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Burnin' Chrome
Issue 23, Oct/Nov, 2008
Guitarist Australia Magazine |
Behind the Nameplate
Editorial • Making Music Magazine, November/December 2008
 All Jim Normandy ever wanted to do was play rock ‘n’ roll music or be in the music business. Growing up in the 1960s, he’d hear his mom listen to Janis Joplin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin and think “this is what I want.”
But like many other musicians, Normandy realized playing rock ‘n’ roll for a living would be difficult while trying to raise a family. “It’s difficult to do the band thing when you are starting a family and a career,” says Normandy. “So I let it go.” He played bass for a few punk bands in college and started building his own bass guitars. When he first started thinking of how to make a bass, he tried thinking of different materials to use than just traditional wood. He experimented with plastic and fiberglass but wasn’t impressed with the results. One day he asked a welder friend if he’d help him make an aluminum bass.
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Aluminum Guitar Hits Market, Captures NAMM’s Best of Show
• Jazz & Blues Report, September 2008 , Issue Number 308
SALEM ORE – An Oregon-based guitar company has hit the market with the world’s first production aluminum archtop guitar. Introduced in July in Nashville, Normandy
Guitars instantly gained international acclaim and captured best of show honors at NAMM, the largest music trade show in the world.
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The Birth of Normandy Guitars
Music & Sound Retailer, Volume 25, No. 10
by Brian Berk
 Let's face it: If you're going to be a new player in the ultra competitive guitar manufacturing market, you'd better be different. Jim Normandy, founder and CEO of Normandy Guitars, believes he has that unique product end users will covet.
There's no question Normandy Guitars are different. The guitars are the first to feature lightweight aluminum archtops. Salem, Ore.-based Normandy debuted the product at Summer NAMM a few months ago. The launch came just one month after Jim Normandy obtained a U.S. patent on his product.
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Sneak Peak at the Normandy
Volume 68 - Australian Guitar Magazine
 Winner of the Best in Show at the recent Nashville NAMM show, the "virtually indestructible" aluminum Normandy guitars are not far from arriving in Australia.
Here's some background on these sexy chrome beasts: you get classic arch top curves with a vintage Bigsby vibrato tailpiece on an aircraft-grade aluminum body which produces smooth warm tones with maximum sustain.
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Normandy Delivers Archtop to Loaded Guitarist
September 3, 2008 - Vintage Guitar Magazine
 Normandy Guitars delivered one of its aluminum archtop guitars to Mike Squires, guitarist for Duff McKagen's band, Loaded. Squires played the guitar at the band's gig at Seattle's Hell's Kitchen last weekend. The guitar was an instant hit with musicians and fans alike. "Wow! Everyone from the other bands to the people working at the club to the eventual crowd at the venue was floored by the guitar," states Squires. "I received a number of emails from people asking me what that blinding beauty was!"
Jim Normandy of Normandy Guitars introduced his aluminum archtop this summer. Squires sought Normandy Guitars after searching online for guitars made of alternate materials. "I like this guitar for many reasons, explains Squires. "There is NO denying the alternate materials used in building this guitar from the second you open the case. From 10 feet away or 100 feet away, this guitar sends a glaring beauty. It is kind of like wearing a Nudie suit or having your own little micro-pyrotechnical show right in your hot little hands!"
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Musical pioneer makes his mark
Salem man builds award-winning aluminum guitars
August 2, 2008
By K. Williams Brown • Statesman Journal
 For 15 years, Jim Normandy worked patiently on his idea. Through 15 prototypes — thicker metal, thinner metal, different shapes, different aluminum grades — he slowly developed a lightweight archtop guitar with an aluminum body.
The Salem resident originally jumped into making instruments for himself in the early '90s.
"I'm a bass player, and back when all of the acoustic bass stuff was going on, I wanted an acoustic bass," he said.
Although Normandy couldn't afford the $3,000 price tag, he thought he could make one himself — out of plastic, wood or metal. After seeing his friends' reactions to his metal prototypes, he decided the idea could have some commercial merit ...
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Guitar maker rocks industry with aluminum bodies
August 1, 2008
by Andy Giegerich • Portland Business Journal
 Jim Normandy designs and manufactures an award-winning guitar that's both sleek and sensible. It's strong enough to be compared to an aircraft and cool enough that its users include cult favorites Frank Black of the Pixies and Billy Zoom of X. Yet when performing, the man who wants to make Oregon a guitar-making Mecca occupies a different part of the stage ...
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 Inside the Normandy guitar
August 2, 2008
By K. Williams Brown • Statesman Journal
Normandy Guitars are made at Zephyr Engineering in South Salem. When they're not making the world's first aluminum production archtop, Zephyr cranks out aircraft parts, wood-burning stoves, truck bumpers and more ...
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Normandy Guitars Aluminum Archtop Takes A Hot Bath With Zincate
Salem, Oregon's Normandy Guitars will be at Summer NAMM 2008 with the world's first production aluminum archtop guitar. It's a lightweight aluminum guitar that CEO Jim Normandy has developed after a decade and a half of building aluminum bass guitars.
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Macsimum Awards: Best of Show NAMM 2008
We see guitar manufacturers come and go a lot, but very few make the leap to your local musical instrument dealer that go beyond a smaller name knock-off of the guitar you might really want. In this case, seek out what you want and hold on to your strap when you hear the monster tone of Normandy Guitars.
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Normandy Guitars Launches First Production Aluminum Archtop
Normandy Guitars, a new market player from Salem Oregon, introduced their new lightweight aluminum archtop guitar. It is made out of specially selected aircraft-grade aluminum and the company claims that the material selection results in sustain qualities that are superior to traditional wood guitars.
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SUMMER NAMM: Impressive opening
Another sublime was the launch of Normandy Guitars, aluminium archtop semi-acoustics that look jaw droppingly good and play just as well. The project is the baby of Jim Normandy, who has now established an efficient and sufficient production system that he hopes can meet the sort of numbers he hopes will be wanted.
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2008 Summer NAMM Draws Strong Numbers of Buyers to Nashville
“The show has actually surpassed my wildest dreams,” said Jim Normandy, Normandy Guitars, Salem, Ore.
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Guitarras Normandy...guitarras de aluminio (Spanish Article)
Jim Normandy empezo fabricando bajos de cuerpo de aluminio, ahora una guitarra tipo Archtop que será presentada en la exposición de instrumento y equipo Namm del verano. La pregunta es... ¿para que buscar alternativas de materiales?
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