mmr-april-2011
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MMR April 2011TRANSCRIPT
A p r i l 2 0 1 1w w w . m m r m a g a z i n e . c o m
NEW, DIGITAL VERSION: www.mmrmagazine.com
Cover April.indd 1 3/22/11 3:04 PM
2 MMR APRIL 2011
www.mmrmagazine.com
MMR Musical Merchandise Review® (ISSN 0027-4615) founded in 1879, is published monthly by Symphony Publishing, LLC, 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494 (781)453-9310, publisher of School Band and Orchestra, Choral Director, Music Parents America and JazzEd. All titles are federally registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Symphony Publishing, LLC. Subscription Rates: U.S.A., US possessions, one year $32; two years $40. Canada one year $80; all other countries one year $159. Single issues $5 each. May Supplier Directory $35. Periodical-Rate Postage Paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER/SUBSCRIBERS: Send address change to Musi-cal Merchandise Review, P.O. Box 8548, Lowell, MA 01853. Periodicals circulation is directed to music dealers and retailers, wholesalers and distributors, importers and exporters and manufacturers of all types of musical instruments and their accessories, related electronic sound equipment, general musical accessories, musical publications and teaching aides. The publishers of this magazine do not accept responsibility for statements made by their advertisers in business competion. No portion of this issue may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Copyright ©2011 by Symphony Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved. Printed in USA.
APRIL 2011 VOL.170 NO. 4
Contents
On the cover: Hohner HFM100-VSB Mandolin
In every issue:
4 Editorial6 Upfront16 Financial18 People80 New Products88 Supplier Scene89 Classifieds96 Advertisers’ Index
48 Fretted: Yamaha A SeriesThe first product line developed by Yamaha’s U.S. team, specifically for the American market aims to be the “workhorse” in any guitarist’s arsenal.
50 Fretted Gear Product Spread
64 Retail: Robb’s MusicStore manager Todd Wiener and his team cater to the diverse, eclectic field of musicians in Boulder, Colo-rado.
68 Brass & Woodwind: Antigua Winds Pro One Saxophone
Antigua’s new Pro One sax features a number of innovations that make it “the most significant product launch” in the company’s history.
70 RPMDA Exhibitor Listing & Schedule
74 Guest Editorial: My Soap Box is a Piano/Organ Bench
Veteran performer, clinician, educa-tor, and author Bill Irwin shares his observations on what does – and does not – get customers to pull the trigger on a piano or organ purchase.
BLUEGRASS & COUNTRY22 Supplier Roundtable: Bluegrass & Country Market
MMR gets feedback from some of the heaviest hitters supplying instruments and related gear to players of these styles of music.
36 Bluegrass/Traditional Country Market The stripped-down accessibility of bluegrass and traditional country music makes it an appealing option for consumers in these economically unstable times and movies such as “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” as well as projects from a number of high-profile artists have sparked significantly increased interest in “old timey” music in the past decade. We spoke with individuals immersed in the bluegrass and traditional country scene to get a taste of the current state of the market and genre.
TOC April.indd 2 3/22/11 2:14 PM
Break on through.
© 2011 Samson | samsontech.com
Meteor Mic takes your recordings to another world.Make an impact with our most advanced USB studio mic. Hitting stores everywhere April 15th.
mmr_apr_fulls.indd 3 3/23/11 10:57 AM
EditorialSidney Davis
sdavis@ symphonypublishing.com
PUBLISHER Sidney L. [email protected]
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Rick [email protected]
EDITOR Christian [email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eliahu [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING WRITERSChaim Burstein, Dennis Carver, Kevin Mitchell, Dick Weissman
ADVERTISING MANAGER Iris [email protected]
SALES & MARKETING MANAGER Jason [email protected]
CLASSIFIED & DISPLAY AD SALES Maureen [email protected]
PRODUCTION MANAGER Laurie [email protected]
GRAPHIC DESIGNERSLaurie [email protected]
Andrew P. [email protected]
CIRCULATION MANAGERMelanie A. [email protected]
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTPopi [email protected]
SYMPHONY PUBLISHING, LLCChairman Xen Zapis
President Lee Zapis [email protected]
Chief Financial Officer Rich [email protected]
Corporate Headquarters26202 Detroit Road, Suite 300, Westlake, Ohio 44145440-871-1300www.symphonypublishing.com
PUBLISHING, SALES & EDITORIAL OFFICE: 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494 (781) 453-9310 Fax: (781) 453-9389www.mmrmagazine.com
Volume 170 Number 4 April 2011
®
4 MMR APRIL 2011
Profitless ProsperityRecent quarterly sales results from Wal-Mart and Sears Holding indicating that revenues were up and profits down, coupled with a statement from Campbell Soup Company that it sold more cans of soup in the quarter than the same quarter last year, but at “such deep discounts” that it eroded company profits, brought to mind a recent MMR column by guitar guru George Gruhn (October 2010) in which he stated, “It is my opinion that many of the problems in our industry today are not simply a matter of bad economy, but are a response to a market which has been absolutely flooded with too much new product.” He continued, “It’s extremely difficult to make money selling new instruments due to greatly reduced profit mar-gins… if we price them where they sell it is unprofitable.” While the Nashville mer-chant was specifically referring to the guitar market, the same analogy might well be applied to the entire spectrum of instruments ranging from band to keyboards. He further pointed out, “A well made guitar can last over 200 years with proper care” – the same may be said for much of the instrument family.
In truth, new products are the lifeblood of the music products industry. One need go no further than to walk an aisle at NAMM or MusikMesse, review the ads of industry trade and consumer magazines or, more specifically, check the traffic flow within your store after a major trade show… today’s challenge is to adroitly couple the product in a package that does not compete on price alone, and thus avoid what has loosely been termed, “profitless prosperity.”
In a message to shareholders, the Sears chairman, acknowledging the com-pany’s recent earnings shortfall, noted, “When industry margins are shrinking, an organization must respond by adding new, innovative products and bundling them with services and solutions that meet customers evolving needs… greater share is not sufficient to win… to be a leader requires constant innovation.”
While the music products business is not remotely connected to the rag trade, one might review the promotional efforts of the Joseph H. Banks clothing chain: Everyday is a sale day, but with a different twist. They never sell a single item: “Three suits for the price of one”; “one full price sport jackets coupled with six free items” (pants, shirts, sweaters); “70 per cent off second item.” You get the message. Granted, the chain sells primarily their own brand, which is a lot easier than selling “three Fender Guitars for the price of one,” but a guitar coupled with an accessory or lesson package moves the sale from price to value-added. These are not new concepts within the industry – astute dealers are continually running a gamut of promotional sales and events. However, as the Sears chairman stated above, shrinking margins require new solutions that match customers evolving needs and require constant innovation.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or, in more recent days Groupon and Dealon among others, may not make the sale, they could sell the sizzle… and if all else fails to dissuade the “price addicted consumer,” you may wish to post the fol-lowing comment from the English essayist John Ruskin prominently at the cash register: “There is scarcely anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man’s lawful prey.”
Editorial April.indd 4 3/21/11 4:54 PM
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PRS_Studio_Ad_Unfaithful_FINAL.indd 1 3/14/11 2:16 PMmmr_apr_fulls.indd 5 3/23/11 10:57 AM
6 MMR APRIL 2011
Upfront
Casey Joins C.F. Martin to Urge China to End Unfair Trade Practices On Wednesday, February 23, U.S. Sena-tor Bob Casey (D-Pa.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, joined C.F. Martin & Co. urging China to end un-fair trade practices that harm workers and businesses in the Lehigh Valley and around the country.
“Pennsylvania businesses are telling me that unfair trade practices by the Chinese have harmed their ability to compete and job losses substantiate those claims,” said Senator Casey. “The lack of protection on the part of the Chinese hurts C.F. Martin & Co. and countless other businesses and workers. China must address intellectual property rights infringements and currency undervalua-tion.”
“We are greatly honored to have an ongoing relationship with Senator Casey and we can’t express in words how much we appreciate his openness and willing-ness to assist us in rectifying our dilem-ma with respect to protecting our valued
trademark in China,” said C.F. Martin IV, chairman and CEO of C.F. Martin & Co. “This is not an easy issue and we hope that such a significant and caring voice will help to get positive action on this vital and frustrating issue.”
Since 2005, Martin Guitar has fought to register its mark with the Chinese government to protect its brand and to prevent Chinese individuals from selling counterfeit guitars. Last month, Senator Casey sent a letter to President Obama detailing the hardships imposed on C.F. Martin & Co. by China’s unfair trade practices and urging him to press the issue with Chinese President Hu Jintao during his visit to Washington. In the letter, Senator Casey urged President Obama to focus his discussions with Hu around intellectual property rights (IPR) protections and currency valua-tion. China’s inadequate intellectual property protections are well document-ed, the letter stated.
Last April, the Office of the United States Trade Representative placed China on its Priority Watch List, citing China’s poor level of IPR protection and enforcement. It is estimated that 2.4 mil-lion jobs have been lost in the U.S. since China joined the WTO in 2001; 95,700 of which were in Pennsylvania.
CEO Chris Martin IV and Senator Casey at the press conference Wednesday morning at Martin Guitar headquarters in Nazareth, Pa.
Seated (L to R): Victor Filonovich, director of product development, LP/Toca; Jay Wanamaker, KMC VP percussion; Martin Cohen, founder, LP; Joe Vasko, VP & GM, LP/Toca; Angelo Arimborgo, director of sales, LP/Toca. Standing (L to R): Mike Twigg, KAP; Jeff Ceresnie, KAP; Steve Grecco, di-rector of national accounts; James Petercsak, KAP; Mark Petrocelli, KAP; Joe Art, KAP; Adam Turbiner, Ovation product specialist; Mike Nieland, KAP.
KMC Forms Key Account Product Specialist TeamKMC’s newly formed Key Account Prod-uct Specialist (KAPS) team was created to service 400 accounts located across America, including Guitar Center, Sam Ash and KMC’s top 100 independent deal-ers. The KAPS will focus on merchandis-ing and product training for all KMC pro-prietary brands including: LP®, Toca® percussion, Gretsch® drums, Gibraltar® hard-ware, Sabian® cym-bals, Ovation® guitars, Takamine® guitars and Fender® accessories. In addition, KAPS will be brand ambassadors at in-store events such as clin-ics and sales events, along with industry events such as SXSW, PASIC and ASCAP. The KAPS team will report directly to Robert E. Lee, KMC’s vice president of sales.
KAPS Team members include:• Mike Twigg – Southwest territory/Team
Lead. Former KMC employee (original NAPS team). Most recently employed as a professional musician at Disney.
• Joe Art – Pac Northwest territory. For-mer KMC employee (original NAPS team). Guitarist with background in con-
sumer packaging industry.• Jeff Ceresnie – Upper Midwest/Ohio
Valley territory. Drummer with back-ground in MI retail.
• Mark Petrocelli – Central Southern states. Drummer with a successful sales career at Pro Mark and former GC RDM.
• James Petercsak – Northeastern states. Drummer previously employed by Sa-bian and GC.
• Mike Nieland – Southwest region. Former assistant buyer at GC and drummer.
Upfront.indd 6 3/21/11 4:55 PM
8 MMR APRIL 2011
Upfront
The catastrophic events of March in the Pacific Rim region have been pain-ful and heartbreaking to hear about and see. MMR extends our deepest sympathies to the people of Japan, who are in our thoughts during this time of crisis.
We’ve heard from a few of our friends in the industry and hope for the best from those we haven’t yet spoken with:
From Roland U.S. president Chris Bristol: “We are all saddened and shocked by the recent earthquake and resulting Tsunami that occurred yesterday in Japan. Our most recent information indicates that all Roland personnel and their families are safe and secure. There was no damage to our facilities.”
Kawai is thankful to report that our facilities were not damaged by the mas-sive earthquake and subsequent tsuna-mi that ravaged northern Japan. Our home city of Hamamatsu is located quite a distance south of the epicenter and remained safe from the devasta-tion.
As a company, our heartfelt sympa-thies go out to all who have been af-
fected by this terrible tragedy. Kawai Japan operates several music schools in the affected areas. As yet, we have been unable to reach any teach-ers or students associated with those schools—but we continue to hope for good news regarding their wellbeing once communication to the area is re-stored.
We are grateful for the many e-mails and calls we have received ex-pressing concern for our company and our people—and would ask our friends and industry colleagues to join us in directing thoughts and prayers toward Japan in support of the rescue and re-lief effort.
From Forestone Japan: We are all safe and luckily our office and factory have not been affected. It’s still a very strong shock for us. At this point we still plan to join the Frankfurt Musikmesse, however we surely don’t know what will happen in the following weeks. Let’s hope for the best.
Audio-Technica U.S. extends its deepest condolences to those affected by the 2011 Tohoku Pacific Coast earthquake. Audio-Technica Japan
facilities have not been damaged by the disaster, and all employees are ac-counted for and safe. Operations at Audio-Technica Japan are normal, although minimally affected by power outages, as office workers with long commutes are working from home when possible via cell phone and computer. The company is constantly monitoring the status of operations at all sites, with safety being the number-one priority.
Audio-Technica U.S. is assessing the effect this disaster may have on its supply chain, but at this time no major disruptions are anticipated.
To help in the relief and recovery efforts for communities affected by the Tohoku Earthquake, Audio-Technica U.S. is making a donation to the Japa-nese Red Cross Society.
“We are tremendously grateful that our colleagues in Japan are safe, and that our facilities have not been damaged,” said Audio-Technica U.S. president Phil Cajka. “Our deepest sympathies are with the victims of this disaster. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan, and to our colleagues and friends at Audio-Tech-nica Japan and their families.”
Reaction to Tragic Events in Japan
Clapton’s Gear Fetches over $2 Million at Auction
Collectors, fans and musicians alike gath-ered on Wednesday March 9 at Bonhams New York to celebrate the rock icon, Eric Clapton, whose personal collection of 75 guitars and 55 amps were auctioned off to benefit The Crossroads Centre in An-tigua. With 100 percent of the lots sold, the final auction total more than tripled
pre-sale expectations, with proceeds go-ing to the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre founded by Clapton in 1998.
Jon Baddeley, Worldwide Head of Col-lectables at Bonhams, said, “It has been a privilege and an honour working on this exceptional sale and being associated with one of the most iconic living musicians, Eric Clapton. Argu-ably the greatest guitarist of all time, Eric Clapton inspires an ever-expanding fan base, many of whom made the journey to Bonhams in New York over the past few days and joined us for this remarkable auction. We
were delighted to play our part in raising funds for The Crossroads
Centre, a charity with a noble mis-sion and a cause that remains very close to Eric’s heart.”
Guitar highlights included a 1948 Gibson L-5P, estimated at $20,000-
30,000, that sold for $82,960; and a 2005 Semites S22BP 3S, esti-mated at $12,000-18,000, which sold for $75,640. The top amp of
the sale was a pair of 1997 Fender Twin Amps, estimated at $9,000-12,000, sold for $42,700.
For more information, visit www.bonhams.com/
clapton.
Photo CreditIn our March 2011 Spotlight feature on Greg Billings, two pictures, one of Greg with his son Grant and one of Billings with Keith Mardak should have been credited to Zach Phillips and Music Inc.
Upfront.indd 8 3/21/11 4:55 PM
GREAT ARTISTS DEMAND GREAT TONE!Luke Doucet on Tour with Sarah McLachlan, Lilith Fair 2010
(L-R) YGM-3, DarkHorse DH15H Head / DHX12 extension cabinet, YGM-3
Photo: David Bergmanwww.davidbergman.net
- Luke Doucet - (Sarah McLachlan, Solo Artist & Producer)- Luke Doucet - (Sarah McLachlan, Solo Artist & Producer)
Visit www.traynoramps.com for more information on the DarkHorse or any Traynor product.Distributed in north america by Yorkville Sound
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10 MMR APRIL 2011
Upfront
Compared to last month, sales are now...
Pulse of the MI Nation
Compiled from replies to MMR’s on-going online survey of MI retailers. Visit www.mmrmagazine.com to participate...
Celestion Establishes NJ Sales OfficeCelestion has announced the establish-ment of a new US Sales Office, bringing with it significant investment in sales sup-port for the U.S. and Canadian markets.
Group One Ltd. has been the princi-pal importer and distributor of Celestion products in North America for the last 14 years. This important relationship has been instrumental in building the Celes-tion brand throughout the entire region.
“Since we began working together in the 1990s, Group One and Celestion have been close partners,” explains Ni-
gel Wood, Celestion’s managing direc-tor. “With Celestion expanding its pro audio range aggressively into the world-
wide distribution market, and Group One investing greater resources to sup-port their increased growth in the Live, Install, Post-Production, and Broadcast Markets, the time is now right for the
two companies to go their separate ways. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jack Kelly and his team at Group One for all their efforts and support dur-ing the last two decades.”
North American distribution will now be handled internally by Celestion, based out of the new sales office and warehous-ing facility, in Marlboro, New Jersey.
For all sales enquiries, call Stan Bur-jek at (815) 600-4718, or email [email protected]. After April 1st, call the Celestion sales office at: (732) 683-2356.
Mel Bay Partners with People’s Music Publishing HouseMel Bay Publications, Inc. has an-nounced a multi- million dollar licensing agreement with People’s Music Publish-ing House (PMPH), Beijing, China.
The company and representatives of People’s Music Publishing House made the announcement at Mel Bay’s head-quarters, where they were joined by Mis-souri Department of Economic Develop-ment (DED) officials for signing.
Beginning in May 2009, DED’s In-ternational Trade and Investment Of-fice, working with domestic staff and the agency’s China office, worked with Mel
Bay Publications in its search for business partners in China. Since the initial visit to the market by Mel Bay in 2009, negotia-tions and meetings between the two firms continued for approximately 12 months and ultimately led to Monday’s (February 28) announcement. In addition to the ini-tial licensing agreement, Mel Bay expects production from further projects with PMPH to exceed 5,000,000 units in the next five-to-ten years. The value of this agreement will be measured in tens of mil-lions of dollars for Mel Bay and People’s Music Publishing House.
Left to Right: Matthew Wang, sales manager – People’s Music Publishing House; Ann Pardalos, Department of Economic Development State of Missouri – manager, International Trade & Investment office; Xiaoshi DU, vice editor – People’s Music Publishing House; Bryndon Bay, president – Mel Bay Publications, Inc.; Terry Maglich, Business & Community Development manager State of Missouri; Yan Li, Department of Economic Development State of Missouri – International Business manager; William Bay, Chairman of the Board – Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
Capital Music’s Grand Opening A grand opening ribbon-cutting for four new businesses in Holly, Michigan – including Capital Mu-sic – took place on March 17 in the town’s Historic Main Street district. Capital Music offers guitar, piano, drum, mandolin and fiddle lessons and has an open stage for musicians to perform. For more information, visit www.capitalmusic.biz.
Down 41%
Up 35%
Level 24%
Upfront.indd 10 3/21/11 4:55 PM
Red RipperWant something new in a bass fuzzbox? This wickedly dynamic pedal gets meaner the harder you play, shifting from enhanced lower harmonics to buzz-saw, higher harmonic distortions. The sinister R.I.P. control drives your tone from vintage fuzz to monolithic distortion, into Brassmaster-style octaver fuzz and Moogie-style synth tones. Bloody amazing.
THE CURE FOR THE PEDAL BORED
Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.www.tech21nyc.comwww.tech21nyc.com
Boost R.V.B.From light shimmers to deep, swampy atmospheres, the R.V.B. emulates natural room ambiances, spring reverbs and vintage plate units. Add some retro audio-gunk with the Rumble control, engage the Trails function or add up to 9dB of clean boost for solos that pop.
Boost D.L.A.Create everything from clean digital-style delays, to warm analog ‘bucket brigade’ repeats, to grungy tape echo. Tweak your heart out with the feature-packed controls, including Tap Tempo, Triplets and Trails functions, and a boost of up to 9dB. If your tone sounds D.O.A. bring it back to life with the D.L.A.
Double Drive 3Xwith Private Stock Mod for 2011Prefer the even harmonic roar of a Class A power amp being pushed hard or the odd harmonic crunch of a Class A/B amp with the master volume dimed? How about both? How a bout both at once? With this 3-channel distortion pedal, you can use them separately or cascaded together for mammoth tones. The 2011 Private Stock Mod features more aggressive tones, a tighter low end, and a wider Level taper.
The Roto Choir provides players with a hyper-realistic emulation of a rotating speaker cabinet in a compact pedal. Specially developed SansAmp technology recreates the complex interactions of both the rotating lower speaker and the treble horn. Even the tonality of the original tube power amp and mic are included. A powerful control section allows you to adjust all of these elements to create endlessly rich, multi-dimensional modulations. Whatever instrument you play, the Roto Choir will make it sing.
Roto Choir
There’s no shortage of effects pedals that can color your sound but, when it comes to building a tone that
inspires you, it’s all in the ingredients. Every Tech 21 pedal has incredibly detailed, organic tones and a
powerful control set to explore tons of great-sounding possibilities. These pedals are tour-ready devices with
rock solid construction and military-spec components that deliver world-class, studio-grade sound quality.
Turn your pedalboard into a delicious smorgasboard. Savor the tones of an inspiring range of Tech 21 pedals.
The Bass Boost Chorus gives bass players something they have long deserved: a chorus that actually works. On bass. This pedal has been optimized to avoid the ‘motion sickness’ side-effects of traditional chorus effects. A key aspect of this design is the Detune control, which adjusts the pitch of the choral voices to create deep and lush chorus before you dial in any modulation. Put some sweet on your low with the Bass Boost Chorus.
Bass Boost ChorusBased on the lush analog chorus effects of the ‘70s, this design incoporates cutting-edge performance and unique effect combinations to create a throughly modern pedal. The comprehensive control array allows adjustment of every aspect of the effect, including depth, speed, mix and tone. A Pre-Delay control adds delay to the chorus to produce a huge range of tones, including flanging and doubler combination effects. When it’s time to bliss out, hit the Multi Voice switch for a celestial ensemble-style effect.
Boost Chorus
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12 MMR APRIL 2011
Upfront
Well, So Much for That…
‘Guitar Hero’ Out, ‘Rocksmith’ In…
Santa Monica, California-based Activi-sion Blizzard Inc. announced last month that it will cease publishing the “Guitar Hero” video game series this year.
“Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s ‘Guitar Hero’ business unit and discontinue development on its ‘Guitar Hero’ game for 2011,” the company said in a statement. The decision was “based on the desire to focus on the greatest op-portunities that the company currently has to create the world’s best interactive enter-tainment experiences,” the firm said.
The announcement came as the com-
pany announced a record operating cash flow of $1.4 billion in 2010. Activision’s revenues last year from digital channels grew more than 20 percent to $1.5 billion.
For years now, debate has been wide-spread within the MI community as to whether games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” serve as an effective catalyst to create more music-making consumers. For GH, anyway, the issue is now dead in the water. “Rock Band 3” came out this past summer, however, and there’s no sign (yet) that developer Harmonix Music plans to follow Activision’s lead.
In related news…
According to the Hollywood Report-er, videogame publisher Ubisoft has announced a new title called ‘Rocksmith’, which can be played using real electric guitars.
The company is reportedly in negotiations with Gibson Guitars to sign up for a game and guitar bundle that is reported to cost around $200. Rocksmith will be ready for a September launch and feature 45 tracks including
tunes from the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Nirvana and more.
Ubisoft’s senior VP of marketing Tony Key distinguished ‘Rocksmith’ from ‘Guitar Hero’ by describing it as “a music experience” as opposed to “a party game.” (No word on what type of game Key considers ‘Rock Band’ to be…). “We will create a new gen-
eration of guitar players,” he said.Sounds familiar…
New Hal Leonard-De Haske London OfficeHal Leonard Corporation has an-nounced the opening of the new Hal Leonard-De Haske office in the Covent Garden area of London. This centrally located, expanded space will accommo-date the staff of both companies.
Mark Mumford will continue in his role of European sales & marketing direc-tor for Hal Leonard. He started with the company in 2003, and since 2008, Mum-
ford has overseen all aspects of the com-pany’s business in the UK and throughout Europe. The space will also house the UK sales office for De Haske, Europe’s largest instrumental music publisher, which Hal Leonard acquired in 2009.
Hal Leonard president Larry Morton says, “Following some major recent devel-opments in our European business – such as the long-term print licensing of the EMI
Music Publishing song catalog for Europe – we needed a more effec-tive London location for our opera-tions. Our Covent Garden office ide-ally positions us to work more closely with our friends at Music Sales Ltd. and our joint company, Hal Leonard Europe, and with some of our other key partners to grow our business.”
Mumford comments, “Covent Garden is home to much music-
making, from West End musicals and the Royal Opera House to a vibrant busking scene. Together with Henrietta Street’s long history of book publishing, this is an ideal home for Hal Leonard-De Haske. We look forward to the opportunities our new London set-up will bring.”Rachel Lindley, Mark Coull, Mark Mumford, Tom Venvell
TEC Awards to be Held at 2012 NAMM ShowThe TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio and NAMM recently an-nounced that the 27th Annual Tech-nical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards® will once again be held at the NAMM Show on Friday Jan. 20, 2012, in Anaheim, California.
