D’Leco was a small guitar company based in Oklahoma City founded by James W. Dale and Maurice Johnson in the early 1990’s.  The  D'Leco is a contraction of the words, "Dale" and "Company" and evokes the famous New York archop makers. Dale first made a guitar in 1959 with his father but then stopped guitar making until 1991. At this time Dale began to make archtops and was introduced to Maurice Johnson who had a talent for marketing. The two of them developed D'Leco archtop designs and negotiated licensing and production deals with major guitar manufacturers. One of their best known models was the “Charlie Christian” guitar line which was developed with Korean guitar manufacturer, Samick Guitars.

Source: Maurice Johnson, The history of D'Leco Guitars (21 March 2017)