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18-659: By 1975, Squier became defunct as a manufacturer and a brand name for strings, as Fender opted to market its strings under the Fender brand name. In 1982, the Squier name was reactivated by Fender as its brand for lower priced versions of Fender guitars. Squier guitars have been manufactured in the United States, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and China . Jerome Bonaparte Squier , a young English immigrant who arrived in Battle Creek, Michigan , in

36-482: A CNC router in mid 1981 for making guitar parts and also began to manufacture their own pickups starting in late 1981. In 1981–82, Fuji obtained the Fender Japan contract which lasted until 1996–97 and in 1983 Fuji were producing 14,000 guitars a month with 80% of the guitars being made for export markets and 20% being made for Japanese domestic markets. In 1989, Fuji Gengakki Seizō re-branded, officially adopting

54-584: A dozen violins each named after one of the twelve apostles . Other instruments were named after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln . Most of his violins were patterned after Stradivarius , notably the Alard Stradivarius. The tonal quality of Squier's violins was brilliant and clear. Squier taught the art of violin making to Charles Kinney, father of Edward Kinney . In 2007, the owner of one of Squier's violins claimed that it had an estimated worth of US$ 100,000 because of its tonal quality. However, this

72-487: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an Ohioan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . FujiGen FUJIGEN ( Japanese : フジゲン ) is a Japanese musical instrument manufacturing company based in Matsumoto, Nagano . The company was formerly known as Fuji Gengakki Seizō ( Japanese : 富士弦楽器製造 , lit.   ' Fuji Stringed Instrument Manufacturing ' ) , and

90-437: Is named after Japan's iconic Mount Fuji . FUJIGEN does OEM guitar manufacturing for well-known guitar brands , and they manufacture their own guitars under the brand FGN . FUJIGEN started production in 1960 under the name Fuji Gengakki Seizō ( 富士弦楽器製造 , lit.   ' Fuji Stringed Instrument Manufacturing ' ) , making violins and classical guitars . In 1962, Fuji started production of electric guitars . In

108-518: Is unlikely, as the auction record for this maker is $ 11,400 in May 2010, for a viola. Squier married Olive Brown Raymond and the couple had three children. One of their children, Victor Carrol Squier, also went on to work in violin-making and became renowned for his violins and violin strings. The Squier company went on to manufacture violin, banjo and guitar strings and was acquired by Fender in 1965. This United States musical biography article

126-546: The 1930s, Squier began making strings for the era's new electric instruments; the company also sold pianos , radios and phonograph records until divesting itself of all products other than strings in 1961. Fender Electric Instruments entered the picture in the 1950s, when the V. C. Squier Company began supplying Southern California inventor and businessman Leo Fender with strings for his unusual new electric guitars. The V. C. Squier Company became an official original equipment manufacturer for Fender in 1963. Fender acquired

144-469: The 1970s, Fuji started making OEM guitars for companies such as Hoshino Gakki ( Ibanez ), 1970's UK importers, Arbiter, Charles Summerfield Ltd (Ibanez, CSL, Cimar & Sumbro) and J.T Coppock (Antoria) Kanda Shokai ( Greco guitars ) and Yamaha . In 1977–78, Fuji entered a joint venture with Roland to produce guitar synthesizers . In 1981, Fuji opted out of acoustic guitar production to mainly concentrate on solid body guitar production. Fuji obtained

162-632: The Squier guitars were turned into Fender guitars. Jerome Bonaparte Squier Jerome Bonaparte Squier (1838 – 1 June 1912) was a British-American luthier . "J.B." Squier was an English immigrant who arrived in Battle Creek, Michigan in the latter part of the 19th century. A farmer and shoemaker who had learned the fine European art of violin making, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1881 where he built and repaired violins with his son, Victor Carroll (V.C.) Squier. Squier made 600 instruments during his career. He made his own amber-brown, lustrous varnish. Among his notable violins were

180-510: The V. C. Squier Company in early 1965, shortly before Fender itself was acquired by CBS in May of the same year. By the mid-1970s, the Squier name was retired as the strings had taken the Fender name. The company itself was shuttered along with its Battle Creek factory in 1981. Before the Squier line of guitars was introduced in 1982, Fender was making lower priced guitars such as the Fender Lead series at its Fullerton, California plant. Until

198-561: The best violin strings were made in Europe. Victor Squier started making his own hand-wound violin strings, and the business grew so quickly that he and his employees improvised a dramatic production increase by converting a treadle sewing machine into a string winder capable of producing 1,000 uniformly high-quality strings per day. Squier violin strings , banjo strings and guitar strings became well known nationwide and were especially popular among students because of their reasonable price. In

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216-616: The best-known U.S.-trained violin makers and is often referred to as "the American Stradivarius." Victor Carroll Squier returned to Battle Creek, where he opened his own shop in 1890. As his business grew, Squier moved the company to 429 Lake Ave. and eventually to 427 Capitol Ave, S.W.—the famous "fiddle factory" of Battle Creek. With a limited market for violins in Battle Creek, however, Squier astutely sought relationships with national music schools and famous violinists. Up to 1900,

234-525: The introduction of the Fender Squier series, Fender had never produced lower priced guitars based on its main Stratocaster and Telecaster models and had always used different model designs for its lower priced guitars. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Fender was facing competition from lower priced Japanese copies. The higher priced Fender guitars were made in the United States and could not compete with

252-412: The latter part of the 19th century, was a farmer and shoemaker who had learned the fine European art of violin making. He moved to Boston in 1881, where he built and repaired violins with his son, Victor Carroll Squier. To this day, their violins are noted for their exceptional varnishes, and they command high prices as fine examples of early U.S. instrument craftsmanship. Indeed, Squier was ranked among

270-797: The lower prices of Japanese made Fender copies. In the early 1980s, Japanese labor and production costs were much lower than in America and to compete with the Japanese made guitars, Fender moved the lower priced Fender guitar production from America to Japan. Fender was also losing sales in Japan to Japanese guitar brands such as Tōkai , Greco and Fernandes and the establishment of Fender Japan would benefit Fender sales in Japan, as well as overseas. Fender began negotiations with several Japanese musical instrument distributors and reached an agreement with Yamano Gakki and Kanda Shokai to establish Fender Japan. Yamano Gakki

288-572: The name FUJIGEN. In mid/late 1992, FUJIGEN obtained a part of the Orville by Gibson contract which ended in 1998 and from then on have made Epiphone Japan solid body guitars, some Gretsch models and their own branded FGN guitars. FUJIGEN still manufactures OEM guitars for companies like Ibanez and Epiphone but in much smaller quantities than in the past. FUJIGEN has three factories: the Omachi factory in Omachi ,

306-819: Was known for once being part of Epiphone Japan . Kanda Shokai owned the Greco brand name and one of the conditions of the Fender Japan agreement was that Kanda Shokai cease production of its own Greco Fender copies. This arrangement benefited Fender because it removed the Greco Fender copies from the Japanese market, which were selling in Japan at much lower prices than the American made Fenders and it also benefited Kanda Shokai because Kanda Shokai could then distribute Japanese made Fender branded guitars in Japan. Further negotiations between Fender and Japanese guitar factories took place. Tokai

324-448: Was seriously considered to start building the first Japanese made Fenders, but after a breakdown in negotiations, FujiGen Gakki was chosen instead. The initial Squier models were launched on July/August 1982. Over time, the Squier series slowly evolved to include original model designs and production has moved from Japan to various other Asian countries such as Korea, China and Indonesia. These guitars were massively successful and some of

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