MMR August 2008

w w w. m m r m a g a z i n e . c o m

August 2008

MI Turns Green with Conservation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and the Moves are Saving Serious Money

NAMM Show Highlights

A Convenient Truth. The best tonewood available today does not require that you contribute to the destruction of millions of acres of rainforest every year! The best tonewood available today does not require a one hundred and twenty five year growth cycle. It did however take a dedicated team of luthiers and engineers several years and several million dollars to develop. It's real wood but it's almost completely impervious to the effects of moisture and extreme temperature changes. It's real wood, it's a sustainable resource and it's fully recyclable. It's the first real breakthrough in solid wood guitar construction in a generation. Oh, and by the way.... these guitars play and sound better than just about any other guitar on the market today.

Stop contributing to global climate change and start contributing to your store's bottom line. Flaxwood offers the only viable tonewood alternative to the destruction of our hardwood forests, and we have built in to our line of guitars the kind of margins that just might save your business as well as our planet.

For more information go to www.flaxwood.com Flaxwood is the future of the solid body electric guitar and you can be a part of it today.

Contents Cover photo by Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars

AUGUST 2008 VOL.167 NO. 8

Features 24 Report: Greening of an Industry MMR takes a close look at the MI industry’s collective move towards more environmentally conscious business practices. The upsides of renewing, reusing, and sustaining go beyond reducing a carbon footprint, as these tactics often save considerable amounts of capital, as well.

44 Sweetwater Sound – “Accidentally” Green Sweetwater Sound boasts one of the most cutting-edge and environmentally friendly headquarters in the music products industry

48 How to be a Greener Retailer 52 Print: Hal Leonard’s E-Z Play Today Series The groundbreaking E-Z Play Today series of instructional books have now sold over 20 million units since its introduction in the 1970s.

54 Show Report: Summer NAMM We look back at the recent Summer Session, which saw NAMM return to Nashville after a three-year absence.

Departments 4 6 20 81 97 104

Editorial Upfront People Supplier Scene Classifieds Advertisers’ Index

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 Musical 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 ©2008 by Symphony Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved. Printed in USA.

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AUGUST 2008

L E T T HE T OURS BE GIN.

Stu Hamm on tour with Joe Satriani

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Nate Watts on tour with Stevie Wonder

Editorial

Volume 167, Number 8, August 2008

Don’t Cut The Muffins!

PUBLISHER Sidney L. Davis sdavis@symphonypublishing.com

everal years ago Harvard Business Review editor Ted Levitt authored a piece entitled, “Marketing Myopia” in which, for perhaps the first time, businesses were encouraged to think “outside the box.” The piece pointed to the failure of railroads to view themselves as in the transportation business and thus unable to forecast the coming of the airlines as a means of travel. In a further comment on how business might redefine itself he noted, “When you don’t know where you are going, any road will take your there.” In a real sense managing editor Kevin Mitchell followed this path in our special “Greening of an Industry” report. Based on the premise that “green is good” and following the definition, “A green business is a business that has been upgraded to address the environmental challenges of our country” (Lucy Blake, chief executive, Apollo Alliance), Kevin cast a wide net across the supplier and retail spectrum ranging from Zuni Custom guitars who produces 12 units a month from North American hardwoods and knobs and tuners crafted from elk and deer antlers to Washburn and Parker guitars made from preserved timbers recovered from Lake Superior. We learn that Vic Firth started their conservation efforts in 1992 by packaging paired drumsticks in paper eliminating environmentally unfriendly plastic. KHS, which manufacturers Mapex drums, monitors all the paper that is printed, phone calls made, the duration that lights are on and each month the results are re-evaluated to set new conservation goals. Beyond the music industry, Remo was one of five companies in California recognized for their waste reduction program. In 2006 the company recycled 420 tons of plastic, cardboard, paper, metal, and shipping supplies. D’Addario is another longtime advocate of a clean environment; their efforts range from all packaging and printing done with soy ink to offering consumers a free t-shirt for the return of ten clear vinyl pouches (string packages) which the company recycles for further use. In the public sector, Gibson produced 25 environmentally friendly custom acoustic guitars with the Live Earth logo, which were signed by artists performing at the Live Earth concerts and auctioned to benefit Live Earth’s campaign to combat global warning. The industry’s largest chains, Guitar Center and Sam Ash, have addressed the issue in several ways. Sam Ash only purchases recycled pallets and are flat loading without pallets in many instances which, “allows [them] to place more products in a trailer, delivering more gear per gallon of gas,” according to COO Sam Ash. Guitar Center has eliminated the need for more than 200,000 wooden pallets yearly, equaling eight million pounds of lumber. The direct loading of products reduced total miles traveled by more than two million miles per year! For the full impact of the industry’s ongoing efforts turn to page 24. For the independent dealer, greening your store can be as easy as changing a light bulb. As an example, a compact fluorescent light (CFL) which lasts from five to seven years, replaces up to 10 traditional bulbs and uses 75 percent less energy, totaling a savings of $200 a bulb over five years. And that is but one example…We also have some suggestions for the industry trade events, A Media Business story on “Seeing Green” suggests trade show operators consider electronic signs that replace single-exhibitor banners with multi-sponsor reusable video opportunities…However we have to draw the line with one suggestion offered by David Myers, VP event operations at 1105 Media who said, “We’re talking about cutting muffi ns in half at conferences.” And just for the record, the issue in hand is printed on recycled paper.

EDITOR Christian Wissmuller cwissmuller@symphonypublishing.com MANAGING EDITOR Kevin M. Mitchell kmitchell@symphonypublishing.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Rick Kessel rkessel@symphonypublishing.com STAFF WRITER Eliahu Sussman esussman@symphonypublishing.com ADVERTISING SALES Iris Fox ifox@symphonypublishing.com CLASSIFIED AD SALES Maureen Johan mjohan@symphonypublishing.com PRODUCTION MANAGER Laurie Guptill lguptill@symphonypublishing.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Andrew P. Ross aross@symphonypublishing.com Laurie Chesna lchesna@symphonypublishing.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Melanie A. Prescott mprescott@symphonypublishing.com ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Popi Galileos pgalileos@symphonypublishing.com WEBMASTER Sanford Kearns skearns@symphonypublishing.com SYMPHONY PUBLISHING, LLC Xen Zapis • Chairman Lee Zapis • President lzapis@symphonypublishing.com Rich Bongorno • Chief Financial Officer rbongorno@symphonypublishing.com Corporate Headquarters 26202 Detroit Road, Suite 300 Westlake, Ohio 44145 440-871-1300 www.symphonypublishing.com PUBLISHING, SALES & EDITORIAL OFFICE: 21 Highland Circle, Suite 1 Needham, MA 02494 (781) 453-9310 Fax: (781) 453-9389 www.mmrmagazine.com

sdavis@ symphonypublishing.com

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AUGUST 2008

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Upfront Yamaha Wins China Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Beijing’s People’s Court has ruled in Yamaha’s favor on an intellectual property lawsuit, finding fault with three Chinese manufacturers of electronic musical instruments who were infringing on “Style Data” found in many of Yamaha’s keyboards, such as the PSR-640. (Style Data was defi ned as Yamaha’s automatic accompaniment function technology.) Yamaha brought a lawsuit against Deli Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., and two other manufacturers in November

2006. In December 2007, the court, after proceeding with a portion of its deliberations on evidence, issued a judgment recognizing Yamaha’s claims as justifiable. The defendants then began appeal procedures. Following deliberations on further evidence other than that already examined, the court issued a settlement proposal to Yamaha and the defendants, in consideration of its previously issued judgment, and a settlement favorable for Yamaha was reached last month.

The court’s judgment was the fi rst in the world to recognize that “Style Data is intellectual property that is subject to protection under copyright laws” and that “unauthorized copying of such Style Data is an infringement of copyrights.” Yamaha believes this judgment is an epoch-making legal development and holds the content of the settlement arbitrated by the court in high regard since it recognizes virtually all of Yamaha’s assertions.

Jordan Kitt’s Music Acquires Steinway of Chicago Jordan Kitt’s Music has acquired all interest in Steinway of Chicago from Schmitt Music of Minneapolis. The nation’s largest piano retailer is now the exclusive authorized representative of new and used Steinway pianos in the Chicago area. The current store is located in Downers Grove, IL, and plans for a second location will be announced next month.

Best Buy Launches MI Retail Venture Best Buy opened two Chicago-area “store within a store” music instrument retail centers in mid-July. The consumer electronics titan marked the opening of the Aurora, Ill. location with a performance by Grammy winner Jim Peterick, while the Downers Grove store featured a concert by the legendary Buddy Guy. Both locations are slated to offer guitars, keyboards, drums, pro audio, and home recording gear and both will also be providing lessons and on-site repair services. The new MI venture, called “Best Buy Musical Instruments,” will carry high-profi le brands such as Fender, Gibson, Roland, Yamaha, Line 6, Korg, DW, Zildjian, and Shure. 6 MMR

Jordan Kitt’s chairman and CEO, Richard Grant, says, “We are very excited about both representing Steinway & Sons in metropolitan Chicago, and offering area piano consumers the same award winning customer service that we’ve provided to over a quarter million families since our own founding in 1912. The Chicago market has tremendous growth potential.” Other piano lines to be offered include Family of Steinway brands Boston and Essex, Roland digital pianos, and Cristofori. The store will also house Keyboard Learning Centers. Piano rentals, tunings, moving, and general maintenance will also now be available.

Headquartered in metropolitan Washington, D.C., Jordan Kitt’s Music represents Steinway & Sons pianos at each of its other nine locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic and South.

Loud Technologies Reports More Losses For a fourth quarter in a row, Loud Technologies announced more losses. In the quarter ending in March, the company lost $2.5 million on sales of $15.8 million. This comes on the heel of losses reported on the previous three quarters, making for a total of over $8 million lost by the Seattle-based company in the last 12 months.

Loud’s family of brands include Mackie, Ampeg, Tapco, EAW, Alvarez, St. Louis Music, Martin Audio, and Knitting. The company continues to consolidate. Earlier this year they all but shut down the St. Louis Music operation in St. Louis, using it primarily as a warehouse and keeping only 40 employees, down from a high of over 300 employees prior to Loud buying it in 2005. AUGUST 2008

Yamaha Provides the Finest Artist Services in the World. Because Our Artists Deserve It.

Every artist who performs on stage or records in the studio with a Yamaha instrument raises the value of the Yamaha brand. That’s why we take very good care of our artists. At dedicated facilities in New York City, Nashville, Tennessee and Hollywood, California, Yamaha caters to the needs of the industry’s top names, rising stars and everyday heroes. It’s not just a one way street, though. These musicians deliver incomparable publicity and they work closely with Yamaha technicians and designers to create exciting new products that will be instruments of choice for the next generations of artists.

Upfront American DJ Launches UK Operation American DJ has continued its worldwide expansion with the opening of a sales/distribution facility in the United Kingdom. Centrally located in Bolton, Lancashire, north of Manchester, the new operation will provide support to dealers and consumers throughout the UK. “We are proud to announce the launching of our UK operation, which is another major milestone for our company and an indication of the worldwide strength of the American DJ brand,” says Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. “ADJ products are already known and well-accepted in the UK, and having a facility and staff to specifically service that market will only further increase our presence there.”

The UK operation is headed by Kris Dawber and Dave Swin, who have a combined total of more than 16 years in the lighting and sound industry. As a result of their experience, Dawber and Swin have a strong relationship with dealers and end-users in the UK, as well as familiarity with American DJ and American Audio products. American DJ products are currently sold in more than 80 nations around the globe on every continent (except Antarctica). For more information on American DJ USA, contact the company at (800) 322-6337, or visit www.americandj.com. For information on American DJ’s UK operation, visit www.americandj.eu or email uk@americandj.eu

Young, Sumner Promoted to Senior VP at Yamaha Yamaha has announced that Rick Young and Tom Sumner have each been promoted to the position of senior vice president. The move follows executive vice president Terry Lewis’s decision to retire from Yamaha at the end of June. Both Young and Sumner have most recently served as Yamaha corporate vice presidents, and each has more than two decades of experience working for the company. According to Yamaha president Hogan Osawa, they will jointly lead the newly formed Customer Sales and Marketing (CSM) Group, a company-wide initiative designed to align Yamaha with the needs of a broad base of select dealers, artists, performance venues, and academic and institutional facilities. Young will oversee the piano division, band and orchestral division, Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc. in Nashville, Artist

Rick Young 8 MMR

Tom Sumner

Services, Inc. in New York, and the music education department. He will continue as general manager of the company’s pro audio and combo division, including Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood. Complementing this position is one now held by Sumner, who will lead the advertising and creative services division, corporate business development, Steinberg North America, academic and institutional relations/music in education, and corporate loans department. In addition, he will retain his position as president of Yamaha’s subsidiary company, Yamaha Electronics Corporation.

MI Shakeup in Kalamazoo The Kalamazoo Gazette reported on July 20th on the closing of three local MI outlets since mid-June: Dillon’s Music World, Wechter Guitars, and Robinson Guitars. Though the reasons for, and nature of, the closings were different in each case, the end result is a radically diminished musical instrument retail climate in the Kalamazoo area. While Robinson’s Guitars is eyeing a move to another part of the state and Wechter is already in the process of moving his operation to a new facility in Fort Wayne, Ind., Dillon’s Music World – a fixture for nearly 40 years – would seem to be shuttering its current location for good, although owner Bruce Dillon says he has hopes to sell his building and open another Dillon’s outlet in town. “I want to commend Rick and Tom for their extraordinary leadership and management skills,” said Osawa. “Both are extremely deserving of their promotions. The CSM Group will further advance our goal of ‘One Yamaha,’ enabling us to get closer to our customers, further improve the customer experience, enhance our marketing, and grow our business. Rick and Tom are deeply committed to achieving these goals, and will work as a team to integrate our sales and marketing functions across our entire range of product offerings.”

MIAC Show Set for August The Music Industries Association of Canada (MIAC) is holding its 36th annual musical products trade show on August 24 and 25, 2008 at Toronto’s International Centre. Billed as Canada’s largest trade show for musical instruments and accessories, print music, software, professional audio, lighting and video equipment, it is expected to benefit from Canada’s rising economy. The two-day event features over 200 exhibitors, information packed semi-

nars, and special events. Industry partners supporting this year’s Show include The American Federation of Musicians, AES, The Canadian Association For Music Therapy, Coalition For Music Education in Canada, Messe Frankfurt Canada, NAMM and Ontario Music Educators Association. To find out additional information, or to register, go to www.miac.net or call (877) 490-6422. AUGUST 2008

That’s the

$50,000 question!

Levy’s most successful dealers pose this question to each of their customers, and as a result, sell $50,000.00 worth of Levy’s guitar straps per storefront annually. Well… okay, it’s not that simple. There are a couple other things you need to do besides asking the question: 1. Keep your Levy’s display accessible and well-stocked. That’s where we come in. Not only do we offer the broadest range of comfortable, great-looking guitar straps, we also offer a comprehensive array of visually stimulating POP displays. 2. Remember that you’re selling a fashion item. Help your customers match a Levy’s strap to their music, their guitar, or their attire. Your customers will appreciate the personal attention. You too can be a successful Levy’s dealer. Start by asking the question…

Do you want Levy’s with that? Levy’s guitar straps were identified as a “must-have” product at the recent Summer NAMM Show and were designated Best In Show. Levy’s also received the Best in Show at Winter NAMM 2007.

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EMD to Distribute Ashdown

On Friday June 20th at the NAMM Show in Nashville, Dan Barker of EMD announced that the company it will be handling all U.S. distribution for Ashdown Engineering.

Mark Gooday of Ashdown Engineering and EMD’s Dan Barker.

“We have been building territories with EMD for 11 years now,” said Ashdown’s owner and founder Mark Gooday, “and while it might seem as though we are putting a lot of eggs in one basket, this is a company we trust implicitly. EMD sells, and it sells very well. It’s what the business is built around. We now have a distributor in the U.S. that knows how to plan well, put the plan in place, and then work it.” Ashdown Engineering has opened a manufacturing and assembly factory in Kentucky that will produce high-end Ashdown and Hayden amplifiers and cabinets. The U.S.-made units will feature Eminence speakers, due in part to the proximity to the Eminence facility. “EMD has ten full time reps in the USA and 13 freelance agents,” noted Gooday. “We know the product is spot-on, we know the price is spot-on, the set up to sell through is just perfect. To have done the whole thing ourselves here would have been too expensive and very stressful. Now we can really light a fire in the U.S.”

Sound Technology Buys Harman Pro UK

Sound Technology has acquired Harman Professional Group’s distribution business in the UK and Ireland from Harman International Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HAR). The agreement transfers to Sound Technology a sales team and exclusive distribution rights for JBL Professional, Crown, Soundcraft, AKG, dbx, BSS Audio, and Lexicon products in the U.K. and Ireland. 10 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Upfront Trade Regrets: Lee Watkins, VP & GM of Hosa Technology Orin L. Watkins, III, better known within the music and sound industries as Lee, passed away on July 12, at the age of 57, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Born on April 16, 1951 in Pennsylvania, Watkins graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in English Literature. As a keyboardist who doubled on guitar and bass, Watkins’ musical pursuits were quite varied. From 1974 to 1976, he was a salesman at M.V. Music in Fresno, California before starting a long and accomplished career with Hosa Technology, Inc. in 1988. Watkins started at Hosa Technology in the company’s sales department. His

exceptional skill set was valued greatly and, in 1998, he was promoted to the position of vice president and general manager. Being an excellent musician and a hard-working professional, Watkins understood the challenges musicians faced and, as a first-rate communicator and a dedicated perfectionist, set out to build Hosa’s dealer infrastructure. Watkins’ friendly, outgoing personality was a tremendous asset. Watkins’ personality permeated the entire Hosa company culture. His high degree of problem solving capability and excellent people skills are precisely the characteristics that made him a first-class Hosa company representative throughout his career.

Jeremiah Meyer of SBT Jeremiah M. Meyer of Spoiled By Technology (SBT) passed on Saturday, June 7th of natural but undetermined causes. Jeremy joined SBT as an intern in June 2003 providing inside sales and technical support. Graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelors Degree in Audio Engineering, Jeremy then became a technical sales and training associate with SBT. In January of 2005 Jeremy accepted responsibility for training and development of SBT’s franchise operations and select independent dealers in Illinois and Wisconsin. “His exemplary performance was recognized - on a national level - by manufacturers, dealers, contractors and consultants,” notes the company. In November of 2007, Jeremy 12 MMR

was offered and accepted partnership in the rep firm. “While continuing this journey without Jeremiah is unimaginable at this point, we approach our decisions based on, ‘What would Jeremiah do?’ says Barb Paulsen, president and CFO of SBT. “Jeremiah would say, ‘Let’s rock, we got this, we’re not going out like that!’ We will continue our mission, honoring of his memory.” A memorial fund has been established, “The Jeremiah M. Meyer Memorial Fund” to support his 7 month old daughter, Danielle Elise Meyer and his life-partner Amanda Lynn Valentino. Please contact any associate at Spoiled By Technology for further details: (630) 357-7742. AUGUST 2008

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Upfront Schools React to Holze Closing Earlier this summer, Texas’ Holze Music shuttered its doors after 71 years in business. A large percentage of the MI chain’s business came from servicing local school bands and orchestras. Due to the abrupt closing, many instruments brought in for repairs were left in the stores, locked up, with their owners unable to retrieve them. For some, the loss of Holze has left a noticeable gap.

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John Canfield Band Director Saginaw High School Saginaw “Every time a local store closes it hurts band students everywhere. I had a relationship with Holze when I taught in Groesbeck, near Waco. They did a great job servicing our students and our programs. The closing of Holze will mean less choice for the consumer. The roll of the local music store has been a key element in the development and health of Texas Bands. “I know that Buzze Music will be a major force in the Waco area. However, options will be extremely limited. Although low cost is important in this economy, service should also be considered. Many local music stores have helped my students and me — I doubt my bands could have enjoyed the growth and success that they had if it wasn’t for local music stores like Holze. “I was stunned by the closing. Of course, with the state of the economy, I am sure that we will see many changes in the near future. Internet sales have obviously hurt the local music store. Unfortunately, the internet sales guy will not make a special trip to my contest or my football game to repair an instrument or deliver a last minute item that a student may need.”