Negotiations have been ongoing since January following a success-ful 26th Annual TEC Awards event, which was hosted for the first time at the NAMM Show. Under the new agreement, the organizations will remain autonomous with the TEC Foundation continuing to conduct the nominations and voting process as well as pursuing its charitable interests. For its part, NAMM will provide pro-duction and event management ser-vices for the TEC Awards. The TEC Awards is attended by manufactur-ers of audio equipment and software and the world’s top music producers, engineers, sound mixers and musical artists. A highpoint of the show is the Les Paul Award, presented to musical artists and others whose careers have exemplified the creative application of audio technology.
The 2012 NAMM Show will take place Jan. 19-22, 2012 in Ana-heim, Calif. For more information, please visit www.namm.org
Upfront.indd 12 3/21/11 4:55 PM
14 MMR APRIL 2011
Upfront
Fred Myers Piano Organs and Clocks Closing After 58 YearsFred Myers Piano Organs and Clocks has sold its building at 5310 Coldwater Road in Fort Wayne, Ind. and will go out of business af-ter 58 years. A going-out-of-busi-ness sale will extend through April.
Owner David Myers, Fred’s son, says the store’s website will still be active.
Ezzy’s Music Shop to CloseEzzy’s Music Shop in Van Buren, Maine, which has been serving northern Maine and Canadian musicians since 1948, will close May 7, the store’s owners have announced.
Michael and Patricia Ezzy, who have operated the shop since 1960, said the de-cision to close stems from their desire to
retire. They have no family members who are interested in taking over, and so have decided to close up shop permanently.
The store first opened in 1948 under the direction of Anthony Ezzy, a noted Van Buren musician and conductor of the area Silver Bell Band. He helped build a
large customer base before he turned the business over to his son, Michael, who branched out to attract even more Cana-dian customers when he launched duty-free service in 1973.
For more information, visit www.ezzysmusic.com.
Best Buy Supports Music Education - to the Tune of $1.24 MillionIn late February, Best Buy Co. Inc. and its children’s foundation announced a $1.24 million donation to the Grammy Founda-tion to support music education in high schools.
The contribution exceeds the com-pany’s 2010 goal by more than $250,000, ac-cording to a news release. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) has in recent years tailored its corporate giving strategy
toward programs that benefit teens. “Music is a foundational piece of Best
Buy’s DNA and our com-mitment to the music industry extends well be-yond the products we sell in our store,” said Best Buy spokeswoman Paula Prahl, in a statement.
The donation was pre-sented at Grammy Career
Day on the University of Southern California campus in Los An-geles.
Korg Inc. mourns the passing of com-pany chairman Tsutomu Katoh on March 15, 2011. Chairman Katoh passed away after a long fight with can-cer. A highly respected industry fig-ure, Katoh was beloved by his family, friends and colleagues.
President Seiki Kato releases the following statement: “Since he founded Korg Inc. in 1963, Mr. Katoh has led our company with great talent, vision and leadership. He was loved and re-spected by all the employees and Korg family members, and he made a huge contribution to the lives of countless musicians around the world.”
Korg USA president Joseph Cas-tronovo stated, “Chairman Katoh was a true visionary and a personal friend, and he will be missed by everyone at Korg and indeed, the entire music in-
dustry. Over the past twenty years, I have witnessed firsthand the ways in which Korg has flourished under his and his family’s guidance and lead-ership. His passion and professional goals were one and the same: to pro-vide innovative tools for musicians to help them grow their craft. And those goals remained the same throughout his life and career. He will be deeply missed.”
A funeral service was held March 24 in Japan.
The Avedis Zildjian Company report-ed the passing of Allen Kaylor, who died on March 4, 2011 after a long illness. Allen led the company’s successful sales operations for the southeast and central-southwest territories of the United States and Mexico for over 11 years, increasing
sales by building strong, long-term rela-tionships with dealers throughout the re-gion. Allen joined the Zildjian Company after a successful 17 year career with Ka-man Music where he held a similar posi-tion and worked as a sales manager for Ovation Instruments.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Allen. Our indus-try and the Zildjian Company have greatly benefited from Allen’s dedication and creative leader-ship. All of us at Zildjian will miss his humanity, passion, and humor,” said Debbie Zildjian.
A native of Carrollton, Georgia, Allen Kaylor was 58 years old. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and two sons, Michael and Scott.
Trade Regrets:
Upfront.indd 14 3/21/11 4:55 PM
16 MMR APRIL 2011
Financial
In March, Steinway Musical Instru-ments, Inc. (NYSE: LVB) reported earn-ings for the quarter and twelve months ended December 31, 2010.
Discussing fourth quarter results, CEO Dana Messina said, “We are pleased with our overall performance this quarter. We saw improvement in sales and gross mar-gins in both of our operating segments. Our piano business in the United States and Asia was very strong and our band in-strument sales continue to trend positively. We have further strengthened our balance sheet, ending the year in a very healthy fi-nancial position.”
Q4 2010 Compared to Q4 2009
• Sales of $88 million, up 8%• Gross margin increased to 33.2%
from 29.4%• Income from operations of $8
million, up 22%• Adjusted EBITDA of $9 million,
down 7%• Earnings per share decrease to
$0.28 from $0.44FY 2010 Compared to FY 2009
• Sales of $318 million, up 4%• Gross margin increased to 30.2%
from 27.7%• Income from operations of $23
million, up 72%• Adjusted EBITDA of $32 mil-
lion, up 21%• Adjusted earnings per share in-
creased to $0.67 from $0.42
Full year Adjustments are detailed in the attached financial tables.Balance Sheet Highlights
• Cash of $120 million• Inventory reduced 9% from De-
cember 2009Piano Operations
Domestically, demand continued to rebound in the fourth quarter. Unit shipments of Steinway grand pianos rose nearly 30% and shipments of mid-priced pianos increased 7% over the prior year period. Overseas, Steinway grand units were consistent with the prior year pe-riod while shipments of mid-priced pia-nos surged 37%. Piano gross margins improved in the quarter as a result of a higher mix of retail sales and steady pro-
duction schedules at both piano facilities.Year-to-date, domestic unit shipments
of Steinway grands were up 13% while mid-priced unit sales were slightly below 2009 levels. Shipments of Steinway grand pianos were strong in Asia, with units up 13%. However, the Company’s European business experienced weak demand for Steinway grands throughout 2010, with shipments down 10% from the prior year. Mid-priced piano sales in Europe and Asia combined were up 36% over 2009.
Band OperationsDuring the fourth quarter, increases
in sales of professional brass instruments and percussion products contributed to overall improved band segment revenue. Gross margins increased over the prior year period primarily as a result of better manufacturing efficiency.
For the year, sales increased slightly while order flow increased 12%. The benefit of steadier production rates more than offset the impact of higher sales pro-gram costs, resulting in significantly im-proved gross margins.
OutlookDiscussing management’s outlook,
Messina commented, “While 2010 was a challenging year, we are encouraged by our solid fourth quarter results, espe-cially in the United States. In 2011, we are expecting increased revenue in our band segment as positive order trends continue. In our piano division, we are anticipating the domestic market will continue its recovery during 2011 while European markets lag. With our factories running more efficiently, we can expect year-over-year increases in overall piano revenue and gross margins.”
Steinway Reports Quarterly Earnings
Financial.indd 16 3/21/11 4:56 PM
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18 MMR APRIL 2011
performance characteristics of passive sys-tems and loudspeakers.
GCI Technologies, whose brands include Gemini, Cortex and iKey, has announced the addition of Mark Wilder as vice presi-dent of Marketing. Prior to joining GCI, Wilder was the director of Marketing with Samson for the past five years.
In his new position, Wilder will create a new, worldwide marketing strategy for each brand, while developing all creative for ad-vertising, managing media relations, trade-shows and nurture growth in artist relations.
He will report to CEO Artie Cabasso.
KHS America has an-nounced the hiring of Mi-chael Robinson to head their marketing opera-tions as the new director of marketing. Taking over in the final month of the first quarter, Michael will be based out of the KHS America headquarters just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. He will head up KHS marketing efforts for Jupiter, Ma-pex, Majestic, Altus and Walden brands.
Robinson comes from D’Addario & Company, Inc., his most recent position be-ing senior product manager in charge of per-cussion for D’Addario. His responsibilities in-cluded Evans Drum Heads, percussion Artist and Educator relations, retail merchandising support and various education initiatives.
Alfred Music Publishing has announced the new management team for the Suzu-ki and Summy catalogs. Sharing in the editorial responsibilities will be Dave Black, Bob Phillips and Pam Phillips.
Dave Black, vice president and editor-in-chief, School and Church Publishing, will manage the business aspect of the catalog. Bob Phillips, director of String Publications, and Pam Phillips, String Production editor, will manage the ac-quisition and editorial part of the catalog.
In announcing these changes, Andrew Surmani, senior vice president of Market-ing and managing director of School and Church Publishing said, “We want to take advantage of new opportunities to ad-dress the needs of studio teachers who use the best-selling Suzuki materials, and to broaden the availability of these materials to teachers in the schools.”
Yorkville Sound has an-nounced that Laurence Bell has recently been elevated to brand manager for Hughes & Kettner in addition to his current DSM position. His newest responsibilities as brand manager will include US sales, re-tailer franchising, US marketing, product launching, sales training and establishing H&K as a leader in guitar amplification in the USA.
PeopleEminence Speaker LLC recently announced that Josh Martin has been pro-moted to the new role of technology sales manager.
In this new capacity, Martin will be responsible for the market development and sale of a new technology called D-Fend™, which provides programmable control over key
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Two Ways to Make Your Voice Heard!Join us in person in Washington, D.C., May 9-12, 2011, or log on to the virtual fly-in webcast on May 10, where you can listen in, ask questions and get up-to-date on the issues facing our industry. Visit www.namm.org for information on how to participate!
News ADVERTORIAL • APRIL 2011
visit us online at www.namm.org
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NAMM News is published by NAMM. To keep up-to-date on the
latest breaking industry news, sign up for our PLAYback Digital e-newsletter
NAMM News April 2011
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. - George Washington
“ “
Join the Fight for Industry Issues When NAMM Goes to Washington
Budget cuts, health care reform, counterfeiting and anti-piracy, environmental laws, music education, business regulation––there are many important legislative issues impacting our Members and our industry.
It’s fascinating to watch the different ways people around the world strive to be heard by their governments. The Middle East is in the midst of a historic shift as ordinary people stand up to ensure that their leaders listen to their needs. Here in the United States, the budget drama is playing out in statehouses and capitols—from California to New York and, perhaps most visibly as I write this, in Wisconsin. There are a myriad of issues and opinions, and what is interesting to me is the process in which this all plays out. Our industry has more than its share of challenging issues to deal with, and many of them concern the actions of our state and federal governments. NAMM represents the interests of our Members with the goal
of helping to make our industry more successful. Our top priority is to fight for legislation that values music and the arts as a core subject alongside math, science and reading. We also lobby to ensure laws and regulations are created to benefit our industry and, on the other hand, to keep laws or regulations––however well-intentioned they may be––from hurting our Members. Removing the 1099 requirement for any goods purchased over $600 from the health care bill, which would put an unbelievable burden on our Members, is one such example. NAMM staff and association representatives are in Washington throughout the year, working on these important issues. During the week of May 9, NAMM Members from all around the country will come to Capitol Hill to meet with our elected officials and policymakers. We’ll exercise our freedom of speech and fight for more support of music and arts education, as well as tighter regulation against trademark infringement and counterfeiting.
We hope you will join us. Members who have participated in past trips to Washington have said that it was a profound experience and, in many cases, a highlight of their career. Call NAMM to learn more about how you can get involved and experience for yourself what it’s like to participate in the democratic process. It’s what millions of people around the world are fighting for.
Advo_MMR_April11.indd 2 3/8/11 9:48:46 AMmmr_apr_fulls.indd 20 3/23/11 11:01 AM
NAMM News is published by NAMM. To keep up-to-date on the
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22 MMR APRIL 2011
Roundtable: Country & Bluegrass Market
Larry BarnwellDistrict Sales Manager, Pacific Northwest.C.F. Martin & Co., Inc.
Scott Wunschel National Sales ManagerEMG
Guy PettyPresidentSHS International
Scott EmmermanDirector of Marketing & SalesHohner Inc. USA
Jeff SchroedlVice PresidentPopular & Standard PublicationsHal Leonard Corporation
Jim BryantProduct ManagerFender Guitars
&Country
Bluegrass –
In a market which, despite signs of recovery, still provides challenges to retailers
looking to connect with consumers, the stripped-down appeal of bluegrass and
country music is one potential “answer.” The no-frills, often entirely acoustic
instrumentation of both genres (in their most basic forms, anyway) offers an
easy entry point for beginners and wanna-be musicians, while the depth of
the canon allows for multiple upgrades and related gear purchases.
Bluegrass, in particular, has been enjoying a resurgence in popularity in
the past decade and continues to appeal to end-users. We recently spoke with
some key suppliers in the field to get their take on popularity of country and
bluegrass, learn of recent trends, and hear their expectations for the future.
Phot
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Down Home Music Continues to Make Waves…
Guild D-40 bluegrass Jubillee.
Roundtable.indd 22 3/23/11 10:42 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 23
Aaron StangAcquisitions EditorAlfred Music Publishing
Rick CarlsonDirector of sales and marketingKala Brand Music Company
Trevor GibsonNorth American sales ManagerPeavey Electronics
Harvey LevyVice President Levy’s Leathers Ltd.
Ben ParkerProduct ManagerChesbro Music Co.
Mike MarkureProduct ManagerTakamine Guitars
David GonzalezProduct ManagerGuild Guitars
What are some of your bigger selling products geared towards country and bluegrass musicians?
Scott Emmerman: Hohner’s Essential series acoustic guitars have been selling very well to blue-grass players. The Essential Dreadnaught and Mini-Jumbo models are extremely resonant and feature Hohner’s NVI (No Variance Intonation) compensat-ed tuning system that guarantees perfect intonation at every spot on the neck. This feature becomes criti-cally important when guitarists use the altered tun-ings that are common in bluegrass music. All of the Essential models were built using Hohner’s frequency matching process which ensures great projection and tonal perfection.
Hohner’s Big River, Special 20 and iconic Marine Band harmonicas are staples in bluegrass music and we also sell several models of Banjos and Mandolins that bluegrass players enjoy playing.
Jeff Schroedl: Our most prominent ti-tle in this category is the new Bluegrass Real Book (00310910). We believe it’s a landmark pub-lication and a must-have for all bluegrass musi-cians, much the same way the original Real Book is a must-have for all jazz musicians. Our other blue-grass titles of note are the Earl Scruggs Banjo Method (00695765), bluegrass Guitar Play-Along (00699910), bluegrass Violin Play-Along (00842152), Hal Leonard blue-grass Guitar Method (00697405), and Best of bluegrass Transcribed Score (00690636) that comes with a CD of original recordings. Of course, we also publish vari-ous songbooks for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” Bill Monroe, Bela Fleck, Dailey & Vincent, and oth-ers.
Guy Petty: We are selling even numbers of guitars, banjos, mandolins and dobros across the board. Although we have seen a slight increase with electric mandolins lately. Our Tune Tech vibration
tuners have been a huge hit with both of these mar-kets.
Scott Wunschel: We are having great success in the country market with our bass pickups and bass EQ systems, and our SRO Series and Tele Sets are doing very, very well with guitar players. With blue-grass, we are working more and more with instru-ment manufactures of violins, banjos, and dobros as the need to amplify these instruments grows.
Larry Barnwell: We are for-tunate and thankful that country and bluegrass Musicians have cho-sen Martin Guitars from the begin-ning. In the early days of the Grand Old Opry ,Martin guitars graced the Ryman stage. The Dreadnought has typically been the body size of choice, however in the last decade or so we’re seeing an in-crease in the sales of smaller body sizes such as the 00 or 000. Models from our Standard Series like the D-18, the D-28 and the HD-28 are most popular with the country and bluegrass folks. The bluegrass players have gravitated to our Vintage and Golden Era lines, playing HD-28Vs and D-18GEs. Prob-ably the most popular of all is the D-18 Authentic, which is constructed in every way the way a D-18 was in 1937, using hide glue, the old “T” bar neck reinforcement, period correct scalloped braces and Adirondack spruce for the top.
Aaron Stang: In the print industry we’ve seen a large drop-off in sales for commercial country music. It is now just a fraction of what it was 10 years ago when artists like Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson , Dwight Yoakum, and oth-ers ruled the airwaves. However there has been a strong resurgence of interest in bluegrass and “tra-ditional” music. All forms of traditional “Ameri-
“ We don’t see this trend as a regional phenomenon. It is a worldwide trend.”
Roundtable.indd 23 3/23/11 10:43 AM
cana,” from mountain music to rural blues are very strong.
Colin Bay: We’ve had a lot of suc-cess with our Parking Lot Pickers series by Dix Bruce. It’s essentially a fakebook full of standard bluegrass repertoire. We have volumes for various bluegrass instruments – fiddle, mandolin, banjo, et cetera – and they go together; in other words, if a fiddle player is reading a tune out of the fiddle version, a mandolin player can read the same tune out of the mandolin version and they will work together.
David Gonzalez: For us, it’s usu-ally dreadnoughts – models such as our Traditional Series D-40 bluegrass Ju-bilee or D-50 bluegrass Special. These models have features that would appeal to a bluegrass player such as Adirondack Red Spruce tops and Mahogany (D-40) or Rosewood (D-50) back and sides. But, they’re also very versatile guitars that can be applied to a wide range of styles so country players, as well as players of other styles, are also attracted to them.
Mike Markure: country and blue-grass are string music.… Guitars, ban-jos, mandolins.… Throw a fiddle and an upright bass in there and off you go. Unlike most other music genres, the in-strumental line-up doesn’t change much. For bluegrass, think tradition. In guitars it’s the big acoustic dreadnought. Coun-
try players always are a blend of acoustic and electric instruments, so sales oppor-tunities are plentiful.
Trevor Gibson: Trace Acoustic amplifiers have been a big part of the country and bluegrass market for more than two decades. Trace Elliot brought studio-quality acoustic reproduction to the stage through designs that incor-porated very high-impedance piezo-pickup inputs, notch filters, phantom power, DSP effects and Dynamic Cor-rection, a unique circuitry that re-produces the sparkling top end of an acoustic instrument without relying on high-frequency horns (which can produce harsh, unwanted overtones). The influence of Trace Acoustic is still widely felt throughout the industry, and the new generation Trace Acous-tic amps are lighter and more powerful than ever.
Artists like Randy Houser, Nancy Wilson, and Monte Montgomery, for starters, rely on Trace Acoustic amplifi-ers to bring their acoustic guitars to life on stage. There is an even broader appeal to these amps—Trace Acoustic amps are very versatile, and will perform well with mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and other acous-tic instruments.
Rick Carlson: The Kala U-Bass is a big seller. Players are able to get incred-ible similarity of tone to an upright bass.
Some guys have developed really amaz-ing technique that’s inherent in upright slap playing. In fact one of our largest dealers is primarily an upright bass deal-er. It’s very portable, fits in the overhead, but still provides an appropriate sound for those styles of music.
Harvey Levy: This year we offered a new acoustic cotton strap for acoustic guitar (see attached) and I was surprised at how well it did at the NAMM show. This was introduced so that acoustic players could slip the loop over the head-stock. It also serves as a good Dobro strap.
In the wake of recent projects from the likes of Dolly Parton and Ricky Skaggs, as well as the Movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2000, have you noticed an uptick in sales and interest for bluegrass instru-ments, specifically?
SW: Not to mention rock icon Rob-ert Plant jumping into bluegrass with Alison Krauss, which made a generation of Zeppelin fans check it out. There was an awakening of bluegrass right after “O’Brother” came out and we started looking at developing new products tar-geted for the bluegrass market. Remem-ber when “School of Rock” came out? There was a huge uptick for retail stores, with sales and kids signing up for lessons
24 MMR APRIL 2011
Dick Boak (Martin Guitars) in Japan. Del McCoury and Larry Barnwell.
Roundtable.indd 24 3/23/11 10:43 AM
like crazy. Teachers were booked solid from open to close and that meant buy-ers coming in every hour of every day. “School of Rock 2” anybody?
CB: Absolutely. Acoustic instruments have historically been the “bread and butter” of Mel Bay. Guitar especially. Sales of products geared towards acous-tic musicians have remained strong. We have also seen a huge surge in interest in the ukulele. We have a book coming out this month that deals specifically with using the uke in the context of bluegrass and “newgrass.”
Jim Bryant: Yes, after “O’Brother Where Art Thou,” there was a huge up-tick in sales, but leveled out the following year and has continued slow but steady growth since 2002.
SE: It seems that these days, our acoustic fretted instruments, in gen-eral, are receiving more interest than ever. Similar to the surge in our Lanikai Ukulele sales, we are definitely beginning to see increased activity in our Banjo and Mandolin sales.
JS: Yes, our numbers in this area have risen over the past few years. We also publish books for Mumford & Sons. Al-though they are not a traditional blue-grass group, they’ve contributed to the rise in popularity of instruments like banjo and mandolin.
GP: We introduced the Morgan Monroe bluegrass line about the time “O Brother” came out and there hasn’t been a slow down since. We have ex-panded the Morgan Monroe line over the past 10 years, and the sales seem to continue to grown. I believe that the In-ternet, especially YouTube, has played a big part in this growth. YouTube and other tools easily accessible on the In-ternet make it much easier for someone wanting to play a bluegrass instrument to learn how.
LB: Movies featuring acoustic music always have a positive effect on sales for acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins, etc. The ‘70s classic “Deliverance” had the same effect. TV shows also help. “The Beverly Hillbillies” and the “Andy Griffith Show” were good for our sales, as well.
APRIL 2011 MMR 25
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Roundtable.indd 25 3/23/11 10:43 AM
MM: The popular interest in bluegrass and Old Timey music was clearly increased by the ex-posure it received from the movies “O Brother:” and Ken Burns’s work about the civil war. That certainly led to more people getting excited to learn more about the genre, and got a broad-er group of players involved in playing it. You could see the affect on sales pretty quickly during that period, and you just knew it was due to the af-fect those films had on people.
AS: We are selling more books for banjo and mando-lin than we used to. It seems that there is always a core group that is faithful to bluegrass and tradi-tional music, regardless of trends in commercial country music.
TG: We feel like the rein-troduction of Trace Acoustic ampli-fiers and carbon-fiber Composite Acous-tics guitars are landing in the market at the right time. Sustainable materials such as carbon fiber are in demand, and we’re proud to lead the way toward sus-tainable musical instruments with Com-posite Acoustics guitars. They’re incred-ibly strong and completely impervious to the elements, they sound amazing, and they’re made in the U.S.A.
Does the “acoustic only” na-ture of purist bluegrass pro-vide an easier entry point for users – and an easier selling angle for retailers?
SE: “Acoustic only” is definitely in vogue these days, the root of some of this interest can probably be attributed
to the popularity of MTV’s Unplugged se-
ries. Customers feel most comfortable buying from credible stores who have unique expertise. It definitely is in a retailer’s best interest whenever they can focus on a particular musical niche and become known as the “go-to” ex-perts in that niche for their region.
LB: I guess you could say buying an acoustic is less complicated, pro-viding that’s what the consumer is
looking for. There is no concern for cords or what type of amp to buy. There’s less to pack around. However, we’re find-ing more and more people like the option of having a pickup
in their guitars and we’re incorporating them into many of our guitars. Our entry-level “X” series in-struments now come stock
with a nice pickup. Or-dering an assortment of fac-
tory installed pickup systems is an option on most Martins.
DG: It may provide an easier entry point for the end user as it simplifies the amount of equipment needed to perform, etc., but I’m not sure that it would nec-essarily be easier for the retailer as not having a need for sound reinforcement equipment, such as an acoustic ampli-fier, instrument cable, etc., tends to limit what they might be able to add on to the sale – which could affect profit potential.
SW: I think it’s easier for both real-ly. There is that “acoustic only” part of bluegrass, but not when you’re playing to 10,000 people in Golden Gate Park or Telluride!
GP: The “acoustic only” element al-lows a musician (or wanna-be musician) to purchase a single instrument and be in a band without the cost of an amplifier,
26 MMR APRIL 2011
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cables, effects or a PA system. The selling angle for a retailer is the same.
CB: Many people who are fans of a specific genre view it as an extension or reflection of their identity; being a fan of, say, R&B, says something about you. bluegrass is no different; genres suggest larger cultural phenomena, generally speaking, that we identify with and asso-ciate with. That’s why the folk crowd felt so betrayed when Bob Dylan went elec-tric – it was a decision that transcended his music and was a cultural statement. Being a bluegrass fan to some means you recycle; to others, it means you like the purist element that “acoustic only” pro-vides. In any case, I think these larger, generalized cultural associations can help people enter a specific genre’s world more easily. It’s really just a form of branding, which can help retailers find a selling angle, I suppose.
MM: The romance and attraction of bluegrass or Old Timey music to players is the un-encumbered simplicity – par-ticularly to the recreational player. Find a shade tree, put a couple good friends to-
gether, open the cases, tune up and play. The level of sophistication of the instru-ments can be whatever fits your budget. They all make music.
AS: As a book publisher, my take on this is from the perspective of guitar methods for acoustic or electric guitar.
I’ve found that despite the fact that the electric guitar is dominant in virtually all forms of recorded commercial music, we sell more acoustic-only guitar methods than electric methods.
