Brawley Guitars is an American
guitar manufacturing
Guitar manufacturing is the use of machines, tools, and labor in the production of electric and acoustic guitars. This phrase may be in reference to handcrafting guitars using traditional methods or assembly line production in large quantities usi ...
brand. The founder, Keith Brawley, has worked in the guitar industry as product designer and marketing executive, having also been an executive for
Fender/
Squier from 1989–2001. The company is headquartered in
Temecula, California
Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a t ...
.
[ Brawley currently produces ]electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
s and basses.
History
The guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s were produced in South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
between 2000 and 2002. All featured a solid body with a contour top, bolt-on neck, self-locking winders and a wider 'fat fret' neck
The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
. Though available in several configurations, including double humbucker models, typical models featured 2 single coil Custom Alnico pickups and one bridge mounted humbucker
A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in d ...
with either Wilkinson and Floyd Rose vibrato bars. A twin humbucker hardtail model was also made. The fit, finish, and feature of Brawley's fretted instruments represented a very strong value-for-money at the time. Keith Brawley likened his guitars to Lexus cars in press interviews.
Brawley also produced a range of bass guitars in four-string, five-string and six-string versions. The top-of-the-line models featured neck-through body construction and all of them had a 35-inch scale length, as opposed to the standard 34-inch scale developed by Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor known for designing the Fender Stratocaster. He also founded the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In January 1965, he sold Fender to CBS, and later foun ...
on the first electric basses. These were known as the Artemis series and featured humbucking pickups on all models and active electronics on all but the entry-level model.
Mars music stores was a large dealer of Brawley guitars, but the music store chain failed amidst overheated expansion, taking down Brawley guitars with it. Keith Brawley subsequently worked for Guitar Center where, after five years as the vice president of guitar merchandising, he was promoted to the position of vice president of merchandising and creative at the company's direct-response division, Musician's Friend. There, he oversaw both the purchasing and creative teams producing the company's catalog and Internet efforts.2014 NAMM Show – The Global Ecosystem
by Christian Wissmuller on ''Musical Merchandise Review'' Magazine (MMR), March 4, 2014
Keith sold his guitar designs to Guitar Center to be used as the Laguna brand, currently sold as an in-store brand. The Laguna guitars are modeled after Keith's designs, right down to the headstock, although the production of Laguna is in Indonesia, rather than South Korea.
[ Later, Brawley was appointed as Chief Business Development Officer for ]Taylor Guitars
Taylor Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in El Cajon, California, and is one of the largest manufacturers of acoustic guitars in the United States. They specialize in acoustic guitars and semi-hollow electric guitars. The company w ...
.
Some Southern California stores such as Jim’s Music in Irvine, California
Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...
Johnny Thompson Music in Monterey Park and Instrumental Music in Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown. It is named af ...
showed great success with Brawley instruments, including Costa Mesa's "Cobra Music". There are many bands that can be seen using Brawley Guitars including Charles Jirkovsky of San Diego band "All in Favor" and Brian Sun of "Residual FX."
References
External links
Official website
(archived, 20 Jul 2019)
Laguna guitars
(with Brawley's designs) on Guitar Center
Reviews of Brawley guitars
Article detailing modifications to a Brawley A-122
Follow-up article detailing modifications to a Brawley A-122
Brawley guitar models and their specifications
{{Guitar brands
Electric guitars
American brands
2000 establishments in the United States