A trio of guitars on display at Breedlove Guitar Co. in September 2008, when the company was moving into its new headquarters on Bend's west side. The company has been purchased by Iowa-based Two Old Hippies.

Bend’s Breedlove Guitar Co. has been purchased by Two Old Hippies, an Iowa-based company that makes and sells guitars and clothing.

The deal closed Nov. 30.

“Breedlove joined the Two Old Hippies family,” Tom Bedell, who gave his title as one of the Two Old Hippies, said Wednesday. The other is his wife, Molly.

Breedlove, founded in 1990 by Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson, according to The Bulletin’s archives, built its guitars for years in Tumalo before moving into its new 20,000-square-foot shop near Summit High School in 2008.

The company also makes mandolins, and in March added ukuleles to the lineup.

Breedlove employs about 50 people, said Michelle Carney, spokeswoman and business manager.

Bedell said Breedlove will continue making guitars, mandolins and ukuleles in Bend. Some of Breedlove’s recent models will be discontinued, Bedell said, because they cost too much to produce, but they will be replaced by new lines.

During a recent visit to Bend, Bedell met with Breedlove employees and designed some new models, which the company wants to show off next month in Anaheim, Calif., at the National Association of Music Merchants trade show, one of the largest for musical merchandise.

Bedell loves Bend, he said, and he praised Breedlove employees’ skills and quality. While it’s too early to discuss specifics, he said, he would like to increase employment at the Bend guitar-making company.

“My intention is to grow it as big as we can possibly grow it,” he said.

Two Old Hippies has two other guitar lines, Bedell and Great Divide guitars. Both are made in China, which made for a long trip when Bedell wanted to check out the wood for his instruments.

“Now, all I have to do is go to Bend,” he said.

Two Old Hippies serves as the parent company for the guitar manufacturing and 2OH Threads, Molly Bedell’s clothing company, which offers gifts for hippie chicks, guys, boys and girls, according to the website.

“We’re a lifestyle company,” Bedell said. “Our slogan is peace, love and rock ’n’ roll.”

Two Old Hippies was incorporated in Iowa in 2009, the same year the Bedells bought The Great Divide, a music store in Aspen, Colo., that also led to the name of the guitar line, according to Tom Bedell and his company’s website.

But Bedell’s experience in the guitar business stretches back to the 1960s, when he began importing guitars from Japan and selling them in Iowa. He called the ’60s and ’70s “probably the happiest time of my life.”

Bedell later took over his family’s fishing tackle business, Berkley, which later became Pure Fishing. He built it into a $500 million company, he told the publication Musical Merchandise Review.

The Jarden Corp. bought Pure Fishing in 2007 for $300 million in cash, along with other considerations, according to Jarden’s 2007 annual report.

Bedell said he and Molly sailed the Pacific for a while, but realized they missed being in business, and in 2009 when the music store went on the market, they bought it.

Peter Newport, Breedlove’s former president, decided not to stay with the company, said Bedell, who praised Newport’s management and marketing at Breedlove.

Kim Breedlove, who designs and builds the company’s most exclusive instruments, will continue.

Bedell did not have a title for Kim Breedlove, whom he called a genius who has mastered design, inlay and other aspects of guitar making. Maybe, Bedell said, Breedlove would be “chief inspirer.”

“If we ever changed our name, Bedell said, “he’d be our third old hippie.”

On the Web

For more information, visit http://breedlovemusic.com or www.twooldhippies.com