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“Even though we do have other options here, Holze is still a great loss for the school bands in this community. Holze was the largest sponsor of our March-a-thon and the Centennial Marching Festival (our end of season marching contest). In addition, they would offer their repair services at our marching contest, the UIL Concert and our Sight-reading Contest. They were very supportive of schools and the local music community. “The Frisco and Plano areas are wellserved as far as music stores go and I AUGUST 2008

Upfront have no doubt that the other vendors in our area believe in supporting the local community arts programs. They have supported us in the past at various events, particularly the Music & Arts store in Frisco, and we are looking forward to working with them in the future.”

Greg Vaughn Band Director Waco High School Waco “I was very surprised by the closing of Holze. Even though I had several friends working in the store, I was unaware of

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any problems leading up to this. Since Holze has been around for so long, you just expect it to always be there, servicing the music needs of the community. “Holze played a large role in the music business in Waco and their departure has left a huge void. But, since it has occurred at the end of the school year and budgets are already stretched thin, the immediate impact has been relatively small. We have had some difficulties getting needed supplies and some of the students have as well. However, the real impact is likely to hit this August. “Our school worked with Holze’s for supplies and repairs. With any store doing the business Holze did, there is bound to be a significant impact on schools and other music vendors. I am sure that other companies will be looking to fill the void and pick up the slack.”

Van Henry Band Director A&M Consolidated High School College Station “Our Holze rep was keeping us informed as best as he could about a possible closing. So, I really wasn’t surprised when they did close. We got information about the closing from a Waco newspaper article someone posted on Yellowboard, an online, band director chat board. I emailed parents a copy of the article to let them know what was happening. Before Holze closed there was a bit of a struggle in getting supplies, which indicated to me that there may be problems. It’s very disappointing, but we’ve been through this before with Brook Mays and H & H. “We went to Holze mostly for repairs; they had the largest repair shop in the area and were very quick. We are one hundred miles outside of Houston and my biggest concern is emergency repairs and the time it will take to get them done. Now students and their parents are going to other vendors such as The String and Horn Shop in Bryan. Holze, of course, was the only local store. We have road representatives, who come from several different stores. They pick up and deliver repairs and also carry supplies, such as reeds, cork grease, slide oil, etc. This allows students to purchase supplies and have repairs done AUGUST 2008

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Upfront without having to make long trips to one of the larger metropolitan areas. Recently we were added to the routes of Better Than New Band Repair, located in Round Rock, and Montgomery Music Center in Montgomery. This has been an invaluable service for us, especially now with Holze gone.”

Ron Davis Band Director Belton High School Belton “I wasn’t surprised by the Holze closing because music stores have been going under (at least in Texas) for several years. A local business has to walk a very fine line between not overextending themselves financially and providing the type of services that Texas music educators have traditionally expected. “Now that Holze has closed, we need to find other vendors to handle our needs. I think the other two local music stores, Von Music in Temple and The Band Room in Harker Heights, will see immediate results of the closing. Holze did most of our repair work and general supplies. I hope these stores will be able to provide the same services as Holze did. I am looking for prompt delivery, repair and accurate accounting from vendors. I believe there will be some ramifications for parents -- it will slow down their ability to buy instruments until they realize that the other vendors in the area are able to meet their needs.”

Evelio Villarreal Band Director Plano East Senior High School Plano “Our relationship with Holze was typical of most schools. They would send a rep to call on us to see if we needed repairs or supplies. Holze was also awarded some bids by our school district for equipment and instruments. The closing has left quite an impact on our music program. It leaves our students and parents with one less source to go to for instruments, repairs, supplies, books, etc. Holze was also 18 MMR

centrally located in our district, which made it convenient for students to get to. We were very surprised by the closing and it had an immediate impact in delaying some instruments we should have received earlier in the year, from Holze, but didn’t until late in the school year. Some equipment never arrived, so purchase orders had to be canceled and reissued, causing further delays. We have been able to get most of our equipment from Holze, but are still waiting on some items. “Fortunately, other vendors have been able to step up and pick up the slack, but with more schools being serviced by fewer stores, it sometimes creates a backlog in some areas like repairs. A store can only do so much. However, in the long run, I think the other music stores will be able to step in and meet the needs of our area, which is undergoing some rapid growth. “Williamson Music Company is our main source at the moment. They also have a repair bid with our district and we see their rep on a regular basis. They have been great and helped us out on many occasions when emergency repairs needed to be done. Our experience with them has been positive and I know they are keeping very busy with things as they are. We have also done business with Music and Arts and Lone Star Percussion. I was sad to see Holze experience the problems they did, especially since they were so eager in the beginning to step in and fi ll the void that was created when Brook Mays closed. Hopefully, they will straighten things out, not only for the sake of the community, but also for the great people who worked for them.

CORRECTIONS In the Gemeinhardt feature in the June issue of MMR, the photo on page 46 featured Gerardo Discepolo. In the recent Supplier Directory, the information for Kala Brand Music Co. should have been listed as the following: Kala Brand Music Co. P.O. Box 751149 Petaluma, CA 94975-1149 Michael Upton (707) 775-4073 (877) 853-3853 Fax: (949) 209-5839 info@kalaukulele.com www.kalaukulele.com

AUGUST 2008

People Audio-Technica has appointed Dan Pelletier to the position of Audio Solutions - Specialist. As part of A-T’s Audio Solutions Department, Pelletier joins the Pelletier team in responding to the informational needs of Audio-Technica’s customers seeking clear technical or product advice and application assistance. Pelletier is a recent college graduate with a degree in Recording Arts and Technology. He joined the A-T team as an intern in June of 2007 and was appointed Audio Solutions - Specialist in November 2007. Before joining A-T, he served as a Recording Engineer intern at Cleveland’s Ante Up Audio recording studio and Front-of-House (FOH) and Recording engineer for Broadview Heights, Ohio’s Sevenoseven young adult worship organization. Additionally, Pelletier is a drummer, guitarist and songwriter. Sonaré Winds, a division of Powell Flutes, has appointed Maryann Zschau as the company’s director of Sales and Marketing. Zschau has served as Sonaré’s marketZschau ing manager since January 2007. For seven years prior to coming to Sonaré, she was the director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Lyric Stage Company, a regional theatre in Boston, Mass. She also worked for many years as a Catering Sales manager for both the Omni Parker House and the World Trade Center in Boston. In addition to maintaining her marketing responsibilities, Zschau will head the sales organization for Sonaré whose mission continues to be parterning with top brands from all over the world to bring customers high value musical instruments of superior quality. Sonaré Winds distributes their own line of f lutes (most with Powell headjoints) and trumpets (all with Blackburn leadpipes) and serves as the North American distributor for Keilwerth saxophones, York Brass Band instruments (cornet to tuba) and Schrieber bassoons. 20 MMR

AUGUST 2008

the Right POP

for YOUR Store

Sennheiser makes it easy to add on microphone sales for every piece of gear you sell in your store with the new Right Mic POP! Colorful hang-tags on products help pre-sell your customers on which mic they’ll need to capture every nuance of the gear they crave. Three-sided POP checkout counter displays and a fold-out brochure reinforce The Right Mic message while cards in your display case highlight the features, beneﬁts and applications of Sennheiser’s evolution mics. Add web-resources, promotional incentives and a vigorous national ad campaign and you’ve got an in-store promo that’ll rock your register. Call your local Sennheiser Rep to ﬁnd out what The Right Mic can do for you!

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ADVERTORIAL

AUGUST 2008

News

THE &REEWAY Â˛ Âą7EÂ´RE 'OING !FTER

Back to School Tips for Dealers A new school year brings new opportunities for music retailers. This is your chance to align with the music educators and advocates in your community and bring your store to everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention.

Grow Your Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Visibility

Note from Joe the want your store to be As a music retailer, you ll we as y, in your communit hub of music activity . ors cat ce to local music edu as a valuable resour programs help create sic After all, school mu kers and bring more more active music ma re. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no better customers in your sto cy than having great form of music advoca music program in teachers and a strong rs have a ents and administrato par your community. If to go to bat for it when ely lik ud of, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re more program they feel pro times are tough.

new school kick off a successful a music retailer can a. If you r The best way you as educators in you are ationships with music heads the h year is by building rel al relationship wit contract or an inform d an ate have a school service ortunity to celebr why not take the opp teacher sic mu d of your local program, nity? You can hol y do for your commu scount â&#x20AC;&#x153;di or re acknowledge what the house at your sto ns, organize an open roster a ate cre awards and recognitio or lesson referrals teachers, offer music d an e vic ser daysâ&#x20AC;? for local music d tomers. Your goo to supply to your cus rs che tea sic of music instructors mu tomer loyalty of l not only earn the cus ng you h bot ll, helpful approach wil we their students as o foster the loyalty of in your areaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but als and old.

sic allies, g your network of mu more ideas for growin ials ter Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve included a few ma sic advocacy on a variety of free mu tage of as well as information ite you to take advan inv I rs. Member retaile are great ese Th available to all NAMM y. sic communit uence in your local mu s. hip ons these to build your inď&#x192;&#x; ati gratifying rel ing long and mutually steps toward establish

Joe Lamond EO NAMM President/C

Get et known by getting involved. By participating in n your local Chamber of Commerce, band booster organization and/or local and state music teacher clubs and organizations, you build your network of music alliances. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a school service provider, you should aalso meet annually with your school districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aadministrators, from principals to members of the h Board of Education. Express your sincere commitment to the musical life and vitality of o the e school/community and your sincere belief that a every student should be able to experience the e joys and beneďŹ ts of making music. Consider ggiving your local music educators a â&#x20AC;&#x153;back to givi schoolâ&#x20AC;? gift bag: a store-logoed canvas tote ďŹ lled with information on new teaching materials (print music catalogs), as well as a listing of your storeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hours, services and contact information.

Connect with Your Community To increase your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visibility and validate the many proven beneďŹ ts of making music, NAMM has created a variety of marketing and advocacy tools. The bilingual â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why Learn To Play Music?â&#x20AC;? brochures can be customized with your company information to be handed out at point-of-purchase and â&#x20AC;&#x153;back to school recruitment nights.â&#x20AC;? You can also include them in instrument cases, rental contract mailings and billing statements.

ADVERTORIAL

The NAMM Show is waiting to take you away... Come together with your industry peers for a magical mystery tour of the latest innovations. The Anaheim Convention Center will be lled with more than 1,500 music product exhibits, live musical entertainment and free NAMM U Sessions designed to give you the edge in the coming year.

A group of industry leaders working to develop teacher-focused tools designed to encourage and motivate students to join—and stay in—band and orchestra.

If you’re working with a ﬁrst-time rst time music educator, you can share literature from the Music Achievement Council (MAC), which helps teachers streamline the administrative processes that can stand in the way of a program’s success. MAC materials for new teachers include The Complete Guide to Recruitment and Retention, “Tips for Success” and a “First Performance” program in which beginning students can show off their new musical skills. To keep music education strong in your community, NAMM also offers the SupportMusic Community Action Kit, available free to NAMM Members and other serious advocates of music education. The kit contains research revealing the impact of music education on student achievement, sample PowerPoint presentations that help raise awareness at school board and other meetings, strategies for motivating support of music education through your local and state media and more.

Be Informed, Be Proactive Every NAMM Member is encouraged to join the SupportMusic Coalition, which now has over 180 participating businesses and associations. The effort is headquartered on the Web at www.supportmusic.com, where the CounterPoint newsletter provides in-depth information on topics affecting music in schools, link to afﬁliate organizations and PDFs of SupportMusic advocacy tools and resources that you can download. The Coalition also holds a monthly teleconference that’s now joined by music education advocates in the U.S. and abroad who exchange strategies for success—from warding off local budget cuts to tracking and inﬂuencing legislative reform. To learn more about joining the Coalition or to receive any of the music education support materials described above, please call the NAMM Contact Center at 800-767-6266.

NAMM News

August 2008

industry news, latest breaking up-to-date on the ep org. ke m. To am . @n MM igital published by NA tter at playbackd NAMM News is Digital e-newsle ck ba AY PL r ou sign up for

Anaheim, California January 15-18, 2009 www.namm.org

MMR Special Report:

the

Greening of an Industry

MI Turns Green with Conservation – and the Moves are Saving Serious Money

he response to this special report has been overwhelming. From the largest companies to the smallest retailer, everyone seems to be running, not walking, toward the renewable and the sustainable. It’s all about the carbon footprint, being more environmentally conscious.

About This Special Report

Months of research and scores of interviews went into this feature, and we solicited input from our readership on this in our e-newsletter. If we missed you or you have some related news to share, e-mail Kevin Mitchell at KMitchell@symphonypublishing.com. 24 MMR

But as energy costs spiral up to record levels, efforts to green aren’t just altruistic. “Let’s not mince words about all this,” says Sam Ash COO Sammy Ash bluntly. “It saves money, too.” While historically this is the third energy crisis causing sharp increases in energy costs the country has experienced since the 1970s, this time around it seems to having a much sharper impact. AUGUST 2008

“In the early 1990s there was a green movement, but now people are more concerned about it because politicians are talking about it more,” says Jim D’Addario. “Back then we were coming off the ‘depleting ozone’ era, and we overcame the use of hair spray cans for example. But to really conserve, it does require us to pay attention to it, and requires extra work for management to figure it out.” Yet it’s one thing for a manufacturer to want to adhere to pure ecological concerns, but will the customers come? Musicians seem likely to already be environmentally aware, but as Bob Taylor likes to point out, if someone wants a rare Brazilian rosewood guitar he or she wants the guitar, period. Doesn’t matter the price, doesn’t matter how rare it is. No one has accused the current hoopla for the need to conserve as a mere trend. It’s an issue that’s not going away, and as MI manufacturers and retailers alike turn their creative energies to the problem, no doubt progress will continue.

Guitars “Quite a while ago we had the realization that the traditional woods we know and love were getting rarer and more expensive,” says Chris Martin of Martin Guitars. Years ago Martin had the luxury of selecting wood not just for structure, but for asthetic, rejecting good wood just because of the way it looked. “Back in the 1990s, we saw prices going up, and we thought it was silly to reject wood with blemishes.” But Martin says they got push back from dealers and players about guitars with slight blemishes. This is despite that they were still making guitars available made from the best of the best wood. “I don’t mean to be factious, but if someone says ‘I want the guitar made of the best wood,’ then I say he or she should buy a Martin D 45, because that’s still made from the best wood on the planet. Unfortunately, these people cutting down

Chris Martin

rosewood and mahogany didn’t think to replant the trees because they thought there was enough of it not to worry about it.” But the famed D45 come with a hefty price tag not all can afford, and there are still a lot of guitars to make. “So the next step was to look at non-traditional wood, and find some wood that that can be sustainable.” Martin found a cherry tree farm that knew not to cut it all down together. Still cherry is not always an easy sell. “During colonial times cherry was called ‘American mahogany,’” he says. “But still, we had pushback. No, it doesn’t sound quite like rosewood or mahogany, but it is still great.” Other changes are in the works too. “You’re going to see guitar makers using smaller pieces of wood. So you’ll see not just a two-piece back, but also a four-piece top. It’s inevitable.” With a 175-year history, Martin has perspective. It’s not an accident that people started making guitars out of rosewood, mahogany, and spruce. “Guitar makers did pick the best wood, and they are the best sounding guitars, I admit that,” he says. “But we’re splitting hairs between some of these woods. You have to be an aficionado to tell the difference in some cases.”

“Actions taken really do ripple out through partners, suppliers, and customers.” AUGUST 2008

And the competition for quality wood is not just other guitar makers: “They make caskets out of mahogany!” he says, shaking his head. “What’s a better use for that wood, a guitar or a casket? Sure the casket maker would make the argument otherwise …” The quality of Martin guitars made from other wood involves a more creative way of making the guitar. The process is different, the guitars are made thicker, and there are experiments with finishes. At the end of the day, it all has to live up to the Martin name. “The Martin guitar company has done a wonderful job convincing people to buy our product because of our tradition,” he says. “Let’s not deny that. An authentic reproduction of dreadnaughts of the 1930s and 1940s are the holy grail of guitar making,” and that will always be a part of the Martin line. “I always chuckle about some of these ‘innovations’ because I’m a car buff, and I like to point out ‘modern’ T-Birds and Mustangs … what were they thinking? Make them look like the old ones!” Not everything works: Martin actually did a prototype of a bamboo guitar among other experiments. “The oddest thing is we have a patent for a guitar with an aluminum top, and once people get over that it’s Martin made with aluminum, they realize it’s great – sounds great, plays great. But at first it’s like, ‘Oh my God, Chris has gone crazy.’”

Zuni Custom Guitars Michael Blank knows more than a little about this issue. He used to supply wood to many major guitar industry companies before starting Zuni Custom Guitars. Now he takes a do-it-

yourself approach. “As these large companies draw on large massive amounts of wood I felt it would be better to build guitars out of the wood that we cut,” he says. “An analogy would be it’s better to own the diamond mine than the jewelry store. We have operated a portable band saw mill for MMR 25

years and strictly cut fancy maples such as curly, birdseye and quilted, among others.” The company is based in Alto Pas, Ill., and produces about a dozen guitars a month. “We strictly make our guitars out of North American hardwoods that are readily sustainable and not on any endangered list. We stay away from all the tropical hardwoods that are so prevalent in the music industry today.” Zuni doesn’t even put plastic on their guitars – all pickup rings and cover plates are made out of sustainable figured maple, and most of the knobs and tuners are made out of elk or deer antlers that are shed naturally, and then gathered by Zuni employees during an amiable walk in a nearby woods.

Sierra And it’s not surprising that with a name like “Sierra,” this line of guitars is earth-conscious. “Sierra is a guitar brand that supports eco-friendly causes by incorporating recycled paper in its packaging, hangtags, soundhole labels, catalogs, and manuals,” says Laura

Pilcher, marketing manager for Musicorp, maker of the guitar line. “Sierra’s use of all-natural wood bindings and soundhole inlays, along with the use of a thinner fi nish coat which reduces the amount of spray into the environment, promotes a more natural-looking guitar with a more natural resonation and sound.”

U.S. Music Corp U.S. Music Corp recently announced the Timeless Timber Series of Washburn and Parker guitars which will be made from virgin wood that has been recovered from the Great Lakes region. The origin of these guitars dates back 500 years. During the 1800s first-growth maple was harvested and sent on rafts to industrial cities. Along the way, several of the rafts sank and the timber was forgotten. The icy water of Lake Superior preserved the wood. Today, over one hundred years later, the timber has been recovered and is being used to produce high-quality guitars for Parker and Washburn.

Lace Music Lace Music has introduced a replacement bass pickup, the Aluma P. “These new Aluma P pickups are a system, in that they will not only work with a traditional four string bass, but by rearranging them they can work for five and six string bass applications as well” says Jeff Lace, vice president and designer of the Aluma P. Formally introduced for Earth Day, the revolutionary Aluma P and Alumitone family of pickups use 95 percent less copper wire then standard pickup designs. By reducing the need for copper, it saves resources, reduces open pit mining and the very high energy need for converting copper ore to fine wire. It also eliminates the need for a battery powered pre amp. Batteries are laden with highly toxic chemicals and most often fi nd themselves in landfi lls.

Alternative Woods Gibson now has a global relationship with Live Earth in the campaign to combat global warming and has created of 25 exclusive, environmentally friendly custom guitars with the Live Earth logo emblazoned on the front. The limited edition acoustic guitars were signed by artists performing at the official Live Earth concerts on July 7, 2007, and, ultimately, auctioned off to benefit Live Earth and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

The Carbon Fiber Mandolin Peter Mix knew there would be a carbon fiber mandolin. He just didn’t know he would be the one creating it. Mix worked with Rogers Mandolin for a decade, and when the company shuttered its doors in 1996, Mix looked around for something to do. He says he was fascinated by what was happening at Composite Acoustics and Rainsong and how they were building carbon fiber guitars. “I loved what I was hearing and playing, and it just seemed inevitable that someone would build a carbon fiber mandolin.” No one did, and when he found someone in Canada who made a carbon fiber violin he had an “ahha” moment. Knowing that someone had figured out how to make 26 MMR

an arch top with carbon fiber, he was then inspired to do the same and create a mandolin out of the material. NewMAD was born. Mix says the new material is shaped into what is essentially an 85-yearold design. He was driven to all this more as a player than for an ecological reason, but acknowledges the green advantage. “I’m a player first, and this is what floats my boat,” he says. “It’s a great instrument to play. But because I have a passion for string instruments, I’m aware of the reality that materials are just becoming increasingly scarce. Lots of woods are becoming more expensive, and if you have a conscious about this, you have to ask yourself if you really just indulge

in creating an instrument out of material that’s really not available anymore. I mean, there’s nothing like a tortoise shell pick, but we need to leave the tortoises alone!”

