Dear influential,
This has been an extremy tough quest, but I finally found the answer
to your question.
The manufacturing company, or rather the original trade brand, of the
S101 guitar is indeed "Drive". This was not too hard to find out, a
quick web search for "EFS23", "S101", and "Drive S101" led me to
numerous product descriptions suitable for comparison. The result was
that the instruments are identical and that the brand name I had to
look for was "Drive".
From the musiciansfriend.com website, where also an identical S101 is
displayed together with other Drive brand products, I knew what the
"Drive" logo looks like:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=030916095835062214036098901963/g=guitar/search/b=2326
The next step was to search the Chinese Trademark Database for a
manufacturer of musical instruments who uses the trademark "Drive" and
the same logo. I finally found it:
DRIVE
SunXiaoZhunCunNan
Da JianChang Town
WuQing District
TianJin City
CHINA
However, I was not satisfied with this information. I now knew the
location of the manufacturer, but there was no detailed contact
information. So I went on and performed many additional searches using
the information I already had. Since Drive brand musical instruments
are sold in the USA, the trademark surely had to be registered there.
So I searched the US (and also the British) trademark databases for
the owner of "Drive".
Again, I was lucky: Both in the USA and the UK, "Drive" is registered
by a Korean manufacturer of guitars and amplifiers, Shinko
Corporation. Another search using the company's name revealed that
part of their product line is produced in China, Tianjin City, Wuqing
District.
I then found the Shinko website. The S101 is not among the guitars
displayed there - but that is understandable. Instruments sold under
the "Shinko" brand are more expensive than the rather cheap "Drive"
label guitars. It is understandable that the company keeps their
low-price instruments strictly out of sight when presenting their
regular line of products.
However, they do not hide the "Drive" amplifiers. Some of them, most
probably the "better" ones, are the same I already saw in the
presentation of Drive products at musiciansfriends.com. Those
photographs also proved that Drive products have several different
logos, not only the one registered in the Chinese trademark database.
So the company manufacturing the S101 and the Drive amplifiers are one
and the same: Shinko, in its Chinese factory.
The last step was searching for Shinko's address, since they don't
reveal it (at least not in English) on their website. Here is the
result:
Shinko Corporation
#197-1, Nae-Dong, Ojeong-Gu
Bucheon City
Kyungki-Do
South Korea
--
Phone: +82-32-684-5100
Fax: +82-32-677-2204
E-Mail: ickyu@shinko.co.kr / shinko@shinko.co.kr
Website: http://www.shinko.co.kr
Since I find it rather unlikely that the Chinese factory is allowed to
sell their products on their own, without consulting Shinko first, I
recommend asking the company's Korean head office directly.
Sources:
ASC Guitars: S101 Guitar Line - EFS23
http://www.ascguitars.com/PagesGuitars/eg/trads/EFS23AW.html
musiciansfriend.com: Drive Brand Products
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=030916095835062214036098901963/g=guitar/search/b=2326
Official Chinese Trademark Database
http://www.chinatrademarkdatabase.com/
NIC.com Whois Database
http://www.nic.com/cgi-bin/wp.cgi
United States Patent and Trademark Office: Trademark Database
http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
UK Patent Office: Trademark Database
http://webdb4.patent.gov.uk/tm/text
Shinko Corporation
http://www.shinko.co.kr
Korea Musical Instrument Industry Association: Shinko Corporation
http://www.music-korea.co.kr/kmiia/english/eshinko.htm
Search terms used (in selection):
s101 "electric guitars"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=s101+%22electric+guitars%22&meta=
"drive s101"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22drive+s101%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
"drive amplifiers"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22drive+amplifiers%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
shinko "nae dong"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=shinko+%22nae+dong%22&meta=
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Scriptor |
Clarification of Answer by
scriptor-ga
on
16 Sep 2003 13:33 PDT
Dear influential,
A quick update: I just found the definitive proof that Shinko Corp. is
indeed the company behind the Drive / S101 line of guitars.
The Google cache version of the currently unavailable website
"driveamp.com" listed, in its guitars section ("2003 Drive Electric
Guitar List"), also the EFS23 type:
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:kb8QiIo7FNQJ:www.driveamp.com/drive_elec_guitars.htm+%22efs23%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
When I searched the NIC.com database for the ownerd of the domain
"driveamp.com", I found out that it is the Shinko Corporation:
http://www.nic.com/cgi-bin/wp.cgi
"Registrant: Shinko
E-Mail: ickyu@shinko.co.kr
Address: 197-1 Nae-Dong (...) Korea"
So there can be no doubt: The company behind Drive / S101 guitars,
including the EFS23, is Shinko.
Regards,
Scriptor
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