, commonly used with the MPG-80 programmer unit
• Juno-106 Programmable Polyphonic Synthesizer: programmable (128 patch memory locations), digitally controlled six-voice analog synthesizer, with MIDI and the ability to transmit button and slider information through SysEx
• TR-707 and TR-727 Drum Machine: The TR-727 was essentially the same as the TR-707, except it had Latin-style sounds
• JX-8P Polyphonic Synthesizer: one of Roland's last true analog synths; replacement for the Jupiter 8 but featured a sleek, low profile appearance to compete with the popular digital Yamaha DX-7
• G-707 Guitar Controller and GR-700 Guitar Synthesizer

1985

• Alpha Juno: Two analog polyphonic synthesizers, the Alpha Juno 1 (JU-1) and the Alpha Juno 2 (JU-2), notable for their 'Alpha Dial' that simplified the user interface, and for their ability to generate the Hoover sound
• Octapad (Pad-8): A set of visually distinctive electronic drum triggers

1986

• Super JX Polyphonic Synthesizer JX-10: Roland's last true analog synth, the JX-10 was ostensibly the circuitry of two JX-8Ps in a single synth. However, subtle differences in sonic architecture and electronic components give the JX-10 a slightly different sound than the 8P. Also produced in rack-mounting form as the MKS-70.
• RD-1000 Digital Piano: Roland's first digital piano to feature their SA Synthesis technology. Featured an 88-note weighted, wooden keyboard with three-band EQ, chorus and tremolo. One notable user of this is Elton John from 1988 to 1993. Also produced in rack-mounting form as the MKS-20.
• HS-80: Same as the Roland Alpha Juno 2 (JU-2), but with built-in speakers. Branded as "Synth Plus 80."
• S-10 Digital Sampling Keyboard: basic 12-bit sampler and keyboard combo, capable of sampling up to 6 seconds of audio, with sounds stored on QuickDisks. It also had rudimentary analog filtering and ADSR
• MKS-100 Digital Sampler: rackmount version of the S-10
• MC-500 Sequencer: stand-alone sequencer and MIDI recorder. 4-track recording in real or step time and 16 midi channel multitimbrality, a dedicated rhythm track, a built-in 3½-inch DS/DD Floppy disk drive with 100,000 note capacity and a large LCD screen.
• Roland S-50 61 Key, 12 bit Sampler with 16 note polyphony it could sample up to 28 seconds (@15khz).

1987

Roland D-50

• D-50 Linear Synthesizer: Roland's first all-digital synthesizer, implementing its Linear Arithmetic synthesis (a form of sample-based synthesis combined with subtractive synthesis). The D-50's descendants include the D-5 (1989), D-10 (1988), D-110 (rack version of D-10) (1988), and D-20 (1988)
• MT-32 Sound Module: also using Linear Arithmetic synthesis, it was supported by many PC games in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a high-quality music option until support shifted to General MIDI sound cards

1988

• U-110 PCM Sound Module: Roland's first rompler, a rack module intended to exploit Roland's large library of samples and contained good representations of acoustic instruments. Designed to compete with E-mu's Proteus line, the U-110's successor U-220 found its way into many professional studio racks of the day.
• E-20 Synthesizer: Roland's first entry into the auto-accompaniment keyboard market, going head to head with Yamaha and Casio. The E-20's descendants include the E-70, E-86, G-800, G-1000, G-70 and E-80.
• MC-500mkII Sequencer: successor to the Roland MC-500, with Turbo software, 8 tracks of recording, 100,000 note capacity, real-time track muting and more. Storage on 3½-inch DS/DD floppy disk drive.

1989

• R-5 Human Rhythm Composer: drum machine with velocity-sensitive pads. Similar to the R-8 but has no ROM slot.
• R-8 Human Rhythm Composer: drum machine with velocity-sensitive pads
• W-30 Music Workstation: sampling workstation keyboard (DAW)
• D-70 Synthesizer: 76-key synth. Successor to the U-20. Combined the U-20 ROM with advanced D-50-like filters
• Octapad II (Pad-80): successor to the Pad-8.