Peter Mix

AUGUST 2008

Q&A with Ellis Seal of Composite Acoustics One of the most arresting visuals at Summer NAMM was a guitar being soaked from a small shower. The display belonged to Composite Acoustics, which makes carbon fiber guitars. Ellis Seal, who heads the research and development department, explains it to us all. MMR: What is “carbon fiber”? Ellis Seal: Carbon fiber is a very strong and stiff form of the element carbon – the building block of life. The word “organic” literally means “containing the element carbon.” Scientists and engineers have figured out a way to arrange carbon in a highly oriented crystalline structure that has amazing properties – stiffer and stronger than steel but only 20 percent of the weight. However, this carbon structure can only be made in tiny filaments a fraction of the diameter of a human hair. MMR: Describe the process. ES: The building process to make our primary parts consists of arranging the carbon fiber in the proper orientation and position in a mold, placing the carbon fiber under vacuum, infusing epoxy resin into the arranged fiber, and then curing the epoxy to make a strong, stiff, lightweight structure. We use this type of process to make our body and neck in a one-piece construction because we are literally making the material as we are molding our parts, and we can combine pieces to enhance structural performance and reduce assembly time. This integral construction also eliminates a secondary neck body joint. We also make our tops, with or without integral bracing, the panels from which our braces are cut, and our headstock veneer using this method. MMR: Was this all driven by environmental issues? ES: I was primarily driven by the desire to provide players with a great sounding, great playing instrument that they didn’t have to worry about – we wanted to free the player to focus on the music. However, the deforestation of the 28 MMR

rain forests was a consideration in the decision. Since 1950, over 50 percent of the world’s rain forests have been destroyed. It is estimated that we are losing 50,000 species of plants and animals per year due to the destruction of the rain forests. MMR: What is the advantage of the material over traditional wood? ES: Our material is much more consistent and stable. Wood guitars constantly absorb/desorb moisture, and change with changing temperature and humidity. A spruce top can grow or shrink ¼” across the grain with a 50 percent change in humidity, while it changes only a fraction of that along the grain. Since the humidity changes dramatically from morning to night, winter to summer, inside to outside, guitars exposed to these changes are constantly moving and changing. With carbon fiber guitars, an instrument will stay just the way you purchase it regardless of your environment. People routinely tell us incredible stories of durability and the ability to stay in tune in rapidly changing conditions. Finally, our guitars will take abuse that would destroy a wooden guitar. MMR: Have your guitars been accepted by players? ES: We have found that acoustic guitarists want great tone and great playability. If you give them

that, 95 percent of them are just fine with a guitar not made of wood. What we have found is that for many of our buyers, carbon doesn’t replace wood – adding a carbon fiber guitar to the player’s arsenal provides a great deal of freedom. They now have a guitar to use when conditions are such that they would rather not expose their wooden guitars. MMR: Will we see more guitars made of sustainable materials? ES: There is absolutely no doubt that more guitars will come from sustainable materials. It is mandatory because there is a limited and rapidly diminishing supply of traditional guitar tone-woods. We believe these trends will continue to favor growth of nonwood instruments. There is a reason why guitars are made from tropical hardwoods like rosewood and old, slow growth spruce – man has figured out over thousands of years that guitars made with these materials sound better. It takes hundreds of years to grow trees large enough to be efficiently quarter sawn into tight-grained pieces for guitars. While there is no doubt that guitar builders will continue to find ways to make guitars from smaller trees in renewable forests, I think that it will be difficult to continue to match the tone of the guitars made with the fine tone woods we are accustomed to. We look this at an opportunity for our technology. AUGUST 2008

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The round-shouldered dreadnought Live Earth Guitar is based on the J-45 Gibson acoustic. The body and neck of the guitar are constructed using rainforest friendly, FSC Certified mahogany. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz is also personally involved in this issue, and he’s spoken out on the subject often. But he ultimately points out that even a supply from a sustainable forest will be less than the demand, so alternative materials being used for guitars are inevitable.

Modulus Guitars Modulus Guitars in Novato, Calif. is in the forefront of experimenting with alternative woods from sustainable forests and other materials. Working with SoundWood and Eco Timber (a company devoted to timber operations from sustainable forests), Modulus is now crafting its electric guitars and basses using nonendangered woods such as granadillo, chechen, red cedar, chakte kok, and soma. These woods are not only exceptionally good for instrument construction, but they also come from sustainable forests. Sustainable forestry, or ecoforestry, balances economic and ecological needs, and aims to preserve the integrity of healthy, self-perpetuating forests. Modulus is rapidly reaching its goal of constructing 100 percent of its instruments using non-endangered wood from sustainable forests. The Modulus “green guitars” are used by well-known musicians and groups like Bob Weir (former guitar player for the Grateful Dead), Pearl Jam, Chris Isaak Bank, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Rolling Stones.

First Act This year with great fanfare, First Act unveiled the all Bambusa, made of bamboo, touted as the most renewable natural resource on the planet as it grows especially fast and in many places. No traditional wood at all is used for the body and the neck of the Bambusa, but rather the instrument is made of densely laminated bamboo, which, combined with its waterbased natural matte finish and food safe glue. Nearly all of the hardware and electronics are made 30 MMR

From left to right: Brian Jamelian-Yamaha, Gregory Paul-Martin Guitars, Scott Paul-Greenpeace, Bob Taylor-Taylor Guitars, Mari Momii-Yamaha, Sergio Villanueava-Fender, Larry Edwards-Greenpeace (bottom), Ron Wolfe-Sealaska (Top), Kazumi Ishikawa-Yamaha

from recycled or salvaged parts. Even the exterior finish and paint were chosen for their low toxin emission.

Taylor Guitars Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars recently returned from yet another trip to the Alaskan wilderness. Taylor, along side of Gibson, Martin, and Fender, and in association with Greenpeace, the Forestry Stewardship Council, and the Native American logging company Sealaska, is making an especially concentrated effort to save the remaining Sitka spruce forest in the Pacific Northwest. “Most spruce that makes it into guitars comes from Sealaska, which are private tribal lands,” Taylor explains. “They own 300,000 acres, of the Tongass’ 17 million acres, and have harvested it for 35 years,” depleting many of the old big trees. Currently there’s discussion involving another 80,000 acres, which they are owed, and if the federal government sees it Sealaska’s way, they will have some more old growth forest in their inventory. Taylor says Sealaska has done an impressive job managing the second growth of the trees. “After a plot is clear cut it regrows on its own, 3,000 trees per acre grow back naturally. After 16 years of growth Sealaska thins each acre to 200 trees. This allows trees to grow fast and straight.” The additional land they have chosen would give them plots that would ‘round out’ their inventory. But they need 20 years of harvestable trees to bridge them to their goal. Then, in 20 years time they

would have a perpetual farm of forest managed on an 85-year cycle. In other words, there would be plots of trees covering each age group form zero to 85 years.” While there are honest disagreements involved with these trees, which is where so much of Taylor’s wood comes from, Taylor stresses, “there are no good guys and bad guys” in this story, but many people wanting what is best environmentally. Greenpeace, the Musicwood Coalition, Sealaska, and guitar makers are respectfully working together (Taylor says that his experiences have given him even greater respect for the people at Martin and Gibson, among other makers). “The guitar makers need old growth trees,” he states. “Eighty-five years doesn’t grow a guitar tree as we know it. Guitars are an issue, but the health and welfare of the forest and the economy of the people who derive their living from the forest are a bigger issue. We are willing to look at new ideas.” If Sealaska doesn’t get that additional acreage there will be trouble getting quality guitar wood off the current landscape, although Taylor always seems to manage, he says. But these issues will be pressing harder with each year. The wood is essentially gone or locked up in litigation or as wilderness or on National Forest which is a lousy supplier to small private enterprise like the guitar market.” Taylor says that currently Sealaska and The Musicwood Coalition are examining opportunities to prolong the supply of old growth trees that are acceptable for guitars. Some of this is just hard to get to, and one possibility would be to use heavy lift helicopters to individually harvest trees, and perhaps be able to buy selective trees from the National Forest. AUGUST 2008

advertorial

A Conversation... Bernard Van Doren discusses the new Flow Packs and other issues. Michael Skinner: Bernard, it's always interesting to me to see how new ideas like the Flow Pack started. How did this come Bernard Van Doren about? Managing Director Bernard Van Doren: It actually started in the United States. I was on a dealer tour with you and noticed that in many of the stores the dealers were storing reeds in very unfriendly places where heat or the lack of humidity could damage the reed due to warping which will have an adverse affect on its performance. My concern was that the musician could receive reeds with our name on it that would not play like we wanted them to. I knew then I had to design a system that would help the dealers present a higher quality product to our musicians. The Flow Pack is the end result. MS: So what exactly does the Flow Pack do? BV: Cane is very sensitive to hygrometric changes and that is why our factory is regulated. The new packaging maintains the proper hygrometry of the reed during the transportation of the reed from our factory all the way to when the musician opens it. This is the first time this has truly been done. So now if the dealer is not exactly sure where to store his reeds, we can still insure that the reed the musician opens is factory fresh and at its optimum performance level. Remember, the Flow Pack is extra protection. Once opened, the reed will react to their hygrometric environment exactly as before. MS: What has been the response? BV: So far we have heard very positive comments from our musician friends like Jon Manasse, Claude Delangle and many more. The new packaging, of

course, is different to accommodate this innovation, but the more you use the new packaging, the more you will appreciate it. MS: Yes, the packaging is larger and looks very different. BV: Yes it does. It is because each reed is now packaged individually in the Flow Pack packaging. We needed to make the box to fit the Flow Packs. We understand the packaging is different, but we think it's worth it to insure that every time you open a Flow Pack you have a reed that is factory fresh. MS: I agree. I've heard from many musicians that the reeds are playing very well. Do you have any concerns regarding the packaging with regard to the environment? BV: This is an interesting question because we are very concerned with our environment. Let me give you a few examples: From the beginning – The cane used to manufacture reeds is a 100% natural plant. We use no fertilizer or pesticide during its growth and no chemical components during its transformation into reeds. Any leftover cane resulting from reed manufacturing is completely reused as either compost in our plantations or fuel for the boiler that heats our factory. Our high performance boiler, gives off only water vapor and CO2 into the atmosphere. It is important to note that this CO2 exhaust is of plant, not fossil origin and that its atmospheric evacuation contributes in no way to the greenhouse effect. Inside the new box – The reed protector is 100% recyclable and has the PP5 mark on the edge of the protector. The film we use to protect the reeds is very important. If we use any other type of packaging or method, the amount of waste is much more. It is a recoverable packaging (in the form of energy recovery as it has a high calorific ratio in incineration). The new box – the paper we use

From a recent interview by Michael Skinner, President, DANSR, inc.,the U.S. importer for Vandoren Products

comes from trees planted expressly for paper production and does not contribute to deforestation. Moreover, trees are systematically replanted in each section as they are felled. We have also replaced toxic inks, fixatives, developers and solvents, with others less polluting in nature (for example, the use of offset inks instead of habitual UV inks). Inside the factory – we use electric vehicles to move around our factory and finally I am happy to tell you that I drive a hybrid vehicle. MS: Wow! So it would seem to me that every step of the way, you not only found ways to protect the reeds, but to protect the environment. BV: Yes, it's true. MS: Are there any additional advantages to the new packaging? BV: Yes, in recent years we have seen the increase in counterfeit products that concern us very much. The level of sophistication required to create this packaging and product makes it difficult to copy. Again, our goal here is to create the best product so musicians can continue making the beautiful music for which we are so passionate. MS: Thank you Bernard!

For more information on Flow Packs or the environment, consult the Vandoren website at www.vandoren.com

“It’s important to note the need for Sealaska to maintain a sustainable business presence in this region. No matter what people think about harvest trees, we all need to use trees and the regions that provide the trees rely on the economy.” He points out that Taylor does a lot to use all the wood. “The NT neck was designed to

About the SoundWood Project San Francisco-based SoundWood project is created by the world’s oldest environmental conservation group Fauna & Flora International, and is collaborating with musicians and instrument makers to develop programs to preserve and sustain the earth’s forests in connection with the crafting of musical instruments. They have provided some facts: Almost half of the original forest cover on earth, over 7.4 billion acres, is gone because humans have destroyed it. Forest loss between 1980 and 1995 was at least 500 million acres, an area the size of Mexico. Each year, at least another 40 million acres of natural forest, an area the size of Washington State, is lost in developing countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, and Madagascar. Tropical woods like mahogany, rosewood and ebony do not grow in stands, but grow independent with other trees in the rain forest. To get these prized trees, loggers often clear an entire area. Another way to get these trees is to create openings or roadways into the forest. Once the road is there, other logging operations move in and massive degradation occurs. 32 MMR

make a better neck also addressing the use of the wood. With this neck, mahogany can now be cut simply and in the most primitive of fashion, allowing very local and primitive tribes in the jungles of South America to harvest a sustainable yield of trees for us. The design of the neck allows this practice. This is but one example.” As for the future, it’s now, and it involves exploring other woods he says. “Six or seven years ago nobody made good guitars using sapele or ovangkol. Taylor introduced these woods on the 300 and 400 series. These woods are abundant and make very good guitars. “The future is in the hands of us guitar makers who, every day, solve the problems of dwindling supply. Yes, wood will increase in price, because essentially wood has been ‘mined’ for centuries, simply taking what nature has grown. Be prepared to see things change slightly here and there. The changes will evolve. There will be evolution and a migration into the future such that people will be fine and be able to accept it.” Taylor doesn’t consider using synthetic materials for guitar making. “These are often called ‘renewable’ but so is wood. If one were to accept a fake material, then why wouldn’t one accept a different wood species or a four-piece top or a grade that is different than we are used to? Fact is: wood makes the best guitars. I’ll always use wood.”

The Final Frontier? Breedlove Guitar Or, how about genetically modified super trees capable of creating amazing guitars in a single bound? Breedlove Guitar’s Peter Newport states: “We’ve hired a company to do research into tree genetics, and one of our plans is to continually fi nd seedlings from figured trees and create propagated figured tone woods.” These would grow faster, richer, and specifically for guitars. Meanwhile, they instituted a program called Breedlove Adopt-A-Forest where employees and local teens go out and plant more trees to offset their carbon footprint. “We are already extremely aware of environmental issues, a fact that is reflected in our lifestyles and habits,” he says. “But we realize we can do much more to decrease our energy consumption, decrease direct and indirect CO2 emission, and increase livability.” In addition to that they have switched company cars to hybrids, provide bonuses to employees who carpool, and have a wood

Tracy and Vic Firth receive Maine Wood Product Association’s 2008 Pine Tree Award.

recycling program that redirects scrap wood to better uses, among other initiatives. But mostly, it’s the trees. “Some trees take a minimum of 60 years to mature … we just gotta plant more trees!” he laughs.

Percussion “Vic Firth has been concerned about the environment before it was fashionable to do so,” says Mark Dyke, director of marketing and sales. “In 1992, Vic Firth was the first company to package paired sticks in the paper matchbox sleeves now used throughout the industry,” eliminating unfriendly plastic bags. “Vic back then was concerned about all this plastic and where it ended up.” At the facility in Newport, Me., there have long been many green procedures in place. All the water and saw dust used in the grinding process is recycled through a de-watering fi lter press, and the water is removed and reused while the sawdust is used as fuel. “We are currently recycling 10,000 gallons of water per hour.” They purchase their wood from the Forestry Stewardship Council registered suppliers whenever possible, and encourage their large vendor base to participate in the program. “With a grant from the state of Maine, we rewired our motor controls in the kilns and installed energy efficient motors and vents,” Dyke adds. “This has saved us a considerable amount of electricity over the past three years. And we’ve not had to fire up our back-up oil using boiler because of the improved efficiency.” Not even the dust escapes scrutiny – a state-of-the-art dust collection system eliminates any sawdust getting in the atmosphere and instead is used for fuel. “Our manufacturing team is always trying to improve our AUGUST 2008

K&M STANDS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT It‘s more than a play on words. Our deep commitment to quality includes production with the most effcient use of raw materials, renewable energy resources and reduced energy consumption, recyclability of all parts and retired products, elimination of harmful chemicals, minimized CO2 emissions, vastly reduced water usage, and restoration of water to drinking quality. In fact, since 2000, König & Meyer has held ISO 14001 certication, granted for effective, responsible stewardship of the environment.

Distributor:

Connolly Music Company 8 Vernon Valley Rd. · East Northport, NY 11731 Phone: 1-800-644-5268 · www.ConnollyMusic.com To learn more:

www.k-m.de/environment

not in use, intense recycling efforts, and implementing new software that allows for conservation of paper. “All the paper that is printed, the phone calls made, the duration the lights are on, can all be monitored on the computer,” Chen says. “And every month each unit receives the records so we’re constantly re-evaluating and setting new goals for conservation.”

Minimum Carbon Footprint

Remo was recently honored as a WOTY (WRAP of the Year) award. Following the ceremony, six California Integrated Waste Management Board members participated in a drum circle.

use of water and energy,” he says. “A better process leads to a better product as well.” And an extra marketing tool, too. Dyke says in their next catalog they will share their emphasis on lowering their carbon footprint with their customers. “But first, we do what we do because it’s the right thing. But the main point is that all these things we’ve done has meaning beyond what happens in our building. Today you have to look beyond your own four walls. Actions taken really do ripple out through partners, suppliers, and customers.” It’s all getting noticed, too. Just this past February Vic Firth received the Maine Wood Product Association’s 2008 Pine Tree Award, which is awarded each year to a Maine-based wood products manufacturing company.

Mapex Drums “KHS, which makes Mapex drums among other products, has done quite a lot

in this area,” says Miles Chen of KHS. He explained that the Chinese Government has two different sets of regulations – one for domestic manufacturers, and one for foreign companies. “The standards for foreign companies are much higher.” For Mapex, the factory creating their products is the first to have an onsite wastewater treatment facility. “We renew it as the capacity of the factory grows,” Chen says. “And all the glue we use for the shells contain very low levels of formaldehyde.” How the product is moved through the production line is arranged in such a way that there is no fueled derrick car needed. “The almost zero [fuel] used in filling a container for shipment not only benefits KHS customers in terms of the cost of our product, but the overall ability to consumer less energy is good for all of us.” This attitude is continued on every level, from unplugging equipment when

the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. Established in 1992, it has offices in almost 50 countries, and provides standard setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services for companies and organizations in-

34 MMR

terested in responsible forestry. Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations. Many guitar makers in the MI industry only buy wood that carries the FSC stamp of approval.

“Being located in the wilds of beautiful eastern Canada, Sabian has always been a strong supporter of the environment,” says Sabian spokesman Ben Mann. “We take great pride in both our cymbal making and our minimal carbon footprint.” Sabian even dedicates a page on their website to tout their successes. Some of the policies Sabian enforced many years ago in an effort to stay green include: They create their own bronze to last a lifetime. If a cymbal does break, that metal is fully recyclable. They recycle metal created in the sizing, lathing, edging, and other cymbal making steps. Water used in cymbal making is fi ltered to remove any impurities before being reused. “To conserve energy, heat from our cymbal vents is used to heat the buildings during our long Canadian winters,” he adds. Also Sabian has partnered with the Vans Warped Tour on their Sabian Dream Spot Contest, and Vans is promoting a “Green Tour,” and raising awareness on their initiatives and programs, which Sabian is also supporting.

Remo Remo has also been awarded for their environmental efforts. Last year they were one of five companies to receive the WOTY (WRAP of the Year) by the Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) recognizes California businesses that have made outstanding efforts to reduce non-hazardous waste and send less garbage to the landfi lls. Remo employs a recycling consultant to help them reduce, reuse, and recycle. In 2006, Remo recycled 420 tons of plastic, cardboard, paper, metal, and shipping supplies. They also recycled 158 tons of leftover PET-Mylar scrap from manufacturing drumheads, which is enough to fill eight shipping containers. Their finished drum shells, including the drum kits seen on stages around the world, contain 100percent recycled fiber. The company AUGUST 2008

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has also revamped the way they package their products, resulting in the creation of an internal re-use program that reduced the need to buy and dispose of cardboard.

Latin Percussion Meanwhile, at Latin Percussion (LP), every single wood conga, bongo, and djembe is made from plantation grown wood. “The sape from the tree is used to make latex rubber,” says LP’s Jim Rockwell. “Only when the tree has stopped producing the sap is the tree cut down, and then every tree is replaced. LP has been producing wood drums this way for over 25 years.” He adds that Toca congas and bongs are created the same way, produced in Indonesia

but made from mahogany instead of Siam Oak. Some make drums from material sold from the suspicous “white vans” which are typically filled with illegally harvested wood and do not make sure that the wood is free from infestation and disease. This is serious as there have been several recent cases of African djembes tainted by anthrax.

