S.D. CURLEE USA

In the early 1970s, Randy Curlee was the owner of a Chicago based music store. Curlee recognized a need for an inexpensive, hand built quality guitar; and in the late 1970s the instruments he offered ranged in price from $350 (guitar models) to $399 (basses). Curlee thought that the S.D. moniker was better than using his first name. Curlee was also the first to plan on overseas reproductions occurring, and devised a plan to circumvent that from happening (See S.D. Curlee Internatonal). After the company closed in 1982, Curlee was involved in Yamaha´s guitar production. Curlee also marketed the Zoom sound processors before leaving the music industry.
It is estimated that 15,000 instruments were built during the seven years of production. The majority were basses, and about 3,000 were guitars. Instruments with three digit serial numbers up to around 1000 are the first production models, and serial numbers under 4000 are from the mid- to late 1970s. After number 4000, the numbering scheme changed (source: Michael Wright, Guitar Stories, Volume One).