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Most of us tell our stories from our own perspective and I can do nothing any different but to offer my perspective on the J.Backlund Design chapter of my life,

  I can  only offer the facts as I remember them and while its pretty good.. my memory is still fallible, So Please understand that these pages are meant only as guidelines and generalizations of how things happened.

 

  J.Backlund Design guitars was established in Oct 2007 when Kevin Maxfield and myself  incorporated "Bennett-Maxfield Music Products", and we took our first prototype guitars to the winter NAMM show in Anaheim Ca 2008.

There was enough interest in the guitars from that show, that we felt it was worth moving forward with trying to build a factory to produce them. so, a building was secured, tooling purchased, and work started,

By late 2009 things were looking rough as The economy was in the tank,  plenty of poor business decisions had been made and even a thief or two had tricked us out of a lot of money.   Investors were sought quickly in order to keep the company afloat.

All while I was still trying to build tools fixtures jig and prototypes AND production guitars for 7 different models as well.

  in 2010 the company was reformed under the "Bennett, Maxfield and Lewis" banner.  (BML inc for short) 

 With a new infusion of capital and a better long term vision for the future, we felt there was still life to be breathed into the company..  but as fate would have it, things were not as simple as they seemed.

The Economic downturn in 2008 had really put a large hole in our target markets wallets,  which left us  with precious little resources to continue building guitars in the USA.   So the decision to go to Korean manufacture was made,

 a Kickstarter video produced, and we raised the funds needed to build the "Retronix" models...

but even they did not produce the desired results. and so the company  stopped producing all guitars in 2014.

 I left the company voluntarily on Feb 10th 2014.  John Backlund left not long after

the original 7 year run of  J.Backlund Design Guitars came to an end..

  BML inc. still exists.. but I do not know what they plan to do in the future.

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Recognizable Details of J.Backlund Design guitars.

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Most J.Backlund Design guitars have a truss rod cover with the model number engraved on it.

  a very few had custom truss rod covers with pet names on them instead of the model.

BML inc/J.Backlund Design guitars never kept accurate serial numbers on these instruments.

Most J.Backlund Design Guitars never received any kind of serial number at all, though a very few did receive stamped numbers in the wood. but most are not even readable under the paint.

which was why this serialization method was abandoned.

 Click on the models below to see photo galleries and information about specific models.

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I'd like to offer my sincere "Congratulations" to John Backlund for the successful launch of his new "Backlundguitars.com" website. 

 his partnering with Eastwood guitars seems to be a match made in heaven.

I'm very happy to see that his designs have come to full light in the guitar world as that was always my goal.

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  I wish John all the best in his new adventure!

if your interested in one of Johns designs,

Please click the link above to visit his website.

There you may purchase directly from John Backlund himself.

 

 If you have any questions about the original USA made J.Backlund Design guitars.

Please conTact

Kevin@jbacklund.com

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Disclaimer:

  Bennett Music Labs no longer has any affilation with JOhn Backlund, BML inc. or J.Backlund Design guitars.

our contract to build those guitars has been completed.

we do not have any parts for these guitars, nor will we build any.

Please visit my J.Backlund Archives pages for specific model information.

 I will make available all information I have on these instruments there.

Thank you.

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