Paiste Paiste’s efforts to cut back on paper use include their “My Own Catalog” feature located on their website. This allows consumers to retrieve only what they specifically want out of the catalog as opposed to printing out the entire thing. A dealer can also use their “Sound Room”

feature to create a personalized retailer catalog that shows only the Paiste products that his or her store is carrying.

Trick Drums Then there is Trick Drums. Here’s Michael Dorman pitch: “Often times when radically new products are brought to market that defy conventional thinking, people react with skepticism, and understandably so. For a moment I urge you to put aside any preconceived notions about what a metal shell drum set will sound like and give Trick Drums a chance to captivate you.” Dorman, president and CEO, says that while all metal drums are a bit unconventional for the drum industry,

American DJ Lighting the Way Joe Fucini, spokesman for American DJ companies, says one of the greatest – and greenest – technological advancements for the DJ/ club industry has been LED lights. “It’s not exclusive to American DJ, but we’re 100percent dedicated to the technology and hope all our competitors are too,” he says. “It’s good for the industry and it’s especially good for the environment.” Citing just one of scores of products that use this technology affectively, Fucini points to the new X Move LED. “If it was a halogen lamp, it would need a 250 watt bulb. This product uses the equivalent of 44 watts. Just think of using it to replace lights in different venues – concerts, churches, etc. … the impact is unimaginable!” Comparable to a 250W halogen lamp in output, the X-Move LED’s LED beam shines through the fixture’s color and gobo wheels to create images and patterns that look like they were produced by a traditional halogen or discharge effect. And the effects are indistinguishable from a conventional moving head to the eye, plus the unit offers the benefits and ease of LED technology, such as a long 50,000-hour rated lamp life. And it’s small and weighs barely 12 pounds, “making it easily transportable for bands and mobile entertainers which is an important consideration with today’s high fuel 36 MMR

costs. Now on top of all this, it gives off 10percent of the heat of traditional lights. For a club running it’s A/C high, that’s considerable.” “There are a lot of new LED lighting effects coming on the market, but the X-Move LED is a truly unique technological breakthrough that will take moving heads to the next level,” said Scott Davies, General Manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. “It doesn’t just create colored LED beams, it actually produces a hardedge white 20W beam that’s powerful enough to project through color and gobo wheels and send images and beams around the room, just like a traditional halogen or discharge moving head. So essentially you’re getting the same type of effects, but with a big edge in performance, convenience and portability because of the unit’s LED technology.” Fucini encourages MI retailers to bring these factors up to their DJ and band customers. While they might not be as concerned with the energy consumption, as typically they are plugging into the club or reception hall’s owner, as more are made sensitive to environmental concern, it could be a factor. “More immediately, though, there is a payback with the fact that the lamps do not need replacing,” he stresses. “These performers want to

focus on their playing or DJing, and not have to worry about switching out bulbs. Also the less heat means the performer will be more comfortable under the lights.” All green aspects of LED should be appealing to the MI retailer who has long learn that setting up these lights in a showroom not only increases sales of the lighting gear, but also showcases instruments. The payback in terms of electricity used and low maintenance is significant enough to replace halogen lights with LEDs ones immediately. “Lighting is the critical element of going green for the industry, where performers can make an immediate difference,” Fucini says. “There may or may not be significant advancements in how say, a guitar amplifier is powered, but with lighting, this is where the rubber meets the road. LED is one of the most advanced tools to come around in a long time, and has the ecological implications have been revolutionary.”

AUGUST 2008

one thing he’s banking on is that drummers themselves are unconventional, “especially when it comes to obtaining the best performance and sound possible.” The drums are manufactured using a special resonant alloy “AL13” which comes certified from the mill and guarantees the same hardness and thickness of every drum shell. He says they are more resonant than wood, and more consistent than wood … more important for the sake of this topic, by definition, “no trees were harmed” during the making them. “We’re the greenest company out there,” Dorman says.

Timpani’s New Big Bang Yamaha’s Band and Orchestra Division has come up with the 3100 Series Timpani, which is a replacement for the popular 3000 series of portable timpani. It is the first of its kind to use environment-friendly aluminum bowls. “By using the renewable resource of aluminum in the bowls and eliminating the need for fiberglass, Yamaha is able to provide a consistent high-quality instrument that honors our commitment to sound while helping to preserve

AUGUST 2008

the environment,” says Troy Wollwage, marketing manager. He adds that being such a large company making so many products has advantages, and one is that since they make many things beyond just musical instruments allows them to have access to a pool of knowledge that “is wide and deep. Ray Enhoffer, director of R&D, Latin Percussion; Jim Rockwell, director of marketing, Latin For example, the fi- Percussion and Toca; and Victor Filonovich, Toca product manager. berglass used in the 3000 series timpani is also used in mak“I’ve seen no resistance to the new series. ing bathtub products in Japan.” Percussionist, like other musicians, are always But that fiberglass isn’t environmentally looking for and foremost for their sound, and friendly. “It’s hard to recycle, so we came up when new materials and processes are used to with something different, something that make an instrument, it sparks a lot of interest. produces even a better sound.” The alumiLook at drum sets. There are many kinds of num bowls now used to make the 3100 sewoods, and all the manufacturers are trying ries are better for many different reasons. “If to find different ways to achieve their sound.” they get dented, they can be easily repaired.” And because Yamaha is Yamaha, they have Right now the 4200 series of timpani is usa team of specialist always experimenting in ing the fiberglass, but they too will soon go house with wood and metal to come up with to the new aluminum material. better products.

MMR 37

“As our team progressed, we were able to use aluminum, to put it in the shape of timpani, and create a fantastic sound and yet also be environmentally friendly. But the social responsibility aspect wouldn’t matter if the sound weren’t great. We’re

ACCESSORIES

Yamaha’s new timpani made with aluminum bowls.

None of this “going green” stuff is new to the D’Addario Company. Just some of their programs include: Player Points program. Starting in the 1990s, all D’Addario packages (now all D’Addario brand products) were marked with a Players Points. Consumers collect the packages (and points) and exchange them for more D’Addario goods.

fortuned we found a way to take this aluminum and create a drum with a fantastic sound. That’s what is important.”

D’Addario

Colored ball ends. This eliminated guitar string packaging that featured seven envelopes – one envelope for each string, plus one envelope to put the six other envelopes in. The colored ball ends each mark the note of the string and only one package is used to fi le the strings. The company recycles all scrap wire and fi lm used in the drumhead making process. All packaging and printing is done with soy ink. Jim D’Addario’s feelings about all this go way back to when he was a beginning player. “It always bothered me that every time I changed my strings, I had a pile of

Sam Ash: The Prudence of Going Green While Sam Ash’s history of putting environmental concerns front and center goes back almost 20 years, the real emphasis on the issue has happened over the past five, says COO Sammy Ash. They have long purchased recycled pallets, looked at ways to use less cardboard, and partnered with local recycling groups. “We’ve been proactive for a long time now.” He credits traffic manager Tom Chiaro for a lot of the innovations. “Back in 2003, he taught us about things like flat loading without pallets, which in addition to reducing the need for pallets, allows us to put more products on a trailer, thus allowing us to delivery more gear per gallon [of gas].” Working with a distributor in the Los Angeles, Calif. has also made sense on many levels, cutting fuel expense considerably. “Let’s not mince words about all this though – it saves money, too,” he points out. “There’s an element that is altruistic – yes it’s the right thing to do, but also we save money.” Years before many others have, Sam Ash has discontinued the environmentally nasty Styrofoam peanuts, and now customers receive their products cushioned with recyclable material. They’ve also gotten rid of a fleet of gas-guzzling trucks in favor of smaller, more modern

38 MMR

transportation options, including diesel-powered vehicles. The lighting of products in his stores is a trickier issue. Obviously, how well an instrument is lit is an important part of the presentation. Working with Regency Lighting, the decision was made switch over to more energy-saving bulbs. “Fluorescents isn’t quite

Sammy Ash

as great – track lighting is still the best way to light up products,” he says. “And the new bulbs cost up to two-and-a-half times more than traditionally lighting. But they use only 25percent of the energy and they give off 10percent of the heat—we’ve noticed that on our air conditioning bill. Finally they last five years, much longer than tradi-

tional bulbs.” The significance of the last point isn’t lost on Ash as he points out that many of their stores have high ceilings so the less often his employees are climbing up and down tall ladders, the better it is for a number of reasons. “Another thing we’ve just done is transfer from the old-style three page receipts, the ones that are big, wide, and ugly,” he says. Switching to thermal printers, he’s producing 10percent of the waste the old style receipts cause. “We have 50 stores, so think of how many registers there are. Plus, the state of New York requires retailers to hold onto receipts for five years, and I had cartons of 8-1/2” x 11” papers. Now we’re talking 3-1/2” papers, and there is a bunch of savings, let along how much less we’re filling up the garbage with this stuff.” A strategic partnership with Fed-Ex has also turned the company further green, and how orders are shipped are constantly being re-evaluated to being more environmentally friendly. “There’s nothing we’ve done that have cut into profits, and in many cases, I don’t know if we’re really be able to quantify some of these green efforts,” he says, adding with a smile: “But if I would have known all this was so fashionable, I would made you do an article on this a long time ago!”

AUGUST 2008

garbage to throw out,” he says. Then in the late 1970s, the company moved their print shop out of the factory to a place that was near a landfi ll. D’Addario now had a visual and “aromatic” reminder of the problem every working day. D’Addario’s colored ball program was not for the faint of heart, though. “Sure, we heard complaints,” he admits. “Players said they couldn’t see what string to change if they were in a dark club, for instance. You try to anticipate complaints.” Undeterred, the company simply created two versions

of a product – one packaged the traditional way, the other the more environmentally friendly way, with the latter costing a $1 less. “Eventually everyone got it.” Initially there was no savings for the company. “It took us three years, but we ended up saving 30 percent in labor costs. But I believe it’s the right way to go. I’m surprised how what we do it isn’t copied more. This year we’ll do 17 million sets of strings in environmentally-friendly packaging, and so now our efforts have been very successful.” He adds sales over-

all has gone up over the years, and now they get compliments for their packaging. Internally, they collect scraps of metal used and sold to a scrap metal company, and for 20 years people in their office have had a recycling bin at every workstation. But the efforts never stop. “One concern is the clear vinyl pouch,” he adds. “Obviously we were using those by the millions. Now we have a program that if you send ten of those back to us, you get a free T-shirt. And we reuse them.

Biodegradable Accessories? Wheatware Says Yes Marc Harris of Harris Musical Products was creating buzz in disproportion to size of his modest summer NAMM booth, and it was due in no small part to his partnership with a bold new startup called Wheatware. “We have launched a line of biodegradable music accessories which so far include guitar picks, drumsticks, and yoyos that are also maracas,” Harris said. “These products are all made from 100 percent biodegradable wheat. The maracas are loaded with bean plant seeds, so you can literally plant it and it will grow into a plant.” If you’re suspect about the demand for, say, a maracas that can grow into a plant, know that Harris has already signed up over 100 dealers with the product line, and the products are also being carried by Davvitt and Hanswer Music. The material used for these products becomes a natural plant fertilizer after about 90 days in fertile soil. Harris says the “clean, organic sound” from the picks eliminates the “clicking” noise that plastic picks can make when they strike the strings. “You can hear the difference,” he says. The drumsticks, too, “sound great.” The company and the products are getting some amazing press, and will be featured on the Discovery Channel’s Modern Marvels television show. Harris adds that Wheat-

AUGUST 2008

ware products were at the Grammys “Green with Music Event,” Leonardo DiCaprio’s Eleventh Hour Premiere, the Emmys Green Room, and Wired Magazine’s Living Home. While Wheatware makes a variety of products including hangers, golf tees, coasters, and more the Calif.-based company’s CEO Warren Kirsch and president Kate Patton are both especially passionate about music as both are players

(guitar and drums respectively). The drummer and guitarist duo play high-energy original tunes with the accessories their company makes. Unlike corn’s ethanol challenge, there’s more than enough wheat. “Every year there’s an annual surplus of wheat, up to 11 million bushels,” Patton explains. “Even if and when we ramp up all we can, we still don’t see any significant depletion.”

MMR 39

“So we’ve been doing all these kinds of things for 25 years, and in a small way, I think it’s had an impact.”

Reunion Blues For John Maher, marketing director of Reunion Blues, their location has put them in the green mindset. “We’re just north of San Francisco, so all this is no big deal,” he says. “Up here, conservation is a cultural thing.” He adds that having Brad Paley join the company has been a big step because he came from a company who worked in sustainable materials creating hats, T-Shirts, etc. “We’re in the early stages of working on new products that use sustainable materials, and we have a couple of initiatives in the works already,” says Dave Andrus, director of product development. “We’re looking at using more natural fibers, and we have a guitar strap made of real wool – all 100percent natural fiber marino wool. It’s the most comfortable guitar strap in the world.” He adds that they’ve been exploring a lot of material, including hemp and bamboo.

40 MMR

“We’re very committed to this, and this isn’t an end for us, but just the beginning,” Andres says. Leather may not at first seem to ecologically friendly, but Maher makes the case that its durability makes it environmentally friendly. “It’s so protective, and it lasts for ever. People who have a passion for instruments insist that only leather will do.” In a 25 year period, the musician will likely still be using his or her leather case and it’ll still be in great shape; but that same musician could have gone through 10 nylon bags in that same time.

Even Driving To and From Work … Cavanaugh “Most of what we are doing is behind the scenes,” says Cavanaugh president Jim Cavanaugh. “ Yes, have moved to friendlier packaging, but the real question is how one gets to the new friendlier packaging. If you don’t care how your product is made, then what good is it to just show the consumer that you have eco-friendly packaging?” Cavanaugh company is the parent company

of Red Label Strings, Super-Sensitive Strings, Black Diamond Strings, and Bari Reeds and mouthpieces. “For the past 40 years my father and grandfather Vince have been running their cars on propane. They said that was great during the 1970’s with all of the gas rationings because they didn’t have to wait in lines plus it was better for the car due to the fact it ran hotter and cleaner. Almost every area of the country can take advantage of renewable energy technologies, but some technologies are better suited for particular areas than others.” He says the success of using renewable energy system is dependant on geographical location. While their company is located in sunny Florida, solar energy is not

AUGUST 2008

the best, as opposed to Arizona, where it is. “However, we are researching solar into other forms of energy. Right now we are in the process of evaluating geothermal for our A/C units. This is where we take cool water from deep into the ground and pump it through the units and then pump the heated water back into the ground.” At their factory one also finds 3M fi lm on windows to reduce heat; machinery with motors that require fewer amperes; tubular skylights; and more. “Now wouldn’t it be amazing if China and other countries took the same attitude,” he adds. “Maybe then we would have more of a fair playing field when it comes to manufacturing.”

Jim Cavanaugh with his father’s John Cavanaugh’s 1956 Buick Roadmaster, which has been converted to run off of propane.

Vandoren Reeds duction, so they aren’t contributing to deforestation. “Moreover, trees are systematically replanted in each section as they are felled.”

B&O Conn-Selmer Conn-Selmer wants you to know that their Legere Synthetic Woodwind Reeds are made completely from renewable re-

sources. Dr. Guy Legere and Dr. Mark Kortschot founded Legere Reedsin 1998 for the sole purpose of producing stateof-the-art woodwind reeds. Like most woodwind players, Legere was frustrated using cane reeds and wanted to develop an alternative reed type that had the same characteristics as traditional reeds. He approached Kortschot, who was a professor of chemical engineering at the

Latin Percussion Green Pledge

Music comes alive with

Vandoren Reeds, distributed by DANSR, is on the forefront of this issue as well, from president Bernard Van Doren driving a hybrid car to a section on the company’s environmental impact being featured prominently on page one of the company’s Web site. “We have also been concerned about environmental issues,” Van Doren explains. “The cane used to manufacturer our reeds is 100 percent natural, and we use no fertilizers or pesticides during it growth, so no chemical components are involved in the transformation from cane to reeds. Any leftover cane is completely reused as either compost or for fuel for the boiler that heats our factory. Our high performance boiler gives off only water vapor and CO2 into the atmosphere, and the CO2 in of plant origin, not fossil Fuel, so in no way contributes to the greenhouse affect.” And today their reeds packaging is 100percent recyclable. The new box is used from trees planted expressly for paper pro-

Every LP wood drum is made from plantation grown trees. The sap from these trees is used to make latex rubber. The trees are not cut down until they have stopped producing sap. Every tree cut down is replaced. LP has been producing its wood drums this way for over 25 years. Help save the Earth... “Go Green”

CRAWLING WITH POTENTIAL. LP’s striking Aspire Accents Congas and Bongos are the newest addition to the Aspire Collection. The scarab-ﬁnished congas and bongos combine ancient and contemporary design features that symbolize eternal life. Award-winning percussionist Pedrito Martinez brings his sound to life with this bold collection, which boasts great LP sound and quality along with cool, unique designs at an affordable price. To bring your music to life, visit LPmusic.com

are

you

in?

Bernard Van Doren AUGUST 2008

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Toca Djembes are constructed from Government inspected, certified plantation mahogany wood. Because of this, no Rainforest trees have been sacrificed to manufacture our drums. We take pride in the efforts we are making to help the world“Think Green”.

University of Toronto, and together, they designed a new reed and built a modern manufacturing facility to produce the product. The Legere Synthetic Woodwind Reed is ready to play instantly, lasts for months, and sound warm like great cane reeds. Legere reeds do cost a little more than regular reeds because they are made using a 15 step process that takes two weeks and are precision ground for ultimate quality and reliability. “Legere reeds represent a huge leap forward in the synthetic reed market,” says Craig Denny, director of marketing for saxophones. “They are perfectly suited for all types of playing and last far longer than a traditional cane reed. As we all know, the quality of cane has steadily declined in the last decade; Legere gives the professional as well as the amateur a viable option while allowing depleted cane fields the opportunity to repopulate.”

Wittner GMBH & Co.

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Wittner GmbH & Co. released the Tailpiece Ultra in 1999; the Chin Rest Ultra in 2000; and most recently, the Peg Ultra in 2007. The company says these traditional violin components are made of a high-tech composite material and provide an excellent substitute for rare woods typically used for these parts. The other advantage is that these parts are susceptible to climate and humidity changes, and they are also lighter. And some violin manufacturers are turning to carbon fiber bows. Companies like Fein Violins, who while they admit pernambuco wood bows tend to produce a warmer sound, also say that the carbon graphite bows are extremely predictable resulting in a great sound. Of course they last longer and hold up better, too.

How Far Can It Go? So what’s it coming to? A leather free vegan organic hemp guitar strap? Actually that already exists. Ecolution, based in (not making this up) Transylvania, Romania, offers products that are, according to their Web site “politically, socially, economically, and environmentally responsible.” Also they add that employees get “respectfully treatment, and work in well-heated, and well-lit working conditions.” The journey continues to see how green the industry can be, and clearly no effort is too small. Or too big.

Guitar Center: Doing Its Part As part of its efforts to protect the environment and earth’s resources, Guitar Center, the world’s largest musical instrument and professional audio retailer, has made major changes to its operational procedures, already yielding significant results. This ongoing “Green” initiative reduces the company’s carbon footprint and conserves fuel and wood resources. In 2007, Guitar Center halted the use of wooden pallets when shipping product from its Distribution Center to all 214 Guitar Center Stores, and instead began floor-loading all musical instrument and audio products. This simple change in policy has had wide-reaching environmental benefits: First, it eliminates the need for 211,812 wooden pallets yearly, equaling over 8,000,000 pounds of lumber. Secondly, the elimination of shrink-wrap reduced more than 70 million square feet of plastic from GC’s supply chain. That is enough plastic to create a four foot-wide path from New York to Los Angeles. Finally, this decrease in pallet usage allows GC’s trucks to be packed more efficiently, resulting in more product being shipped per truckload and effecting a reduction in outbound truck usage overall. For example, in 2007, GC saw only 4,604 outbound truckloads from the Distribution Center, less than 50 percent of the 9,471 loads in 2006. This eases road congestion and reduces total miles traveled by more than 2,000,000 miles per year (enough to circle the Earth 83 times or make four round trips to the moon). In addition, this “green” initiative conserves 383,950 gallons of diesel fuel yearly, thereby significantly reducing GC’s emission of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases. AUGUST 2008

‘Accidentally’

Green Sweetwater’s New HQ is State-of-the-Art … and an ecological pacesetter too

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AUGUST 2008

Chuck Surack is no longer working out of a VW Microbus. That’s where he started Sweetwater Sound nearly 30 years ago. Today, as a major retail player with annual sales in excess of $125 million, Sweetwater is cultivating the fruits of their labor into what is amongst the most cutting-edge – and most ecologically friendly – business headquarters in the music and sound products industry. The 180,000-square-foot campus in Ft. Wayne, Ind. is centered on a 44-acre spread of land, and includes some pretty spiffy amenities: a health club and racquetball court; a free game and recreation area including a $15,000 video golf simulator; full-service print shop; ATM; DVD lending library; and full-time concierge service. And to complete the country club aspect, what about those guys cooking in their kitchen? Well, they were hired away from a country club. Costing in excess of $35 million, the facility also includes a retail shop, three recording studios, and a 250-seat state-of-the-art auditorium/performance theater with four separate sound systems to accommodate everything from simple lectures to full-blown ensemble performances. Most important to Surack is that it is the “greenest” facility in northern Indiana, and perhaps the entire industry.