1990s

1990

• HP-3700 Digital Piano
• MC-50 Sequencer: dedicated sequencer similar to the MC-500 series, featuring 40,000 note capacity, up to 8 songs, 8 phrase tracks, a 3½-inch DS/DD Floppy disk drive, separate rhythm track and temp tracks, 32 channel MIDI and FSK sync

1991

• SC-55 Sound Canvas: the world's first General MIDI synthesizer
• JD-800 Programmable Synthesizer: digital synthesizer with analog style interface

1992

• M-160 MkII line mixer
• MA-7 & MA-20 micro monitors

DIGITAL RECORDERS

• DM-80 multitrack disk recorder system

HOME/ACCOMPANIMENT PRODUCTS

• RA-90 real-time arranger

GUITAR SYNTHS

• GR-1

MASTER KEYBOARDS

• A-30 MIDIkeyboard controller
• AX-1 keyboard controller
• PC-150 keyboard controller
• PC-200 MkII keyboard controller

PIANOS

• EP-9
• HP-2900G
• HP-3800
• HP-5700
• HP-7700 Micro Grand
• KR-650 Intelligent Piano

RHYTHM PRODUCTS

• FD-7 hi-hat control pedal
• KD-7 kick trigger unit
• MDS-7 drum stand
• PD-7 drum pad
• R-70 Human Rhythm Composer
• R-8 MkII Human Rhythm Composer
• TD-7 sound module

SAMPLERS

• SP-700 sample player
• DJ-70 16-bit sampling workstation and was released in 1992 by Roland Japan. It also had a large back-lit LCD screen, thus DJ sampling music workstation and synthesizer keyboard that also featured the first ever for DJ's a Special (Scratch Dial/Scratch pad). Storage is on 3½-inch DS/DD Floppy disk drive

SEQUENCERS

• MC-50 MkII Micro Composer
• MT-200 music player

SOUND CANVASES

• SC-7 GM module
• SC-33 Sound Canvas
• SC-155 Sound Canvas
• SCC-1 GS/GM soundcard

SYNTHS & HI-TECH

• CM-300 GS sound module
• CM-500 GS/LA Sound Module
• JV-30 16 Part Multitimbral Synthesizer
• JW-50 Music workstation
• JV-80 Multi Timbral Synthesizer: A sort of simplified and more user-friendly D-70; spawned a whole family of synthesizers based on its architecture and sample set. The JV-80 also came in a 1U rack spaced unit, the JV-880 Sound Module.
• SR-JV80 Sample Wave ROM Expansion Boards: the JV-80 and JV-880 could be expanded. These expansion boards could add up to an extra 8mb of wave sample ROM, increasing the number of patches that could be played and accessed. During the next eight years, the SR-JV80 expansion boards would also be integrated and adapted to the JV, XP and XV line of Roland keyboards and sound modules. The boards have been used in many movies, TV shows, plays and popular music during the last two decades - John Williams used various Roland JV products with the SR-JV80 expansions boards; Jerry Goldsmith had a JV-1080 with various SR-JV80 boards. The SR-JV80 expansion boards sample wave ROMs were done so well, that Roland decided to continue to use them in the SRX line of expansion boards well into the 21st century.

1993

• SC-55mkII: minor upgrade to the Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas. It features increased polyphony (28 voices), more patches (raising the total number to 354 instruments and 10 drum sets), and improved audio-circuitry in the form of 18-bit audio (versus 16-bit in the original SC-55)
• MC-50mkII: successor to the Roland MC-50. Equipped with slightly advanced features for editing and general use. 40,000-note internal capacity, with the built-in disk drive, you can store approximately 150,000 events on a 3½-inch DS/DD Floppy disk drive.
• JD-990 Super JD: A rack-mount version of the JD-800 synthesizer with expanded capabilities
• JV-90 Expandable Synthesizer: a JV-80 with 76-note keyboard, expandable to 56 voices
• JV-1000 Music Workstation: a JV-90 with a built-in MC-50mkII so as to be a fully-fledged workstation.

