[FrankHudson]

I always got the impression there was this loose association between Gretsch, Epiphone, and Guild back in the day in electric guitar design. With Guild and Epiphone the human connection is easy to make if I recall right (wasn't Guild started when the Epiphone factory closed down by ex- Epi folks?) Steve DeRosa will not doubt chime in with how Gretsch connected to the other two.

Now of course the current Epiphone and Guild brand owners are somewhat removed from that history, but our current century seems to have revived interest in "Non-Fender/Non-Gibson" electric guitar designs.

I own a several DeArmond electrics from the turn of the century, an idea by Fender to make a whole line of Korean-made sorta Guild/Gretsch style instruments after Fender bought Guild, but before they signed the distribution agreement with Gretsch. The line famously bombed in the marketplace--buyers didn't know what to make of them--but they weren't bad guitars, and the ones I bought when they were blown-out at very low prices have stuck with me since then.