How has the popularity of “Modern Country,” which
APRIL 2011 MMR 27
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28 MMR APRIL 2011
makes use of instrumentation as (or, at least, more often) as-sociated with rock, or even hip-hop, affected sales in recent years?
MM: The very fact that Modern Country is using instrumentation associ-ated with other popular music genres is one of the reasons for its growing popu-larity. The sound is closer to what young-er listeners are used to and that makes it more accessible to the young ear. Acous-tic electric guitar sales have benefited from these younger country players en-tering the market.”
JS: Sales of printed editions depend more on the artist than the genre. For example, we sell many more Brad Pais-ley guitar folios than other top country artists because guitarists are interested in learning Paisley’s great rhythms and leads. Some artists don’t translate as well to print if they don’t feature a lot of piano, guitar, or another instrument.
SW: For us, the crossover has led to a departure from the perceived idea that EMG actives are for rock/metal players.
Having active pickups in your guitar or bass was taboo in country music, and now we are seeing EMG’s in acts such as Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, and Blake Shelton. Having consumers exposed to our product and brand by players in the new wave of country will certainly move the sales needle.
GP: When I started hearing mando-lins and banjos used in other styles of mu-sic getting serious airtime on the radio we immediately started increasing our inventory levels for these instruments be-cause we knew what would follow... and we were right. Especially the younger beginning musicians, they want to play what is popular and cool.
LB: Back to the issue of pickups, country artists tend to want control of the guitar on the guitar. They move around the stage a bit and don’t necessarily want to be tied to the mic. Another preference seems to be a cutaway, which obviously gives more access up the neck. Last year we introduced our Performing Artist Se-ries, which was voted Acoustic Guitar of the Year by the dealer readership of Mu-sic & Sound Retailer. We’ve always had great sounding acoustic guitars. They’ve always had “that Martin sound.” We wanted a way to get that trademark sound across in larger venues, a way to reproduce that sound with a pickup. We called on our friends at Fishman, who responded with the revolutionary new state-of-the-art F1 Aura System. The guitars have a slimmer taper neck which appeals to those crossover players you’re referring to. These guitars are designed for that discerning player who wants that signature “Martin sound” live and in person or through an acoustic amp or PA system. Sales on the Performing Artist guitars are doing extremely well.
DG: Although some non-traditional instrumentation has found its way into modern country and the stylistic lines have been blurred somewhat, the guitar is still king in country music. So as far as the guitar market is concerned, I don’t think it’s had a big impact.
TG: The crossover going on in mu-sic today has brought interest in products across typical genre lines. We’ve seen a lot interest in traditionally hard-rock ori-ented products by country artists, like the
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Peavey 6505 guitar amplifiers, which are used by Montgomery Gentry guitarist Bo Garrett. Steve Earle uses Peavey Classic Series guitar amps, which are a longtime favorite of an array of players from coun-try to rock to blues. Bassists like John Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band are using the Peavey VB-3 tube amp head. The country market has also been very receptive of Budda Amplification, which we are manufacturing and distributing. Randy Houser, Jack Sizemore of the Ja-son Aldean band, and Beau Tackett and Kevin Post with Blake Shelton are all us-ing Budda amplifiers.
AS: Modern country is not selling well for us. For songbooks I see more in-terest in classic country, bluegrass and traditional music.
What trends have you noticed recently in the country and/or bluegrass market?
SE: We have seen a real trend toward “newgrass” styles which cross bluegrass music with other genres, exposing play-ers of different musical styles to tradi-tional bluegrass instruments. As Bands
are defy traditional categories, more and more will continue to get turned on to traditional acoustic instruments.
Ben Parker: While there is still a distinct bluegrass genre of music there are a number of groups that are blurring the lines of traditional bluegrass and folk music, and are appealing to a younger audience. Some of these artists include The Decemberists, Mumford & Sons, and The Avett Brothers. These groups have been the most successful as far as album sales go, and this year they will be playing at mainstream music festivals as well as traditional bluegrass festivals. I believe it is the groups that are appealing to a wider audience that are having the most impact on the bluegrass instrument market. If you listen to any of their al-bums you will hear banjos, mandolins, harmonicas, fiddles and many other in-struments associated with bluegrass mu-sic.
JS: The lines between styles are more blurred. More and more artists seem to fuse folk, rock, country, and bluegrass into their own sound.
“ There is a large demographic of people very interested in creating organic music again.”
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30 MMR APRIL 2011
GP: Distressed or “old looking” gui-tar and mandolins are selling well. I guess the vintage vibe is the best way to describe it.
SW: The audience continues to grow, and with artists like Darius Rucker and Kid Rock cross-ing over, stereotypes are being chal-lenged. I recently was at a Bella Fleck show that was a bluegrass &
jazz concert that was incredible. The blending of styles and players is good for all of us.
LB: These two styles of music have always been second cousins, both bor-rowing from each other and in some cases overlapping. Many of today’s
country stars have roots in bluegrass music. There’s always been
a connection, but in the ‘80s Ricky Skaggs burst
onto the scene as a country super-star, carrying with him
the full force of his bluegrass up-bringing. He has since re-turned to the bluegrass field and is involved in other styles as well. Others
such as Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt,
Keith Urban, Dirks Bentley, to name
a few, have followed
suit. It’s all good business for acoustic instruments. Acoustic music as a whole is definitely growing.
JB: bluegrass remains more tradi-tional while country has infused more elements of rock/pop and other non-tra-ditional instruments such as the ukulele, acoustic bass, et cetera.
DG: There has been a greater in-f lux of affordable, high quality blue-grass instruments, and other instru-ments, in recent years, which has helped to open up the market to a wid-er range of players/buyers or potential players/buyers.
MM: I have to say that Nashville has done an incredible job recently of provid-ing a very marketable product to a much younger demographic than ever before. The one obvious trend I see is the age of the country music enthusiast is plummet-ing. Being in the guitar business I see this as a wonderful opportunity. Marketing instruments to these young folk is critical. Get them playing the music they connect with.
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32 MMR APRIL 2011
AS: I think due in large part to the work of T-Bone Burnett in everything from “O Brother Where Art Though” to the recent Alison Krauss/Robert Plant CD there is renewed appreciation of all types of roots music and instruments from mandolin and Dobro right through the ukulele.
RC: We’ve noticed when we launched the U-Bass at Summer NAMM 2009 that those players just really embraced that product. We’ve had some very high-profile artists and producers making ex-tensive use of it.
HL: We have always offered a large selection of banjo and mandolin straps; however, I have not seen a big upsurge in sales of those products. Banjo started to make a reappearance in contempo-rary country music about ten years ago, and while you hear them on the records, I don’t think it has made a big impact on the desire to play the instrument in country circles. The guitar still rules. The same can be said for mandolin. I suspect the mandolin is a second instru-ment for guitar players. For us, none of these products have had the impact that the ukulele has had over the last three years.
What regions seem to have ex-ceptionally strong markets for country/bluegrass MI sales?
SW: Obviously Appalachians to the Southern states, but it has spread throughout the country. San Fran-cisco is having its 11th annual Hardly Strictly bluegrass Festival! That’s a little further west than the Appala-chians so clearly the market is much broader. Let’s not forget there’s an enormous consumer base in Europe that is crazy of bluegrass and country music. Modern country is providing us with the younger demographic, which are the consumers we want to market to. I was at the last Kenny Chesney stadium concert and there were three guitar players, a horn section, drums, bass, keyboards, pedal steel, and there might have been a banjo, it was in-tense. The “traditional” rules of mar-keting for both country and bluegrass have changed.
JS: Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas have been the traditional hotspots, but
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Roundtable.indd 32 3/22/11 11:25 AM
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popularity has really spread to other re-gions, such as the upper Northwest.
GP: All regions seem to have their own pockets of both kinds of music. Since more and more people are mov-ing and relocating these days they don’t change what they like to play. If some-one is into bluegrass and they move from Hazard Kentucky to New York City, they still want to hear and play some Bill Monroe.
CB: country and bluegrass both have long since transcended their re-gional roots. We see strong sales for both genres throughout the states. Their sales seem to be more a reflection of population.
MM: The geographic lines are not drawn as solidly as one would think. We run an in-store clinic program we call ‘Flatpickers Ball.’ It is facilitated by Brad Davis who is an incredible pick shred-der with a two-decade resume of back-ing the biggest names in bluegrass. It does not matter if we are in Seattle or San Diego, Nashville or New Jersey. The room is always filled with bluegrass enthusiasts that are serious about buying guitars.”
SE: We don’t see this trend as a re-gional phenomenon. It is a worldwide trend.
LB: The south and southeast have always been strong for both country and bluegrass and that is still pretty much the case. The central part of the US, the heartland, and I would include Nash-ville here, is probably stronger for the country market. However, we are seeing that thanks to the increasing popularity of country and bluegrass with the younger gen-eration, all areas of the country are get-ting stronger. This is also the case interna-tionally. Chris Mar-tin firmly believes in the importance of grass-roots influence. We are closely involved with bluegrass Festi-
vals, Folk Festivals and Blues Festivals throughout the United States. Most are east coast events, followed closely by the west coast. That being said, we cover other areas of the country including the Telluride Festival in Colorado and the National Flatpicking Contest in Win-field Kansas. Thousands of our loyal fans visit us each year at the Interna-tional bluegrass Music Association’s an-nual event. This year it will be held Sep-tember 26th – October 2nd in Nashville Tennessee. It truly is a global market for us. Even the Japanese love bluegrass!
JB: Europe and Australia is strong as well as the U.S. Asia is starting to pick-up, but has not been traditionally strong.
DG: There are the obvious ones such as Nashville and some other areas in the south/southeast, but it’s certainly not
limited to those areas. The broad commercial appeal of country music and the fact that bluegrass music and instrumentation has crossed over into other popular genres, such as the Jam Band
scene for example; means that there is great potential for MI sales in a wide range of different markets.
BP: In Idaho we have always had a strong bluegrass tradition and host a couple of very popular bluegrass festivals. Maybe it is because of the agricultural culture of the market we service but acoustic instruments, specifically bluegrass related instru-
ments, do well year after year.
What are your ex-pectations for the country/bluegrass market in the coming months?
SE: Continued growth.
JS: Anything is possible. Who could’ve predicted ukulele would be-come so popular?
GP: We always see an upswing in
acoustic guitars, banjos, and mandolins in the spring and sum-
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Roundtable.indd 33 3/23/11 10:46 AM
34 MMR APRIL 2011
mer months because of the numerous outdoor festivals that take place. Some musicians want to add to or replace what they currently own, others get in-spired by seeing these shows and want to start playing.
Example: I went to see a Reba McEntire/George Strait concert re-cently and a friend I was with was in-spired by the great musicianship and said, “I would love to learn how to play a banjo.” I told him I knew where he could get one…
SW: We are dedicating a lot of energy in developing new products for the OEM market that could very easily transition to over the counter sales. I have been hearing a lot of banjo around the office the past few months, that’s for sure.
LB: The “Festival Season” will be-gin in the next couple of months and that always is good for sales for those retailers involved with the bluegrass crowd. Late spring, summer and early fall can be good selling seasons for those
in touch and involved with outdoor fes-tivals. Most have booth space available for vendors. I would say that retailers who embrace and cater to players from country and bluegrass communities as valuable assets, will reap the benefit of their investment. We’re grateful that we have a very loyal following with these folks.
CB: The market has been strong for us, both historically and recently. and I would be surprised if that changed.
JB: Slow and steady growth for the coming months and into 2012.
MM: Summer time is “tour time” in the country music business, and “festival time” for the bluegrass players. That’s when millions of ticket buyers go to hear the music they love and get to see the in-struments that make it. All the biggest names in the business will soon be com-ing to a venue near you. It’s a good time to get serious about trying to get some of those ticket buyers coming through the front door of a music store.
BP: I feel the market will continue to be strong. With the onslaught of digi-tally created and enhanced music be-ing thrown at the public from the major recording labels, there is a large demo-graphic of people very interested in cre-ating organic music again.
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Roundtable.indd 34 3/23/11 10:46 AM
36 MMR APRIL 2011
Spotlight
Bluegrass/Traditional Country Market
Old World Acoustic Instruments Helped with Internet Technology
It’s hard to get more basic then a handful of folks
sitting in a circle with acoustic instruments jam-
ming along to a traditional song whose harmonic
structure is pretty much just G, C, and D chords.
But in essence, that accessibility is the appeal of
bluegrass/traditional country music. And for those
suppliers and retailers who cater to that market,
it’s plucking along. The Great Recession aside, the
proliferation of festivals, an international organi-
zation committed to its growth, and groups like the
Punch Brothers and Carolina Chocolate Drops
are keeping it hip.
Hums Along
bluegrass.indd 36 3/23/11 10:47 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 37
However, the economy seems to have dented the high end/vintage market, and the flood Nashville experienced last year seriously dented Gibson’s ability to supply their popular banjo and mandolins so severely it has taken a year to get it back.
Talking about this genre of music, those who know it well speak about the 2000 movie O Brother Where Art Thou? like purveyors of rock and roll talk about the Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan: It caused a huge spike of interest in the “old timey” music. Bluegrass is certainly no fad as, 11 years after there’s still a steady stream of interest. Also, there is a direct relationship between how many banjos one sees on the Grammy’s and how much the market heats up.
“Based on what we have seen on the Grammy Awards program, country music in general is slowly returning to an acoustic instrument basis,” says Mandolin Brother’s Stan Jay. “Many of the bands on the Grammy Awards played acoustic guitars and there were at least two bands using banjo. Last year Steve Martin’s banjo-based bluegrass
was a considerable draw. Alison Krauss has, in the past 24 years, been a considerable catalyst for popularizing bluegrass blended with country.”
It’s not as regional as it once was – sure there’s the traditional strongholds in the Southeast and Midwest, but the Internet has made getting instruments and lessons pos-sible anywhere. “People are going online and giving music lessons to someone on the other side of the world,” Dan Hays says.
But there’s no clear consensus on how well the market is doing.
Healthy Market?“I would say these are pretty exciting times,” says Hays, executive director of the
International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Formed in 1985, this organization promotes everything bluegrass. “I think the music has never been more accessible.” The old timey music has enjoyed a critical assist from new media. “Whether you’re creating the music, marketing it, or distributing, electronic media has kept us in touch with each other.” There are around a hundred instrument makers in the IBMA, and that includes the likes of Gibson and Martin, on down to the luthiers building instru-ments by hand out of their garage.
Mike Kropp has been on every side of this business. He owned a couple of retail operations in Connecticut from 1978 to 1981, had his own independent rep firm, and he’s worked with various manufacturers (currently he’s with NS Designs). Outside the industry he’s most known for his virtuoso banjo skills. He plays with Northern Lights, teaches at the Banjo Camp, and hits the ubiquitous festival circuit and most recently performed at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, Mass.
“I think the market is pretty healthy,” he says. “You can see that by the number of banjos, mandolins, and guitars being made, including inexpensive ones made overseas. They are all doing well and the numbers are quite high.”
Others aren’t so sure. “I would say the bluegrass market is hurting,” says Jeff Sul-livan, co-owner of First Quality Music in Louisville. “I don’t think people are spending the money to go to festivals as much, and when they do go, they aren’t spending money on CDs and T-Shirts like they use to.” He adds that while they are doing good selling instruments, there’s a drop in the higher end. Players with two banjos already are hesi-tating to spend $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 on another one.
He also observes that some of the big guitar makers are “pumping 60,000 new gui-tars into the market a year each – how many guitars do you need? After a while we have customers that do have 10 or 15, but how many is enough? You can’t keep stacking new models on people.”
“ I would say these are pretty exciting times. I think the music has never been more accessible.”
Top: Mike Kropp with Northern Lights. (Photo by Ted Lehmann)Center: First Quality customer Steve Coffman and co-owner Jeff Sullivan.Bottom: Ray Wylie Hubbard at Fullers.
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38 MMR APRIL 2011
“I would say it’s holding steady – not growing because of the hit we took over the past few years,” says Jeremy Fuller of Fuller’s Vintage Guitars in Houston.
“We’re down a lot from a couple of years ago,” says Leo Coulson of Intermountain Guitar and Banjo in Salt Lake City. “But the volume we’re doing now is okay.”
“The stock market has been doing nicely – knock on wooden fretted instru-ment,” says Jay. “When we can say the same thing about a vast upsurge in con-sumer confidence and the resumption of home sales along with a reduction in un-employment numbers then I would like to be among the first to welcome you to ‘re-covery.’ Until that time I cannot say that I see significant signs of it in our industry.
Music and the per-formance thereof still seems a low priority to people struggling to keep their jobs, their health insurance and their homes. On the other hand, the adage that ‘the people who always had money still have money’ is oft repeat-ed, and those fortu-nate and confident
guitar, banjo, mandolin and ukulele-play-ing individuals continue to seek to own the finest new and vintage instruments, which is probably why they visit our showroom or place an order from our web site.”
Kropp says that the proliferation of festivals has always been an ingredient in driving this market. “When the economy was bad, the smarter ones reduced their size, but absolutely they are important. One of the biggest parts of them is the jamming – about 75 percent of the attend-ees do what we call ‘parking lot picking.’”
Hays agrees and says that there are more than 600 festivals devoted to the genre range from small community ones to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festi-val. This three-day plethora of picking attracts over 4,000 people a day to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, all free courtesy of venture capitalist and banjo aficionado Warren Hellman.
“An important part of the festival is the jamming component – people don’t just passively sit and listen, but come to visit with and play with the others,” Hays says. It’s a community where Bob and Sue make plans to park next to Ed and Nancy so they can get their instruments out. “They talk about their instruments, exchange songs, and play into the wee hours of the morn-ing.” He adds that it’s not unusual to see these people “lugging around $20,000,
“The stores that do best with this segment have a
brick and mortar store, but also have a strong
online presence.”
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$40,000 instruments in the rain looking to jam with others – which is good.”
Fullers used to have booths at festivals, but as their average guitar was in the $3,000 to $4,000 range, they weren’t selling enough to make it worthwhile. “But we still sponsor as many as we can and make sure our name is all over it,” he says. “We also sponsor high school talent competitions.”
Hays says that while the music is gain-ing more fans, it still tends to follow patterns of population hot beds that historically gone back to the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. “But when you look at the music, it’s a newer art form,” he says. “It was 1945 when Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s band, and that was the when bluegrass as we know it was born.” The “old timey” music mingled with blues and African influences and gos-pel harmonies, and “that stew migrated as people from the west side of the mountains moved to Michigan and Indiana.”
The RetailersTalk about a destination: as they like
to say, you have to really want to go to the Mandolin Brothers store to go to the Mandolin Brothers store. Calling home an unassuming building on Staten Is-land, Stan Jay and team preside over fret-ted instruments. But catalog and online sales have been long established, and he says it’s common to find a first time visi-tor strumming an instrument who turns out to be someone who has done business with the company for 20 years.
Founded in 1971 by Jay and then partner Hap Kuffner, it’s been called the largest dealer of its kind in the world. (Kuffner left the store but not the busi-ness in 1982.) Jay has steered the store by carefully deciding what to carry. They have become one of the largest dealers of Martin instruments in the world. Gibson is there of course, and also Santa Cruz, Macpherson, and Huss and Dalton.
Jay says they are still in a mutual affec-tion club with Martin, still one of their very top dealers. “We try to keep most of their line in stock at all times, and we have them build us four or five series of Custom Shop guitars that they do not, themselves, of-fer,” Jay says. “These models are extremely well thought out. We find that, after wait-ing four to six months for the completion of a custom guitar they sell out extremely quickly. Martin is one of the most innova-tive companies and they are never satisfied to stick to the tried and true. This year they’ve come out with a model – the CEO-
6 – sporting a modern, stylized, headstock logo – and this comes as a shock to visitors who see it for the first time. But everybody that’s tried it loves the guitar, which eases the pain of having to accept a radically new feature from a very traditional company.”
First Quality Musical Supplies in Louisville has had an unusual journey. It started as a mail order company, evolved into a brick and mortar retailer, and is now also a manufacturer, making the Sullivan line of Banjos. Bill Sullivan started out just making template for ban-jo fingerboards in the early 1970s, and was quickly overwhelmed with requests. The need for other banjo-related parts and accessories was obvious and First Quality was born. By 1982 he had to give up his day job and focus on his business.
In 1985 son Jeff got involved and expanded, and brother Eric followed working in the shop focusing on creating necks. By 1999 the brothers incorporated and opened up a retail shop. Today their retail space is 3,000 square feet with an-other 14,000 feet of warehouse and shop area. They carry Gibson, Martin, Tay-lor, Deering, Morgan Monroe, and East-man, among others including their own line of Sullivan Banjos. (They have and continue to supply banjo parts to Gibson.)
Intermountain Guitar and Banjo went in the opposite direction. For most of their history, they’ve been a tradi-tional retail store, but around five years ago they’ve focused just on their online business. “We’re snooty,” Leo Coulson laughs. “We’re only open by appoint-ment, and we don’t carry accessories or books or have lessons. We’re 80 percent vintage internet selling instruments all over the world.”
They’ve been around since 1973, spe-cializing in repair and restoration of old guitars. They have new Martin, Gibson, Deering, and Nationals, but it’s primarily a vintage store and it’s not uncommon to find instruments going back to the 19th Century.
Fullers Vintage Guitar of Houston is “Texas largest guitar dealer” and, ac-cording to Jeremy Fuller, “the largest independent store in the southern U.S.” At 4,700 square feet of retail space and 4,000 guitars on the wall, it’s hard to ar-gue with him. Primarily a Gibson dealer, Fender, Taylor, Martin, Rickenbacker, National, and others are found there.
Fuller could not have a better ambas-sador into the Bluegrass world – founder Mike Fuller is renowned banjo player (he’s
Top: Dan Hays of IBMA.Center: Eric Sullivan of First Quality.Bottom: Stan Jay of Mandolin Bros. (Photo by Alison Jay)
bluegrass.indd 40 3/23/11 10:48 AM
42 MMR APRIL 2011
in the Texas Bluegrass Hall of Fame) and plays the circuit regularly with his group the Lonestar Bluegrass Band. “There’s a good old boy mentality as in ‘I’m gonna buy me a gee-tar from good ol’ Mike.’ Bluegrass is a big deal here and we are known as a destination for players.”
Vintage on the Web“The stores that do best with this
segment have a brick and mortar store, but also have a strong online presence,” Kropp says, citing Mandolin Brothers as just one example.
“Our online business used to be 50/50 and it might still be,” Jay says,
referring to the amount of business he does in his store versus through their website. “Interest-ingly, all of these sales are to players. If there are collec-tors out there hid-ing in the wood-work they are not making their status known to me [as]
they are no longer wearing the nametag that says ‘Collector.’ At the same time, many individuals who purchase high-end fretted instruments to play do so with the notion that, in the long-term, they are likely to make money when the time comes to resell. The old saying is ‘A Martin guitar typically doubles in price in 20 years and triples in 30.’ We used to think the same thing about houses and their market values, but that has proven to be less reliable wisdom than it used to be. I’m not convinced that the aphorism is less of a certainty today as it applies to Martin guitars or most other American brands of great prestige and reputation. I
still think there’s a pretty good chance it will remain true.”
The Mandolin Brothers was one of the first in this industry to set up shop online back in 1995, and last year they redesigned it. “The new site is everything the old site wasn’t,” Jay says. “We often compared the original site to an old fash-ioned, dusty, and somewhat disorganized bookstore. There were many gems to be found but finding them was sometimes tedious. Now we have a first class search engine, the ability to cross-search from half a dozen different directions, and way better photography and more of it.” They’ve also incorporated video, and are on Facebook and Twitter.
Fueling the importance of a website is the desire to reach buyers around the world. Kropp says that the Holy Grail is the pre-war instrument – “the most sought after banjos are the Old Gibsons from the 1920s and 1930s.” More buyers exposed to those instruments means a better price can be had. And apparently the market needs some help right now.
“The vintage market got super heated a few years ago,” Coulson says. “But cer-tain Fenders and pre-War Gibsons and a
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lot of other vintage stuff took a beating in the recession. The prices have come down on a lot of stuff but not everything.” He adds that in today’s market nobody is re-ally sure what something is worth. “Three years ago, it was accepted that a certain pre-war such-and-such was worth X, and you were on top of it.” But now, when you go to these guitar shows the prices “aren’t cheap” and so either things aren’t moving or their worth is disputable.
Coulson says that while there are some collectors who say they are play-ers, and “insist they commune daily with every one of their 70 guitars, but to me there are more enthusiasts who under-stand that they are buying a piece of art that they can play. If you love something and you can play, and then in theory at least it’s increasing in value, that’s much more appealing then investing in a piece of art that you don’t really do anything with.”
For Coulson the mandolin market is dead – but then again, he doesn’t have one in his store that’s under $1,000. Uku-leles are the same: “The market for both of these under $99 point is booming, but nobody buys the $1,000 ones from me very often.”
“The high end vintage has been hurt-ing for three years,” says Sullivan. “It’s off as much as 40 percent. Part of the problem, though, is the prices got ridicu-lously high. Who says a banjo is worth over $100,000? I don’t know if we’ll ever see those prices come back again.”
Elements of SuccessA key component in this market is to
not only feed a niche but also do it excep-tionally well. Jeff Sullivan at First Qual-ity says that the service and repair work they do is great, and that’s a big draw. “What we found is by specializing pri-marily in the banjo, and by hiring one of the key guys from Gibson, Tony Wray.” To have an operation that people can trust their sacred instrument with goes far in establishing the operation for as the first choice to make future purchases.
