Official Luthiers Forum!

My last name is Ellis.

Unfortunately. there is a bloke in the UK that also shares my last name and is a Luthier as well (well I want to pretend). He has a website EllisGuitars.com. Now if I was a jerk (which I'm not unless you ask my kids) I would use Ellis Guitars as well as the name is not patented or copyrighted as far as I could search, but I would hate it if someone did that to me. So....

SE Guitars?
Steve Ellis Guitars?
Ellis - not the UK bloke - Guitars?
Go the route as Todd and John and use mountains as a guitar name?

Good thing my last name isn't Somogyi, Chasen or Fox or a ton of others I could think of.

Alas,
Steve

oh, wait... Alas Guitars??

Whatever you decide on it is going to be fine... If I have to vote probably SE Guitars... I am very far from establishing a name for myself (it's going to be at least two years if it ever happens) but have a similar dilemma. My name is Gorjan Stojanovski, and have been thinking of GS guitars, just because the better part of the western world probably couldn't pronounce my name

Any name that you like should work. I obviously couldn't take Hodge Guitars because Ken Hodge has that. My sir name is Albert and I just couldn't bring myself to create Albert Guitars, thus I opted for Rhema Guitars and it has been that since 2005. So what you like, if it isn't being used, well that'd be it!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

My middle name is Al. I NEVER use it. (Google to find out why!)

There's also another Ellisguitars over here (.com.au) so what's wrong with .co.uk if you want to use your own name?

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

I've struggled with this myself. Obviously not worried about actually selling anything yet. Amateur describes me well right now. But I hope to be a fine builder one day. As far as I know there are at least two well known builders with my last name. I've got a couple of ideas, but I'd love to use my name somehow. It is mine. Before I start selling, I have to figure that out.
Good luck with your decision.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I have a luthier friend name of James Olson - but he's not THE James Olson.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have a cousin who builds guitars, and instead of using his own name, he used his grandfather's last name, which happens to be the same as mine. Great. So I named my dulcimers after my grandfather's middle name. Works for me, and if I ever get around to inlaying a headstock, I'll only have to use half as many letters.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Someone else beat me to my last name too. Thats life. As for the guy not patenting or copyright his his name thats because you can't. You can trademark it. Even if he didn't do this and has used the name for years and had some level of success as a guitar builder you would more likely lose a court battle with him.

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Another day, another dollar.

And I am Martin Taylor. Cursed or Blessed? Well, at least I get a few random google searches ending up at my website.

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Martin Taylor
http://martintaylorguitars.com.au

Stellis Guitars ??

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

I don't have to worry too much about having a common name. My last name is Sollod. It's very simple, but people don't know how to pronouce it...

"what you want is a Sollod guitar"

"That's right, I want it to be solid..."

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I kinda like " Manteca Guitar "

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

There is a guy in Connecticut that has my name as well but he only builds resonator guitars. There was also some one apparently bad enough to be on the do not fly list with my name that has caused me some head aches in the past. Some remnant freedom fighter from back during The Troubles I would guess

My last name just sounds really awkward so I went with Muir Castle Strings (not that I really need a name since I'm just a poser). I live on Muir Castle Lane and I figured no one else would be using it. As far as I know none of the other dozen houses on my street have any instrument makers in them.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

You could always take inspiration from the Japanese. When Nissan began exporting cars to America way back when, they wanted to make sure everything went well on their new overseas adventure. So they changed their US name to Datsun. That way if they failed, they wouldn't lose face back home. Then, when all was a success, they said enough of this and went with their true name.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

my last name isn't something that i'd like to try to inlay into a headstock, and everybody botches my first name ( i pretty much gave up years ago )and come to think about it -they botch my last name as well. i could go with a big "S" on the headstock like 10 million others but naw, i'm just going to go with a label inside. at least my last name vaguely associates me with the great spanish classical builders and gives me the air of importance that my public demands, so i figure i'll rock that in some nice gothic looking text.

you could always try "ACME"

I'm still a couple years away from making a decision (retire from my day job), and I have a similiar problem. Appearantly there was once a factory producing cheap guitars under the Knox name. Fortunatly, there's not too many of them around. At least my name isn't Teisco!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

"Lard (Manteca) Guitars" Play like butter! I like it!

On a more serious not, how about something like "Steve Ellis - Luthier"

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

By any chance is he a photographer in Metropolis?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Actually, he's Hodges with an "s".

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Manteca is the town in So Cal he lives in , where does Lard come in , Spanish ?

lo siento por ser un idiota !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Yes, it's Spanish for lard. I used too live there also, It's east of San Francisco, not So Cal

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

My last name just sounds really awkward so I went with Muir Castle Strings (not that I really need a name since I'm just a poser). I live on Muir Castle Lane and I figured no one else would be using it. As far as I know none of the other dozen houses on my street have any instrument makers in them.


Don't move to Vancouver then. You can't throw a rock without making a luthier cry. (Ow! Hey!)

Or Fender

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Many want their name in the business name so they will be recognized as the luthier. i e., name recognition. If you are only going to be a guitar builder (luthier) then that is fine. However, if your business becomes largely retail or guitar repair then NOT having your name as the business name may be an advantage if you want to sell the business. I would think that a retail business called "Muir Castle Strings" would be easier to sell for more $ than "Brian Bear Guitars". Who knows what your business will consist of in 10 years? Just my opinion and I have never been wrong before.
Eddie