There is a great deal of misinformation that has made it into the public domain over the years with regard to the later production “Astron” Gittler guitars. These guitars were the result of an abortive effort to begin a larger scale production run of the original Gittler guitar. After Allan Gittler had resolved to move his family to Israel he decided to continue the fabrication of his brainchild with an Israeli machinist (allowing him to participate in a supervisory capacity). He was persuaded to enter into a contract by two unscrupulous business associates with manufacturing and distribution contacts on both continents. The contract was written in Hebrew (which Allan did not read and simply accepted on trust).

These guitars were made very poorly. The spines were distorted and the corresponding torsion caused the frets to be out of flatness. The solution that Astron Manufacturing chose to correct the problem involved pressing the portions that were out of manufacturing tolerance into thermoformed plastic body and neck parts to correct for the deviations. When Allan discovered Astron’s intent he forbade it – but his contract prevented him from legally stopping them. He demanded that his name be removed from the product (a request which was not honored for the most part) so he sent out a letter to warn potential buyers and distributors.

That letter effectively ended production of the Astron guitar.