“We have always operated on the pre-cept of the Golden Rule – we treat our customers the way we’d like to be treated ourselves, and, so far, that’s worked out well,” says Jay. “We believe in offering only the best in each genre, instruments of outstanding design that sound like angels on sweet air, and have no incipient liabili-ties or impediments. We enjoy having an
inventory that makes visitors say out loud: ‘I wish my entire house looked like this!’”
A knowledgeable staff with minimum turnover is mission critical as well. “It is appropriate to bring up the term ‘re-lationships’ since nearly every transac-tion does so because of the connection between the seller and the buyer. An affinity must be created, and this can occur over months or years of sporadic contact or it can and does occur within a few minutes of a potential buyer and a seller first meeting. It starts with rapport, and must include trust and mutual un-
derstanding. Uniting an instrument with its new owner is so much like a marriage that sometimes I am compelled to tell the buyer of a beautiful guitar, ‘You may now kiss the bridge.’”
Part of the allure is players venturing into other instruments. “I do see players picking up other instruments,” Fuller says. “A guy might be proficient in one, like guitar, and have five or six of those, but then also pick up a banjo. You see a guitar player pick up a mandolin in our store.”
For Jay, these players picking up a
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bluegrass.indd 43 3/23/11 10:49 AM
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different instrument is less a factor than players getting an additional instrument they primarily play. “Players come in seeking the instrument they’ve been ob-sessing about for some time.” When one is dealing mostly at the professional or even semi-professional end of things, it’s less a matter of “what alternate instru-ment would I like to learn how to play”
and more a matter of “I’m here to find the instrument that’s going to make me feel better than I’ve felt in years about my playing.” They are probably thinking: “I want a guitar/banjo/mandolin/uke that will be the envy of every person I know and will sound, when played acoustically, like the highest fidelity and most fully equalized recording of – pick one: Tony
Rice, Tommy Emmanuel, Pierre Bensu-san, Laurence Juber, Chris Thiele, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas or Jake Shimabu-kuro. And that’s all I want.”
He says they encourage customers, as they walk through the door, to “play every instrument in the place” and “ask us up to one million questions.” “We find that the more visitors can learn about the various choices set before them, the bet-ter equipped they will be to make a deci-sion about owning one.”
Otherwise, while selection is impor-tant, it’s not often Mandolin Bros. take on a new line. “We are a customer-driv-en company and it is our goal to make our selection as fine and as enticing as is humanly possible,” he says. “To make this happen a critical selection process is essential. We tend to gravitate to the high-end and so we have chosen to car-ry hand-made guitars.” These include instruments from the hands of Allan Beardsell, Kent Chasson, and McPher-son Guitars of Sparta, Wis., among oth-ers. “In the lower, more modestly priced area, we have taken on Kremona brand classicals, made in Bulgaria.”
Somewhat proudly, he says they are known for being picky and that they re-ject far more than they accept in new, used and vintage, “so any instrument that survives this intense level of scrutiny has been found, by dint of its being part of our inventory, to be in very good plus, excellent or better condition, fully adjust-able, free from manufacturing errors or flaws that are potentially semi-fatal.” He adds that in the short time that they’ve become McPherson Guitars’ largest dealer, and sold 37 of their instruments in 2007 and 35 in 2009. “Many of our customers consider this Wisconsin brand one of the highest quality and finest sounding new acoustic guitars they have played.”
The segment does seem like the last bastion to resist amplification. Kropp notes that electric basses are accepted, in-cluding NS Designs one which look any-thing but traditional. “There are some electric violins, and some make electric banjos, mandolins, etc. Some look tradi-tional, some are more solid body in de-sign, and some of those are quite good.” As some bands take their version of country/bluegrass a bit further, embrac-ing jazz and rock influences, there’s more likelihood for electronics to be part of the mix. However, overall, “there’s more re-
Find Breaking News in the Hot News section of MMR’s Web site, www.mmrmagazine.com
bluegrass.indd 44 3/23/11 10:49 AM
MandolinGuitars
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mmr_apr_fulls.indd 45 3/23/11 11:03 AM
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sistance – there are still bands that come out and sit in a circle and just play into one large diaphragm mic.”
“There’s a lot of people who like acoustic/electric instruments for playing at church,” Sullivan says. “With guitars its nice because there are so many acous-tic models that already have a built in pickup and still gives the appearance of being pure acoustic. But with other in-struments, like banjos, it’s 90 percent just acoustic.”
The brand landscape shifted with the natural disaster that befell those in Nashville. “Deering banjo sales have skyrocketed since Nashville got flooded taking out a lot of Gibson banjos,” Fuller says. “And it’s been a year since Gibson has had mandolins for sale and that has been especially bad because they are considered the premiere maker of man-dolins” to the point sometimes others aren’t even considered. As Gibson is the premiere bluegrass manufacturer, it was bad for them but good for other makers. It seemed to hurt the high end though as it’s hard to get $7,000 for a banjo that’s not a Gibson, he says.
The FutureCatering to this market seems to offer
rewards beyond the mere monetary.Jay: “Every morning when I wake up,
I think, ‘Wow! Another day at the office ahead of me! I can’t wait!’ I so greatly enjoy what I do and I haven’t felt as if I’ve had to ‘go to work’ for 40 years. My career path is cited six times in a book titled Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment and Career by Rick Jarow, who illuminates examples of people who have found a calling instead of a job. My job is making people happy through the ac-quisition of the best guitars, banjos, and mandolins in the land.” An illustration of his attitude is found over the entrance to their acoustic room – that’s where one
finds a sign that reads “Dream Fulfill-ment Center.”
“People who identify and acquire the instrument they’ve been searching for leave our shop far happier than when they came in,” he continues. “I feel great about that because there are so many professions where this result doesn’t hap-pen. I’m delighted to be able, by provid-ing visitors a place where the selection is limitless and the ability to sample and be informed is boundless, to energize and inspire individuals who, with nothing more than their fingers or a flatpick, cre-ate new worlds of artistic expression. Be-ing able to write about and demonstrate guitars eight hours a day, six days a week also has its advantages.”
Hays agrees that the people drawn to bluegrass and traditional country are the best part, including the younger gen-eration. “Today we’re on the verge of the fourth generation of emerging talent.” Sul-livan is also confident about the younger generation picking up bluegrass. “I think it has been passed on,” he says. “It’s not just an old person’s genre. It’s a cool genre of music, and once they get playing it, they love it and are hooked.” Though he adds: “Is it as big compared to country music? Absolutely not. But for us we’re heavily in this niche and do well.”
Part of the joy has helped them pre-serve through these recently lean times. “It’s been difficult for us the last few years, but we’ve stayed in our niche and focused on customer service. Dad always taught us that if you have a great product, sell it at a fair price and provide unbe-lievably good customer service, you’ll do well.”
Then he adds: “The bluegrass indus-try must be the coolest because every-body is such good people,” states Sulli-van. “I enjoy our customer bass – they are down-to-earth people and I appreci-ate that.”
Bluegrass by the Numbers:According to the International Bluegrass Music Association … 700 Number of radio stations around the country that include bluegrass in their format.
600 Number of Trade Country/Bluegrass Festivals that happen every year.
200+ Regional organizations that host related concerts and major events.
117 professional members in the Merchandisers & Luthiers category.
30 Countries that have IBMA has professional members.
5 Number of strings on a 5-String Banjo
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mmr_apr_fulls.indd 47 3/23/11 11:03 AM
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Fretted
“Yamaha has long been a well-established name in the guitar market, especially the under $500 acoustic and acoustic electric market, but many people do not realize that Yamaha has also made prestigious, high-end guitars,” says Dennis Webster, mar-keting manager, Yamaha Guitars. “Yamaha had been very lim-ited in the products that were offered between the $500 and the $2,000 price points and did not service a very large market seg-
ment, which consists of gigging musicians and record-ing guitarists who demand professional playability that sounds incredible live on stage or in the studio. That is where the Yamaha A Series comes in: it’s a professional-grade instrument, built to be the work-horse in a guitarist’s arsenal, without the break-the-bank pricing.”
Developed in – and for – AmericaFollowing two decades of U.S.-based
technology development, the A Series is the first product line that Yamaha Guitars has developed in the U.S. for the U.S. The com-pany’s Artist Services and Research & De-velopment department, launched in North Hollywood in the 1990s, has worked over recent years to refocus the Yamaha guitar
line and establish special sales/marketing programs for dealers. Yoichi Oba, assistant
general manager and co-director of Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood, explains: “The U.S.
sales and marketing team researched and developed
Yamaha A SeriesBuilt to be the Workhorse in a Guitarist’s Arsenal
Yamaha recently unveiled its new A Series line of handcrafted acoustic/electric guitars,
available in eight models. The line includes dreadnought and concert-sized cutaways,
boasts a new headstock design, and is offered in mahogany or rosewood with a range of
options. Designed with the gigging musician in mind, the A Series aims to bridge the gap
between beginner/intermediate models and extreme high-end models.
the specifications of the A Series and teamed up with the R & D team to work very closely with the designers in Japan and the factories to produce this new se-ries. The A Series is the first product line developed by the U.S. team, but definite-ly not the last. We are already working together on more guitar products we will be launching over the next 3 years.”
“Since the U.S. market is the larg-est and most influential, it only makes sense that products developed here would also be accepted worldwide,” says Web-ster. “Three years ago, we understood that
the acoustic guitar player has changed over the past 20 years, but our product of-fering and specifications did not change with the market. Today’s acoustic guitar player is looking for an instrument that combines looks, feel, and sound in a very versatile instru-ment. Whether they are playing the acoustic on stage all night, or
“The A Series is the first product line developed by the U.S. team, but definitely not the last.”
Yoichi Oba
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just for a few songs during their set, they demand the easy playability without the sacrifice of sound quality.”
With the A Series, Yamaha has also in-creased the string spacing and lowered the action to accommodate today’s player. “We consulted with professional guitar artists, including Lee Ritenour, top guitar dealers in the U.S., and most important, hundreds of gigging guitar players, and listened to exactly what they are looking for to help us refine the A Series,” Webster explains. “In the A Series, we did move away from some of Yamaha’s traditional FG Series or L Series specifications because the A Series player is looking for something different. The A Series differs with a new mahoga-ny neck with a slim tapered profile, wider string spacing, lower action and a new semi-open pore finish on the neck. Most definitely, Yamaha will utilize key features first implemented in the A Series into some current and future products.”
A New Sound, Variety of Options
Yamaha also promises a new sound with the A Series. “Yamaha is well-known for incredible balanced and crystal clear clar-ity,” says Webster. “The A Series embod-ies the same bracing pattern as our $5,000 L Series, which gives us a balanced sound everyone loves Yamaha for. What is new for Yamaha in this market segment is the use of mahogany for back and sides. In the Yamaha acoustic electric line up, everything in the $500 and up price point always had rosewood back and sides. With the A Series, the player now has the choice of woods to get the sound they are looking for.”
The higher-end A3 models feature a new preamp that incorporates a piezo pickup system with a built-in microphone modeling technique specific to each gui-tar model. Called S.R.T. (Studio Re-sponse Technology), it allows the player to choose from three different mic set-tings that can be blended with the piezo pickup, and its feedback detector cancels feedback frequencies in live situations.
The A3 also features a Rosewood and Mahogany rosette.
The lower priced A1 models come equipped with the new S.R.T. piezo saddle pickup and a traditional Yamaha rosette. “The main differences between the models are back, side and fingerboard materials, preamp, and rosette,” says Ar-mando Vega, product manager, Yamaha Guitars. “The A3 Series features solid back and sides (either mahogany or rose-
wood) with an ebony fingerboard and bridge. The A1 series offers laminate back and sides (either mahogany or rosewood) with a rosewood fingerboard and ebony bridge. Both guitars offer the same buzz-free, low-action and the most comfortable neck profile in today’s guitar market.”
A Series guitars are set to begin ship-ping in May and will retail between $599.99-$999.99, depending on model and options.
The A Series: BreakdownA1M lower price, “M” is for mahogany, dreadnaught shapeAC1M “C” is for concert shape, all else equalA1R lower price, “R” is for rosewood, dreadnaught shapeAC1R “C” is for concert shape, all else equal
A3M “M” for mahogany, dreadnaught shape - higher priced due to solid wood back and sides (higher end material), better preamp, cosmeticsAC3M “C” is for concert shape, all else equalA3R “R” for rosewood, dreadnaught shapeAC3R “C” is for concert shape, all else equal
Armando Vega Dennis Webster
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Yamaha.indd 49 3/23/11 10:51 AM
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Product Spread
Fretted Instruments and Related Gear
New Electric and Acoustic Sets from D’AddarioHal Leonard to Distribute Licklibrary DVDsHal Leonard Corporation has an-nounced a distribution agreement
for the UK-based Licklibrary line of gui-tar lessons on DVD. The new deal gives the world’s largest music print publisher exclusive rights to sell these popular instructional prod-ucts to all trades in North America.
The Licklibrary catalog offers one-stop shopping for people interested
in learning to play the guitar, from complete beginners to advanced players. Their DVD series include Learn in 6 Weeks, Quick Licks and Metal Edge, plus bestselling artist les-sons such as Pink Floyd, Iron Maid-en, Jeff Beck and many more. The award-winning Licklibrary titles cov-er rock, metal, blues, jazz, country, acoustic and classical style guitar lessons, and many include authen-tic-sounding jam tracks.www.halleonard.com.
Developed with a flexible feel that also maintains a quick attack response, an es-sential feature for all flamenco players, the new Flamenco Sets from D’Addario are available in black and clear nylon, providing tone and appearance options for both traditional and progressive fla-menco players. The EJ25C and EJ25B Flamenco sets will retail for $17.99. D’Addario True Medium acoustic guitar sets feature a smaller diameter in the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings than the traditional medium set. These strings are for play-ers looking for a well defined, balanced sound and tension across their medium setup. These gauges are also optimal for DADGAD tun-ing, which was originally popu-larized as an alternative tuning in Celtic music but extends into contemporary folk, rock, and classic finger-style guitar. The EJ24 True Medium set will retail for $13.99.
Developed for the electric guitar, the EXL111 Balanced Tension Set was designed using scientific formulas that create an equal feel between all of the strings. This kind of separation allows for each string to be played with the same downward force and flexibility across the set. The Balanced Tension set will be available
in .010 - .046 gauges and will retail for $10.79.
In addition to these five new sets, D’Addario announces line extensions. EJ26 Phosophor Bronze Round Wound acoustic guitar strings will be available in a 10-pack (EJ26-10P) which will retail for $118.89. The EJ22 Nickel Round Wound Jazz Medium set will be avail-able as a Pure Nickel Round Wound set, EPN22, to provide a warmer, vintage tone. The EPN22 Pure Nickel Set will retail for $15.99.www.daddario.com
Guitar spread.indd 50 3/23/11 10:55 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 51
Alfred Music Publishing expands its PLAY multimedia instructional series with Rock Guitar Toolbox, a comprehensive resource DVD for guitarists.
PLAY: Rock Guitar Toolbox is an instruc-tional DVD assembled for guitarists of all skill levels that guides them through vari-ous performance techniques in a clear and fun private lesson setting. Designed for
convenient learn-ing, the lessons pro-vide a no-nonsense approach to devel-oping chops and spurring creativity in electric guitar play-ing. Topics covered include whammy bar technique, speed pick-ing, string skipping, slapping, tapping, ad-
vanced harmonics, and more. The DVD also features Alfred’s Gui-
tarView multimedia software. This lesson player offers the ability to adjust song tempo and loop tracks, and includes a virtual fret-board—synced note-for-note to standard and TAB notation—of all the video and les-son material included on the DVD. A guitar chord chart, guitar tuner, and printable les-sons are also included on the disc.
Alfred’s comprehensive PLAY mul-timedia lessons series is a high-quality video instructional resource that com-bines the convenience and flexibility of multimedia with the quality of expert instructors. Featuring instruction and method in a variety of music styles/genres, the series sets to challenge and inspire all skill level players for years of music enjoyment. As part of Alfred’s ongoing commitment to improving our environment, this product is packaged
in a DVD ECO BOX, which utilizes less plastic and is 100% recyclable. PLAY: Rock Guitar Toolbox DVD (00- 36384) is now available for $19.99 at music retail stores and at alfred.com/play.
Alfred Music Publishing has part-nered once again with Cartoon Net-work Enterprises, the licensing and merchandising arm of Adult Swim, to present the first authentic bass TAB transcriptions of songs by Dethklok, the animated metal band from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse television series. Dethklok: Bass Antholog y contains 14 songs from The Dethalbum and Dethal-bum II, selected by live-performance Dethklok bassist Bryan Beller. Bonus features include “The Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle” (from The Dethalbum deluxe edition), live-performance ver-sions of “Deththeme,” “Thunder-horse,” “Murmaider,” and “Black Fire Upon Us” as played by Bryan Beller, and an introduction by Brendon Small and Bryan Beller about the demands of playing Dethklok live vs. in the studio.
Created by Brendon Small (“Home Movies”) and Tommy Blacha (“Da Ali G Show”), the “Metalocalypse” TV series launched in 2006 and recently concluded its third season on Adult Swim. One of the most popular series on the cable network, Metalocalypse portrays Dethklok as a death metal band with enough popularity to be the world’s seventh-largest economy. In reality, Dethklok is the highest-selling band in death metal, exploding onto the Billboard Top 200 with The Dethalbum debuting at No. 21 in 2007 and Dethalbum II at No. 15 in 2009. Both albums contain full-length versions of
songs partially heard on the show. As part of Alfred’s ongoing commitment
to improving our environment, this book is printed on 100 percent recycled paper stock.
Dethklok: Bass Antholog y is now avail-able at local music stores and at alfred.com/bass for $22.99.www.alfred.com
Alfred Expands PLAY Series with Rock Guitar Toolbox
Art Ukuleles from MahaloMahalo has just introduced a line of quality ukes with colorful, eye-catching graphics.
The company has taken their best-selling U-30 series ukes and spiced them up with graphic designs: The “Smile” version is a bright yellow smiling face in-corporating novel twin soundholes for eyes; the “Heart” version is white with pink heart designs to appeal to the younger set; the “Constellation” fea-tures stars and signs of the Zodiac; the “Racing” model is white with a checkered-flag motif on the top; to appeal to the “Heavy Metal” crowd, the “Spi-der” version features spiders and webs, while the “Skull” version boasts an attractive array of skulls—with a bit of blood for good mea-sure. www.mahalo.com
Burns’ Dream Guitar Line
Saga Musical Instruments, the exclusive USA distributor of Burns® electric gui-tars and basses, has announced the new Dream Guitar Limited Edition.
This top-line model is the culmination of 50 years of Burns expertise and inno-vation, and each guitar will come with a hand-signed and numbered certificate of authenticity. All metal parts are heavily gold-plated—including the Burns lock-ing machine heads. The body is of Alder, with a figured maple top and the neck is
figured maple with pearloid binding. The distinctive Burns multiple pick-guards are black over white lami-nated plastic and there are two tone controls, one volume control and a five-way switch. Three Burns Rez-O-Matik Noiseless pickups are mounted in the body and the Burns Rez-O-Tube Tremolo is gold-plat-ed with the Dream guitar logo.
Locking strap nuts are provided as well a custom leather strap.
This limited edition is avail-able in Red Burst or Trans-parent Red. Each guitar is supplied with its own silver alligator-finish oblong, plush
padded hardshell case—as well as a leather tool kit, Burns duster and a war-ranty card.www.sagamusic.com
Guitar spread.indd 51 3/23/11 10:55 AM
52 MMR APRIL 2011
Saga’s Kentucky Bill Monroe Mandolin & Super-Jumbo-style Blueridge GuitarTo commemorate the hundredth anniver-sary of Bill Monroe’s birth and extraor-dinary life, Saga Musical Instruments has been commissioned by the family to produce 100, Limited Edition Kentucky Master F-model mandolins. All will ac-company a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Bill’s son, James Monroe.
This Centennial mandolin will feature a special pearl-inlaid likeness of Bill above a banner commemorating this hundred-year milestone and his sig-nature in gold script below. Only the finest, most deeply-figured Michigan maple and the choicest Adirondack spruce will be used for the back,
sides, neck and top – each collected from exactly the same area that supplied the original wood used in
the 1923 Master Man-dolin that Monroe played for most of his career. The finest engraved and heavily
gold-plated machine
heads are used with tuning buttons of genu-ine mother-of pearl. The gold plated tail-piece is stylistically hand-engraved with the words “The Kentucky.” The delicate black and white lines of purfling on body and neck also duplicate Bill’s 1923 original. The skill-fully shaded sunburst finish of the neck and body faithfully rounds out the look of this soon to be sought after collectable.
Blueridge re-interprets a classic guitar shape in their new, super-deluxe flattop model—the BG-2500. The guitar fea-tures the finest spruce top and AAAA-Grade Flamed maple for neck and body, and the premium rosewood fingerboard and the black peghead overlay both fea-ture stunning, Art Deco inlays in white mother-of pearl, while the fancifully shaped bridge is similarly inlaid. A spe-cially designed, tortoise-plastic pick-guard—bound with white plastic and black & white lines—gives this guitar an air of 1930s distinction. The clear, natu-ral high-gloss finish highlights the close, even-grained spruce top and the deeply flamed maple of the back, sides and neck. The neck is made in two pieces, with an ebony center-strip and an adjust-able truss rod for perfect adjustment at
all times. The neck is the slightly larger profile of the original 1930s classic—but is perfectly shaped and easy to play. The tone is big, full and far-carrying for any type of stage or recording work. www.sagamusic.com
Airline Tux Deluxe from EastwoodAfter many months of collaboration between Eastwood Guitars and Randy Bachman (Bachman & Turner, The Guess Who, BTO), the new Airline Tux Deluxe is ready for release.
The Airline Tuxedo has been one of Eastwood’s top-selling models many years. And as a Tux-
edo player and fan of the Airline
brand, Randy Bach-man contacted Eastwood
Guitars to share his ideas. The new Airline Tux Deluxe features multi-ply binding, flamed maple top and back with unique black sides. Technical
Guitar spread.indd 52 3/23/11 10:56 AM
U-320
Saga Musical Instruments • P.O. Box 2841 • South San Francisco, CA 94080 • [800] [email protected] • www.sagamusic.com • DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED!
A Sure Cure for Island FeverA Sure Cure for Island Fever
When you’ve been in the Islands too long, a Mahalo Ukulele isjust the thing to snap you out of the doldrums. Fifteen modelsand a full palette of color choices will suit your every mood.
It is so easy to get started and Mahalo Ukes won’t pile yourbudget onto a reef either. Just follow Miss Hawaii into your localmusic store …surf’s up!
Mahalo UkulelesPriced from $29.95 Retail
Nicole FoxMiss Hawaii 2008
mmr_apr_fulls.indd 53 3/23/11 11:03 AM
54 MMR APRIL 2011
changes include a Zero-Fret, upgraded tail-piece and custom coil-tapped pick-ups, giving the player a choice of 70 or 100 percent of the P-90 output levels. A deluxe Airline hardshell case is included.www.eastwoodguitars.com
Randall Amplifiers’ ‘Minion Series’ Randall Amplifiers debuted the latest ad-dition to their product line-up, the Minion Series earlier this year at Winter NAMM. The Minion Series combos are available in 10-watt, 15-watt or 15-watt with spring reverb versions, each practice amp offers two channels, volume and overdrive and traditional black cosmetics. The MR10 will retail for $89.98 and features a 5” speaker and 2-band EQ at 10 watts. The MR15 will retail for $104.98 and comes
with an added Gain control, 3-band EQ, larger 6.5” speaker with 15 watts of power. The upgraded MR15R adds in spring re-verb and will retail for $134.98.
All three models will begin shipping to dealers at the beginning of Q3 2011.
www.randallamplifiers.com
Two New Parlor Models from WashburnBased on the extremely popular exist-ing Washburn R314K and R320SWR vintage models, these newparlors offer the same great features without the “vin-tage” finish.
A spruce top on the R315KK and solid spruce top and solid Rosewood back and sides on the R321SWRK further enhance both guitars’ sound, delivering an open mid-range while their compact bod-ies make them great travel gui-tars.
Both parlors are built with mahogany necks with ebony fretboards and bridges, beautiful ab-alone rosettes and intri-cate herringbone bind-ings. The R315KK is complemented with a trembesi back and sides
and a fancy geometric inlay which pays homage to the 1900s during which the popularity of parlor guitars peaked. The upgraded R321SWRK features a delicate tree of life inlay which is offset by its dark, solid rosewood back and sides.
The R315KK will retail for $712.90 and the R321SWRK will retail for $1,069.90 and will be available mid-2011.www.washburn.com
Daisy Rock’s Wildwood Artist Acoustic-Electric Daisy Rock Girl Guitars has in-troduced the Wildwood Artist Acoustic-Electric guitar in Royal Blue Burst finish, the newest addi-tion to the Daisy Rock line of full-scale guitars and basses.
The guitar features a 20-fret, 25 ½” mahogany “Slim & Nar-row” neck—designed for girls with smaller hands—a solid spruce top for a richer, fuller tone, and a lightweight ma-hogany body designed to perfectly fit the female form and reduce fatigue while playing. Other components
P. Mauriat brass and woodwind instruments, available exclusivley f rom St. Louis Music
For more information on becoming a P. Mauriat Dealer please call now on 1 - 800 - 727 - 4512 or email [email protected] - St. Louis Music is a division of U.S. Band and Orchestra Supplies Inc.