It All Adds Up Here’s a riddle: why would a business owner build a new facility that seems to be more concerned with his employees’ golf handicap and making sure they have a movie to watch at night than the proverbial bottom line? The answer comes in two parts. “The company is 29 years old and we’ve shown a profit every year, and …. well, we could do this …” Surack replies. “But the real reason we’ve done this is because of our employees. Everyone says his or her employees are number-one, but I think we’ve proven we mean it. This new facility makes it really nice for all of us. You should see it when the kids are off school – they are brought here to the dining room, and play pingpong in the game room!” The food from the dining facility is tasty fare served at below average cost (meals are partially subsidized by the company). Even this has economic and ecological benefits: by providing quality food for his 325 employees on site, Surack points out hundreds of gallons of gas is being saved a week, as there is less need to drive five or 10 minutes to lunch and back. AUGUST 2008

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“Everyone says his or her employees are number-one, but I think we’ve proven we mean it. This new facility makes it really nice for all of us.”

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Surack knows that turnover is expensive, and recruiting top talent is a key component to a successful, growing company. Walking through the opening doors, let alone the entire building, the facility is an obviously tantalizing to those already working there or those being considered for a position within the organization. “And it makes it nice for our customers, our community,” Surack adds. Others might shrug off Ft. Wayne as a small market, but Chuck Surack has opened his doors to his corporate home, offering the local population access to the auditorium, launching a lessons pro-

gram, and having expanded on their retail operation tradition. “We do a lot of local business, and have been here a long time, so showing that we’re very much part of the community is important.” Acoustician/studio designer Russ Berger designed the auditorium and three recording studios. Right now the auditorium is mostly used for twice-weekly sales meetings, but it’ll be used for live concerts as well. Outside organizations, such as the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, will be able to perform at the facility. Employees with spouses who teach music are able to use it for recitals. Big screens and six high-defi-

AUGUST 2008

nition cameras allow the audience to see close-ups of the performers. The on-site retail store has been expanded and improved from the previous location, and is stocked with Sweetwater’s best-selling items. “We sell $6 million worth of products annually, which is pretty good for community of 250,000 people,” Surack says. “And we hired a trained professional to set up a teaching program, and have a dozen teachers working out of our new studio. In addition to music lessons, we’ll be doing sessions on how to use Pro Tools, Apple’s Garage Band, and so on. Mom and Dad can bring Johnny in for lessons, then sit in our cafeteria and use our Wi-Fi on their laptops while they wait.” The three recording studios are available for rent and used for jingles and local projects, but also act as a merchandising opportunity. The studios designed so customers can go through it and see all the microphones set up, for example. “The theater, store, teaching facility, and recording studio are pretty amazing when taken together,” he says. “The sum of the parts is much bigger than the pieces.”

‘A Lot of Fun’ Surack moved from working out of his Volkswagen van to working out of his home and operated that way until 1990. Then, with five employees working with him, he moved into what seemed huge: a 5,000 square foot facility. “This would be great!” he recalls thinking. In a single year, the company doubled sales to $12 million, though, and that seemingly cavernous space quickly became a shoebox. Surack added another 5,000 square feet, then another 10,000, and kept expanding through the years as much as he could. Three years ago he was all set to bump it beyond 50,000 square

AUGUST 2008

feet … but his fi nger hesitated on the trigger. “It was literally the eleventh hour,” he sighs. “Right before they turned dirt, I called it off.” By the fall of 2005, he found 44 acres of land and bought it. In May of 2006 Sweetwater broke ground. In between, there was a blank piece of paper. “Unless you’ve been down this path, you don’t know how unusual it is to have a clean slate,” Surack notes. “We were fortunate, and I’m glad the company was doing so well that I could step aside and work on just this. John Hopkins, my vice president of operations, and I have worked almost exclusively on this since the fall of 2005… this has been our full time job! We have good managers, fortunately, who allowed us to dedicate that time. “And it was a lot of fun.” The process would spur more than the deciding of where to put what offices and what bathrooms, and provided them the opportunity to rethink how they do business. Everything from how people walk into the front of the building to how products were shipped out the back was reevaluated. Some aspects were changed a lot; some hardly at all. But every aspect was at least re-tuned.

LEED Honors Follow One aspect that was given priority was ecological implications. Here again, it was a case of doing what is “right” also making good business sense. The U.S. Green Building Council has named the Sweetwater operation the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) facility in the region. The certification process rates the site in regard to water efficiency, energy, atmosphere treatment, materials and resources used, the indoor environment, and overall innovation in the design.

“This approach is more popular on the coasts, and it does take special engineering,” he explains. “But the small things add up.” Examples are that 92 percent of the employees get natural light via windows and skylights, which leads to significant energy savings. Urinals in bathrooms are non-flushing, saving 400,000 gallons of water a year. Walls and carpet are furnished with non-petroleum products. Bamboo, the most rapid-growing wood in the world, was used for flooring whenever possible. “Funny thing about it all, I can’t tell you I approached it specifically from a ‘green’ stance – it always had to make business sense,” Surack admits. It has in turn paid a huge public relations dividend: Groups come far and wide for tours of the building, and Surack takes great delight in personally serving as tour master. “Everyone is raving about the look and how we designed it, and its influence is really extending beyond the industry … it’s a rags-to-riches story that can only happen in America, and a far cry from when I was working out of my VW bus!”

“Funny thing about it all, I can’t tell you I approached [the new facility] specifically from a ‘green’ stance – it always had to make business sense.”

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How to Be a

GREENER RETAILER

Sustainable design solutions for a healthier planet and happier customers. By Kirsten Koba

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AUGUST 2008

Each year a whopping 21,000 new retail stores are built in the United States, comprising nearly a quarter of all new building projects (excluding single-family homes). These are buildings that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, contribute to the consumption of 40 percent of the world’s total energy (compounded by extended hours of operation), 25 percent of wood harvest and 16 percent of water consumption. And, because of retail’s dependence on being up-to-date and design savvy, often these are buildings are not built to last. But while it may seem like the temporal—and theatrical—nature of retail is incompatible with the “mud-and-burlap” stereotype of environmentally responsible design, the nation’s largest retailers (like WalMart, Target and Gap) are leading sweeping change by creating completely “green” stores, and a growing number of others are taking heed because, quite simply, it makes good business sense. Far from the tree-hugging eco-movement of previous decades, today’s greening of retail is rooted in the conventional consumer who has embraced recycling, is concerned about global warming and wants to buy from stores that appeal to these values. By investing in sustainable store policies and design, retailers can trim energy, packaging and other fixed costs; polish their corporate image; and appeal to this escalating consumer movement. And thanks to a bevy of new sustainable products from flooring to paint to shopping bags—all of which are dropping in price due to increasing demand—it is surprisingly easy being green. Even if you are a bit, well, green to the concept of eco-design, Sandi Pope, associate principal at Callison, a Seattle-based architectural design firm whose clients include Nordstrom, Gap and Nike, said there is no reason to be intimidated by the prospect of making your business more eco-friendly. “People used to be scared to even approach sustainable design because they thought that everything was out of their realm, but now there are very easy things to do,” Pope said, noting it’s best to start small. “Anything you can do—whether it’s starting a recycling program, changing light bulbs or changing paint—can help.” AUGUST 2008

Whether you are looking to spruce up an existing space or create a building that meets all Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, here are some of the best ways to make stores more sustainable—from quick fixes to full immersion.

Energy Use Greening your store can be as easy as changing a light bulb. According to Energy Star, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, retail companies spend nearly $20 billion on energy each year. A mere 10 percent reduction in energy costs for the average supermarket can boost profit margins by as much as 6 percent. Compact

“If you’re thinking about the longevity of your business, embracing green design will set you up for long-term success.” —Designer Molly Garretson fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs can immediately help you start saving. A single bulb, which lasts five to seven years, replaces up to 10 traditional bulbs and uses 75 percent less energy—a savings of $200 a bulb over five years. Not to mention the fact that one CFL bulb saves 500 pounds of coal and a lot of annoyance from having to frequently replace bulbs in all those hard-to-reach spots. While you’re at it, consider installing light sensors that turn on when they detect movement and automatically shut off after a few minutes. These are particularly helpful in stockrooms that do not need to be lit all the time, and they provide additional se-

curity when the store is closed. As for exit signs, which by law must be on at all times, light-emitting diode (LED) versions use only 44 kilowatts of energy annually and cost about $4 per year to operate, versus the $28 that conventional exit signs can rack up in energy costs. Other deceptively obvious energy-saving tips: keep the drapes down and the door closed when the air conditioning is on during summer months; educate your staff to turn off lights and turn down heating or air conditioning when rooms are unoccupied; and avoid placing computers and lamps near thermostats, as heat from the equipment may affect their readings and lead to increased energy consumption for cooling.

Packaging & Paper While the paper versus plastic debate rages (plastic bags consume 40 percent less energy to produce and generate 80 percent less waste than paper, but plastic bags can take 1,000 years to decompose whereas paper takes about a month), retailers can avoid both by using recycled bags or eliminating them completely. If bags are an essential part of your marketing mix, switch to recycled or biodegradable bags, which are derived from renewable resources and are greenhouse gas neutral. Or, invest in quality burlap or organic cotton totes that can reward repeat customers and continue to spread your name at the gym, the grocery store or anywhere else they’re carried. To further decrease paper waste, stop sending mass mailings to advertise every sale. Instead, keep a notebook near your register for customers to sign up for an e-mail list. “If you get a flyer in the mail, it goes right into the recycling basket,” said Kerstin Block, president of Buffalo Exchange, a new and recycled clothing store based in Tucson, Ariz., MMR 49

with 28 locations nationwide. “It’s a lot less time consuming to open up an e-mail, and we are all short on time.”

Displays & Paint With the warming spring air and new merchandise that comes along with it, many retailers are looking for a quick makeover. The simplest way to make your space fresh and green: rearrange. “Take some things out of the window, allow light to come in, switch up some of your displays,” says Molly Garretson, a LEED-certified designer for Gensler, a San Francisco architecture and design firm. She is also a member of the Emerging Green Builders, a chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USBGC). “People have a reaction when they go into a space and see it’s been updated,” she said. But rather than tossing out old displays (and contributing to the 50 trillion pounds of waste the United States produces each year), Garretson suggests rearranging displays in innovative ways. If you are having a hard time envisioning a new life for those old displays, ask an artist or a creative friend to come in and help. Another inexpensive and easy update is simply repainting or adding wallpaper to your space. While regular latex paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs—known carcinogens that are linked to the depletion of the ozone layer), alternatives do exist. Opt for milk and clay paints or lime plasters—all of which are affordable, come in multitudes of colors and are VOC-free. And, according to Garretson, you won’t scare off customers with wafting fumes. “Low-VOC paints don’t have any off-gassing, so people will come into the store and see new colors without smelling fumes,” she said. As for wallpaper, you can now find everything from modern pop patterns printed on recycled paper with vegetable-dye inks to refined antique prints crafted from age-old wooden and brass roller techniques.

Flooring If you’re planning a more extensive renovation, start from the ground up. Bam-

boo, a rapidly renewable resource, provides an equally warm and sophisticated alternative to hardwood flooring. “People love the environment of the store, and they are always asking about the floor,” said Kate McGregor, owner of Kaight, an eco-friendly boutique located in New York’s Lower East Side. If you prefer wood floors, you can still save trees by purchasing reclaimed floorboards, which are available at architectural salvage lots and some lumberyards. At the very least, select solid woods rather than pressed woods or composites that may contain formaldehyde or other toxic chemicals. A chic and durable alternative to wood, cork flooring is now available in an array of patterns and can be applied with a peel-andpaste backing. Easy enough to install yourself, you can save money in construction and save the life of trees—cork is manufactured from the bark of the cork oak tree, which is shaved off and then grows back without damage. Plus, cork’s springy step is a welcome relief to salespeople who are on their feet all day long. Every year, 3.5 billion pounds (920 million square yards) of carpet ends up in landfills, where it will stay for the next 20,000 years, give or take a few. To avoid further mass pileup, innovative carpet companies like Interface have now moved from selling carpet to “leasing” floor covering systems. The company installs carpet in tiles, then (for a monthly fee) keeps it clean and replaces worn-out sections. This reduces the amount of new carpeting needed by about 80 percent.

Architectural salvage lots are indispensable resources for unique reclaimed materials. Urban Spring, a juice bar in New York, was able to procure remnants from a local cathedral, which have been transformed into elegant seating and countertops. Furthermore, area thrift stores and antique shops can provide a wellspring of gorgeous furniture, which you can always reupholster in organic cotton or renewable hemp textiles for extra panache. If rough, railroad-track shelves don’t suit your store concept, there are still alternatives to sterile traditional chrome fixtures, made from environmentally toxic heavy metals. Ecowood Retail Displays, based in Mount Shasta, Calif., offers a distinctive line of cash wrap, perimeter and floor systems made from reclaimed wood with lush, low-VOC finishes. With fixtures in close to 1,000 stores in the United States, the company has used about 100,000 board feet (five semi-trailer loads of reclaimed wood) since 2001—all of which would have otherwise been discarded. Products like Ecowood’s are a particularly good option if you have multiple stores and demand a consistency that can’t be found in one-off thrift store goods. “If you are thinking about the longevity of your business, embracing green design will set you up for long-term success,” Garretson said. “It creates a life and story that will continue far beyond your store walls.”

Eco Surfing Follow these links to get a jump-start on greening your store. CFL and LED Lights 4exits.com 1000bulbs.com Exitlightco.com Fullspectrumsolutions.com Healthlighting.com Shopping Bags Enviro-tote.com Nashvillewraps.com Reusablebags.com Simplybiodegradable.com Treecycle.com Wall Treatments Aglaiapaint.com Aurousa.com

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Fixtures

Bioshieldpaint.com Greenplanetpaints.com Pallastextiles.com Realmilkpaint.com Yolocolorhouse.com Flooring Ecotimber.com Expanko.com Interfaceinc.com Knollspace.com Walkerzanger.com Fixtures and Salvage Cornerstonesalvage.com Ecowooddisplays.com Ohmegasalvage.com

AUGUST 2008

Hal Leonard Making Organ “E-Z” for Millions Groundbreaking Instructional Books Have Now Sold More than 20 Million Units Hal Leonard has made it look E-Z. “It’s the notation that makes the E-Z Play Today series special,” says Keith Mardak, Hal Leonard’s chairman and CEO. “It’s like traditional music notation, but large, with the note name inside of the note head.” Books include complete lyrics and chord symbols, and the songs are generally two pages long with no page turns. It was designed for “people who just want to plunk out a few songs.” The approach took advantage of the breakthroughs in the automatic chording function appearing in organs of the day. “The series kept getting bigger and bigger, and

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through the 1970s, it set a new standard for music books. “Today we’re the only publishers producing this kind of music.” E-Z Play Today is the largest and bestselling songbook series of all time. Recently, sales of books in the series have surpassed 20 million copies. That’s impressive in its own right, and also an important corporate mile marker for Hal Leonard, who is used to corporate mile markers. Yet it had its skeptics in the beginning. Mardak admits that some formally trained musicians and teachers did turn a nose to the approach, but that never bothered him. An organ player and educator himself, he understood that there was really no other way to turn this particular demographic into music makers. “When you have a 45-, 50-yearold male, they can be pretty uncoordinated, and this series made music making so much easier for them. Some players older than that simply had eyesight problems, and they appreciated the series as well.”

Of course, just making big notes with the names in the middle would not be enough: the arrangements had to be simple, yet satisfying, which is not a simple task. “The easiest thing for a good player to do is to take a song and embellish it, make it more complex. What’s much harder is to take a song down to a simpler level.” To get rid of syncopation and still have it sound right “is both an art and a craft,” Mardak points out. The significance of the “controversy” of the series debut remains relevant: many of the same complaints are leveled against today’s popular music-themed video games. The organs’ “autoplay” features were accused of “dumbing down” the music-making process, though looking back, this advancement clearly created many new music makers that likely would not have taken the plunge otherwise.

History In the late 1950s and throughout the ’60s, the Pointer System was the granddaddy of all easy-to-play organ methods, and was one of the foundations of the early years of Hal Leonard Corporation. The principle was simple and alluring: If you could point a finger, you could play the organ. Before the Pointer System, if you wanted to learn to play the organ, you typically took lessons AUGUST 2008

from a piano teacher, which wasn’t always successful, for obvious reasons. The Pointer System worked with three chords: C, G and F major. Players could point to C with their left-hand index finger and move their thumb two keys to the right and their little finger three keys to the left, and they would have a C major chord. By locking their wrist in this position, and pointing to F and G, they would have those major chords, and with three chords, they were able to play hundreds of songs. In 1969, the Hammond Organ Company introduced the Piper single keyboard instrument that included automatic chords in the left hand. Lowrey followed with their Genie model, Baldwin with their Wonderchord, and virtually every other organ manufacturer followed suit, developing an automatic chord system for their instruments. All that was missing was to make the right hand easier to play. In the 1960s, Bob Wolfe of Lowrey came up with a system to make their organs easier to play. His system was called “Minit Music,” and consisted of circles on lines and spaces of the staff with the name of the note inside the circle. There were no stems, time values, measures, or time signatures. If a note was to be held longer, more space was left between that note and the one following. The left-hand approach was basically using the Pointer Chord System, but Wolfe added colors to the music and a color keyboard chord guide to make finding the chords easier. Mardak was then general manager of Hal Leonard’s Milwaukee operation, which at the time was the creative, marketing, and sales office for the company. He says of Wolfe’s original approach, “It

was a unique system, but not one you could do dozens of books with. We felt it needed some additional musical elements – stems, explaining what a quarter note was, etc.” During a Hal Leonard/Lowrey meeting, Hal Leonard suggested using the Lowrey Minit Music system within a new course they were creating for them called Lowrey Family Fun. The idea was to start students with Minit Music, then transition them through the first 20 songs to playing standard music notation. After they were able to play a few songs in the Minit Music notation, measures and timing were introduced, and then in the next few songs, dots, stems and black notes with the note name in the note head. As the course contin- Keith Mardak ued, the notes became smaller and smaller until they were the size of today’s standard music notation. The course was quite successful, but in retrospect, it failed to provide the easy-to-play approach that all of the manufacturers were promoting. Most organ owners simply wanted to play a lot of songs quickly. Hal Leonard went back to the drawing board and devised a brand new series using the large, transitional, pre-standard music notation. They licensed the biggest songs of the day, and the company’s best editors worked diligently to create clean, fresh arrangements that captured the heart of each tune without diluting it too far. They tossed around various names before finally settling on the self-explanatory E-Z Play Today. Soon other publishers developed their own similar series of books. Sight and Sound created Speed Music, Almo Publishing produced Rapid Play, Hanson Publishing released Golden Big Notes, and even G. Schirmer entered the fray. The 1970s saw fierce battles for this market niche, especially between E-Z Play Today and Speed Music. Most of the competition faded away. In 1990, Hal Leonard acquired Sight and Sound’s Speed Music. Eventually, they discontinued that line.

“We have always been marketers. Hal Leonard has always looked at music publishing differently.”

