Below is a copy of an email sent to the CGW Webmaster by Ed Rider. He has given me permission to post it on our site.
John,
By all means, you may post my email.
"Cortley" was Southland's house brand. They owned that name. And yes, many if not most of the Japanese Cortley's were manufactured through the factories that Jack Westheimer had relationships with. He was really a pioneer when it came to importing Japanese guitars. Since he had the contacts already established, it was easier for a distributor to let him make the arrangements for manufacturing in exchange for a percentage of the cost from the distributor, and likely a commission from the manufacturer.
Make no mistake, Jack Westheimer did not own the Cortley name. There were only three companies that distributed Cortley Guitars; Southland Musical merchandise Corp in Greensboro, NC, Maxwell Meyers in Dallas, TX, and Harris Fandell in Massachusetts. All three companies were under the same ownership which was Onsite Energy Systems.
Jack used many different factories during those years. One that comes to mind as a major one in those days was Terada. Another was Daion. But there were others.
Thanks,
Ed Rider
Posted by cortleyguitars
at 5:28 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 9 December 2009 5:36 PM EST