DOES NOT BELONGTO ONE RACE OR CULTURE
THAT AMERICA HAS GIVEN THE WORLDBUT IS A GIFT
JAZZTHIS IS OUR GIFT BACK
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include the Fishman Isys T Piezo pickup system with built-in preamp and tuner, in-cluding master volume and 2-band active EQ, and die-cast chrome tuners.
The Wildwood Artist Acoustic-Electric guitar arrives completely set up and ready to play, and is backed by a limited lifetime warranty. The guitar (14-6278) is avail-able in Royal Blue Burst finish for $349.95. Other available finishes include Bleach Blonde, Rainbow Sparkle, and Pink Burst. www.daisyrock.com
Rock House’s In Your Face GuitarRock House has released a new 2 DVD set featuring Alexi Laiho, the highly ac-claimed guitarist and frontman of the band Children of Bodom: In Your Face
Guitar - Advanced Techniques & Concepts. Alexi Laiho
bluesy hard rock ferocity with dashes of Western clas-sical harmo-
ny, European progressive
rock, American thrash and ‘80s hair metal that pro-duces a compelling blend of flat-out ag-gression.
Students will learn his signature scale patterns and sequences he uses to move across the neck. Laiho reveals his tech-niques for string skipping and tapping
arpeggios, arpeggio progressions and ad-vanced bending that give him a distinct, soulful sound. Alexi shows you how he writes and constructs leads, syncopated rhythms and his personal tricks for mak-ing crazy guitar sounds and much more.
In Your Face Guitar – Advanced Techniques & Concepts with Alexi Laiho is available for $24.99. This DVD and all Rock House instructional products are distrib-uted by Hal Leonard Corp. www.halleonard.comwww.rockhousemethod.com
Travelite Banjo CaseThe new Travelite banjo case allows the user to simply put in the instrument, strap the case on his or her back and, “you’re ready to walk around the largest Bluegrass Festival with ease and comfort – and don’t forget the Dallas-Ft.Worth Airport when they change your gate number to the opposite side!”
With its rigid foam construction and its sturdy ballistic nylon exterior, it pro-vides the ultimate in protection
against shock and the best insulation from atmospheric changes. www.sagamusic.com
MTD Kingston AG BassBass builder Michael Tobias has been friends with legendary bass-ist Andrew Gouche for many years, and they recently put their talents together to create a new MTD Kingston model, the AG. This bass combines all of Andrew’s favorite materials and components, with Michael’s unique genius to create a special instrument. The AG features an alder body with a burl maple top, a maple neck with a purple-heart fingerboard, spe-cial Bartolini pickups and 3-band preamp, and a custom color finished special designed by Michael to match the purpleheart fingerboard. The AG is of-fered in both 5-string (retail $2,399 – street $1,989) and 6-string (retail $2,659 – street $2,189) versions, and will be available in August of 2011.www.mtdkingston.com
Providence® DLY-4 Chrono Delay from GodlykeGodlyke, Inc.’s Providence® DLY-4 Chrono Delay replaces their highly sought after Delay-80’s model, and is a feature-laden digital delay in an ex-tremely compact, user-friendly package.
Not only does the Chrono Delay pro-vide precise tap-to-delay settings, but it can also memorize two separate delay times and toggle between them. The direct signal stays in the analog domain from input to output, passing through the Providence Vitalizer® switching circuit so that no signal degradation occurs. A high-performance analog mixer circuit then recombines the direct signal with the delayed signal.
After the DLY-4 delay signal is converted back to analog format it is processed via analog Echo Hardness, Feedback, and Mix controls for a totally natural blend with the direct signal. The net result is a high-resolution delay effect that has extraordinary depth. In addi-tion to refined sound, the Chrono Delay features a simple interface that allows
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fast, intuitive user control.
Chrono Delay Key Features: • Delay time is adjustable from 1-2700
milliseconds• Delay time is accurately displayed
in milliseconds (mSec) or beats per minute (BPM). The BPM display is not simply a “rough estimate” - BPM delay times are displayed with metronome accuracy.
• Tap Tempo - Delay time is precisely set by the tempo tapped on the TAP switch.
• A/B Preset Memory - The A/B preset memory allows two dif-ferent delay time settings to be memorized and recalled via the footswitch.
• BeatSplit-Withthespecifieddelaytime as a quarter-note reference, seven delay time variations ranging from half notes to eighth-note trip-lets can be directly selected via the Beat Split knob. Rhythm-based de-lay time settings that previously re-quired tedious calculations can now be made in an instant.
External TAP Input - A momentary type footswitch (sold separately) can be connected to the EXT.TAP jack to allow remote tap delay operation. When this function is used, the A/B - TAP footswitch on the Chrono Delay unit is dedicated to A/B preset switching, so that tap delay and A/B preset switching operation are simul-taneously available via separate footswitch-es. A 12-volt DC power supply is included.www.godlyke.com
GR-55 Guitar Synth from RolandRoland’s GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer combines PCM synthesis with digital instrument modeling from the respected VG-99 V-Guitar System.
The GR-55 is describe as being, “the pinnacle of Roland’s exhaustive efforts in the field of guitar synthesis over the last35 years. In 1977, the company created theGR-500, theworld’sfirst guitar syn-thesizer. This milestone product ushered in a new era of guitar expression, allow-
ing guitarists to play an entire palette of sounds that were previously available only to keyboard players. Since then, Roland has remained steadfastly dedicated to gui-tar synthesis, constantly developing and improving the technology to make it ac-cessible and easy to use for all guitarists.”
The GR-55 delivers lightning-fast track-ing performance and “previously impossible sound-making capabilities.” It features two independent synthesizer sound engines, each loaded with over 900 of Roland’s lat-est sounds, including pianos, organs, strings, vintage and modern synths, percussion, and many more. A third sound engine is driven by Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM®), the guitar modeling technology behind Roland’s famous VG-99 V-Guitar System. With COSM, the GR-55 can emu-late electric and acoustic guitars, basses, and other instruments, as well as guitar and bass amplifiers.
The GR-55 allows players to combine all three sound engines plus their guitar’s normal input to create any sound from the familiar to the original. Two independent multi-effects processors are available for a huge array of tone-shaping options, plus global reverb, chorus, delay effects and
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EQ to add final sweetening to any sound.The GR-55 features a USB song play-
er that lets users trigger WAV files on a USB flash drive using the onboard ped-als. The GR-55 also functions as an au-dio and MIDI interface for computers, with a rear-panel USB 2.0 port for a quick and easy connection. Users can easily in-tegrate with their favorite digital audio workstation software, recording GR-55 sounds as audio in the DAW and using the GR-55’s super-fast pitch-to-MIDI capa-bilities to trigger MIDI sounds such as vir-tual synths and samplers with their guitar.
The GR-55 is equipped with Roland’s industry-standard 13-pin GK interface, and includes a Roland GK-3 divide pickup (GR-55GK model; also available without the pickup as GR-55S). The GK-3 can be easily installed on most steel string guitars with no modification to the instrument. In addition, many different GK-ready instru-ments are commercially available from various top guitar manufacturers.
The GR-55 is now shipping with an MSRP of $979.00, or $1,199.00 with a GK-3 Divided Pickup included.www.rolandus.com
Gold Tone OB-175 Banjo Gold Tone has acquired an ex-clusive 12-worker factory in Ko-rea to build the new OB-175 pro-fessional 5-string bluegrass banjo. Final assembly and setup is done at the Gold Tone shop in Florida and ships with a deluxe archtop hard case for $1,399 retail.
The OB-175 features a rep-lica of the “pre-war” flat top bell-bronze tone ring. In-cludes a 3-ply Canadian maple rim and neck, zinc one-piece flange and ebony fingerboard. “Compared to a mass produced banjo, this small factory of luthiers accurately fits every part resulting in a tone equal to any domestic-made banjo for $5,000...guaranteed” com-ments Wayne Rogers, owner of Gold Tone.
Gold Tone is a musical instrument wholesaler that designs and manufactures acoustic instruments and sells to retailers across the world. Parts are manufactured in the Pacific Rim and the US and then pro-fessionally assembled and setup in Florida. Gold Tone is the only banjo company with an extended warranty to second owners.www.goldtone.com
Traveler Guitars’ Escape EG-2 SunburstThe creative team at Traveler Guitar is passionate about shattering preconcep-tions about travel guitars. In fact, if their latest release didn’t weigh a mere 5 lbs. and fit in airline overhead compart-ments, you might not even identify the new EG-2 Sunburst as a travel guitar.
The EG-2 is a full 25 ½”-scale electric guitar featuring a compact double-cut-away body, 3-ply pickguard, maple neck & fretboard and a lusty 2-tone sunburst finish. At just 29 ½” long, the EG-2 stows easily in overhead compartments. Two precision-placed single-coil pickups feed into the EG-2’s onboard Pocket RockIt headphone amplifier, producing classic clean and distortion tones through head-phones or an amplifier. The electronics include a 1/8” AUX-IN jack for play-ing with mp3 or CD. Gig bag included. Street price $479.99www.travelerguitar.com
AweSome’s Pickup Tone Multiplier S3-Board This Pickup Tone Multiplier S3-Board switching system lets you Hyper-Mod
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your 3-pickup right-hand or left-hand electric guitar, bass and other instruments to instantly give you 700 percent more Pure Virgin Analog pickup tones.
The S3-Board is based on AweSome Musical Instruments revolutionary pat-ented Pickup Tone Multiplier (PTM) switching system. With only six switches on a 1.5” x 1.5” board, this product lets you instantly get seven times more pickup tones from your instrument. Because this prod-uct gives you 30 more pickup tones, you are
better able to find that elu-sive Signature Sound you desperately want.
This assembled and tested product is ideal for the Do-It-Yourselfer and
will easily fit in virtually every 3-pickup in-strument. It includes a solderless terminal strip to let you connect your two pickups and controls for easy installation. Installa-tion instructions are via download, as well as many useful white papers from their growing document library. www.AweSome-Guitars.com
Levy’s Bullet Guitar StrapsLevy’s revolutionary bullet guitar straps are 2” cotton web-bing with 1 1/2” solid metal fake bul-lets, suede ends, and tri-glide adjustment. Pictured is model MSSC8B available in brown, camo, green, desert camo, white, arctic camo, black, and tan.www.levysleathers.com
Vibramate String SpoilerThe Vibramate String Spoiler is a little bracket designed to fit right onto your existing Bigsby vibrato without any modifications or special tools. It easily slips right into place and is held in posi-tion by the tension of the strings when tuned to pitch. The Spoiler makes string changes remarkably easy: no more need for wrapping the strings around and un-der the vibrato roller with needle-nose pliers in an attempt to get the ball onto that little pin.
The Vibramate String Spoiler is de-signed to maintain the same smooth operation and feel of the classic Bigsby vibrato and may even increase the poten-tial range of pitch bending. The fulcrum
position eliminates unwanted stress to the ball end string wrap. The Spoiler has a polished finish and subtle appear-ance designed to look like it was original equipment on your guitar and vibrato. Manufactured in the USA from high-grade Stainless Steel, the Vibramate String Spoilers are available in three finishes; Silver, Gold and Black. Univer-sal fit makes the Spoiler interchangeable with all of the Bigsby vibrato models.
SR1 String Spoiler - Polished Stain-less Steel $39.95, SR1-B String Spoiler - Black $59.95, SR1-G String Spoiler - Gold $59.95www.vibramate.com
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Tung-Sol 6L6GC STR
Built to the same “Special TubeRequest” specs of leading amplifiermanufacturers of the 1960s, the6L6GC STR is a rugged and reliablepower tube for use in the mostdemanding guitar amplifier circuits.
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Genelex Gold Lion KT88
After extensive research and engi-neering the famed Genalex GoldLion KT88 is available once again.Recreated down to the finest detail,The Gold Lion features gold platedgrid wire, carbonized screen grids,and a tri-alloy clad plate structurefor exceptional performance andsound quality.
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12AT7 • 12AU7 • 12AX76V6GT • 6922 • KT66 • KT77
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BEST OF THE
CLASSICS
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Building Upon the PastThirty years ago guitarist Robb Can-
dler opened a music store on Canyon Boulevard in the center of town. It was a great location, with tremendous foot traffic from the nearby Boulder Mall, and it was right next door to the thriving Liquor Mart store, with which it shared parking. The university and one of the city’s two high schools were also an easy walk or bicycle ride away. After 29 years Robb decided to sell both the building and the store. The building sold for 1.7 million dollars. Robb sold the business to his friend and fellow-musician Seth Goodman.
Todd Weiner had managed the old store, and continued in this role. In a massive ef-fort to leave as little time as possible between the closing of the old store and the opening of the new one, the store’s employees, along with a moving company, moved everything
in three days. The store held a Memorial Day sale in 2008 at the old location on a Fri-day, and on Saturday the new store was in operation.
The new business was located north of the downtown area, in a section of town that used to be blanketed by the Cross-roads Shopping Mall. After the mall de-clined in the late 1990s, there was a period of retrenchment and re-birth and there are now a number of stores and restau-rants in the area. We interviewed Todd a year after the store’s move and asked how the relocation had affected the store’s business. He told us that although the old store had enormous foot traffic, and was al-ways busy, it had its share of problems. For one thing the old location had two levels, and it required continual monitoring to protect against theft. Sight lines were not clear, and the customer didn’t readily have
visual access to the store’s offerings. The new storefront is much more of a destina-tion location, rather than part of a shop-ping expedition. The parking is also better, because the old lot was subject to being usurped by Liquor Mart customers, especially during football weekends at the University. In the new location the park-ing is dedicated to Robb’s customers. The current location has 6,453 square feet – very competitive with the 6,500 feet available at the old location. This has enabled Robb’s to add to their product selection, and to add an additional lesson room. The current store has lots of glass, and the rooms are separated into different product offerings.
New OfferingsThe drum room is something new,
because as Todd put it, “We had only
Moving Out and Moving OnRobb’s Music:The town of Boulder is one of a dozen or so towns in the country where
a huge state university dominates the social and economic climate. The
University of Colorado’s annual influx of 40,000 students has a huge im-
pact on the 100,000 plus residents of Bounder, which is about 25 miles
north of Denver, and has a number of unusual traits. Boulder has one of
the toughest growth laws in the United States, drastically limiting the con-
struction of new houses. As a result of this legislation, housing prices are
high. The University’s presence has resulted in a highly educated popu-
lation, and a strong support for the arts. The nearby town of Eldorado
Springs is a world center for rock climbing, and Boulder attracts an ath-
letic and outdoor-oriented populace that is big on skiing, mountain climbing, and bicycle riding. Robb’s Music
store manager Todd Weiner describes the store and the town as being family-oriented, with an average age of
about 36, with “2.2 kids and cars.” He smiled and remarked that he fit that demographic himself.
Retail
Seth
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dabbled in drums for the previous 30 years. Now we have complete drum kits. “ Other additions include live sound and PA Equipment and the addition of more product lines. Some of these new prod-ucts are Benedetto and Hagstrom Guitars and Eden bass gear, as well as Zildjian cymbals, Nord keyboards and PreSonus digital audio. The Blueridge Guitar line is a “hot product,” and Roland V Drums “sell like crazy.” The old store carried the Roland V, but didn’t sell many of them. Bass gear has done very well, and Robb’s has added bass amplifiers and cabinets. The store carried most of the Godin guitar lines, and does very well with them. AMI acoustic and electric guitars have also been big sellers. Robb’s is also making an impact in the church and school market with PA sales. Sales of some of the high-end niche brands – PRS
and Martin, for example – have slowed down in the current economic climate.
Robb’s is taking advantage of Boul-der’s lively music scene. Two theaters feature live music on a regular basis, there are numerous clubs, and concerts are a regular feature at the University. In addi-tion to the University of Colorado’s music department, Naropa University also has a music program. There are a variety of music festivals in the county including the Boulder County Jam A Lam, the city’s Creekside festival and the folk festival in nearby Lyons. The store attracts many of the professional and semi-pro musicians who live and work in the area, as well as touring musicians who play in the metro area.
Robb’s maintains a repair service for keyboards, guitars and amplifi-ers. There are three full-time and three
part-time repair people. There is consid-erable store traffic from Denver, which is only a 35-mile drive away. Overall the store has 21 employees, including repair personnel and teachers. Some 400-500 lessons are taught each month. The ad-dition of the fifth lesson room has added to the teaching traffic. Teachers are in-dependent contractors who set their own rates. Current typical lessons cost $30-$40 for a half hour, and $50-$60 for an
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hour. Drum lessons are “a little more expensive.” Some of the teachers have worked here for 25 years, and teacher Tom Wasinger has won three Grammys over the years as a producer and an art-ist. Former owner Robb Candler keeps his hand in the overall operation by teaching at the store.
We asked Todd how the recession had impacted business. He replied that Robb’s had actually increased its business since the move, although the actual gross was slightly lower than what the new owner-ship team had projected. Todd pointed out that Boulder is noted for supporting local businesses, and that the low cost of financing had proved helpful. In general he estimated that, last year, the Boulder economy was down 7-8 percent, which would be an enviable figure in many parts of the country. Building has slowed down, and there is little action in the local housing market, but no one seems to be panicking here.
Hot Lines, Promotion, and Outreach
The balance between acoustic and elec-tric guitar sales is currently leaning slightly in
favor of acoustic guitars. The store features a large acces-sories display, with an extra large selection of picks of every description. On the classical front, the store finds Cervantes nylon string guitars to be their most popular line. One of the featured product lines is Lowden Guitars, “one of our favorite lines.” Robb’s is one of only seven Lowden dealers in the United States. Lowden Guitars did well at the old store, and continue to repli-cate this success at the new location. In a phone interview with Seth Goodman he de-scribed the increasing market for ukuleles as follows: “Ukulele sales have been great the past couple of years. Folks are realizing it’s an instrument fit for anyone, and the instru-ments are simply fun. We continue to offer more and more models!”
Almost all of Robb’s employees, in-cluding former owner Robb Candler, current owner Seth Goodman and Todd himself continue to play profession-ally. Seth and Todd are lifelong friends, and even sometimes play in a band to-gether. At the time of our interview,
Seth was playing in another part of the state. In a telephone conversation he mentioned that, “Music is something we all want to do here.”
Robb’s has worked hard to improve its web presence. They sell not only on their web site, but also on EBay. The various employees share the manage-ment of the web site, and “we are putting more effort into the web and making our presence known there.” The eBay sales are generally of vintage gear, including scratched or dented items. They are also developing a presence on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, all of which are potent tools for luring the college and high school customers that are definitely
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a major part of the Boulder demographic. The store does consignment sales
and in instrument trades, and they are carrying an increased amount of a sheet music and video instructional materi-al. The books “do very well for us,” but the DVDs have only recently entered the product mix. Consequently, it is too early to assess their value. The students that study at the store constitute a good market for instructional materials, and the store works closely with its teach-ers to fulfill that need, The Denver-Boulder area has very competitive dis-counting. There are half a dozen music stores in the county, with Robb’s being the largest one. Each of the stores seems to have developed their own particu-lar niche. For example, Swalley’s sells acoustic pianos and H.B. Woodsongs is an acoustic music store. Another deal-er in nearby Longmont carries Gibson products. Todd sees the Denver Guitar Center stores as Robb’s biggest competi-tor.
In terms of promoting the store, Robb’s regularly advertises in the Boulder Daily Camera and the Boulder Weekly. They have also done some Google ads, and
from time to time advertise in Westword, the Denver free weekly paper. The store has developed a private mailing list, and provides some e-mail preferred cus-tomer specials for that list. They have also done some clinics sponsored by Fender. With Boulder’s sunny (except for snow days) climate, they have even done clinics in the parking lot, to allow for a larger audience. They also do some in store events, and plan on doing more of them. Special anniversary sales events occur in Maya great time in Boulder, be-cause the university students are about to leave school. The University of Colora-do has a considerable out of state popula-tion, and many students come from other parts of the state as well. There are also Christmas sale events, featuring holiday specials. The store also promotes itself by providing sound for some of the local music festivals.
The management team attends the winter NAMM show. They find the en-vironment useful for comparing experi-ences with other stores in different parts of the country. It also reinforces the no-tion of making sure that the management team itself is on the same page. It’s also
“a great opportunity to make sure we’re locked into the product lines that are the lifeblood of the store.” They have at-tended the Summer Session, but find that the timing isn’t good for them most of the time – Todd feels it “comes up too fast in terms of the store’s sales and schedule.”
Seth pointed out that the store had enough space to expand, if that becomes necessary. Currently the space and its displays are working for the store, as in-dicated by customer reactions and sales.
Relationships with suppliers are good, and the store has a good track record with them of them. In terms of the prod-uct mix, “if a product is omitted, it means it basically hasn’t worked for us.”
The loyalty of the store’s employees has been a key factor in its growth. From Todd’s point of view, the goal is to have “good staff people. We have developed an environment where we can all do what we’re good at.” With its emphasis on hiring musicians in both sales and teaching, Robb’s has been able to survive a move and expand at a tome when many music stores are struggling to stay afloat, and even having trouble maintaining their previous sales levels.
St. Louis Music is a division of U.S. Band & Orchestra Supplies Inc.
Supplying 10,000 products from 150 of the world’s leading brands to music stores across the Nation.
www.stlouismusic.comTo request a dealer catalog or to arrange a visit from one of oursales representatives call us now on 1 - 800 - 727 - 4512 [email protected]
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Brass & Woodwind
“Fast track 20 years later, and we have a full line of wind instruments from pic-colos to euphoniums,” says Klingborg. “We operate our own modern state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Tai-wan and China that we fully own and we source all of our own materials from Japan, the United States and Europe. It’s not like an off the shelf manufacturer who buys things and has their name put on them. We know where those materi-als come from, who designed the instru-ments, and who trained the people who build those instruments. So from start to finish, quality control is very important to us.
“We’re probably most known for sax-ophones because we go from the lowest priced, entry-level instruments all the way up to the Antigua Pro One. The Pro One is probably the most significant product launch in our history and, with the response to the saxophone and the in-novation that’s in the Pro One, it’s prob-ably the most significant new saxophone since the invention of the saxophone by Adolphe Sax. It’s just getting that kind of reaction.”
The Pro One – Innovation at Work
What’s so innovative about the new Pro One sax? “Well, there’s a number of things but starting out at the top, we’ve got a new neck designed by Peter Pon-zol. Actually, the whole saxophone is designed by Peter but most significantly the neck,” explains Klingborg. “Peter is somebody I’ve known for a long time as not only a great player but an educator and technician as well. He has his own line of mouthpieces and necks and he re-ally knows what makes a neck tick.”
Klingborg says that Ponzol developed the new neck specifically for the new Pro One line of horns: “There was a list of de-sign intentions which included balanced resistance, lower blowing resistance, a nice core to the sound and a great overall feel to the instrument and many of those attri-butes, start out in the neck so that’s where we started. We used our existing pro horn as a base of where to work from and Peter developed a new neck for it which got us well on the way to where we wanted to go.”
Rather than just slapping on a new neck to their existing Pro horn and call-
ing it a day, Antigua has pulled out all the stops with the new Pro One line. Moving down the body of the saxophone, the Pro One is loaded with new designs all based upon playability and tone.
One simple example is the problematic G# key. “The G# pad has always been a real pain for saxophone players because it
“ The Pro One is probably the most significant product launch in our history.”
Antigua Winds – Pro One Sax“Percussionist Fred Hoey originally founded the company in 1991, so 2011 will be
Antigua Winds 20th year of business,” says Kerry Klingborg, general manager at
Antigua Winds. “Hoey – a great percussionist, author, clinician and percussion
industry innovator – was always involved with getting people value priced,
good quality reliable musical instruments.” When he retired from C. Bruno,
Hoey decided to start Antigua Winds to do on the wind instrument side what
he had done on the percussion side of the business for so many years.
Pro One Alto
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sticks all the time,” explains Klingborg. To fix the problem, Antigua has incorporated one of Peter Ponzol’s older designs – the G# pad lifter. “Peter developed it a number of years ago and it’s basically a mechanism that lifts the G# pad off the tone hole every single time.” In addition to the pad lifter, the Pro One has added a bridge in between the F and F# keys – a feature frequently added by custom saxophone technicians. “We’ve also added a connector between the low C# and B to allow a more efficient sliding or rocking between the low C# and B without your finger getting caught underneath the B key,” says Klingborg.
Bells and Whistles“There’s been a whole lot of hype and
mystique surrounding the bell diameters on saxophones all the way back into the 1930’s when Conn had their larger bells,” says Klingborg. “In the past ten years or so there’s been a resurgence of large bell sizes, so we did a lot of research to find out what the ‘right size bell’ was. We felt that the bells on current saxophones from competing lines were more suited to classical playing and were a little smaller than we thought they should be. The new hybrid bell is a little larger than your typical Selmer and Yamaha but slightly smaller than what’s become fashionable. You end up with a bell that responds well, projects well and is not just right in front of your face.”
In addition to the larger bell, An-tigua has made significant changes to the ergonomics and playability of the horn itself. “We’ve rolled the tone holes on the bell keys,” explains Klingborg. “Those are big pads, you’re using your weakest fingers on your body, and you’ve got long levered keys going down there so we’ve used the wide flanged rolled tone holes on the bell in order to get a larger area for the pad to seat on.
