Lindert Guitars

Lindert Guitars was a handmade electric guitar manufacturing company founded in 1986 in Chelan Falls in Wenatchee, Washington. Production of guitars was moved to Korea and the company shut down shortly afterwards, with the last guitars created around 2002. Most of their guitars were named following a railway theme, with names including Conductor, Diesel and Loco-Motive.

These unusual guitars were handmade and featured semi-hollow, machined MDF bodies with cloth or tweed insets that resembled those found on vintage radios. They are also known for the "escape velocity" neck profile - ergonomically designed to be half rounded and half vee for faster playing action and less hand fatigue, which is regarded as one of their strongest features. All Lindert guitars also featured a headstock which resembles a hand giving a "thumbs up", a design patented by Charles Lindert himself. The maker was supposedly so pleased with the design of his guitar body that he gave himself a mental thumbs-up, and then decided to fashion the headstock to resemble one. Some models included the "Missing Link" switch, which allowed several pickup combinations not available on other guitars, including neck/bridge and using all three pickups at once.

Lindert guitars have become highly sought by collectors due to their quirky and unusual designs, quality construction, good sound and scarcity.

The guitars made in Korea can be distinguished from the US-made versions in several ways:

• a smooth finish
• smaller headstock with a decal that runs parallel to the strings
• no screws beneath the bridge on the front of the body
• a truss rod adjustment at the headstock
• a neckplate with a serial number stamped on it, usually starting with a "9"

Guitars manufactured included:

• Lindert Conductor
• Lindert Diesel S
• Lindert John Henry
• Lindert Locomotive S
• Lindert Locomotive S Baritone
• Lindert Locomotive T HH
• Lindert Locomotive T Series
• Lindert Skyliner
• Lindert Twister
• Lindert Franklin HH