1994

• RD-500: "professional" digital piano with 88 weighted keys, 121 high quality sounds and built-in digital effects
• MS-1: 16-bit AD/DA conversion, first portable digital stereo phrase sampler, with R-DAC (Roland Digital Audio Coding)
• S-760 Digital Sampler: 16-bits with resonant filters
• JV-1080 Super JV 64 Voice Sound Module: Roland's 64-voice Super JV synthesizer module, it used the JV sample set with the JD series filters and a fast RISC processor for very smooth envelopes; four expansion slots
• AT-70 Organ: Roland's first home organ, "Music Atelier" and its little brother AT-50.

1995

• XP-50 Music Workstation, 64 Voice, 4x Expansion: Basically a JV-1080 with a MRC-Pro sequencer
• JS-30: Tabletop 16-bit sampler
• GI-10: Half-width rack MIDI guitar interface
• VG-8: the world's first guitar modeling system

1996

• VS-880 Digital Studio Workstation: Roland's first digital studio workstation providing recording, mixing and CD-mastering
• DJ-70MKII: 16-bit sampling workstation and was released in 1996 by Roland Italy. It also had a large back-lit LCD screen. It's the Successor to the DJ-70, with more powerful features, including a DJ sampling music workstation, which featured the first ever for DJ's a Special (Scratch Dial/Scratch pad). It is essentially an S-760 rack mount sampler with a keyboard. Storages on 3.5" DS/DD floppy disk drive
• MC-303 Roland's first non-keyboard drum machine, sample-based synthesizer, and sequencer combination bearing the now-generic term Groovebox. Featuring a full 8-track sequencer
• XP-80 Music Workstation, 64 Voice, 4x Expansion: JV2080 with a MRC Pro Sequencer . 64-voice music workstation. 4x expansion instead of the 8x the JV2080 has. This is the pinnacle of the JV Series in Keyboard version
• AT-90 Organ: the pinnacle of Roland's home organ "Music Atelier" series and smallest brother AT-30

1997

• VK-7 Organ: groundbreaking Hammond organ clone, which introduced the "Virtual ToneWheel" physical modeling technology
• JP-8000 Analog Synthesizer: Roland's first virtual analog synthesizer. Its technology was more similar to conventional PCM synthesis, such as in a JD-800, rather than the virtual analog synths of today that digitally model the behavior of analog oscillators
• V-Drums: digital drums incorporating silent mesh drum heads that realistically reproduce both the natural feel and sound of acoustic drums
• JV-2080: updated Super JV module This is the pinnacle of the JV Series in module version.
• AT-80 Organ: top-class home organ in Roland's home organ
• RD-600: successor of the RD-500

1998

• SP-808: table-top sampler, multi-track recorder, and effects processor
• MC-505: successor to the MC-303 with a more powerful synthesizer and sequencer
• JX-305: similar to the MC-505, but with 61 keys
• EG-101: "Groove Keyboard"

1999

• AT-90R Organ: successor models. AT-60R, AT-80R, and AT-30R.
• XP-30 Expandable synthesizer: simpler version of the XP-50 and XP-80 without a sequencer, comes standard with 1406 sounds.

2000s

2000

• XV-3080 Sound Module: Essentially a Super JV module updated to 128-voices, and taking SRX expansion boards
• XV-88 Keyboard: Essentially a XV-3080 module with an 88-key keyboard and 4 expansion slots
• XV-5080 Sound Module: True next generation synthesizer module and basis for the Fantom series of workstations. New high bit-depth samples, 128-voices, takes SRX expansion boards, and capable of loading sampler data
• Handsonic HPD-15: First electronic percussion pressure-sensitive multi-pad. Playable with hands and/or fingers (without sticks). Divided in 15 zones, with 2 ribbons controllers, 1 internal sequencer and 1 infra-red sensor named D-Beam
• VG-88: Successor to the VG-8. Guitar synth with GK 13-pin input that models many guitars, amps, speakers and effects
• VP-9000 Variphrase Processor: The first sampler allowing realtime time-stretching and pitch-shifting of samples.