E-Z Today E-Z Play Today remains a viable product line in the Hal Leonard catalog. Nearly 400 AUGUST 2008

titles are currently available, featuring music from The Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Broadway, Disney and many other artists and genres. New releases feature Josh Groban and Disney’s blockbuster High School Musical and other songbooks – including The E-Z Play Today White Pages and songs from West Side Story – will be released in the coming months. More than 35 years ago, Mardak and his Hal Leonard associates strove to make music more accessible to anyone interesting in playing the electronic keyboard. Twenty million songbooks later, millions of music makers have been created because of E-Z Play Today. How popular was the series with the older demographic? Mardak happily shares stories. There was a woman in her 70s with the too-good-to-be-made-up name of Ruby Clapper who was such a fan of the series, she wrote to Hal Leonard asking to buy a set of all the books in the series – 178 at the time. She already had them, you see, but she wanted to purchase “an entire new fresh set.” The company happily accommodated her request, and offered her a 10 percent discount to boot. “Also, we’ve had people write to us, mad that we’d occasionally duplicate a song,” Mardak laughs. “There might be a Frank Sinatra love song book, and one song from that collection might reappear down the line in a collection of romantic ballads.” Reflecting on the success of the series, it comes down to just business as usual. “We have always been marketers,” Mardak says. “Hal Leonard has always looked at music publishing differently.” An important aspect to this was getting organ stores back in the early days of this series to stock print music. “Customers needed to be shown how easy it was to play, and we had to prove to dealers that these books could help sell their instruments. And we did that. “There are companies that are bringing the organ back, and Lowrey is probably doing it better than most,” Mardak adds. “Baby boomers are getting older, and they are a prime demographic for the resurgence of the organ. E-Z Play Today music will be a vital part of resurgence.” MMR 53

SHOW REPORT

Summer NAMM: Nashville Homecoming … attendance and spirits up as the show re-establishes itself in “Music City U.S.A.”

“T

his is where the show’s supposed to be,” was perhaps the most frequent commentary on the return of Summer NAMM to Nashville after a three-year detour which saw the show set up camp in Indianapolis and Austin with… mixed results. While the factors which had initially served as a catalyst for the departure from “Music City U.S.A.” seemed reasonable at the time (primarily, insufficient convention center floor-space and facilities), after a dozen years of hosting consistently solid midsummer shows, Nashville had become, for many, the unquestioned “home” of the Summer Session. Happy to be Back

“We consider the show a huge success,” notes James Kearney of EMG, Inc. “Everyone was so glad to be back in Nashville. Whether it was a sign of a coming turnaround in the economy or simply returning to Nashville, all in attendance seemed happy to be there.” Douglas Hanson of Roland U.S. shared that enthusiasm: “Despite the chal54 MMR

lenging economic environment leading up to the show, we were pleased to see healthier attendance. We’re happy to be back in Nashville, and looking forward to the continuing success of the Summer NAMM Show.” The numbers seem to bear out these sentiments, with NAMM reporting a 36 percent overall increase in registration from last year’s show (17,473, total), including a 45 percent hike in international registrants. Exhibitor numbers were also up, with a total of 483 companies establishing a presence on the show floor.

Weathering Rough Times Daily Breakfast Sessions and professional development sessions held at the Idea Center provided a wealth of resources and ideas to help retailers thrive even amidst a troubled economy. “We came together to celebrate the importance of local community music stores in this country, and the feedback tells us that many dealers found the business and education they were looking for,” says Joe Lamond, president and CEO, NAMM. “NAMM is grateful for the opportunity to provide AUGUST 2008

the venue for both manufacturers and retailers who are ready to do business for a successful fall and holiday sales season.” The 2009 NAMM Winter Show will take place January 15–18, 2009 in Anaheim, Calif. For more information about 2008 Summer NAMM, or the upcoming convention, interested parties can log on to www.namm.org.

NAMM presented its “Music for Life” award to Bob McGrath of Sesame Workshop’s Sesame Street for introducing the wonders of music to hundreds of thousands of children and adults over his 38-year career on the show. The accolade was given to McGrath at a breakfast session held at the 2008 Summer NAMM show. Previous “Music for Life” recipients include Yoko Ono and former presidential candidate and Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. McGrath is an original cast member of Sesame Street who plays the music teacher on the show. He is an accomplished singer with seven children’s albums to his credit. He also co-authored an educational music curriculum book for Alfred Publishing Co. called Music For Fun, used by teachers from kindergarten to second grade. His Rhythm Band Set, produced by Rhythm Band Instruments, is a Parent’s Choice Award winner. “I am honored to receive this recognition from NAMM, an organization that is truly dedicated to reminding parents how much children learn and grow from playing music,” says McGrath. “The important message I try to convey throughout all my efforts is that it is never too early to begin playing music with young children.” AUGUST 2008

Gary Horrie, Jeff Hunter, Paul Unkert, and Greg Dorsett of Unk Guitars.

The Fishman Transducer team.

Tony Guariello, Tregan Guitars.

James Mullins, Charles Shrader, and Alan Baker, Musician’s Wholesale.

Mike and Irwin Berg of Humes & Berg.

Hohner’s Scott Emermann.

MMR’s Rick Kessel and Neil Lilien of Meisel Stringed Instruments.

George L’s Sandy Richter, Karrington Williams, and Leesa, and Kimberly Lewis.

Doug Baker of Southland Music.

Notion Music: Bob Terry and Jim Boitnott.

Perry Pinto of AIM Gifts.

Bill Walzak. president/CEO of Pro-Active Websites with George’s Music’s George Hines.

Jim Hall, Hall Crystal Flutes

Mal Stich of The Alternative Guitar Co. MMR 55

Performances at The Hang on Wednesday night

Chris Laguna and Charles Subecz of Harmony Guitars

Ron Ampey and David Dalton of M&M Distributing Co.

Sterling Ball, Ernie Ball

Steve Ridinger of Evets/Danelectro.

Rusty Bickford of Tradition Guitar.

Ted Eschliman, Mike Pardee, and Tim Pratt of Nebraska’s Dietze Music.

Bob King of Gold Crest with Michael Farley of Farley’s Essentials. Players Music Accessories: Jodi Ann Parker and James Welch.

EMD Music’s Mark Gooday.

Bill Stevens of Music Dealers Buying Group and Memphis’ Amro Music’s (and NAMM chairman) Chip Averwater at the Chairman’s Reception.

Wife and husband team of Michelle and Byron Cancelmo of VAM Acoustics

Antigua Winds’ Randy Huey.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean with NAMM president Joe Lamond. 56 MMR

Rick Banuelos of Sound to Earth.

Joe Reverend of Reverend Guitars.

Mike Kelly and Greg Kellogg of Sound Innovations.

Jay Kennedy, Terry Dennis, David Bird and Adam Sertter of Gretsch Co.

Pat Brown and Mark Petrocelli of Pro Mark.

Tim Laskey and George Benson of Wyman Piano Co. AUGUST 2008

Scott Thompson, Steve Patrino and Levi Oliphant of The Music Link.

Dan Barker EMD.

Yamaha sponsored a cocktail party for AIMM members: Reed Larrimore of Yamaha; Skip Maggiora of Skip’s Music; Robert Hiller of Yamaha; George Hines of George’s Music; Frank Yardley of Yamaha; and Jim McDonald of Samuel Music.

Bonni Lloyd and Dana Bourgeois of Pantheon Guitars.

Connolly’s Ed Mingo and Kevin Reynolds.

Gary Girouard of Gallileo Music.

Independent Thought. “ACCESS has it all—the quality’s there, the price is there, the proﬁt’s there. Our customers recognize the difference and the sales exclusivity is a competitve advantage. If you’re an independent dealer, you need ACCESS bags and cases.” Dan Clopton, Hames Music Gaffney, SC

58 MMR

Call For Free Prot Checkup! AUGUST 2008

Best & Worst of Show Awards

Best &

Best Product Introductions: Collings

new Soco Deluxe electric guitar (shown here with Steve McCreary)…Fishman’s SoloAmp, a lightweight and portable all-in-one amplification system designed to be carried in one hand… sets up in less than a minute!

Best Improvement:

The new-look Renaissance hotel with up-to-date amenities, new carpeting, and refurbished lobby was a significant improvement from our last trek to Nashville.

Best Commentary: Upon

viewing MMR employees walking up a stalled escalator, NAMM’s Kevin Johnstone commented, “Now the facility is going to be in the ‘Worst of Show’ awards in MMR!” Right on, Kevin!

Best Coordinated Undertaking: Nashville blog GearTrap.com worked with Mighty Bright Lights and others to build and operate a pedalboard consisting of 142 pedals with a signal running through them all at the same time. Guitarists, including Seymour Duncan, took turns playing through the boards. Application has been made to the Guinness Book of Records for world’s largest operable pedalboard.

Best Good Samaritan:

Best Dressed: Mapex’s Joe Vasko

60 MMR

This award goes to the guitar maker (name withheld; we do not wish to embarrass this dogooder) who responded to a homeless person’s request for a cup of coffee by providing a mocha-chip frappucinno and some additional money with the admonishment to buy food…

Best Shindig: Gretsch’s 125th Anniversary party held at the Country Music Hall of Fame was an extremely classy event – with great cheese! AUGUST 2008

Best and Worst Welcome:

The sign at the show entrance from Nashville’s Mayor welcoming the convention…offset by hotel taxes. State, city, occupancy and even a tax on the Internet charge…

Worst? Best? Color Scheme: Baldwin’s Zebra-striped

Baldwin Piano with red keys was… a “Best” or “Worst?” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Worst

Worst variety: With

six booze bars and no ice cream vendors at the convention center, one had to ask: Is this fair and balanced?

Worst Improvement: Unfortunately, the Renaissance Hotel boasted the same old bad service at Commerce Street Grill. The $10 breakfast sandwich was also staggeringly overpriced. Happily, Starbucks saved the day… Worst dressed: Worst Location: We hate to bite the hand that feeds us, but

placing the NAMM press room at the far end of a corridor and down a staircase…hardly worth the walk for Krispy Kremes and a cinnamon bun…. AUGUST 2008

Dealers strolling the aisles in elastic-waist shorts, black socks, sandals, and t-shirt with suspenders. Yikes… MMR 61

Peavey Continues to Customize New Amp Goes to “13” “Sometimes I’m surprised what people want on their guitar,” smiles Peavey’s Scott Mire, showing off guitars from the Peavey Custom Shop that allows the buyer to create an instrument uniquely their own. “I can’t even show you some of the things!” The “things” are 300 dpi jpeg images that customers send into the custom shop and then the Peavey team lays the image on a guitar of their choice. The program continues to expand, and among those players who want, say, a picture of their dog on a $4,000 guitar are those who select unusual patterns and cool images in the ultimate act of personalization. It fits in with the Peavey Custom mantra: “To be better, you must be different.” Peavey’s Tim Jauernig showed off their custom line of high-end made-to-order amps. “These are all special order, made to order amps that we’re expecting to do very well,” he said. “They take about sixty days to make, but they look and sound amazing.” The amps were so new that the pricing hadn’t been determined, but they show once again that Peavey is serious about dominating the high end of the business. Other products in the booth that were receiving a lot of attention included VYPYR Series of modeling guitar amplifiers. “It continues to advance and is redesigned constantly,” said Jim Beaugez, Peavey’s marketing communications coordinator. “And the ‘master’ switch goes up to 13!” So much for just going up to 11… But the amps are no joke. They feature double the processing power, models and effects of other modeling amplifiers, are based on powerful 32-bit, floating-point SHARC processors that provide detailed, accurate modeling. “There’s 24 amp 62 MMR

channel models, both the clean and distorted channels of 12 popular amps,” Beaugez added. “Plus there are 11 preamp ‘stomp box’ effects and 11 edible post-amp ‘rack’ effects with dual-parameter controls. Both are editable, and players can use up to five effects simultaneously.” He also pointed out the built-in studioquality USB 2.0 output. Beaugez also showed off the new SP Series loudspeakers, which feature the new Hammertex covering and newly redesigned exterior with full-front metal grilles. “These speakers have been a standard for more than three decades, and we’ve updated them considerably,” he said. Peavey SP enclosures feature patented asymmetrical Quadratic Throat Waveguide technology; Black Widow loudspeakers with Kevlar-impregnated cones, fourinch ribbon-wire voice coils and exclusive field-replaceable baskets; the patented Radialinear Planar Phase Correction System; and tita-

nium compression drivers with ferrofluid cooling. Other news buzzing around the Peavey booth included Peavey’s partnering with musician Jimmy Buffett. Together they have created the Margaritaville SharKart, a multimedia experience that travels the parking lots at his concerts to entertain fans before the he and his band take the stage. On the SharKart, Parrothead fans can express their inner rock stars on virtual guitars and vocals through videogame versions of classic hits “Margaritaville,” “Volcano,” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” The SharKart features a 42-inch JVC HDTV, a PlayStation 3 videogame system, a custom-designed Peavey sound system with microphone and a pair of Peavey SharKontroller videogame controllers crafted in the motif of Buffett’s LandShark Lager. And the vehicle itself is modeled to resemble—you guessed it—“a shark that can swim on the land.”

Jimmy Buffett and Hartley Peavey. AUGUST 2008

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Jason and Phil Everly of Cleartone Strings/ Everly Brothers.

Ron and Nancy Sperzel of Sperzel Machine Heads.

Dennis Zalewski, Sandy Zalewski, and Richard Kuscsik of the National Music Funding Corporation.

SKB Corporation’s Cassandra Kottman.

XP Audio’s Rick Bos.

Gene Garb and Lorne Graham of NEMC.

America Longxing, Inc.: Bob Seidman and Paul Chu.

Tony Graham and Dan Barker of Stagg.

“Ricky” Hyun Moon and Mark Badger of Belcat, Inc.

William and Pamela Rees of Wm. Rees Instruments.

Huge innovation in a new package. The new Vandoren Flow Pack packaging. Every reed we make is now wrapped in humidity balanced packaging resulting in reeds that are factory fresh. The most remarkable part of this innovation is you don’t have to do anything to benefit from it. No special storage, no little bags...nothing. Just put them in the store and watch your customers marvel at the consistency and quality you provide...at no extra cost. Now there’s a new point of purchase display availble! Contact your sales representative for details. It’s a huge innovation, but that’s what Vandoren is all about...one huge innovation after another.

64 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Yamaha Creates Buzz with New Keyboard Amp Yamaha always creates buzz at NAMM shows, and this one was no exception. On hand in their booth was marketing manager of the professional audio department, Wayne Hrabak. He was showing off a new concept in keyboard amps called the StagePas. “The keyboard player will really appreciate the versatility of these allin-one systems,” he said. “For the size and weight, they really delivery a great sound. You’d expect sound like this to come out of much bigger speakers.” The two-way full-range speaker system features a 1” titanium tweeter. The 250M model uses a 10” woofer while the 150M has an 8” woofer. This combination mixer/amp comes in 10- and 8-channel configurations, and fits neatly into inside the speaker cabinet. Or, by quickly snapping it out, you can put it on a separate stand so the player has access to the mixing console while performing. “Both of these units have click assign switches, which lets you connect a drum machine, synth, or metronome to channels 7/8 on the 250M and 5/6 on the 150M and route a click or rhythm signal through the mixer for monitoring purposes only,” he said. A second click switch allows the player to route the click signal only to the phones for headphones monitoring. The MM8 music synthesizer was getting a lot of attention as well.

Taking inspiration from the highly popular pro-level MOTIF series instruments, the MM8 has an enormous variety of voices to help you create and perform in virtually any style of music, said Yamaha spokesman Marc Ferris. “They offer a ton of real-time control, which keyboardist always appreciate,” he said. “And they feature dynamic music creation tools, including automatic Pattern and Arpeggiator generators.” In addition there’s an assortment of versatile song recording features with eight normal tracks and one pattern track. The section of Yamaha’s booth where they were demonstrating the new Steinberg hardware was so busy it hard to get close. Three new Steinberg products were demonstrated: The MR816CSX and the MR816X Advanced Integration FireWire audio interfaces and the CC-121 Advanced Integration Controller. These new hardware products continue the vision of advanced software and hardware integration between Steinberg and Yamaha. The MR816X and MR816 CRX feature integration with Cubase, and offer a full range of audio I/O options and onboard DSP with the renowned REV-X reverb. The units house eight discrete Class A analog ‘D-Pre’ mic preamps with combination XLR and TRS analog inputs with advanced new inverted Darlington circuits and switchable phantom power per channel, as well as digital ADAT and S/PDIF I/O. The MR816 CSX also offers the Sweet Spot Morphing Channel Strip plug-in, with both DSP effects available as a VST3 plug-in in Cubase. The CC121 Advanced Integration Controller features an Ultra-precision Advanced Integration controller knob with “point and control” support to control any visual Willis Music’s Paul Finke, Jerry Hovey of Schmitt Music, and Yamaha’s Rick Young at the Yamaha reception for AIMM members. Cubase 4 parameter, inter66 MMR2008 AUGUST

The Stagepas 250

nal FX setting or VSTi parameter using mouse pointer selection. It is plug-and-play with a Cubase Ready LED and no additional setup or parameter assigning required. It has one motorized 100mm touch-sensitive fader and dedicated control of Cubase channel settings including solo/mute, record arm, “e” settings button, automation read/write, pan and VSTi editor as well as full Cubase EQ section with 12 dedicated rotary encoders, with mode selection and bypass switches. A Userassignable section with Cubase-integrated presets for Control Room studio sends and monitoring setup make the CC121 a controller for small or large studios. Out of the booth highlights for Yamaha included a cocktail reception they held for members of AIMM, and of course, their concert. This year it was the Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night held at the historic Ryman Auditorium. Victor Wooten, James Burton, and Larry Carlton among others performed, and a highlight was a performance by Little Kids Rock’s Nashville organization. AUGUST MMR2008 66

Shubb: Kelly Jordan, Rick Shubb, Dave Coontz, Gary Swallow, and Gary Mobley.

Cookie Monster and Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath at NAMM’s Friends of Music Making reception held on Friday.

Bill Wenzloff of Morley Accutronics.

Bryan Trembley, Tim Pfouts, and Joe Husak of S.I.T. Strings.

Jeff Hubert and Larry Goldstein of Cort.

Pamela Liu of Peak Music Stands.

Mike Hara of Talking Tabs.

Yorkville Sound’s Laurence Bell and Phil Betette.

Merano’s George Li.

Caster Tray’s Joel Guerrero.

Marty Abbate, Guy Rainon and Vincent Giardina of JazzKat Amplifiers.

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MMR 67

Father and Daughter team, Mike and Suzy Matthews of New Sensor Corp. Marylin Stewart, Joe Vasko, and Karman Gossett, Mapex

Michael Robinson and Jess Gonzales of Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Addario.

Marshall Johns, Chris Labriola and John Norris of Peterson Electro-Musical Products.

Jody Dankberg of Washburn International, Inc.

Chris Martin of Martin Guitars.

Mike Kropp with Wayne Rogers and Bob Carlin at the Gold Tone booth.

Mary Jo Papich, president of the new Jazz Education Network visits with Phyllis Kohlenburg of American Way Marketing. 68 MMR

AUGUST 2008

LM Products, Inc.: Troy Parker, Pat O’Denius, and L.J. Mechem.

Tregan’s Flash Bathory, Tony Guarriello, and Ronny North.

Dean Campbell and Bob Kelley of Campbell American Guitars flank Tony Dudzik of Pickguardian.

“Ask the Technology Expert” panel. String Swing: Paul Thieman; Barry Clark of Barry Clark Music in Ontario,Wis.; Dave Rogers of Dave’s Guitar of La Crosse, Wis.; and Anne Thieman.

AUGUST 2008

MMR 69

Roland Shows Off New Technology at NAMM “It’s been a great show for us,” said Amanda Whiting, PR/Media Relations manager, who provided a whirlwind tour around their booths (they had three). “One of the most exciting things we have is the new GW-8 Workstation, the next generation of one of our most popular keyboards.” The keyboard features a sound engine with “Styles of the Americas.” Whiting explained that depending on what region of the world the keyboard was sold, the sounds available tilted slightly toward that region. The one she showed off had options appealing to those who love Latin music, “while the version we sell in Asia, has options featuring Asian musical elements.” In addition to onboard styles, the GW-8 allows for playback of MP3, WAV, AIFF, or SMF files directly from USB flash memory for accompanying backing tracks. The GW-8 can also be constantly refreshed with new songs and styles via USB/flash memory. The keyboard offers an infrared D Beam, a pitch-bend/modulation lever, and a pair of control knobs for real-time expression. An extra large backlit LCD screen will appeal to those playing on dark stages and in dimly lit studios.