You need all the help you can get to play low,” laughs Klingborg.
Klingborg asserts that Antigua’s most significant innovations with respect to the Pro One are the double key arms on the low C, B and Bb keys. “There is a very innovative arm that we’ve applied for patents on which consists of a double arm that comes off of the hinge rod with two outriggers that emanate from the arm and have rubber tip adjustment screws,” says Klingborg. “The adjustment screws stabilize the pad cup and more efficiently transmit the energy from your finger to closing that tone hole all the way across the face. Instead of one line of contact pushing the pad cup closed, you have a broad surface pushing that tone hole closed. It transmits all the energy from
your finger much more efficiently into clos-ing the pads making it much easier to play. We call it the Trident arm and it works very
well – both the alto and the tenor get nice sub-tones at very low volumes with a nice core to the sound. The dynamic range is amazing – you can play this saxophone very quiet or loud it without breaking up and a lot of that on the low end is due to the
combination of the rolled tone holes and the Trident arms.”
It’s all about the Little Things
In addition to the ergonomic and mechani-cal innovations incorporated
into the Pro One, Antigua Winds has a
brand new alloy for the horn itself. “We call it ‘Vintage Re-
serve,’” says Klingborg. “We researched post-war French saxo-
phones for not only the metallur-gical composition of the metal but
the grain structure and the hardness of the metal as well. We emulated the
metallurgical science of the metal and the grain structure of the metal and then we developed an annealing process to make the saxophone blow freely and easily with-out breaking up.
“We also use a brass thumb rest for the left thumb instead of plastic. It’s a subtle but somewhat significant thing because the connection between man and ma-chine is vital. On the saxophone, both you and the saxophone are the instrument so when you’re playing it, the brass thumb rest allows the vibrations from the saxo-phone to be transmitted into your hands and you become more in tune with what’s going on with that instrument. The same thing goes with the right thumb hook but we actually carried it a step further. We put three domes in between the base plate that the thumb hook is attached to keep that from being one big huge block of metal that robs vibrations from the body underneath your right hand. The new de-sign keeps the instrument vibrating more efficiently and you’re able to feel the vibra-tions of the instrument much better.
“We use real mother of pearl finger buttons instead of plastic, and we’re using the finest pads that you can buy, it’s real-ly a complete package right down to the case. The finish is a vintage gold tone lac-quer and its extensively hand engraved. From changes in the ergonomic, place-ment of the keys, to the very material that the horn is made of, we really tried to take everything to the nth degree.”
From the larger bell and rolled tone holes, to the new trident, arm, Peter Pon-zol neck and custom metal alloy, the Pro One and Antigua winds are looking to take the saxophone world by storm.
Peter Ponzol
Pro One Tenor
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Print Music
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Marking its 35th year, the Retail Print Music Dealers Association will hold its annual convention April 27-30
at the Hyatt Hotel, Tampa, Fl. This will be the third time the trade association convenes in the sunshine state.
Previous meetings were in Miami (1987) and Orlando (1994). The four day assembly will include a variety of
seminars highlighted by a Saturday evening banquet and award presentations. The Dorothy Award, named
for Dorothy Hutchinson, a former charter member of the organization, is the RPMDA’s highest honor. Last
year’s winner was Richard Gore of Pender’s Music Co. Denton, Texas. Previously his parents Harold and
Betty Gore were recipients of the Award in 2003. The group also presents the Sandy Feldstein Service Award
named after the late composer and publisher to an individual who has volunteered their time to the organiza-
tion of a number of years. Last year’s recipient was Marcia Stearns of The Bookmark.
RPMDA.indd 70 3/22/11 2:11 PM
APRIL 2011 MMR 71
ALFRED MUSIC PUBLISHING CO., INC.ALPHONSE LEDUC/ROBERT KING MUSIC SALES, INC.ARPEGES-DIFFUSION IMDBARENREITERBOOSEY & HAWKES, INC.BREITKOPF & HARTELC.F. PETERS CORPORATIONCHERRY LANE MUSIC CO., INC.EDITIONS HENRY LEMOINEEDITIONS ROBERT MARTINFABER MUSICFJH MUSIC COMPANY INC.G. HENLE VERLAGHAL LEONARD CORPORATIONHERITAGE MUSIC PRESSJT PUBLICATIONSLORENZ CORPORATIONLUDWIG MASTERS MUSICMARLO PLASTIC PRODUCTS INC.MAYFAIR MONTGOMERY PUB-LISHING
MAYFAIR MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, INC.MEL BAY PUBLICATIONS, INC.MUSIC GIFTS COMPANY OF ENG-LAND, INC.MUSIC SALESNAMM INTERNATIONAL MUSIC PRODUCTS ASSOCIATIONNEIL A. KJOS MUSIC CO.NORTHEASTERN MUSIC/ RONCORPOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSSANTORELLA PUBLICATIONS, LTD.SCHAUM PUBLICATIONS, INC.SCHOTT MUSICSHAWNEE PRESS, INC.SOUNDFORTHTRI-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS, INC.VAN TEESELING MUSIC PUB-LISHERWILLIS MUSIC CO. 2011
Exhibitors
Showcase
EXPLORING LATIN PIANOTHE NEW METHOD
Also Available:
by the author of Improvising Blues Piano
and Exploring Jazz Piano
Prices, contents and availability subject to change without notice and
may vary outside the U.S.A.
Improvising Blues Piano49003248 Book/CD $39.95
With over 50 intermediate pieces, Tim Richards and John Crawford, two of the UK’s top pianist/educators provide a detailed introduction to the highly rhythmic music of Latin America and Spain. With assignments, suggested listening, and much more. 2 CDs contain authentic rhythm section tracks and invaluable play-along opportunities.
49018302 Book/2-CDs $39.99
Exploring Jazz Piano V. 149030450 Book/CD $39.95
Exploring Jazz Piano V. 249030509 Book/CD $39.95
www.halleonard.com
2011 PROGRAM
Tuesday, April 26thPre-Convention Board Meeting
Wednesday, April 27th6-7:30 PM Opening Night Cocktail Party Sponsored by Hal Leonard Corporation
Thursday, April 28th8-9 AM Speed Dating with the Pub-lishers, Danny Rocks, The Company Rocks, Emcee
Talk about e-harmony! Some of the print music industry’s hottest publishers and suppliers will have their moment in the spotlight this morning. These great supporters of our 2011 convention will be strutting their stuff as one of our most popular sessions returns to educate deal-ers about product lines, services and op-portunities. Don’t miss your dream date!
9-9:50 AM “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you,” Peter Boonshaft,
A leading music educator and author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise confirms why music is so vitally important to the education and life of ev-ery person and how we can be advocates for what we believe in. Sponsored by Alfred Music Publishing Co.
10-11 AM Exhibits open
11:10 AM-Noon Breakouts#1 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Christie Smith, Long & McQuade Music
Tough economic climates have led to cutbacks in arts funding and school music programs. With that comes the inevitable increase in sponsorship requests. How do we choose which programs to sponsor from so many worthy organizations? Are our sponsorship dollars being invested in an effective manner? How do we “reject” people in a way that keeps them happy and coming back?
#2 Where Did I Put That? A Sur-vival Guide to Organizing a Print Music Department, Bob Kohl, Long & McQuade Music
As the saying goes, there’s a place for everything, and everything in its place. If you’ve ever spent time searching for a book that your POS system claimed was
RPMDA.indd 71 3/23/11 11:04 AM
72 MMR APRIL 2011
in stock or scrambled to find something on hold for a customer, join Bob as he shares operational techniques for organ-izing an efficient and productive print music department. This session will cov-er logical floor plan designs, stock filing techniques, merchandising tips, inven-tory management pointers and more!
#3 Not another meeting! (Well, maybe one more…) Gwen Bailey-Harbour, Alfred Music Publishing
Would you like to have energizing meetings that lay the groundwork for sales and profits? This session will cover a variety of meeting formats and tech-niques for achieving goals, using key indicators with your staff and creating a positive, winning environment.
Noon-1:15 PM Lunch/RPMDA Business meeting
1:20-2:15 PM Freakonomics for the
Music Business Larry Morton, Hal Leonard Corporation
Using the principles of the highly-suc-cessful methodology from the best-selling Freakonomics series of books, Larry Morton presents a surprising and enter-taining analysis of seemingly unrelated information to show how social trends make our business grow.
2:20-4:20 PM Exhibits open
6 PM Optional dinner cruise eve-ning event boards at 6:30, departs 7 PM, returns 9:30 PM
Friday, April 29th8-9:10 AM Best Ideas, Kevin Cranley, Willis Music, emcee
The perennial favorite session of RP-MDA conventions, where members share their best ideas in only two minutes for fun and to compete for the title of 2011 Best Idea. What you learn here could change the way you do business and pay for your investment in coming to the convention.
9:15-11:00 Exhibits open
Show
case
published in 2010:
Volume 5: Sonatas . Trios . Concertos (Ed. Pieter Dirksen)EB 8805 (with CD-ROM)
Volume 6: Clavierübung III . SchüblerChorales . Canonische Veränderungen(Ed. Werner Breig)EB 8806
Please ask for our subscription brochure:www.breitkopf.com
BachComplete Organ Worksin 10 Volumes
Editorial Board: Werner Breig,Pieter Dirksen, Reinmar EmansFurther editors: Sven Hiemke,Matthias Schneider, David Schulenberg,Jean-Claude Zehnder
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RZMMRRPMDA_BachOrganWorks.qxp 16.03.2011 15:08 Uhr Seite
Call For A Free Student Book! ---It’s more than a warm-up book! ---Get your students totally in the key in which they are about to perform. ---Work the scale, balance and blend with 3 chorales in that key. ---Students love it.
A Northeastern Music PublicationChoose your free student book.
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Muscle Memory Exercises for Band BbTrumpet
Box 517 Glenmoore, PA 19343Voice: 610-942-2370 Fax: 610-942-0660Email: [email protected] Web: www.nemusicpub.com
musicpublications, Inc
northeastern
Randy Kulik has been in music education for over 25 years. He has taught at the elementary, middle, high school and college levels. Kulik currently is an instrumental music instructor with the Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Naperville, Illinois. Mr. Kulik’s bands have received numerous awards. Randy Kulik is the recipient of Those Who Excel and Excellence In Education. Kulik has performed professionally for over 30 years on trumpet and as a band leader. Kulik is also a contributing author to The Instrumentalist.
Ami Kulik has been an English teacher for over 15 years. She has taught at the high school and middle school levels and a Wings award recipient and Excellence In Education award winner. Currently, she is an 8th grade language arts teacher with the Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Naperville, Illinois. A pianist, violinist, thespian, and athletics coach, Kulik helped develop the Muscle Memory method with her husband by combining how athletes and musicians use the concept of Muscle Memory for physical skill development.
Muscle Memory Exercises for Band by Randall & Ami Kulik
It is an honor and a privilege to introduce this unique publication certain to make a worthy difference to your students and your ensembles. Author Randy Kulik (a noted music educator in his own right) has quantified his many years of successful teaching experience in this new book. His fascinating work with MUSCLE MEMORY has opened exciting landscapes-of-possibility as it relates to the challenges of mastering scales, key signatures, and the development of high level technical skills.
This worthy blueprint-of-success is certain to make-a-difference to you and the young musicians in your ensembles. Unlike many "new ideas," Randy's work has been tested and re-tested several times, and he has a proven track record that predictably manifests a positive contribution to the ongoing growth-and-development of ALL musicians.
The term MUSIC MEMORY relates to the discipline of creating mind-maps (dendrites) so the technical demands can be embraced (by the performer) with grace-and-ease. It is the basic concept that is the foundation of all practice habits, however, Randy Kulik has brought a new focal point to achieving excellence through his suggested series of exercises and chorales.
As with any goal, the time-on-task will garner the desired rewards. While there is certainly no shortcut to reaching this ultimate goal, the musical road map created by Randy Kulik and co-author, Ami Kulik, is the key to arriving at a GRAND FINALE for the invested time-and-energy. Satisfaction guaranteed...and more.
Tim Lautzenheiser
musicpublications, Inc
northeastern Bb Trumpet
RPMDA.indd 72 3/23/11 11:04 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 73
Showcase
11:10 AM-Noon Breakouts#1 Exit Strategies, Entrance Op-portunities Alan Friedman, CPA, Friedman Kannenberg
At some point you’re going to call it quits, whether to retire, take an offer you can’t refuse, make a mid-life career change or respond to an unforeseen, life-altering event. When that day comes, can you answer these three important ques-tions? How much money can I get for my music store? Who’ll will buy it? What can I do with the proceeds? This session will give you invaluable insight on how to value your music retailing business, who’s buying music stores these days, how much they’re paying, and what to do to preserve and grow your money after you sell.
#2 Building a Great Team, Reiff Lo-renz, Lorenz Corporation
How do you find great people? How do you retain great people? Can you grow great people? Come to think of it, what exactly is a great person? You can’t build a great company without assem-bling a world-class team, but this skill isn’t taught in business school. Learn how the country’s top companies create their success by hiring right, training for growth, and keeping the best. Learn where to look for top candidates, how to predict performance before you hire, and what will keep the top performers from leaving.
#3 Round Table DiscussionsSteve Loweth, Mayfair Music, moderator
We’ll break into small groups and give each team a different question and chal-lenge. The teams will discuss and recom-mend solutions that will be recapped and the answers posted at the show.
Noon-1 PM Lunch
1:10-2:15 PM Turn Your Contacts into Contracts: Effectively Market Your Business through Network-ing, Lisa Marie Platske
The world is changing. The customer of today looks different than the cus-tomer of just a year ago. Whether you’re new in business or have been network-ing for years, doing everything right isn’t enough to build relationships. Successful individuals know that underneath the great work, there has to be connection. Learn powerful strategies to leverage
your connections and become a customer magnet. Sponsored by Music Gifts of England, Inc.
2:20-3:40 PM Exhibits open
3:45-4:35 PM Repeat breakouts
4:40-5:30 PM This Works for Me and My Print Department, Today! Danny Rocks, The Company Rocks
Print music retailing is changing, fast! Are you keeping up? Are you giving your customers the products and services they demand? Want to know what is working, and why? Danny Rocks has surveyed a wide range of print music dealers and will present their success stories.Spon-sored by G. Henle Verlag
Dinner on your own
9-10:30 PM Afterglow reception, Sponsored by Music Sales
Join fellow RPMDA members after dinner out for a relaxing nightcap in a re-laxed, casual environment. A great way to wind down from a day of learning, growing and relationship building before calling it a day.
Saturday, April 30th7:50-8 AM Presentation of board of directors for 2011-2012
8-8:50 AM Bangles, Baubles and Beads! Gayle Beacock and Wayne Thompson, Beacock Music Co.
We’re counting on consumers to buy our wares. We read books, attend con-ventions, and try to guess what will make customers reach into their wallets. What is today’s consumer thinking? To find out, Wayne and Gayle went shopping! Join them for a fun, detailed look at what they learned and hear how to cash in on their findings.
9-9:55 AM Ownership Thinking: Why can’t everyone see what I see? Brad Hams
As a business owner or manager, you’ve probably wondered why your em-ployees or staff don’t see or aren’t con-cerned with the issues that occupy your mind 24/7. Why don’t they focus their attention on the important issues? Don’t they understand the cost of doing busi-ness? The problem is not that your em-ployees lack the interest or capacity to
contribute, but simply that they haven’t received the information, education, or tools they need to begin thinking and acting like an owner. Owners are focused on the company: sales, cash, profitability, the marketplace. Employees tend to focus on themselves: compensation, benefits, job security, getting work done. Owner-ship Thinking is a proven process that will move your employees from “me” to “us,” creating a better work environment and significantly improved financial per-formance. Companies practicing Own-ership Thinking financially outperform their competitors by 30% or more, and they retain employees at a 200% better rate.
10-Noon Exhibits open
12:30 PM Post-Convention Board Meeting
6-7 PM Closing Cocktail Party
7 PM-12 AM “Tropical Wear” Clos-ing Dinner and Awards
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Find Breaking
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RPMDA.indd 73 3/23/11 11:04 AM
74 MMR APRIL 2011
Guest EditorialBill Irwin
It was back in the ‘60s when the Ham-mond Organ Company took me out of my daytime-teaching- in-a-studio-in-my-home-and-nighttime-playing-in-a-local-lounge routine and made me a National Staff Artist, flying from city to city, con-ducting workshops in the afternoon, fol-lowed by concerts in the evening. It was a hectic schedule.
It was after I left Hammond and be-came a freelance promotional concert artist and educator, that I was able to work for other keyboard manufacturers directly and indirectly, with dealers hir-ing my services in the hey-day of the elec-tronic organ business.
In all of my promotional concerts, I tried to include piano whenever possible. It was a change of pace, made the playing of the organ look easier and if the mul-tiple keyboards (manuals) and airplane-like controls, plus the lower world of the bass pedals, frightened the prospective buyers, they could consider purchasing a piano.
At one point, I became associated with MMR and in my travels, I would write profiles of different dealerships, take the photos to accompany the articles and made a lot of friends in the process.
I also was privy to what went on behind the scenes in the various dealerships and watched many deals lost on the selling floor, due to a variety of negative actions that annoyed me.
“Your Mission: Sell Product!”Regardless of how well I played, my
rapport with the audience, how I looked, my knowledge of the products being sold… the reason I was there, includ-ing all the fees and all expenses that the manufacturers or the dealers paid me… for one reason only… and that was to sell instruments.
I never forgot that and I did sell instru-ments. In the beginning, I just did my job to the best of my ability, but the longer I played the concerts and conducted the workshops, the more critical I became of the salespeople and yes, even the dealers who did not put 100 percent effort be-hind the promotion, even if they were paying for it.
Speaking of Dealers…As in every field, the personality of
dealers varies greatly. It takes self-con-fidence, knowledge, courage and good finances to be a dealer. I admire deal-
ers, especially those who are open to new ideas. For example, in northern Cali-fornia, I enlisted the cooperation of five competing keyboard dealers to furnish one instrument from each store in a com-prehensive multi organ dealer presenta-tion that was considered a great success.
There have been in-store presenta-tions with a handful of prospects and the biggest concert I’ve had was in Florida, where the dealer hired a large, extreme-ly modern theatre and sold tickets to more
My Soap-Box Is A Piano/Organ Bench
After more than three decades of working both sides of the keyboard music world… offering performance,
arranging and education for the public… and the performance, education and selling for the keyboard mu-
sic industry, I’d like to climb up on my soapbox and share a few thoughts with you.
Guest Editorial.indd 74 3/22/11 1:25 PM
APRIL 2011 MMR 75
than 1,000 people! …and gave me a spinet organ on which to play the show!
Music is an emotional experience and the more you appeal to people’s emo-tions, the greater their response.
Some dealers were very shy about let-ting the people in the area know about the forthcoming show being presented by a national artist. If the store didn’t send out a mailing to their own mailing list, the salespeople would personally call their customers and prospects to inform them of the coming event. They were not trying to attract new prospects.
Naturally, I sent out glossy 8 x 10 photos in advance of the engagement. I found some mounted in a window, some were standing inside the store on a coun-ter. That was about it.
I still have the advertisements from my tours of New Zealand, where small dealers took a half page in the local pa-pers to proudly announce the forthcom-ing artist’s appearance.
Personally, I always advised dealers to contact the local radio and TV show per-sonalities and let them know about my coming. I used my work for the blind and physically handicapped as the main point of interest. At the present time, my work for the Music Section of the Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., consists of seven completely record-ed courses of keyboard music instruction, suitable for organ, piano and portable keyboards. The courses are loaned free to their patrons.
“May I Speak To The Sales People?”
Before you start to say that I can’t talk about you until I walk in you shoes… I have walked in your shoes. In Los Ange-les there was one large keyboard dealer with a huge, elegant showroom and small satellite stores in the surrounding smaller towns.
I was a salesman in the large elegant showroom and later a teacher in one of the smaller stores. If you had ever seen the first Hammond Organ showroom in New York City, I believe it was on West 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall, you’d have some idea of how elegant the main store was that was occupied by the Los Angeles Dealer.
Yes, I was one of the very unbusy(?) salesmen in the store, waiting for the mo-ment when some person of wealth and
standing would enter the front door and buy a piano or organ. I have total empa-thy with salespeople and what it takes to keep motivated to close sales. With that empathetic feeling in mind, I’d like to of-fer a few suggestions.
Through the years, I’ve watched sales people react differently when a “pros-pect” enters the showroom. Some are so eager to have a possible customer, they rush towards them. Some sales folks have been disappointed so many times, they are absolutely lethargic when see-ing someone hesitantly enter the store.
I’ve seen them stay seated and wave to the folks entering store, admonishing them to “look around, make yourselves at home and if you need any help, just let me know.” Uh-uh. Not good. How about putting on a big smile (you are happy to see someone come through the door, yes?) walking up and introducing your-self? Perhaps your store has a weekly or monthly drawing for music or playing classes, et cetera. You can inform the folks that they are still able to enter the drawing for that week or month. Have the application ready to have them give
Guest Editorial.indd 75 3/23/11 11:06 AM
76 MMR APRIL 2011
you their name, address phone number, any instrument they presently own, et cetera. Then, qualify them as to size, style, color, and price range, to help them save time in their looking around. If they insist on going it alone, leave them for a moment and get the owner (first choice), or the manager of the store. Bring the party over and introduce them, so that the executive can tell them how great, knowledgeable and helpful you are and that they are in good hands before he or she leaves. After that, stay glued to the prospects.
Yes, do play to show off the features of the instrument, but don’t try to prove how great you can
play. Tell the prospects that you are saving your best playing for the free en-tertainment you are going to give them by playing for their first party after the new instrument has been delivered!
Don’t overawe the folks with your
playing until they’ve signed on the dot-ted line. By the way, when you give them your complimentary performance, be sure to have business cards and literature with you. Someone else at the party may be a good prospect.
In the store, after the introductions, if they still resist you, I believe they are just wasting your time and theirs. Smile, invite them to stay and look around and then go back to your desk and start call-ing your latest prospects. Otherwise, stay with them until you walk them to the door with a sales contract in their hands.
Make Sure Every Instrument On The Floor Is In Fine Playing Condition
When traffic is slow, many salespeople who can play well, sit at the instruments and play to pass the time. That’s fine, but you can make good use of your playing time by checking to see that all the instru-ments are in good shape. Check to see if
any keys are sticking, et cetera and when you have electronic instruments, check to see that all the features are working. It’s embarrassing to discover something is wrong in the middle of a demo. Let me tell you of a few experiences I had with that situation on the road.
One dealer rented a theatre for the concert. They brought one large elec-tronic organ console. When they had it in place, the organ wouldn’t work. They took it all apart and they still had all the pieces on the stage when the au-dience started to come in for the show. Wow!
Another time, in the middle of a show, there was small flash of lightning from a large speaker and I started telling the au-dience jokes while a technician struggled to get things working again.
I arrived early at a dealership run by the widow of the former owner. I started to check out all the models on the floor and she told me that it was not necessary as the technician had just gone through all the instruments and they were fine. “Believe it or not” (with apologies to Ri-pley) every instrument on the floor had some sort of problem. The widow had to
“ Be sure to give every promotional idea brought to you serious consideration.”
Guest Editorial.indd 76 3/22/11 1:26 PM
APRIL 2011 MMR 77
call back the technician to enable me to have more than one instrument on stage for the show.
It’s Great To Sell and Deliver, But…
I can’t tell you how many times when I have prepared and practiced on a special brand or model of an instrument in prep-aration for a concert, the sales staff had sold that particular instrument and de-livered it to the buyer without letting me know, and I had to put together a whole new show at the last minute. I suppose that proves I’m a professional, but what a price to pay to be able to be called a pro.
My advice to dealers having a promo-tion, no matter what the instrument is: if the performer is planning to use it, sell it, but advise that a nationally known per-former is going to play it for a forthcom-ing show, and if the customer will leave the instrument with the store for the show, the artist will autograph it. I always signed the inside of the bench.
It’s Great To Perform On A Stage, But…
Yes, it is great to perform on a stage: a real stage, with steps on both sides for the interested prospects in the audience to come on stage and speak with the art-ist and any salespeople who just happen to be available.
Ladies and gentlemen, a set of risers is not a stage. It is a possible lawsuit when people invariably trip over the low edges. Be very careful. It happens more often than you may think.
Be Innovative. Do Something Different
Dealers, be sure to give every promo-tional idea brought to you serious consid-eration, as it may be very valuable. Don’t just think or say, “We haven’t done that before.”
For example, when I was freelancing, I contacted a large multi-store dealer-ship on the West Coast and suggested a promotion I called “PROSPECT-ing For Gold.” The idea was to place at least five models of the brand or brands that the dealership handled and display them in a large hotel meeting room. They were all spread out in a straight line. I suggested to the dealership that they invite only known prospects to attend this special “concert just for them”.
First, I started from one end, I be-
lieve the left, played a few songs and then moved to the next instrument to the right. I followed that routine until I wound up on the far right instrument. At that point, I personally invited the small audience to walk the short distance to the instrument I was at and see up close, ex-actly what I was doing to get the effects, et cetera. Some folks came up immedi-ately and others seeing that reaction, fol-lowed them.