2001

• AX-7 Keytar: Successor to the AX-1. A keytar noted for its aesthetics and design.
• AT-90S: Successor models. AT-80S, AT-60S, AT-20S and AT-10S.
• RD-700: Successor of the RD-600. RD-700 is Roland’s first Expandable Stage Piano.

2002

• MC-909: Successor to the MC Groovebox series and also the flagship to all MC Groovebox series machines, featuring a full 16-track sequencer, SRX board upgrading, Built-in larger LCD Display Screen and built-in sampling. Supports 1 SRX Expansion card.
• AT-15: Baby of the "Music Atelier" home organ product range. And AT-5.
• SH-32: A combination of virtual analogue synthesis and groovebox.

2003

SYNTHS & HI-TECH

• V-Synth Synthesizer: 24-voice analog modeling synthesizer.

EDIROL PRODUCTS

• UA-20 USB audio interface.

2004

AMPS, MIXERS & SPEAKERS

• CM30: Cube monitor.
• Cube 60: guitar combo.
• CB100: bass combo.
• DM10 and DM20: digital monitors.
• DM2100 2.1: monitor system.
• DS5 DS7 & DS8: digital monitors.
• Micro Cube: guitar amp.

DIGITAL ACCORDIONS

FR-5 & FR-7

DIGITAL RECORDERS & MIXERS

• MV-8000 v2 update and MV8 VGA expansion option.
• VS-2000CD digital recording studio.
• VS-2480DVD digital recording studio.
• VS-8F3 plug-in effects expansion board.

EDIROL PRODUCTS

• DV-7DL Pro and DV7DL video-editing systems.
• FA-101 Firewire audio interface.
• LVS-400 video mixer.
• P1 photo presenter.
• PCR-1 USB MIDI controller/audio interface.
• UA-1000 USB2 audio interface.
• UR-80 control surface.
• VMC-1 video optimiser & video media converter.

GUITAR SYNTHS

• GK-3 divided pickup.
• GK-3B divided bass pickup
• GR-20 guitar synth.

HOME/ARRANGER KEYBOARDS

• EXR-3/EXR-5/EXR-7 interactive arranger keyboards.

ORGANS

• Atelier AT-45, AT-60SL, AT-80SL & AT-90SL.

PIANOS

• DP-900.
• F-50.
• FP-2.
• HP-101/HP-103/HP-107 digital pianos.
• HPi-7 digital piano.

RHYTHM PRODUCTS

• CY-8 trigger pad.
• FD-8 hi-hat pedal.
• KD-8 trigger pad.
• PD-8 trigger pad.
• PD-105 and PD-125 V-Pads.
• TD-3 V-Drum module.
• TD-3 V-Drum kit.
• TD-6V V-Drum module.
• TD-6KV V-Tour Series kit.
• TD-20 V-Drum sound module.
• TD-20K V-Pro Series kit.
• VH-12 hi-hat.

SYNTHS & HI-TECH

• Fantom X6/X7/X8 keyboard workstations.
• Fantom XR synth module.
• Juno D synth keyboard.
• SP-606 Groovesampler.
• VC1 D-50 card for V-Synth.
• Fantom-X Synthesizer: Music workstation and professional synthesizer expandable to 1 gigabyte of sounds.

Roland Fantom X6 Top View

• AT-90SL Atelier: Successor models AT-80SL and AT-60SL.

2005

• Micro Cube Amplifier: Roland's first portable amplifier. Allowed for AC adapter or battery use. Seven input effects, delay, and reverb options.
• Fantom-Xa: Entry-level Fantom-X. The A stands for access.

2006

• MC-808: The latest MC-series, featuring a full 16-track sequencer and 512 MB more memory, and double the polyphony of the MC-909. First MC Groovebox series with motorized faders and built-in sampling, no velocity-sensitive pads, no SRX board as an add-on as seen on MC-909.
• SH-201: Roland's first affordable analog modeling synthesizer.
• Juno-G: Entry-level workstation based on the Fantom-X.