Larry Houston of Roland demonstrates the new keyboards. 70 MMR

Roland is expecting big things out of its RG-1 Digital Piano this year. Striving for the look and feel of a real high-end grand piano but with a much smaller foot print, Whiting demonstrated the PHA II “Ivory Feel” keyboard with escapement, which absorbs moisture to replicate the secure, slip-proof feel of ivory keys. The escapement reproduces the characteristic “click feel” of a grand piano that so often eludes other instruments. The RG-1 also yields a heavier touch in the lower range and lighter touch in the upper, and provides lighter resistance for pianissimo passages and stronger resistance for fortissimo. Flexible file compatibility enables playback of .WAV files and standard MIDI files for accompanying solo performances or practice, and it also boasts an impressive built-in stereo speaker system. Product and marketing specialist David Garza was around to show off the new RMP-12 marching percussion instrument. “You can mount it or march with it,” he said. “It has 128 sounds, and you can make it have different sounds on the head and the rims.” Less anyone think that an electronic drum would get snubbed by the storied tradition that is marching band, Garza was quick to point out that Drum Corp International (DCI) just gave the RMP-12 its seal of approval. Garza said that this new drum is the latest addition to the Rhythm Coach line of products that offers versatility for practice and performance applications. It’s the world’s first electronic marching percussion instrument to incorporate Roland’s patented multi-layer mesh head technology, allowing drummers to practice longer with less stress and fatigue. The bat-

Roland’s David Garza demonstrates the RMP-12 marching percussion instrument.

tery-powered RMP-12 is lightweight and portable, and can easily attach to standard marching carriers or concert snare stands. “This drum is especially popular with winter guards,” he added. “This recorder has a 32 gig card, which means it can record for 22 days straight,” said Edirol by Roland’s product marketing manager Michael Barrett. “And it comes with a remote control, which means you can set it up on the other side of the club, and control it from the band stand up to 50 feet away.” He added that when recording with the R-09HR, there’s no extra gear to buy or cables to connect. In addition to newly developed Isolated Adaptive Recording Circuit (I.A.R.C.), a proquality stereo microphone is built into the unit, complete with a dedicated analog input control, low-cut filter, limiter/AGC (Auto Gain Control), and gain boost. The onboard electret condenser microphone elements are compact, sensitive, and placed to capture three-dimensional sound naturally and accurately. AUGUST 2008

Voyage Air Guitar’s Jeff and Josh Cohen.

Scott Davies of American DJ Supply, Inc.

Gator Cases’ Mark Stone.

Ron Marquez of Aquarian.

Bob Reardon and Martin Gray of Sonic Distribution.

Korg U.S.A.’s Mitch Colby.

Fishman’s Larry Fishman.

Spectr Audio’s Andre Lomov.

Shane Wooten at the Alfred booth

Brett Marcus, Amy Hanford, Harvey Levy, Ben Myron, and Larry Greene of Levy’s Leathers.

The EMG team

In 1864 Antonin Petrof built his rst concert grand piano. Since then his family has continued in the same tradition of expert instrument craftmanship. Petrof Piano Company of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic has extended their international success to the U.S. market with the formation of PETROF U.S.A., LLC, a factory owned subsidiary that is responsible for all sales, distribution and marketing in the United States. PETROF’s great success for the past 140 years and current sales records in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Iceland and Asia have afforded the company the ability to produce new, improved and tested scales and furniture styles that will be offered in the U.S. The high standards of the PETROF company will be maintained and dealers should know that they can expect in-depth inventory, nancing and service never before experienced.

Petrof U.S.A., LLC. 5400 Lawrenceville Hwy Suite B1 & 2 Lilburn, GA 30047 O) 770-564-4974 F) 770-564-4978 www.petrof.com AUGUST 2008

MMR 71

David Findley, Dan Roberts, and Timothy Weaver of Musicorp.

Amati Fine Strings: Jacqueline Schear, Amanda Scoggins, and Vince Scacchetti.

Kaman: Mark Moralez, Bob Jespersen, Dennis Udice, Mike Stevens, and Jim Stanek. John Gresko and Dave Trout of Direct Sound Headphones.

Bee Bantug of Retail Up!

Fernandes Guitar’s Dwayne Rando, Jeff Shernov, and Andres Jaramillo.

Teresa Perry and Larry Weise of Hailun Pianos

Paul Bryan and Mark Owen from Indie Guitar Co.

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AUGUST 2008

Vincent Lee, Diane Nguyen, and Manny Rome of Jodavi.

Justin Fong and Jamie Chu of Ace Karaoke.

Jeff Lee of Halo.

Tanglewood Guitars’ Dave Trout, Jeff Sazant, and Erik Lind.

Andrew Adkins and Peter Bellak of In Time.

Mike Shellhammer of Morgan Hill Music.

Tracy Hoeft and Bill Xavier of Hanser Music Group.

Sennheiser’s Rick Renner.

Zoogie’s Jeremie Caron.

Gary Boss, Chris Nighman, Roxanne Ricks Buchanan, and John Cheese of Audio Technica.

Tom Golbuff of American Music & Sound.

Alan Poster and Dave Andrus of Ace Products.

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One listen, and nothing else will do. MMR 73

Justin Hyatt of PMI.

Nick Primeaux, Ellis Seal, and Jay Morrissey of Composite Acoustic.

Goodsellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Richard Goodsell.

Felix Pachero, Greg Stein, Kari Sullivan, and Eric McGregor of Numark.

Your â&#x20AC;&#x153;One Stopâ&#x20AC;? Shop for the Best Brands in the Business Dan Lanning, John Good, and Dan Bosworth of DKL.

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Nick Young of Folkcraft.

Dana B. Goodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Craig Costigan, Michael Brown, and Marc Boomer.

Doug Baker of Southland Music Distributors.

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74 MMR

Vincet Giardina of JazzKat Amplifiers.

Ron LaCombe and Rick Carlson of Power Group Ltd. AUGUST 2008

John Ridley, Phil Manning, and Larry Volland of Baldwin.

Frank Luppino and Jim Hardaway of Irradiant.

Red Clayton of Nady Systems.

Mark Ragin, Gail Rose and Chris Meikle of U.S. Band & Orchestra Suppliers.

Phu Nguyen and Mike Armstrong of Hammond Suzuki USA.

Ryan Colton of Crafter USA.

Music Supply: Mike Mulqueen and Jake Flood.

Jet Fretz: Cheryl Riveria, Chrstina Riveria, Chad Hikert, and Jason Riveria.

Jason Daniello of Moog Music, Inc.

John Broermann Nicola Epifani of Epifani of Music Dealers Custom Sound Systems. Resource Group.

Jerry Smilen of Hutchings Guitars.

Wholesalers of:

Juzek Stringed Instruments Bows Cases Strings Accessories

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sales@metmusic.com MMR 75

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Josh Homme, Artist/Producer, Queens of the Stone Age

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Active ribbon microphone Access Case: Bart Loftis, Jason Rowland, and Colt Harrison. Amp Topper’s Carody Irish and Kent Irish.

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Mel Bay’s Beverly Hoeft, Chuck Phillips, and Denise Kantola. Steve Wilson of Music Sales with guitarist and author Arlen Roth.

Daphne Liu, Mark Esquer, and Irene Chen of Peace Musical Instruments.

for a retailer near you, visit

sontronicsusa.com 76 MMR

Steve McCreary of Collings Guitars with the company’s new electric model. AUGUST 2008

Elizabeth Randall and Ben Cole of GHS. Chuck Day, Milton Kyser, Nick Paler, and Bobby Harper of Kyser Musical Products.

Rick Johnson Johnson Guitars USA

Ricky Skaggs at the Pantheon Guitars booth.

Meeting the Needs of Students for More Than 25 Years ... Music Sales Corp.: Phil Smith, Steve Wilson, René Flores.

Our Best-Selling SV-175 Cremona Violin! Cremona bowed instruments have set the pace for the vibrant student and rental markets for over 25 years. Strict adherence to international sizing requirements, domestic educational set-up standards and continuous quality improvement have made Cremona Violins, Violas, Basses and Cellos proven sales leaders. Our best-selling, ebony fitted SV-175 Cremona Premier Violin Outfit has again been upgraded to include the new LaSalle LB-15 Octagonal Bow and the TL-33 deluxe rectangular Travelite case.

Christine Simpson, Jason Finley, and Brian Clark of GK Gallien-Kruger.

Sunni Crisp of Simba Products/Copley Instruments.

Cremona SV-175 Violin Outfit: •Six sizes from 4⁄4 to 1⁄16 •Long lasting ebony fittings •Finetuner tailpiece for precise, easy tuning •Rugged TL-33 Travelite case •All-solid carved, graduated construction •Well-balanced LaSalle LB-15 bow with ebony frog Still

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MMR 77

Paul Pinchuk of Fret King/Musical Instrument Distribution Canada. The Music People, Inc.: Ed Corvo, Carl Hestad, Bill Sloan.

Not your ordinary POP FILTER! Innovative design and professional engineering have led to the creation of Air Pressure Dispersion Technology™ the most effective method for ensuring pop-free recording - available exclusively from Music Accessories.

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Pianodisc’s Tom Lgomarsino, Allen Guyot, and Gary Burgett.

Michael Dolsey Designs Guitars: Michael Dolsey and Robert Dolsey.

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Tommy Norton, Tish Caravolo, and Ron Petersen of Daisy Rock. MMR’s Rick Kessel with Andy Lutz, Pro-Tec International.

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ALSO AVAILABLE Shubb: Kelly Jordan, Rick Shubb, Dave Coontz, and Gary Swallow.

Bob Heller and Rick Young, Yamaha.

800-266-7225 or music-accessories.net

78 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Breezy Ridge: Dana Therin, Todd Newman, Don Fretter, and Mary Faith Ford Lewis. Mike Healy of Healy Marketing with Joe Fucini of Fucini Productions.

Kaman Music Corporation: Dennis Udice, Robert Jesperen, and Norman Drexel.

Harvey Levy of Levy’s Leather and NAMM’s Kevin Johnstone.

Roc-N-Soc, Inc.: Steve McIntosh, Tim Clark, Jamie Lanning, and Joe Lemmons.

Keith Ringled and Haw Ren Chen of H & F Technologies.

AUGUST 2008

MMR 79

Idea center crowd for lunch meeting…

The Harris Family – Marc, Michael, and Andy with Tony Capalbo of Harris Music Products.

Peavey’s Scott Mire and Tim Jauernig.

Hal Leonard Publishing Brad Smith, Larry Morton, and David Janke.

Saga Musical Instruments: Joey Miskulin, Jimmy Capps, Michele Capps, and David Gartland.

80 MMR

Danny Rocks of The Company Rocks and MMR managing editor Kevin Mitchell

Essential Sound Products: William Griffin and Michael Griffin.

AUGUST 2008

Supplierscene Steel Drums from Panyard Panyard, Inc., is shipping a beginning steel drum musical instrument, the Jumbie Jam. This “retail ready” kit includes an authentic steel drum; height adjustmable/collapsible stand with “fun feet;” mallets; and a beginners guide/songbook including a play-along CD. It’s all packaged in a colorful carrying case. It’s designed for ages three or older, and is also marketed toward general music classrooms. A classroom curriculum and educational support is available from the company. www.panyard.com

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the

Amethyst

Zuni Custom Guitars Zuni Guitars, a new guitar company based in Alto Pass Ill., are now making their guitars available to retailers. Specializing in figured maples such as birdseye, fiddleback, curly and quilted, all their guitars are personally cut from the log by the owner. Each guitar has its own unique sound with the marriage of its own individual pieces of maple with sustainable body woods such as black cherry, flamed sycamore, black ash, white ash, cyprus, basswood, and poplar which also have their unique tone characteristics. All instruments include custom hand wrapped pick-ups. Each serial numbered guitar will only have one produced like it and will have it’s own individual name. www.zuniguitars.com

American DJ’s New Light and Scanner Makeovers American DJ has introduced the Flash Shot DMX, a compact intelligent strobe light that offers the power of LED technology. Developed for mobile DJs, bands, and clubs, the light allows users to easily incorporate a programmable LED strobe into their light show. It features 234 bright white LEDs that produce an output equal to that of a 70-watt conventional strobe. The intelligent new fixture also gives users complete control over important functions like strobe speed and full dimming. It can be operated in three different modes: DMX, auto strobe, and random strobe. When used with a standard DMX controller, the light allows users to create their own programs or let it run to its own built-in programs. Weighing just three pounds, the Flash Shot DMX is available in 120V/60Hz and 230V/50Hz versions. The MSRP is $179.95. American DJ also announces “ex-treme” makeovers for two of its scanners, the DJ Scan 250 EX and Fusion Scan 250 EX. The new, upgraded versions each contain two new effects—a fast strobe and gobo shake. An extra DMX channel has been added to each unit to control these new features. The MSRP of the DJ Scan 250 EX is $299.95, and the Fusion Scan 250 EX is $419.95. www.americandj.com AUGUST 2008

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Supplierscene AIM Has Your Bags, Fuzzy Socks Aim Gifts announce several new Fall products in its extensive line of Music Gift Accessories. Pictured here are Pebble Stone Tote Bags, Fuzzy Socks, Slippers, and Vinyl Coasters. Fast moving and very profitable, these are items that aim to be great add-ons and gifts for the retailer. AIM is an Inc 500 Company and has no minimum order. Call 800-233-2800.

Road Ready Gets Smart Road Ready has launched the new Smart Stand Series, featuring a tilting, pivoting base that can be adjusted from 11” to 18” high and special vented trays designed to protect equipment from overheating. There are several smart stand configurations available that feature different tray and accessory options designed to fit a variety of gear from laptops, turntables, CD players, lighting controllers, and EFX controllers. The RRBS & RRBL feature a sliding mounting bracket that gives the user the flexibility of attaching the stand to either a table edge or a case, while the RRFSS and RRFSL models feature a free standing base that can be set on a table or other flat surface. www.roadreadycases.com

New Bass Series from Randall Randall Amplifiers proudly introduces the new RB series of heads and speaker cabinets. The new series includes three heads and four cabinets with varying power levels. The three RB amps include the RB750, RB500, and RB300. Designed for the serious working professional, the Tube/MOSFET power circuit pushes authentic power tube tone without the costs and headaches associated with real power tubes. Each model also includes a foot-switchable overdrive circuit for light to heavy distortion and a studio-quality compression circuit that softly squeezes the signal without dropping the volume or revoicing the tone. The MSRP is $1,599. www.randallamplifiers.com

Levy’s Urban Prints Levy’s new Urban Prints are suede and cotton guitar straps with embroidered and/ or printed urban-style designs. Pictured are models MSSC8U in cotton with printing, MSS3EP in suede with embroidery and printing, MS26E in suede with embroidery, and MS26COP in suede with printing. www.levyleathers.com 82 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Acesonic’s New Jukebox Acesonic announces its Karaoke On Demand line of products. The jukebox comes complete with two 12” woofers, four tweeters, two side-mounted mid-range drivers, a bill collector and front panel controls all in a sturdy black wooden cabinet. It is defi nitely the ultimate addition to any karaoke establishment. The Acesonic KOD-1200 Jukebox accepts cash in exchange for song credits. Jukebox owners can set the cost per song at anything from $0 to $20. Owners can also see how many total songs have been ordered, total funds collected, and total credits accumulated. Jukebox owners can also set up random play and turn the billing function off to keep a continuous stream of uninterrupted music going. www.acesonic.com or www.acekaraoke.com

D’Alegria’s New Brazilian-Made Basses D’Alegria Custom Made of Brazil makes its basses from exotic Brazilian woods not found anywhere else on earth. With the Amazon rainforest as a backdrop, Brazilians have been at the forefront of the green revolution given the interdependence of the land and people. The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one the square kilometer may contain over 75,000 types of trees CAPO and 150,000 species of higher plants. This is what makes D’Alegria distinctive in their building of D’Alegria Bass Guitars.

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so it will not create tuning problems. www.shubb.com • shubb@shubb.com 707-876-3001 AUGUST 2008

Theo Wanne’s Kali saxophone mouthpiece offers power and projection, along with a full and fat sound. The Kali utilizes a patented baffle and chamber along with three other innovative design patents and one manufacturing process patent. The chamber is formed from a specific conical extension starting at the very tip of the mouthpiece and reaching to the back of the chamber, all machined to extremely high tolerances. www.theowanne.com MMR 83

Supplierscene New Custom Guitars from Martin Pat Donohue, the guitarist in the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, gets his due from Martin. The Grammy-winning guitarist and songwriter has collaborated with Martin and John Woodland of Willie’s American Guitars to create the Martin OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition. The back and sides are East Indian rosewood, while the top is rare Adirondack spruce. Recalling Martins from the 1920s, the genuine mahogany modified V neck with diamond volute features a slotted headstock with square slots and Waverly brass tuners with small ivoroid keys. Another nod to the 1920s is the genuine ebony pyramid bridge with wide string spacing and a fossilized ivory saddle. The grained ivoroid-bound ebony fingerboard bears snowflake position markers at the fifth fret, plus Pat Dono-

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hue’s “PD” initials at the twelfth fret. The guitar may be ordered with a 1935 style or other Martin sunburst top for an additional fee. Martin introduces the M-21 Steve Earle Custom Edition. Earle turned to Matt Umanov for help with the details and together they created the Martin M21 Steve Earle Custom Edition, a “poor man’s” M that showcases this body style’s big, balanced sound and playing comfort in an affordable package. The top is Italian alpine spruce, with a forward-shifted scalloped top bracing. The back and sides, headplate, fingerboard, and bridge are East Indian rosewood. The low profile neck is carved from genuine mahogany. This M21 blends Style 18 and Style 28 appointments, plus a few unique to Style 21. The polished headplate frames the Old Style gold C. F. Martin logo, and Waverly nickel

tuners with butterbean buttons give the headstock a decidedly “old school” look. The “black with white dots” bridge pins and end pin also are Style 21. www.martinguitar.com

AUGUST 2008

Amplification, and Line 6. His responsibilities will include overseeing, directing, and managing the growth of Fishman’s national accounts at every level Craig Peterson of the sales channel. Fishman also announces the appointment of Craig Pe-

terson as product specialist. In this role, Peterson will provide extensive product training and product placement, and help develop the growth of sales accounts around the country. www.fishman.com

Cecilio “Z Series” Brass Cecilio Musical Instruments is currently shipping their 2Series trumpets and saxophones. The 2Series trumpets come with features such as 1st and 3rd valve tuning slides, Monel Pistons, and medium bore tubing. It also includes a plush lined nylon cases with backpack strap, 7C mouthpiece, valve oil, gloves, and cleaning cloth. The 2Series saxophones are offered in soprano, alto, and tenor models. They come with large bore tubing, hand engraved bell decoration and come with plush lined nylon cases with backpack strap, neck strap, cleaning rod, and extra 10 reeds. www.ceciliomusic.com

Fishman Appoints Cohen and Peterson Dan Cohen brings 18 years of experience to his new position as Fishman national accounts manager. His background includes sales and marketing for retailers such as American Music Seattle and Seattle Music, respected boutique manuDan Cohen facturer Soldano AUGUST 2008

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Mono Offers Sustainable Cases In 2001 the Industrial Design Society of America awarded MONO’s founder for his work in sustainable design. Today, Daniel Kushner is focused on creating products that are as responsible as they are desirable. As part of this commitment MONO uses no animal products in their designs, while all primary materials used by MONO are PVC-free. www.monocase.com

Mapex “Pop to Bop” Component Pack Mapex will release its new six-piece Saturn Series Pop to Bop component pack, a multipurpose set for musicians who play multiple styles of music. The set includes a 22” x 18” bass drum, 10” x 8” and 12” x 9” tom toms, and 14” x 14” and 16” x 16” floor toms. In addition, the pack comes with a 20” x 16” bass drum to accommodate jazz players. The component pack can be set up as a six-piece pop set or a four-piece jazz set-up. Pop to Bop toms are equipped with Remo Coated Ambassador batter heads. Snare drums and hardware are sold separately. The pack is available in a gloss natural finish and its MSRP is $2,865.99. www.mapexdrums.com 86 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Supplierscene Record-Breaking Attendance for Taylor In-Store Events The Taylor Road Show team kicked off year two with a fresh round of record-

breaking in-store events this spring, traversing the U.S. and Canada on their

Washburn’s New Scott Ian Guitars

Yamaha Unveils Flagship Electronic Drum Kit

Washburn Guitars releases two new Scott Ian signature series guitars. The Anthrax guitarist has collaborated on other Ian series guitars, the SI60MW and SI61G. They are made from solid mahogany with Ian’s signature blood red graphics and feature a mahogany/set neck and the Buzz Feiten Tuning System. The WV540VASI features a carbon glass epoxy composite fretboard, an original Floyd Rose bridge, Sperzel tuners, and Seymour Duncan pickups. Periodically, Ian stops by the Washburn facility outside Chicago to hand splatter each guitar himself. It retails for $2,699.90. The WV40VASI comes with a rosewood fretboard, Grover Exclusive tuners, Randall pickups, and a licensed Floyd Rose bridge. It retails for $1,249.90. www.washburn.com AUGUST 2008

way to more than 50 gigs. A large part of the Road Show’s appeal is the opportunity for guitar fans to gather together, get their questions answered, and celebrate the fun of guitar playing with members of Taylor’s “A-team.” Vincent Murphy, of Murphy’s Music Center in Irving, Texas, had 97 attendees at his store’s Road Show. “We started at 6:00 and ended around 9:20, and there were still 89 or so people here,” Murphy said. “I’d love to say all those people wanted to come to Murphy’s Music, but the draw was Taylor!” www.taylorguitars.com/roadshow

Yamaha Drums has completely overhauled its flagship electronic kit, and is currently shipping its DTXTREME III and DTXTREME III Special electronic drum sets. In addition to redesigned cymbals, a new kick tower, and an allnew module, the sets use the same technology that powers the Yamaha MOTIF XS synthesizer. Besides more than 1,000 onboard drum, percussion, and special effect voices, the module includes over 100 General MIDI voices. Both DTXTREME III versions include three-zone drum and cymbal pads, USB connectivity, and an advanced internal sequencer. www.yamahadrums.com

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Supplierscene CA Guitars Announces New Technology CA Guitars announces the newest addition to its line: durable, high-end carbon fiber acoustic guitars featuring Integrated Top Bracing Technology (ITB). The new “i Series” guitars feature an offset sound hole with bracing built into the carbon fiber top rather than made separately and adhesively bonded. The new guitars have a deeper low end response than most acoustic

guitars with clear mids and sparkling highs. The 5iM-CE is a medium-size grand auditorium with sharp cutaway featuring a Fishman Matrix under saddle piezo pickup with volume and tone inside the sound hole. It is available in red, wine red, and charcoal gray for $1,732 retail.

