cite any sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message valley arts guitar former type private industry musical instruments founded 1975 founder mike mcguire and al carness defunct 1999 headquarters north hollywood california area served global products electric guitars parent gibson guitar corporation website the valley arts guitar official website valley arts telecaster style m series deluxe valley arts guitar is an american electric guitar manufacturer currently owned and operated by the gibson guitar corporation . history edit mike mcguire and al carness founded the company in the mid 1970s in north hollywood california a district of los angeles california in the san fernando valley ; the name valley arts is a reference to the firm s original location . partners in a music store and repair shop their repairs and customizations gained the attention of los angeles studio musicians and jazz guitarists such as lee ritenour steve lukather tommy tedesco and larry carlton . citation needed they began building custom guitars from scratch in 1977 and by 1983 demand for these guitars had increased to the point of requiring a separate manufacturing facility . citation needed most of their guitars had a radical styling similar to that of a superstrat ; others were modified versions of fender s popular designs the stratocaster and the telecaster . signature valley arts features often included highly figured wood grain on the front translucent colored finishes gold hardware floyd rose locking tremolos emg and seymour duncan humbucking pickups . in late 1990 the store was destroyed by fire . underinsured mcguire and carness found it necessary to sell the store and concentrate on the manufacturing side of the business . in an attempt to expand their business in 1992 they sold half of valley arts to the korean guitar manufacturer samick . they quickly became dissatisfied with their positions in the company and the quality of the guitars manufactured by samick and by 1993 they had moved to positions at gibson . through the 1990s gibson was moving to expand and diversify its brands and by the late 1990s they had decided to acquire the valley arts name as an outgrowth of the gibson custom shop . in late 2002 valley arts reopened as a music store repair facility and small manufacturer specializing in custom guitars in downtown nashville . al carness managed the store ; mike mcguire is operations manager of the gibson custom division which oversees the valley arts line of guitars . the nashville store closed in 2005 . mike mcguire officially retired august 3 2012 . external links edit the valley arts guitar official website read the valley arts guitar story site dedicated to pre samick pre gibson valley arts guitars retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title valley arts guitar & oldid 737688376 categories guitar manufacturing companiesnorth hollywood los angeleshidden categories articles lacking sources from february 2008all articles lacking sourcesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2008articles with unsourced statements from january 2008 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 4 september 2016 at 12 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view