2007

• MV-8800: Successor to the MV-8000. Production station with 24-bit sampling capabilities. Has new built-in color LCD display.
• VG-99: Successor to the VG-8 and VG-88. Guitar synth with GK 13-pin input, multiple channels and innovative hands free controls that models a huge number of guitars, amps, speakers and effects.

2008

• Fantom-G: Music workstation with onboard graphical MIDI sequencer.
• Juno Stage & Juno-Di: Entry-level workstations based on the Fantom-G and the successors of the Juno-G

2009

• AX-Synth Keytar: A keytar, successor for the AX-7. The most notable change is the addition of an internal synthesizer.
• AT-900 Organ: the AT-900, AT-800 and AT-900C, the next generation of Atelier organ consoles, successors to the AT-90S and AT-90SL. The full line of Music Atelier: AT-500, AT-300, AT-100, and AT-75 were introduced later on.
• V-Piano: the first digital piano to rely solely on physical modeling technology.

2010s

2010

• MPX-90: desktop metal printer strikes metallic surfaces with a precision diamond-tipped stylus
• Juno-Gi : The older brother of the Juno-Di
• SH-01 Gaia : Analog modeling synthesizer

2011

• Jupiter-80: Flagship performance synthesizer, combining Roland's SuperNatural acoustic modeling technology with a virtual analog engine.
• ATELIER Combo AT-350C: A Combo version of the "Music Atelier" home organ product range. Can be coupled with any of Roland's MIDI pedal keyboards to make it a complete organ.

2012

• Jupiter-50 Synthesizer: A reduced Jupiter-80 with three parts instead of four and a smaller non-touch screen.
• Integra-7 Sound Module: A sound module that's a rack version of Roland Jupiter 80-50 and which contains sounds based on their new SuperNatural technology and all of the sounds of the XV-5080 sound module.

2014

• FA06/FA08: The new & affordable Fantom music workstation with sounds derived from Integra-7 sound module.
• Aira TR-8: Rhythm Performer, based on the drum-sounds of the TR-808 and TR-909.
• Aira TB-3: Touch Bassline, based on the bass-sounds of the TB-303.
• Aira VT-3: Voice Transformer.
• Aira System-1: Plug-Out Synthesizer, based on the System 100, System 100M, and the System 700.
• RD-800: successor of the RD-700 series

2015

• JUNO-DS61 and JUNO-DS88 versatile, intuitive and highly mobile synthesizers
• Boutique: line of small modern representations of classic Roland Synthesizers, consisting of: JU-06, JX-03 and JP-08. The series are in module form, and are able to slot into an optional keyboard K-25m, which features 25 velocity sensitive keys.

2016

On September 9, 2016, Roland celebrated 909 Day, in honor of the TR-909 drum machine. During this 24-hour event they debuted new products and held artist performances from different cities around the world.

• System-8 Plug Out Synthesizer
• TB-03 Bassline Synthesizer
• TR-09 Drum Machine
• VP-03 Vocoder
• BOSS Katana 100/212, Katana 100, Katana 50 and Katana-Head Guitar Amplifiers
• V-1SDI HD Video Switcher
• DJ-808 DJ Controller, DJ-99 DJ Mixer and TT-99 Turntable
• TD-50K, TD-50KV and TD-1KPX V-Drum Kits
• TD-50 Drum Sound Module, KD-A22 Kick Drum Converter, PD-140DS V-Pad Snare, CY-18DR V-Cymbal, MDS-50K Drum Stand, MDS-50KV Drum Stand
• EC-10M Ej Cajon Mic Processor
• BOSS GT-1 Guitar Effects Processor
• AE-10 Aerophone Wind Instrument, a wind controller synthesizer with saxophone fingering
• GP-607, FP-90, DP-603 and RP-501R Digital Pianos
• FR-4X and FR-4XB V-Accordions

2017

• SE-02: Analog synthesizer developed in collaboration with Studio Electronics

2018

• BOSS Katana Artist Guitar Amplifier