Steve Onotera – the popular YouTube guitar player who goes by the name of Samurai Guitarist – has become the latest guitar personality to launch their own gear brand with the unveiling of the Otera TK-1. He can now add “entrepreneur and guitar maker” to his already stacked resume, after Onotera announced the launch of his almost-eponymous gear brand and its first-ever electric guitar, the TK-1. “However, 10 years into this YouTube thing and no brands have expressed any interest in doing a signature guitar with me. I’ll do it myself.”Samurai Guitarist began working with guitar brand guru Tracy Hoeft to get his vision off the ground, with the resulting model going through a number of refinements and prototype phases before being finally signed off earlier this year. All of those players spoke to Guitar World back in 2022 about the rise in artist-led gear companies.