Before the “show,” I arranged with the sales staff to walk up with the people and to keep their eyes on me. Whenever anyone in the crowd asked me a ques-tion, while I was playing, I would stop and catch the eye of a salesperson and he or she would immediately come over. I would ask the knowledgeable salesperson to please answer this person’s question and I would move to the next instrument, ready to play and repeat the same rou-tine, ask for questions and when I got one I would signal another salesperson and the routine continued.
The executive in charge called it a great success.
Is It The Coda Or Just The First Ending?
Yes, the economy is a bit slow at the mo-ment, but we know we all have to keep go-ing – doing the things we know work and trying the things we haven’t tried before.
My thanks to the executives at MMR for giving me this chance to talk with members of the keyboard music indus-try – a great industry. I am proud to be a member.
Everything I mentioned is absolutely true. There’s a lot more to talk about, but I appreciate the time you’ve spent with me.
Should any old friends want to con-tact me, my e-mail address is: [email protected]
I’ll leave you with two of my favorite proverbs: “Life is a moving stream. You either swim up it or it carries you back-ward.” and “Aim for the stars instead of the tops of the trees.”
‘Bye for now and Good Luck!
Bill Irwin is a respected pianist, organist, arranger, educator, lecturer, and author. He was singled out as “Best Pop Organist” by Keyboard Magazine four years in a row and has performed and conducted workshops worldwide. Irwin has recorded seven courses of organ & piano instruction for the blind and physically handicapped, available free of charge from the Music Section of the Na-tional Library Service, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the Library of Congress. View much of Bill’s collection of keyboard arrangements and study books at his website: http://theatreorgans.com/uk/irwin/.
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Guest Editorial.indd 77 3/23/11 11:06 AM
At A Glance
78 MMR APRIL 2011
Brass Bell Music’s
Tristann Rieck
Who: Tristann Rieck
What: Brass Bell Music
Where: Milwaukee, Wis.
When: 1971 (by father, Alan Gaulke)
Type: Full line, no pianos
Brass of Choice: I play French horn, and play with the Metropolitan Milwau-kee Community Concert Band, Lake-shore Symphonic Band, and the Shore-wood Concert Band.
Beginnings: I started working in the store with my dad as a kid and throughout my teenage years. After college, I began taking on more responsibilities, and be-came part owner in 1991. My father re-tired in 2000, and I bought out my brother in 2006, becoming the full owner.
Accessories: I currently own one hus-band (Zach) and one cat (Izzie). Just kid-ding! My husband is the love of my life. When the stress gets to me, he’s who I turn to and with his support I find strength to tackle the challenges ahead of me.
Career high point: June 1, 2003. It was the day we opened the store in its new current location and was a huge high. Customers were so excited to see our new store and loved the change.
Favorite parts: Recognizing those moments when all the strategizing, training, and planning come together.
Not-so-favorite parts: I hate having to fire someone. Even when I know it is right for them and for the business, it still turns my stomach.
My big oops: We invested in a Notes-tation machine soon before they went out of business.
The three most important things about managing are: Being a good role model; being able to listen to the staff; and learning how to give your staff the right amount of support with-out micromanaging (still working on this one!).
The most important thing about doing business with a manufac-turer is: Communication. This includes telling them what I need from them, es-pecially when they are falling short of my expectations, as well as making sure to keep the dialogue going even when I am unable to pay a bill or fall short of my commitments.
Eager beavers need apply: The most important quality to look for when hiring someone is that he or she
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has a passion for music is a key com-ponent. Eagerness to learn is right up there. The thing I most enjoy is hear-ing customers respond positively to the enjoyment my employees find in their work.
Who I admire most in this busi-ness: Denny Senseney, formerly of Senseney Music [Witchita]. He finds ways to make everybody feel good about themselves and what they do.
If I could change one thing about this business, it would be: I would have to say band rental nights. Of course they are crucial to our business, but they are stressful for the teachers, the families, and all of us music store people.
Beep, beep: If I were a cartoon char-acter, I’d be Wile E. Coyote. Despite failure after repeated failure, he gets right back up, tries again, and refuses to give up. I respect his tenacity and resourcefulness. I identify with him be-cause I am always thinking of new ways to improve the store and fix problems, sometimes only managing small gains, but I keep at it.
True or False: Can you be happy and rich in the music instrument business? It depends on what your definition of rich is. I may not make a huge amount of money, but I get plenty of other rewards that make me feel wealthy in spirit. I am able to give employment to fifteen talented young people, and I feel that, by helping my customers on their journey of musical discovery, I enrich the lives of thou-sands.
Words to live by: “Try Not. Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
Breaking News!Find it in the Hot News section of MMR’s Web site,
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SEE THE VIDEO • WWW.ROCKBOX.COM • 408-279-9400
Boiling Point™Overdrive / Boost
“ThaT Frickin’ Pedal rocks”
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Sanyo eneloop Pedal JuiceThe Sanyo eneloop pedal is a convenient rechargeable DC 9V battery unit for ef-fects pedals and other music devices that provides consistent, long-lasting sound
quality. The eneloop Pedal Juice offers a portable, rechargeable lithium-ion 9V power supply (max output 2,000mA, or 1,000mA per port when using both power ports, Three-stage power in-dicator shows remain-ing battery level even
when in use, turns on and off easily with one button and can even be used out-side as its weather resistant to JIS IPX3 compliance level. No noise interference from surrounding electric equipment as occurs with AC power, Approximately 3.5 hour charging time, standard usage times include approximately 50 hours for analog effects units (~10mA), up to 27 hours for digital effects units (~50mA), about 17 hours for digital multi effects units (~100mA), 7 hours for multi-track recorder or synthesizer (~300mA), and 2 hours for electronic drums or percus-sion (~1,000mA),Built-in 3.7V, 7.35Ah Lithium-ion battery. Eneloop pedal juice is offered in white and now black.http://us.sanyo.com
Cerwin-Vega CVi Passive Portable PA SpeakersHoused in a double braced wood cabinet with an 18 gauge steel grill, the line is de-signed for endurance and mobility. The series includes two subwoofers (CVi-118S / CVi-218S) with peak power capaci-ties of 1200 and 2400 Watts respective-ly. These efficient Cerwin-Vega woof-ers deliver low fre-quency impact with tighter bass defini-tion and less distor-tion. The CVi-218s features an innova-tive stacked driver contra-sub. This In-verse Synergy sub configuration allows the two drivers to work together in the same enclosure volume producing bass response that exceeds the output of the
collective drivers. The result is cleaner, smoother low frequency reinforcement at higher SPL levels.
The CVi line also offers two full range speakers (CVi-152 / CVi-252), a 15” and
dual 15”, with peak power capacities of 1000 and 2000 watts respectively. The fifth and final speaker of the line is a 2-way stage monitor with a peak power capacity of 1000 watts (CVi-122M).
The CVi series boasts high perfor-mance 34mm Mylar compression drivers and the use of hemi-conical horns allow for smooth and accurate high frequency response, both on and off axis. The ad-vanced crossovers utilized in the design reproduce accurate cross-band sum-mation, resulting in a far more natural sound field. With a high current capacity and dual Speakon and ¼ inch input/out-put options, the CVi series offers many connectivity paths including the ability to connect multiple units in serial. Mod-els have a list price of CVi-152- $349.00, CVi-252-$499.00, CVi-118S-$399.00, CVi122m-$299.00, CVi218S-$699.00 respectively. www.cerwin-vega.com
New from Sher Music GroupRandy Vincent’s second Sher Music Co. book, Three-Note Voicings and Beyond, covers every aspect of the crucial three-note voicings every guitarist needs to know. Topics include three-note “shell” voicings and special derived comp voic-ings, compete triad review including all close and open inver-sions on all strings,A section on developing “walking” guitar voic-ings, triad applications such as “slash” chords, upper structures, hexatonic triad-pairs and special “hy-brid” voicings,quartal and secundal voicings perfect for modal comping and soloing,Drop-2 reductions perfect for melody harmonizations and a complete method to develop a realistic simulation of Shearing-style block-chord voicings on
guitar. The collection is 200 pages and lists for $28.
Essential Grooves for Writing, Perform-ing, and Producing Contemporary Mu-sic by Berklee College professors Dan Moretti, Matthew Nicholl and Oscar Stagnaro “packs everything you need to know about contemporary styles into
a must-have reference of audio, scores, and text.”
The book presents 41 different grooves covering all the im-portant styles that
have influenced contemporary music, each performed by live players: Soul, Motown, Funk, Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, Brazilian music, Afro-Cuban styles, Reg-gae and more. The book contains scores, text, and stereo mixes of the musical ex-amples, as well as multi-track audio files of each example. In addition, the book’s unique, license-free audio examples can be used to create custom play-alongs and original music.
The book is 100 pages and lists for $24.www.shermusic.com
Vox Series 22 Electric Guitars Vox has expanded its guitar lineup with the ultra-affordable Series 22 double cutaway models. Borrowed from the pre-mium Virage series, VOX signature 3-D contouring provides the Series 22 ma-hogany solid-bodies with a comfortable playing fit, either seated or standing. In addition, VOX has introduced its SBE™ strap button extender system to provide the instrument with even greater balance while playing. Easy access to the upper frets is provided by the deeply cut inverse heel joint. Position dot markers conve-niently adorn the rosewood fingerboards, which are mounted on mahogany necks.
The Series 22 guitars use the same lightweight MaxConnect™ aluminum bridge as the Virage, offering extended saddle travel for flawless intonation with any-gauge string. VOX Super Smooth tuners provide the Series 22 guitars with enhanced tuning stability.
Electronically, the VOX Series 22 guitars feature two XLM™ compact humbucking pickups with two distinct
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voices. A three-way pickup selector routes the sound through the Master Tone and Master Volume controls for final sound shaping. The VOX series 22 is available in four colors: Black,White,Red and Sun-burst.http://www.voxamps.com/us.
Eventide’s Space StompboxThe new Space stompbox features 12 of Eventide’s signature reverb combination effects taken from the H8000FW and Eclipse V4. These unique effects, pre-viously available only in Eventide rack processors, are now available in a com-pact, roadworthy package. The Space stompbox includes 12 of Eventide’s sig-
nature reverb combo algorithms A wide variety of spatial effects including basic reverbs, delays and unique combination effects, Studio quality sound compatible with any source material - solo instru-ments, drums, vocals, or complete mixes. The Space is software upgradeable via USB 2.0. Has MIDI control via USB or MIDI in, out/thru, Instant program change, Real-time control with 10 knobs, MIDI, or Expression Pedal, Tap tempo and MIDI clock sync,100 factory presets, unlimited through MIDI,True analog bypass, Rugged cast metal construction, Reliable metal footswitches for instant preset access,Mono or stereo operation, Guitar or line level inputs and outputs and a programmable HotSwitch.www.eventide.com
Blackstar Amplification compact HT-1 All tube amp The HT-1. Available in a 1 x 8” combo (either with or without stereo digital re-verb), or head (with reverb) configuration, the 2-channel (Clean & OD) HT-1 is an ideal studio and practice amp. It packs all the tone and innovative features of the award-winning HT-5 tube amp into a 1-Watt format. The patent-applied-for
ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) circuit offers infinite adjustment over the characteris-tics of the tone control network, enabling players to design their own tone to fit “the sound in their head”
This new amp delivers a full, toneful sound even at the lowest volume level, via Blackstar’s brand new tube power am-plifier topology. The HT-1 power amplifier features a low pow-ered push-pull design, which produces the crunch and break-up characteristics of a traditional 100W output stage but at a much lower volume. This is achieved by the use of an ECC82 dual triode in push-pull configuration producing 1-Watt output, which is rich in tube harmonics and compression. The HT-1 also has a state-of-the-art speaker emulated output for studio use, provid-ing desirable tube tone straight to tape or disk, or through headphones.
Also featured is an MP3 / Line Input, along with an 8-Ohm speaker output, which allows the amp to be run into an external speaker cabinet, to provide a complete recording or practicing experi-ence.
The HT-1 amps will be available in stores in March 2011, with U.S. MSRP’s as follows: HT-1 Combo – $249.99, HT-1R Combo with Reverb – $299.99, HT-1RH Head with Reverb – $319.99www.blackstaramps.co.uk
API LunchboxAPI’s lunchbox frame for 500-Series modules just got better. The re-engi-neered lunchbox boasts many improve-ments, including an increased power supply current of 215mA per slot, the ad-dition of DB-25 connectors for easy input and output connection and XLR access to channels 7 and 8 of the multi-pins.
The revamped lunchbox also provides individual power rail LED indication and re-settable fuses on the power rail of each slot, so that one faulty module will not affect the others. The addition of a 100 VAC input voltage tap allows for wider international versatility. Despite the numerous changes, the lunchbox’s basic design remains true to its roots. It still has six slots for standard API 500-Series modules, an internal phan-tom power supply and rugged steel chas-sis. For now, the new lunchbox remains priced at $499.www.apiaudio.com
Gretsch Custom Shop’s Harrison ‘Tribute’ Duo JetLimited to 60 pieces worldwide, the Gretsch® Custom Shop G6128T-GH George Harrison “Tribute” Duo Jet is a meticulously crafted replica of the all-black 6128 Duo Jet Harrison played with the Beatles from summer 1961 through
spring 1963. The new Gretsch replica, built by master luthier Stephen Stern and his crew at the Gretsch Custom Shop, mirrors every scratch, ding and rust spot of Harrison’s guitar. True to form, the tremolo arm of its Bigsby B6C tailpiece has a black Phillips head pivot bolt, and the strap button on the lower bout is off-set to accommodate the Bigsby®.www.gretschguitars.com.
Hal Leonard’s Battlestar Galactica Piano SoloComposer Bear McCreary, responsible for the acclaimed score of the popular “Battlestar Galactica” series, was heav-ily involved in the creation of this special collection, personally translating his ac-claimed, world music-infused orchestral score into fantastic piano solo arrange-ments. The intermediate to advanced-level songbook contains 19 selections in
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all, and as a bonus, also simplified ver-sions of “Roslin and Adama” and “Wan-der My Friends.” There is a note from the Emmy-nomi-nated McCreary, as well as a biography. The music from “Battlestar Galactica” has a rabid follow-ing. No fewer than six soundtrack albums have been released to date, all selling well and enthusiastically praised by critics. There have also been several live con-certs featuring the music. the Battlestar Galactica Piano Solo folio retails for $16.99. www.halleonard.com
Fret Daddy Removable Fretboard stickersFret Daddy’s Removable Sticker Sets are designed to allow beginner, intermedi-ate, and even advanced players to learn new scales and fretboard patterns with minimal effort. “Simply choose a scale or fretboard pattern to learn, apply the correspond-ing Fret Daddy sticker set to the fretboard of your guitar, and practice the scale or pattern by depressing the notes indi-cated.” With Fret Daddy stickers, players of all skill levels can forget for a while about WHICH notes to play and focus instead on play-ing them well. “This benefit provides advanced and intermediate players with the confidence to improvise and try new licks or even explore songwriting phrases while giving beginners a sense for how playing in key should sound and feel. Fret Daddy gives players of all skill levels the ability to play well above their abil-ity.” Customers can purchase the Fret Daddy sticker sets from their website.www.fretdaddy.com
Gemini CTRL-47Gemini’s new CTRL-47 features a pre-mium-quality 4-channel DJ mixer; an
intuitive DJ controller with familiar feel and two touch-sensitive jog wheels as well as a built-in 24-bit/192 kHz soundcard, latency-free ASIO drivers. It provides maximum control over DJ software with a litany of controls for loops, effects, EQ controls, samples, hot cues, and pitch.
The included inputs and outputs on the CTRL-47 offer powerful connectiv-ity options with balanced XLR outputs and 3 sets of stereo RCA outputs: Master, Booth, and Record as well as a S/PDIF digital out to feed your mix to any source. The CTRL-47 also makes it easy to hook
up other gear - including headphones for cueing and a microphone, while its streamlined and compact profile makes it a pleasure to transport from gig to gig.
A version of the popular VirtualDJ 7 software is included with the CTRL-47. VirtualDJ is the hottest AUDIO and VIDEO mixing software, targeting DJs from the bedroom, mobile, and pro-fessional superstars. With VirtualDJ’s breakthrough Beat Lock engine, songs will always stay in beat, allowing DJs to work their mixes faster than ever before. The automatic seamless loop engine and synchronized sampler lets the DJ perform astounding remixes live, with no prepa-ration at all. The visual representation and the cues allow a DJ to clearly see the song structure, and never be surprised by a break. The CTRL-47 is the newest addition to the Gemini CTRL series DJ controllers. The CTRL units are avail-able through musical instrument, elec-tronics, and DJ retailers. The CTRL-47 has an MSRP TBD. CTRL-47 unit will be shipping to retailers around the globe first half 2011.www.gci-technologies.com
EMG’s SRO series drop in pickguards and HZ Chrome pickups.SRO Series Drop in Pickguards: Coming off the successful release of the SRO Se-ries open coil pickups,the prewired drop-in pickguards feature both the SRO
OC1 humbuckers and SC1 single coils loaded in black or white Strat style pickguards. The two models available are the ST-11 that has a traditional three sin-gle coil setup (SC1’s), and ST-12 which features a dual OC1 humbucker setup. MSRP: $229.99
HZ Chrome: Like the active series, H1’s, H2’s and H4’s are now available with polished stainless steel caps. Us-ing stainless steel ensures the tonal properties re-main intact while giving the pickup that classic chrome flare. The HZ humbuckers of-fer a range of tone from the traditional fullness of the H1 and the vintage tone of the H2, to the more modern H4 and H4A. MSRP: $129.99 ea.www.emgpickups.com
Alfred music publishing Modern Live Sound Instructional DVDModern Live Sound—a practical, step-by-step guide to mixing for today’s sound reinforcement engineer. Alfred’s Pro Audio Series: Modern Live Sound offers a hands-on approach to learning the art of sound mixing, a must-have for anyone entering, or re-entering the world of live sound. Whether mixing sound for a small local club, touring for the first time with a band, or considering a full-time career as a live sound engineer, this video will brings viewers up to speed with today’s live sound reinforcement systems.
The DVD features informative visu-als accompanied by expert advice, tips, and tricks from seasoned professionals. Topics include: digital and analog con-soles, EQs, cross-overs, limiters, and snakes; wireless microphones and in ear monitors; various venues, from clubs to large outdoor systems; tips for feedback
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control, troubleshooting, and hum elimi-nation; ways to achieve perfect sound checks and tune a room; and professional mixing techniques.
In addition, the DVD contains nu-merous pro audio reference web links as well as free software demos for Software Audio Console and SAWStudio.
Alfred’s Pro Audio Series: Modern Live Sound is now available on DVD for $29.99. www.alfred.com
New Odyssey Premiere Brass & Woodwind rangeDesigned in conjunction with master craftsman Peter Pollard, the Odyssey Premiere range is already attracting plenty of attention from progressing stu-dents and professional players alike.
The Odyssey Premiere range includes Bb clarinets, saxophones, flutes, and the full range of brass instruments, includ-ing a baby French horn. Pollard’s focus has been to use top quality materials coupled with a meticulous production process, resulting in a great sounding in-strument that is easy to play and reliable. High quality is the overriding theme of the Odyssey Premiere package. All flutes come in a solid wooden case to protect their delicate key work, and every other Premiere instrument comes with its own custom designed Zero-gravity carry case finished in a hard-wearing grey canvas cover. Cases are plush lined to protect the instrument and also come complete with relevant accessories. Each has an outside accessory pocket and attachable shoulder straps allowing the instrument to be car-ried on your back - perfect for going to school, college or the concert. All clari-nets and saxophones are supplied with Vandoren reeds as standard.
Premiere Bb Clarinet Outfits The OCL400 Bb Clarinet (£189rrp) is designed for the progressing student with its hard-wearing ABS body - which is re-sistant to changes in temperature - steel rods and screws for reliability, Premiere C Flute Outfits A standard Cupronickel bodied silver-plated C flute, the OFL300S (£289rrp) features 17 closed French style keys, a split-E mechanism and an off-set G with high quality French pads and
springs. Meanwhile, the OFL350C (£199rrp) is ideal for students with a shorter reach, thanks to its curved head joint. Featuring 16 open keys, a split-E mechanism and an offset G, the OFL350C’s lip plate and embou-chure hole are designed for ease of blowing, producing a good tone and encouraging the student to continue playing. Both flutes come complete with a well presented leatherette cov-ered wooden case and a fitted pad-ded carry bag. Premiere Saxophone Outfits With professional finishes and a high specification of materials and components, the four saxophones in the Odyssey Premiere range are highly suited to advanced students and professionals. The OSS600 Bb Straight Soprano Saxo-phone (£399rrp) is a beautifully finished clear lacquered brass bodied instrument with an engraved bell, high F# key, high G key, and comes with both an angled and straight crook. The OSS650C Bb Curved Soprano Saxophone (£399rrp) also features a clear lacquered finished brass body with high F# key and has an easy, open and controlled tonality. The OAS700 Eb Alto Saxophone (£519rrp) features a high F# key and a rose brass body, bell and neck for a warmer, richer tone. Finally, the OTS800 Bb Tenor Sax-ophone (£599rrp) with brass body and engraved bell easily conveys all the emo-tion and musicality of the player with ease and clarity. All four saxophones feature high quality Italian pads and springs and are supplied with a mouthpiece, ligature, Vandoren reed, cap, and accessories in-cluding white gloves, cleaning cloth, cork crease and neck slingwww.jhs.co.uk/odysseypremiere.html
Vestax PMC-05ProIV DJ MixerOptimized to integrate and directly con-trol Digital Vinyl Systems (DVS), the PMC-05ProIV is equipped with DVS connections and a fully featured, easy to assign MIDI control section that allows DJs to scroll and load songs, set cue points and loops, fire off samples or any other MIDI controllable features without ever touching the laptop’s keyboard/mouse.
The PMC-05ProIV features Vestax’s brand new CF-X2 cross-fader. A non-
contact digital magnetic cross fader, the CF-X2 provides lightning fast, extremely smooth fader action with just the right amount of resistance and is impervious to smoke, heat, and moisture.
The PMC-05ProIV’s input select switch allows DJs to easily switch from DVS to CD player or turntable without ever stop-ping the music or unplugging any cables. A 3-Band Isolator EQ featuring Vestax’s trademark infinite cut and a packed con-nector panel allows DJs to connect any va-riety of DJ equipment and create exciting mixes to wow any audience.
Now available in black, the PMC-05ProIV boasts the build quality that DJs have come to expect from the PMC-05Pro line of mixers. Original red design is also available in limited quantity. New-ly designed durable transformer switches are accompanied by LED indicator lights for mute on/off status. Extensive input and output connections, including MIC / LINE / AUX/ XLR OUT, PGM THRU IN and more, make it the ideal mixer for any professional demands.www.vestax.com
XTA DP548 Dynamic Audio ProcessorThe DP548 Dynamic Audio Processor features a 28-band EQ, eight paramet-ric EQs and delay on every input; high pass, low pass, nine parametric EQs and delay, plus a combination of two limit-ers, including the look-ahead “D-Max” limiter on each output. The DP548 also boasts three bands of Dynamic EQ on every input, a variable knee compressor on every output with full control over ra-tio, threshold, attack and release times. Additionally, include full matrix mixing of any input to any output and provide memory recallable dynamic EQ for the first time via AudioCore.www.xta.co.uk
Audio-Technica U851RO Audio-Technica recently released the new U851RO Omnidirectional Con-denser Boundary Microphone. Featuring breakthrough audio and mechanical de-sign innovations, the phantom-powered U851RO offers outstanding speech intel-ligibility and transparent sound quality for surface-mount applications. Such ap-
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plications include high-quality sound reinforcement, professional re-cording, television, conferencing and other demanding sound pickup situ-ations.
The U851RO’s small-diameter
UniPoint® capsule near the boundary eliminates phase distortion and deliv-ers clear, high-output performance. The unit is equipped with a PivotPoint® ro-tating output connector, allowing the cable to exit from either the rear or the bottom of the microphone; a UniSteep® filter, which provides a steep low-fre-quency attenuation to improve sound pickup without affecting voice quality; and UniGuard® RFI-shielding tech-nology, which offers outstanding rejec-tion of radio frequency interference. Self-contained electronics eliminate the need for an external power module. It accepts interchangeable condenser ele-ments in cardioid and hypercardioid polar patterns.
The U851RO features a low-profile design with a low-reflectance black finish for minimum visibility, in addition to a heavy die-cast case and silicon foam bot-tom pads to help minimize coupling of surface vibration to the microphone. The U851RO’s low-profile element provides a uniform omnidirectional polar pattern with a 360-degree acceptance angle.
The U851RO Omnidirectional Con-denser Boundary Microphone is cur-rently available with a U.S. MSRP of $313.00. www.audio-technica.com
Carl Fischer Expands I Used to Play SeriesCarl Fischer’s innovative I Used to Play series is expanding with four new titles:
I Used to Play Clarinet (WF115 - $19.95), I Used to Play Alto Sax (WF116 - $19.95), I Used to Play Trombone (WF117 - $19.95) and I Used to Play Cello (BF66 - $19.95).
