Hayman Guitars and Basses were built from 1970 to 1973 in London, England using designs by James Ormston Burns and Bob Pearson for the Dallas Musical company, later known as Dallas Arbiter. Many of the designs were heavily influenced by previous Burns models.
The actual construction was by Shergold, owned by Jack Golder and Norman Houlder who from 1968 were building for the Burns, Rosetti and Barnes & Mullins brands.
The Ormston Burns company was purchased in 1965 by the Baldwin Piano Company, and most of the Burns models were rebranded as Baldwin. In 1967 Baldwin also purchased the Fred Gretsch company, and soon discontinued the Burns / Baldwin guitars altogether. This freed James Ormston Burns to join Dallas Music, leading to Hayman guitars.
Burns left the company in 1971, leaving Bob Pearson to continue development with Shergold still building the guitars and basses. In late 1972 Dallas Music committed to a brand new and large manufacturing facility in Shoeburyness, Essex, moving all of their production -including Vox amplifiers – to that location by 1974. Unfortunately, the financial stresses of this new construction caused the collapse of Dallas in 1975.
Ultimately, Shergold ceased work on other brands to focus on their own designs.