I Used to Play is aimed at adults look-ing to get back into playing their in-struments of yesteryear, and will help jumpstart their memory and comfort with music. Its #1 goal is to get people re-acquainted with their instrument(s) by not only reviewing theory and technique with etudes, but also providing them with types of music they want to play, like pop, jazz, and classical tunes. Each book contains a CD with audio MP3 files of complete performances of most songs, plus accompaniment-only play-along versions. The CD also contains printable PDFs of piano parts for practice or per-formance opportunities. www.carlfischer.com
Reason Record Education from PropellerheadPropellerhead recently released Rea-son Record Education for sale—new packages consolidating the Reason Re-cord application suite at a special price for schools and institutions. Available in license packs of 1, 5 and 10, Reason
Find Breaking News in the Hot News section of MMR’s Web site,
www.mmrmagazine.com
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Record Education pairs the world-re-nowned, award-winning music produc-tion environment Reason with Record, the recording software for musicians.
In the classroom, the Reason and Record combination has many distinct advantages over other music software programs, allowing students to focus on music creation and production, not system maintenance and software in-compatibilities. Students can freely ex-periment and find solutions to audio problems while maintaining creative flow during music production, invariably spending more time on their projects and assignments.
Reason and Record’s studio simula-tion metaphor allows students to config-ure (and reconfigure) a complete sound studio, selecting and wiring audio pro-cessors and generators, while the large format console model provides a rare chance for students to prepare for work in large, professional studios.
Propellerhead’s network multilicense system lets schools install the Reason and Record on as many computers as they like. With an Ignition Key connected to the USB port on a server or a com-puter on the network, the system will al-
low students launch the software on any computer on the network until the license limit is reached.www.propellerheads.se/education
WavesAudio’s Aphex Aural Exciter Plug-inOfficially called the Waves Aphex Vin-tage Aural Exciter®, the new plug-in is based on one of the two original tube-powered prototype units developed by Aphex during the mid-seventies. The Waves Aphex Vin-tage Aural Exciter modeled plug-in de-livers all the unique character of the rare hardware unit, with all the advantages of software.
The original Aural Exciter traveled from studio to studio as an exclusive (and expensive) rental unit, bringing its dis-tinctive sound to select sessions by lead-ing recording artists. Highly regarded for its ability to increase and enhance presence, brightness, and detail on vo-cal tracks and masters alike, the Aural Exciter was even credited as a hardware “session player” on popular albums by the likes of Jackson Browne, Linda Ron-stadt and James Taylor.
The Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Ex-citer® will be available separately (U.S. MSRP USD 250
Native/500 TDM) and as part of the Waves Mercury bundle. www.waves.com
Inspiration Pack from ZildjianThe Avedis Zildjian Company has re-leased its Inspiration Pack, designed especially for the gospel and praise & worship markets and developed in con-junction with members of the Rhythm Alliance (www.therythmalliance.com). All Zildjian artists, the Rhythm Alliance is comprised of some of the top gospel, funk and R&B drummers today, includ-
ing Gorden Campbell, Teddy Campbell, Gerald Heyward, Marvin McQuitty, Aaron Spears, and Nisan Stewart.
The Inspiration Pack’s unique set up features a range of bright, dark, quick, and fast cymbals made from the legend-ary Zildjian bronze alloy. The center-piece of the pack is the new A Zildjian Pocket HiHats. These 13” hats have a combination of a thin top and heavy bottom that are unlathed and enhanced with large hammer marks. Their bril-liant finish gives them a quick, bright, and explosive sound that decays quickly, making them the perfect choice for play-ers who want to sit in the “pocket” with a solid chick and a bright, defined stick sound.
Also included in the Pack are the 12” A Zildjian Splash with its quick, short sounds for punctuating and special ef-fects; the classic 16” A Custom Fast Crash that explodes with color; and the medium heavy 20” K Custom Ride that provides a bright, articulate stick defini-tion with dark overtones. For a limited time, the Inspiration Pack will include a free 18” A Custom Fast Crash. www.zildjian.com/inspiration.
Grover Pro’s Padauk Log DrumsGrover Pro Percussion Inc. has an-nounced the release of their new line of professional level concert log drums.
Grover Pro has taken log drums out of the primitive environs of the jungle; refining their sound and appearance to
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meet the demands placed on today’s pro-fessional percussionist. Grover Pro ac-complished this without sacrificing the dark, woody, and mysterious sonorities traditionally associated with such a pri-mordial instrument.
Compared to ordinary log drums, Grover Pro log drums are said to fea-ture increased resonance, superior tonal quality and unparalleled craftsman-ship. Imported Baltic birch is used for the resonator box, chosen for strength and tonal stability. Meticulous dovetail joinery employed on every Grover log drum continues a long standing tradition started by New England wood craftsmen centuries ago. The “double curve” CNC machined padauk soundboard is specifi-cally designed for maximum tonal clarity and focus of sound.
These new log drums have been add-ed to Grover Pro’s line of professional percussion products at the specific re-quest of top professional percussion-ists, who, “until now, have been unable to find professional quality, American made log drums, capable of the musical expression required by the world’s finest musicians.”Currently available in three models: LOG-20 – 20” log drum - MSRP $315; LOG-25 – 25” log drum - MSRP $340; LOG-30 – 30” log drum - MSRP $365. www.GroverPro.com
The Complete Guide to Playing Brushes from AlfredAlfred Music Publishing’s The Complete Guide to Playing Brushes is an instruc-tional method book by Florian Alexan-dru-Zorn.
The Complete Guide to Playing Brushes is a comprehensive study for playing with brushes on the drumset. The book contains proper drum notation with
detailed illustra-tions on every ex-ercise eliminating the guesswork of brush movement in a clear, concise method. Beginning to advanced players will equally benefit from this course with topics including rudiments, sweeping motions, exercises in straight and odd times, and grooves for genres such as jazz, Latin, funk, and rock. To help foster proper brush tech-nique, the included DVD features all of the book’s exercises for playing-along. Every lesson is recorded in split screen with two camera angles (front and over-head perspectives), yielding a complete performance display.
As part of Alfred’s ongoing commit-ment to improving our environment, this book is printed on 100% recycled paper stock. The Complete Guide to Playing Brushes book and DVD set is now avail-able for $29.99 at music retail stores and at alfred.com/drums.www.alfred.com
Chris Campbell New SeriesChris Campbell Custom Guitars and Wilkins Guitars and Finishes are proud to announce a new series of graphic gui-tars featuring the artwork of graphic de-signer and poster artist Justin Hampton. Each guitar will be signed and numbered by the artist in limited editions. Justin Hampton has screen printed images for the likes of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Nick Cave, Ween, Motorhead to name a few. He has been the primary artist of Queens of the Stone Age since 2002. Pat Wilkins and his staff have fin-ished over 20,000 guitars since opening
shop in 1984. Clients have included Tom Anderson, Roger Sadowsky, Zion, Gib-son, Yamaha, Paul Reed Smith, Tobias, Lakland, Warrior and many other cus-tom lutherie shops nationwide.
Palmer GuitarsPalmer Guitars USA introduced their hand crafted line of Indonesian mahog-any electric guitars and basses at Namm
2011, featuring hand carved bodies, ad-vanced electronics, cutting edge design and superior craftsmanship!
Comprised of the“Crossbow”, “Slingshot” and “Javelin”, the guitars are offered in Standard or Limited ver-sions with locking tremolos available on some models. Other features can in-clude neck-thru bodies, locking tuners, coil-taps, quilted tops, and Tone Pros hardware.
Magnum series basses come in 4, 5 and 6 string models in Standard, Deluxe and Limited versions. Magnum features can include active electronics, neck thru bodies, quilted tops and Tone Pros hardware.
Palmer guitars and basses are played by A.J. Nillo, Fernando Perdomo, Steve Argy, Keith Ridenour, Jim Magnole and Miguel Gonzalez, musicians that have toured and recorded with top recording artists worldwide.
Palmer hand crafted Indonesian ma-hogany guitars were created to inspire players, and deliver great value at any price. www.palmerguitarsusa.com
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Supplier Scene
Mississippi Music’s Johnson Named Mississippi Business Women of the YearRosi Johnson, CEO and president of Mississippi Music and Mississippi Mu-sic Acceptance Corporation, has been named the Mississippi Business Journal’s Business Woman of the Year 2011.
Johnson is president of Mississippi Mu-sic, Inc., a four-store, full-line retailer based in Hattiesburg, Miss., estab-lished in 1946 by her husband Dex’s parents,
Mac and Jim Johnson. She holds a bach-elor’s degree in business administra-tion from the University of Mississippi. Rosi currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of School Music Dealers and is a past board member of the National Asso-ciation of Music Merchants. She is a member of the Alliance of Independent Music Merchants (AIMM), American Music Conference (AMC), Mississippi Music Educators Association, Historic Hattiesburg Downtown Association and Area Development Partnership of For-rest and Lamar Counties.
NAMM ‘Top 100 Dealer Awards’ in Nashville NAMM has announced that it will host its inaugural “Top 100 Dealer Awards” at the 2011 Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, Tenn. this July. This new program will recognize out-standing NAMM Retailers during a gala event on Friday evening of Sum-mer NAMM.
Retailers that are selected as one of the Top 100 will be honored and from that select group, additional “best of” awards will be bestowed in a number of categories culminating in the naming of the “Dealer of the Year.” All event at-
tendees will be able to view a presenta-tion showing many of the submissions and demonstrating the elements that have propelled the “Top 100 Dealers” to the top of the industry.
NAMM retailers can enter to be se-lected by a panel of industry expert judges as one of the “Top 100 Dealers” between March 1 and April 29 online at www.namm.org/summer/2011. Please see of-ficial rules for all details. All NAMM retailers selected as “Top 100 Dealers” will be invited to the exclusive “Top 100 Dealer Awards” dinner and ceremony on Friday, July 22, 2011.
During the ceremony, NAMM will also announce the winners of the “Best Of” categories including:
• Best Curb Appeal• Best Merchandising & Display• Best Ad• Best Use of Social Media• Best Sales Promotion• Best Web site• Support Music Local Advocacy
Award• Wanna Play “Music Makes a Differ-
ence” Award• Best Emerging Dealer “Rookie of
the Year” Award• NAMM Dealer of the Year
To enter, all active NAMM Member
retailers should visit www.namm.org/summer/2011 before April 29, 2011.
AXL Shocks With TUSQ XL Graph Tech Guitar Labs recently an-nounced that AXL is exclusively using TUSQ XL nuts on their Badwater USA series guitars.
Designed to boost guitar perfor-mance, TUSQ XL nuts are precision engineered and specially formulated to bring out the hidden harmonics and richness in every note. TUSQ XL is based on the highly resonant TUSQ man-made ivory and impregnated with Teflon to improve the tuning stability of the guitar.
The Badwater USA 1216 starts at a MAP of $329.99 and the American Bad-water SRO guitars start at $299.99www.axlguitars.comwww.graphtech.com
Headway Music Audio’s HE-4 LineHeadway Music, the UK based manu-facturer of “audiophile quality” pickups for acoustic guitars and other acoustic stringed instruments, has announced that their new HE-4 line is now available in the United States.
The HE-4 pickup delivers pure Class “A” sound and eliminates transient peaks effectively eliminating piezo “quack.”. Headway also manufacturers the very popular “Band” pickups for violin, viola and cello. The “Band” can be installed in 30 seconds without any modification to the instrument and removed at the end of the gig and stored in the instrument’s case.
All Headway pickups are said to deliver British-made Pro Au-diophile quality sound with excep-tionally low noise at an affordable price point. Head-way pickups are exclusively distrib-uted in the U.S. by Nova Strings. For more information
call (800) 930-1955, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.novastrings.com.
Dealers Offered Extended Credit Terms from SLM and GE Capital St. Louis Music (SLM ) and GE Capital are offering dealers extended credit and terms.
The new terms offer a “Fall Dating” type of package with up to five months no payments from date of invoice. The balance is then divided in to four equal payments allowing for up to nine months with no interest. Order must be placed before March 31st 2011 and can be shipped up to June 15th 2011.
Quick pay discounts are also avail-able from 30 to 150 days prior to the first scheduled payment.
Terms and qualification apply. For further information please call your St. Louis Music sales representative or (800) 727-4512 or e-mail [email protected].
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APRIL 2011 MMR 89
Classifieds
Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.mmrmagazine.com
www.mmrmagazine.com
Business Opportunities
☛ RATES: Classified Display: $30 per column inch for text only. $40 per column inch, 1 color, logo, graphics. $50 per column inch 4 color. ☛ PAYMENTS: ALL ADS ARE PREPAID. Charge on Mastercard, Visa or American Express. ☛ SEND YOUR ADVERTISEMENT TO: 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1, Needham, MA 02494 • [email protected]. ☛ QUESTIONS? Call Maureen Johan at 800-964-5150 x 34 • [email protected].
• BandandOrchestraRentals• NewandLikeNewEducator-Approved BrandNameInstruments• PersonalizedRent-To-OwnProgram• NoFranchiseFeeorInventoryInvestment• NoShippingCosts• HighCommissionsPaidthe1stofEveryMonth•ExceptionalService
OWNER RETIRING
MUSIC SCHOOL for SALE
(in operation since 1986) Housed on its own
PRIME REAL ESTATE property in a beautiful, affluent suburb
of Houston, TX Call Owner at 832 445-5668
Real Estate and Music School operation can be sold separately
www.kingwoodmusicschool.com
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE 2009 & 2010
Recognized as HOUSTON’S BEST by the US Commerce Association
Merchandise
Merchandise
APRIL 2011 MMR 89
Classifieds April.indd 89 3/23/11 11:24 AM
90 MMR APRIL 2011
www.mmrmagazine.com
Business Opportunities
Merchandise
FINANCING AVAILABLEYA
MA
HA
–KA
WA
I
Japanese High Quality
GUARANTEED You get what you pay for!
1-800-782-2694North American Music
11 Holt DriveStony Point, NY 10980Fax: (845) 429-6920
CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED
PIANOS
ACCORDIONS, CONCERTINAS, & BUTTON BOXES new, used, buy, sell, trade, repair, tune,
CASTIGLIONE DISTRIBUTING CO.13300 E 11 MILE WARREN, MI 48089
PH # 1-586-755-6050 WWW.CASTIGLIONEACCORDIONS.COM
Classifieds April.indd 90 3/23/11 11:24 AM
Merchandise
Business Opportunities
The UCL-S Porch-Board Bass of-fers analog, clean bass rhythm with the tap of a foot. Durable passive magnetic sensor system and 3-way frequency response switch eliminates low-end feedback and delay. Features both 1/4 inch and XLR outputs. No batteries, wall worts or external power supply required. Includes carry bag. $299.95. www.porchboard.com (608) 752-2229
PORCHBOARD BASSOver SIX MILLION Unique VisitorsThat’s right, Piano World received over six million unique piano loving visitors last year.
And that is just one of the reasons you should be advertising on Piano World. You really should take a minute to see the other reasons.
Visit www.PianoWorld.com/advertising ... Today!PianoWorld.comThe World’s Most Popular Piano Web SiteHome of the world famous Piano Forums
www.mmrmagazine.comMARCH 2011 MMR 91
Classifieds April.indd 91 3/23/11 11:24 AM
92 MMR APRIL 2011
For Classified Sales Call Maureen
800-964-5150 ext. 34 [email protected]
Business Opportunities Merchandise
MerchandiseFrom button accordion to Piano accordion, from Kid’s to adult, from entry level to professional, from solid color to combo, we have a wide selection for the accordion player.
Hunter Music Instrument Inc adds in an accordion line.
www.huntermusical.com718-706-0828
Classifieds April.indd 92 3/23/11 11:26 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 93
Visit the Classifieds on the Web:
www.mmrmagazine.com
Help WantedManufacturing
Help Wanted
For Classified Sales Call Maureen 800-964-5150 ext. 34
Piano Sales Person Needed Summerhays Music Center in Utah is seeking a self motivated, vibrant salesperson with at least 5 years
experience selling pianos on a commission basis. Please send
resume and cover letter to [email protected]
Percussion Business Unit Manager
D’Addario & Co., the world’s largest musical accessories supplier,
headquartered in Farmingdale, NY, seeks a professional to lead the
company’s percussion business unit, specifically the Evans drumheads, Pro-Mark, and Puresound brands, as well as other percussion-related accessories. The winning candidate will possess 5-10 years of related
experience in product development, marketing and business management.
Key responsibilities will include development of business unit strategy,
lead cross functional teams in new product development, marketing, and general management, oversight of
all business unit spending with GM accountability, serve as key voice in
operational and engineering direction, and work closely with international and domestic sales team to achieve brand
penetration in global marketplace. Candidate must have strong leadership
skills, a proven track record in percussion field and relevant degree. Position reports
directly to the Director of Product Management and the
VP – Sales and Marketing.
We offer a comprehensive and competitive compensation package.
Please send resume and salary history to [email protected].
A great job is like music to your ears…Yamaha Corporation of America invites applications from suitably qualified persons for our Marketing Manager position at our Southern California, Buena Park location.
ResponsibilitiesOversee the wind instruments team in the development of major marketing projects.
Communicate competitive trends in the market and suggest strategies to address any competitive opportunities or threats.Build strong relationships with the Yamaha Corporation of Japan Marketing & Design staff through professional and consistent communication.
Lead department with multi-media planning, creation and production of video podcasts, trade show videos, audio podcast, corporate presentations and web related multi-media.
Direct all wind instrument trade show activities
To apply:To view job requirements and apply for this position, please visit our website: www.yamaha.com/careers and click on the Career Opportunities link.
Music Man is a family owned and operated Band and Orchestra dealer located in West Palm Beach, FL with over 30 years’ experience serving the music education community of South Florida.Seeking:Educational Sales Representatives who are friendly, knowledgeable, professional, creative and dynamic to build and maintain long-term relation-ships with existing customer base through the use weekly sales visits. 2+ years of sales experience or instrumental music related degree desired.Repair Technicians w/ 5+ years of repair experience or degree from an accredited Band Instrument Repair program desired.Salary: Negotiable based on experienceAll inquiries will be kept confidential.Send resumes to: John Jarvis Music Man 2309 N. Dixie Hwy West Palm Beach, FL 33407 or via email to [email protected]
Guitar Show OperatorsPromote your
show dates and reach every
guitar dealer in the US
through the classified pages
of MMR. Call Maureen 800-964-5150
ext 34
Are You Tired of Trying to Climb the Corporate Ladder?
is a multi-store, family owned and operated full-line retailer based in Metro Atlanta. Ken Stanton Music has over 60 years’
success and customer satisfaction.
Seeking:Band & Orchestra Division Manager,
Certified Band/Orchestra Repair Techs, Print Music Manager, Store Managers,
Sales Associates in the following departments: Guitars, Pro Audio, Drums
and Percussion, and Band/Orchestra.
Looking for friendly, customer service oriented, self-motivated, proven closers with good listening skills and 2+ years experience.
Availability for flexible scheduling a must. Bi-lingual a plus.
We feature: Competitive non-commission based pay, medical/ dental coverage, 401(k) plan, vacation/holiday/sick time,
and room for advancement.
Complete application online at: www.kenstantonmusic.com
By mail: Ken Stanton Music Attn: Scott Cameron, General Manager 119 Cobb Parkway North, Suite A Marietta, GA 30062 Via email: [email protected]
Classifieds April.indd 93 3/23/11 11:25 AM
94 MMR APRIL 2011
www.mmrmagazine.com
FAST TURN-AROUND ON STOCK REPAIRS NATIONWIDE
NAPBIRT member, 28 Years Experience
Contact: Dan Rieck, [email protected]
BOW REHAIRING
Expert Bow ServiceOrder forms,Pricing and Shipping label at:
www.bowrehairing.com
Violin bows as low as $10.00 per bow in quantity incl. shipping (see website fordetails.) Large inventory of replacement parts both new and vintage.
IRA B. KRAEMER & Co.Wholesale Services Division
“An industry leader since 1967”467 Grant Avenue, Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076
Tel: 908-322-4469 Fax: 908 322-8613 e mail: [email protected]
Repair Tools
Repair Tools
SHIPPING YOUR PIANOwith Lone Wolf Trucking
is a “grand” idea! An independent, long-distance Mover
specializing in coast-to-coast residential Relocation.
1-800-982-9505www.lonewolftrucking.com
Alamogordo, New Mexico. 88310ICC MC-256289
Help Wanted
Classifieds April.indd 94 3/23/11 11:26 AM
APRIL 2011 MMR 95
Vintage Instruments
Breaking News!Find it in the Hot News
section of MMR’s Web site,
www.mmrmagazine.com
MOVING?Don’t miss a single issue
of MMR...Let us know 6-8 weeks
before your move so we can continue to send your magazine without interruption.
PAST
E OL
D LA
BEL
HERE
!
NEW ADDRESS HERE! Name ___________________________
Address _________________________
_______________________________
City ____________________________
State ____________Zip ____________
21 Highland Circle, Suite 1 Needham, MA 02494
(781) 453-9310
Wanted USED TUBASANY CONDITION-CASH PAID
THE TUBA EXCHANGE1825 CHAPEL HILL RD.
DURHAM, NC 277071-800-869-8822
WWW.TUBAEXCHANGE.COM
WE, BUY, SELL, TRADE and ship worldwide.
Written APPRAISALS available.GRUHN GUITARS,
400 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 256-2033fax (615) 255-2021 www.gruhn.com
Wanted To BuyRepair Tools
Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.mmrmagazine.com
Sales Reps Wanted
For SaleBrand new air conditioning and lease.
Store and/or inventory.25 year reputation
Studios, full line $500 k in stock$185,000 cash/takeover/partner
Call Bruce in the PM at 321 725-3047
Store For Sale
Classifieds April.indd 95 3/23/11 11:26 AM
96 MMR MARCH 2011
Ad IndexCOMPANY NAME E-MAIL/WEB ADDRESS PAGE COMPANY NAME E-MAIL/WEB ADDRESS PAGE
AAl Cass 85
Allparts 75
Amati’s Fine Instruments www.Amatis.uscom 75
Antigua Winds, Inc. www.antiguawinds.com 18
BBourgeois Guitars www.pantheonguitars.com 25
Breezy Ridge Instruments Ltd. www.jpstrings.com 85
Breitkopf & Hartel www.breitkopf.com 72
CCasio America, Inc www.casiousa.com 55
CE Distribution LLC www.cedist.com 29
Chesbro Music Co. www.chesbromusic.com 57
Chord Buddy www.chord buddy.com 32
Civilized World www.civilizedworld.com 79
DD’Addario & Co. www.daddario.com 76
Dean Guitars www.deanguitars.com 30
Dream Cymbals And Gongs www.dreamcymbals.com 16
E/FE. & O. Mari Inc./La Bella www.labella.com 61
Eastwood Guitars www.eastwoodguitars.com 42
EMG Inc. www.emgpickups.com 34
Floyd Rose Marketing www.floydrose.com 60
GGeorge L’s www.georgels.com 49
Godin Guitars www.godinguitars.com 35
Gold Tone www.goldtone.com 45
Graph Tech Guitar Labs www.graphtech.com 28
Grover www.grotro.com 25
HHal Leonard Corp. www.halleonard.com 31
Hal Leonard Corp. www.halleonard.com 71
Hunter Music Instrument Inc. www.huntermusical.com 26
J/KJack Rabbit Technologies www.jackrabbittech.com 25
Kala Brand Music Co. www.kalaukulele.com 52
Kharmadesign www.kharmadesignusa.com 56
KMC Music, Inc www.kmcmusic.com; www.kmconline.com 58
KMC Music, Inc www.kmcmusic.com; www.kmconline.com 67
Knowledge of Music, Inc www.knowledgeofmusic.com 72
Kyser Musical Products Inc. www.kysermusical.com 62
L/ML una Guitars www.LunaGuitars.com 27
Mad Professor Amplification www.mpamp.comrs.com 52
C.F. Martin & Co. Inc. www.martinguitar.com 39
McPherson Guitars www.mcphersonguitars.com 41
Mojo Musical Supply 44
Musical Distributors Group www.musicaldistributors.com 15
MBT LightIng www.mbtlighting.com 59
NNAMM www.namm.com 20-21
National Educational Music Co. www.nemc.com 81
New Sensor Corp. www.newsensor.com 63
Northeastern Music Publication www.nemusicpub.com 73
Nova Strings www.novastrings.com 79
PPalmer Guitars www.palmerguitarsusa.com 44
Prestige Guitars Ltd www.prestigeguitars.com 42
PRS Guitars (Paul Reed Smith) www.prsguitars.com 5
R/SRoland Corp. U.S. www.rolandUS.com cov4
Saga Musical Instruments www.sagamusic.com 43
Saga Musical Instruments www.sagamusic.com 53
Samson Technologies Corp. www.samsontech.com 3, 17
SHS International www.shsint.net 77
SHS International www.shsint.net 13
Shubb Capos www.shubb.com 46
SKB Corp. www.skbcases.com 47
String Swing Mfg. Inc. www.stringswing.com 7
Super-Sensitive Musical String Co. www.cavanaughcompany.com 33
TTech 21 www.tech21nyc.com 11
TKL Products Corp. www.tkl.com 1
Tri-Technical Systems, Inc. www.technology4retailers.com 70
UU.S. Band & Orchestra Supplies www.usbandsupplies.com 54
U.S. Band & Orchestra Supplies www.usbandsupplies.com 66
V/WVisual Sound www.visualsound.net cov2
W.D. Music Products Inc. www.wdmusic.com 32
YYamaha www.yamaha.com 19
Yorkville Sound Inc. www.yorkville.com 9
Ad Index April.indd 96 3/23/11 9:53 AM
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mmr_apr_fulls.indd 3 3/23/11 10:56 AM