The model 7iM-CE is a medium-size grand auditorium with sharp cutaway featuring a high-gloss finish and the Fishman Matrix Infinity under saddle piezo pickup with volume and tone inside the sound hole. It is available in blue and metallic red for $2,266 retail. www.caguitars.com

New Recording King Archtop Banjos Recording King has added an archtop tone ring option for three of its banjos. Recording King Archtop Banjos feature the bright, clear tone preferred by players who want to highlight their melodies. The archtop tone ring accentuates mids and highs for crispness in sound. The archtop tone ring is available on the Professional, the Soloist, and Deco King banjos. These models also feature a one-piece resonator, onepiece neck, three-ply maple rim, a bound ebony fretboard, nickel-plated hardware, and American standard threads. Recording King archtop banjos start at $1,499.99 and come with a vintage hardshell case. www.recordingking.com

PRS Guitars Brings Back “Laps for Life” Paul Reed Smith Guitars, the National Auto Sports Association Mid-Atlantic (NASA), and the 944 Cup premier ama88 MMR

AUGUST 2008

teur racing series are working together again this summer to raise funding and awareness for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center with the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Laps for Lifeâ&#x20AC;? racing event. PRS president Jack Higginbotham, a 944 Cup racer himself, helped create the event last year as an extension of PRS Guitarsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ongoing philanthropic efforts for the center. www.lapsforlife.com

Rodgers Sponsors Fifth Summer Organ Camp Six teenagers have been awarded full scholarships by Rodgers Instruments to study organ at the International Music Camp (IMC) this summer. The scholarship winners are Christiana Wolters of Dickinson, ND; Madison Grove and Christopher Laue of East Grand Forks, MN; Erin Kelso of Henderson, MN; Ethan Evans of Albany, GA; and Katrina Brooks of Winnipeg, Manitoba. IMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Organ Week, which began in 2004, introduces young keyboard and piano players to the organ. The students follow a daily schedule of private instruction and music history, and at the end of the week, they give a recital for other students. Each summer, Rodgers supplies instruments and faculty as well as scholarships for Organ Week. www.rodgersinstruments.com

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Zoogeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Acoustic Guitar Pick Guards Zoogee releases acoustic guitar pick guards, an easy to apply pick guard that has a photo-quality custom print protected inside a transparent three-dimensional dome. The Rick Rock Acoustic Guitar Pick Guard is produced with a special liquid resin and manufacturing method that provides custom and retail graphics to be protected and magnified inside a clear transparent domed coating even in custom shapes and sizes without die charges. www.zoogee.com AUGUST 2008

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Supplierscene Eden Updates the N Series Bass Combos Eden Electronics introduces the revamped N Series bass combos. Aimed at the beginning bassist, the N series features allwood kickback cabinets and custom speakers designed by bass guru David Nordschow. Streamlined control sections make it

easy for students to dial in tone, and every model offers twice the power at one-third less the weight of other bass combos. The N15 and N28 deliver up to 200 watts and expanded feature sets. www.eden-electronics.com

MBT LED Moon Doggie Effect Light Available MBT Lighting and Sound introduces the new LED Moon Doggie effect light. It uses 469 bright LEDs (280 red, 63 green, 126 blue), arranged in seven clusters. A built-in preprogrammed pattern allows the clusters to chase and “bloom” to the beat of music. Can be used as a stand-alone light, be grouped together in a master/slave mode, or be controlled manually with a standard DMX controller. It includes nine channels of DMX control, three-pin XLR DMX in and

out connections, and a ten DIP switch bank for DMX addressing and function selection. An audio sensitivity control and hanging bracket are included. www.mbtlighting.com

Ernie Ball and MySpace Form Partnership Ernie Ball/Music Man, organizer and presenter of the Battle of the Bands, announced details of a strategic partnership with MySpace aimed at promoting the contest, its headlining artists, and the eventual winners. As part of the partnership, the online social networking site will include a branded banner in the “MySpace Specials” section on the MySpace music home page. The Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands page will also be a “featured profi le” on the MySpace music homepage, and the contest will be promoted through member bulletins and other rotating banners throughout the Battle. “Partnering with MySpace is a great boost to the Battle of the Bands,” said Brian Ball, marketing manager of Ernie Ball. “We love the increased exposure, but it’s really about the search for that next great band. MySpace is going to help broaden the pool of talent, which is going to make this year’s Battle bigger and better than ever before.” 2008 marks the twelfth annual Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, which will have nearly 15,000 entries who will be judged by music industry executives. Four of the 20 mostnominated bands from each region will perform live on the Ernie Ball Stage at the Vans Warped Your during their hometown leg. www.battleofthebands.com 90 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Beijing Chooses Kawai

New Guitars from ThUNK

The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing conducted a worldwide search for pianos for its music spaces, and at the end, Kawai and Shigeru Kawai pianos composed 17 of the 22 instruments selected. This collection of pianos will be in the spotlight for the Beijing Olympics. Designed by French architect Paul Andreu and known as the Egg, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing opened in 2007. www.kawaius.com

ThUNK Guitars, which is based out of Toms River, N.J., provides a 100% Made In The USA electric guitar. They feature a patented forked headstock, and are based on 37 years of perfecting guitar design at the hands of Paul “Unk” Unkert, founder and president. Using a combination of computer aided design machinery, and hand craftsmanship, they aim to create excellent American made guitars at an affordable price. www.unkguitars.com

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American Audio’s Portable Pocket Recorder Affordable and weighing only six ounces, American Audio’s compact Pocket Recorder records both WAV and MP3 formats. It features 128MB of internal memory and accommodates SD cards up to 4GB. The battery-operated recorder features two built-in condenser microphones and stereo audio inputs for true stereo sound. The unit also comes with two small lavalier microphones that can be used to record interviews. The MSRP is $209.95. www.americanaudio.us AUGUST 2008

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Supplierscene Hohner Celebrates with New Accordion Celebrating its 150th anniversary, Hohner awarded Flaco Jimenez with a commemorative accordion recognizing his lifelong achievement in the world of conjunto music. The instrument was presented to Jimenez during the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio on May 10, 2008. www.myspace.com/hohneraccordions

Alfred Distributes Revealing Books Through Alfred’s association with Penguin Group USA, Alfred announces it is distributing three books to the music industry offering insight into the lives of some of the most talented, well-known musicians. Introducing Kurt Cobain Journals, The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin, and The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan, published by Penguin. Kurt Cobain filled dozens of notebooks with lyrics, drawings, and writings about his plans for Nirvana. The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin tells the story of the life and afterlife of this most extraordinary band. The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan covers all seven decades of Bob Dylan’s career. All have a MSRP of $14.99. www.alfred.com

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Middle Atlantic Announces Rackmount Power Distribution Center Kendor Wedding Music Masterworks Arrives This solo with piano accompaniment collection contains 12 of the most popular classics played at weddings. One book contains everything a soloist needs for the entire ceremony. An accompaniment CD is included, featuring both piano and organ accompaniments. Contents include: Canon in D (Pachelbel); “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Bach); Trumpet Voluntary (Purcell, Clarke); Trumpet Tune (Purcell); “Ave Maria” (Schubert); Rondeau (Mouret); and the Wedding March (Mendelssohn). The instrument solo with piano accompaniment and retails for $17.95. www.kendormusic.com

Middle Atlantic Products introduces the PD-915R-M, which provides power system monitoring, allowing integrators to install more reliable systems that make efficient and effective use of power. The rackmount unit provides power to nine outlets and now monitors eight important parameters to provide real-time power quality information and to ensure the 15-amp circuit is not overloaded. Indicating total system load, these factors are easily viewed on a front-mounted LCD display. www.middleatlantic.com/power.htm

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The Warwick Star Bass II The Warwick Star bass II is a reissue of the classic Framus Star bass. Warwick has taken the design of the early bass model and upgraded it with modern electronics. It features special MEC CRB pickups capable of a fat, warm sound while still being studio quiet. It also features an ovangkol wood neck, wenge fi ngerboard, and chrome hardware. www.warwickbass.com AUGUST 2008

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Supplierscene Dream Theater Drummer Drums Up Cash for Charity Daddyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Junky Music, in conjunction with Sabian Cymbals, Tama Drums, and ProMark Drum Sticks, hosted two in-store meet-and-greets with Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. The two events, at Daddyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Albany, N.Y., and Boston, Mass., brought over 400 fans and over $1,200 for charity. The Albany

event benefited Camp Good Days, which improves the quality of life for children and adults whose lives have been touched by cancer, and the Boston event benefited the Station Family Fund, which aids the victims and survivors of the deadly Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003.

Mike MacArthur Joins Cavanaugh The Cavanaugh Company announces the hiring of Mike MacArthur as their new sales manager and Bari Artist Relations manager. MacArthur will be responsible for sales of all three divisions of the Cavanaugh Company which includes SuperSensitive Musical Strings, Black Diamond Strings, and Bari Woodwind Supplies.

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MacArthur studied Jazz Saxophone Performance at Florida State and Manhattan School of Music. He also toured with Maynard Ferguson as lead tenor sax with the Big Bop Nouveau Band. Additionally, he performed as a side-

man with Roger Waters, Diane Schuur, Mary Wilson, Rick Derringer and many more. Prior to joining the Cavanaugh Company, MacArthur spent two years as Brass, Woodwind and Orchestral Manager at Sam Ash Music.

AUGUST 2008

Babicz Guitars Nady Introduces Miniature Condenser Crafts Limited Edition Headset Mic Systems recently announced the adkeyboardists), vocalist/dance performers, Bethel Woods Guitars Nady dition of a miniature uni-directional elecDJs, television announcers, public speakBethel Woods Center for the Arts has enlisted Babicz Guitars USA to create a custom collection of Bethel Woods Limited Edition guitars. The guitars will commemorate the grand opening of the Museum at Bethel Woods, which highlights the Woodstock experience. The guitars, personally hand selected by Jeff Babicz and customized with the Bethel Woods logo, feature a dreadnought cutaway profi le with solid Javanese rosewood back and sides, a solid Engelmann spruce top in a custom teardrop tobacco sunburst satin finish, and feature the award winning L. R. Baggs “iMix” dual pickup system. Each guitar is supplied with an arch-top hardshell case. www.babiczguitars.com

tret condenser headset microphone, the HM-20U. The small size and lightweight design of this new microphone make it ideal for singing and speaking applications even in noisy environments. Offering a warm, full-range response and maximum feedback rejection, the HM-20U is the perfect choice for vocalist/musicians (drummers,

ers, and aerobics instructors. Features include: a tiny capsule for lightweight comfort; two sizes of foam windscreen to reduce wind and popping noise; and extendable fully adjustable boom to 100 degrees for optimum mic capsule placement. The mic is available with mini-XLR, 3.5mm phono plug (fits most standard wireless bodypack transmitters), or standard XLR adapter. www.nady.com

Gemini’s new CDMP Series Gemini is shipping its CDMP Series, which provides affordable digital connection via built-in USB inputs and was created for mobile DJ rigs or club/bar installations. Three models—the CDMP1300 (2U single player), CDMP-2600 (2U dual player), and the flagship CDMP5000 (dual CD/MP3/USB mixing console)—feature BPM read out, anti-shock using RAM buffer memory, VFD screen, instant-start and cue with preview, and seamless loop with reloop. It also has the ability to play and manipulate songs directly from a USB key and MP3 player. www.geminidj.com AUGUST 2008

Come & Get It! 7 DC & 7 AC Outlets Computer Controlled Sequence All AC/DC Outlets 7000 Joules Reduce Noise, Heat & Waste Firmware & Software Upgrades

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Supplierscene Anthem Partners with Kephart Kephart’s Music Center, the newest member of the Anthem Music Group, debuted the Anthem product line at the Iowa Bandmasters show in May. Kephart’s Music Center has served music education for over 50 years. Their exclusive Anthem territory currently covers Northeast Iowa, West-

ern Wisconsin, Northwest Illinois’, and Southeast Minnesota with three retail locations in Dubuque, Decorah and Mason City. “The new Anthem band instruments have been very warmly received in our area,” said Rusty Kephart, President of Kephart’s Music Center. “Kephart’s waited many years before we took on a new line, and we researched and tested these instru-

Photo L-to-R: Rusty Kephart (President Kephart’s), David Kilkenny (President, Anthem), Erick Kephart (Vice President, Kephart’s), Norm Luker (Educational Sales Representative (Kephart’s)

ments extensively before we signed on. We are proud to be Anthem dealers.” www.anthemmusic.com

On the Beaten Path Wins Book of the Year Award Alfred’s On the Beaten Path: The Drummer’s Guide to Musical Styles and the Legends Who Defined Them, by Rich Lackowski, has won two major awards in the world’s two leading drum magazines. The book was voted “Number 1 Educational Book” in Modern Drummer’s 2008 Readers Poll, and also won the Drummie Award for Number 1 Book in DRUM!

THE WORLD’S BEST TONE CONTROL ™

Get rid of that dull, unused tone pot! The ToneStyler ® increases clarity and selectively cuts treble, without losing vital midrange or rich harmonics. Installs in minutes without modiﬁcations. More effective than another pickup swap! 100% pure analog tone zero noise - aerospace grade. No batteries! Now available in 28 versions to ﬁt every guitar and playing style. Satisfaction guaranteed. Made in U.S.A.

magazine’s 2008 Readers Poll. On the Beaten Path provides insight into the history and development of a wide selection of genres, including funk, alternative/punk rock, metal, progressive rock, classic rock, jam band, fusion, jazz, and reggae, and explores the legendary drummers that impacted each. www.alfred.com

Harpsicle

Harps The Original

“A huge sonic payoff… exposes a spectrum of midrange timbres you didn’t know your guitar possessed” - GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE

Free shipping promo code: 3824

www.stellartone.com 541-488-1159 96 MMR

Easy to play. Easy to sell. Starting at $349 (retail list) See us at NAMM Booth #823 812•438•3032 HarpsicleHarps.com AUGUST 2008

Classifieds

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Accessories

Piano Tuning LEARN AT HOME

with approved home study course.

American School of Piano Tuning 1-800-497-9793

Visit our website: www.piano-tuning.com Tools Included - Diploma Granted

For Classified Sales Call Maureen

800-964-5150 ext. 34 mjohan@symphonypublishing.com

Guitar Show Operators

Promote your show dates and reach every guitar dealer in the US through the classified pages of MMR. Call Maureen 800-964-5150 ext 34

Business Opportunities

For Classified Sales Call Maureen • 800-964-5150 ext. 34 • mjohan@symphonypublishing.com AUGUST 2008

MMR 97

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Business Opportunities

• Band and Orchestra Rentals • New and Like New Educator-Approved Brand Name Instruments • Personalized Rent-To-Own Program • No Franchise Fee or Inventory Investment • No Shipping Costs • High Commissions Paid the 1st of Every Month • Exceptional Service

For Sale BIGGEST MUSIC SCHOOL in the HOUSTON AREA FOR SALE 25 Teachers; 500-plus students and 2-story bldg. in prime real estate location with music store and rental space! For more information Call broker at 281 359-2593 or Owner at 832 445-5668 Upstate New York Music Store For Sale

For Classified Sales Call Maureen

800-964-5150 ext. 34 mjohan@symphonypublishing.com 98 MMR

Located in East Greenbush, Rensselaer County, NY. Well established for 21 years. Full line instruments, rental program, teaching studios, and instrument repair. The store size is approximately 1300 square feet, with ve teaching rooms. Turnkey ready, lease available. $40,000. Please call for more information on this great opportunity. Call Chris today at 518-479-4118.

www.mmrmagazine.com

STORE FOR SALE Ohio College town, for $20,000. Your choice on buying inventory and xtures. Lessons and staff. Low rent & utilities. Contact: musicstore4sale@yahoo.com

Help Wanted STORE MANAGER WANTED New England area full line music store needs experienced store manager Excellent compensation and benets. Send resume to linda@greenwichmusic.com

Piano Salesperson Position Want self motivated individual for piano sales. Steinway and Yamaha lines represented. Excellent pay structure,Benets. Email resume to:

jimshback@fresnopiano.com

AUGUST 2008

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Help Wanted Retail Yamaha Piano Manager

Regional Yamaha piano and Disklavier dealer is looking for candidate to manage piano store in major Northeast city. Candidate should have at least 5 years of piano sales experience. Commission based compensation plus comprehensive benets package including health insurance, 401k, etc. Please email resume and earnings history in condence to musicemployment15@yahoo.com.

Merchandise CASES CASES CASES Factory Direct! Any ATA Case For $99 Mixers, Amps, Heads, or Keyboards www.newyorkcasecompany.com

877-692-2738

ACCORDIONS: All sizes —

over 100 in stock — new & used. Regular, Electronic, MIDI, etc. JOHN GAUNT, Distributor, 1248 S. Highland Ave., Clearwater, FL 33756, (727) 443-4113.

BRAND MANAGER

Marshall USA, the worldwide leader in guitar amplication, is looking for an experienced professional for the position of Brand Manager. For complete details, visit marshallamps.com and click on the support tab. AUGUST 2008

www.mmrmagazine.com MMR 99

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Merchandise 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

300,000 Piano Lovers! That’s how many unique, piano loving people visit PianoWorld.com every month. Be smart, advertise your piano or music related business where your new customers are hanging out.

PianoWorld.com Home of the world famous Piano Forums.

For more interesting statistics and advertising information: Visit www.PianoWorld.com/advertising ... Now!

equatone@earthlink.net

YAMAHA–KAWAI & MORE

CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED PIANOS

Asian High Quality No other supplier offers superior service before, during and after the sale. You get what you pay for!

GUARANTEED LANDED QUALITY

1-800-782-2694 North American Music 11 Kay Fries Drive Stony Point, NY 10980 Fax: (845) 429-6920

FINANCING AVAILABLE For Classified Sales Call Maureen 800-964-5150 ext. 34 • mjohan@symphonypublishing.com 100 MMR

AUGUST 2008

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Merchandise Oboes & Bassoons

We create the finest hand-crafted Oboes & Bassoons. Also replacement 5K Bassoon Bocals.

Linton Woodwinds Corporation, Jack Linton 1013 Alma St. Elkhart, IN 46514 U.S.A. PH: 1-866-220-2909 Fax: 574-266-7658 E-Mail: info@lintonwoodwinds.com www.LintonWoodwinds.com

Studios, Consoles, Spinets Lot Pricing: $195-$350 Solid, Reconditionable Pianos. Some have Benches. JAY-MART PIANO WHOLESALERS P.O. Box 21148 • Cleveland, OH • 44121

800-411-2363

Fax: 216-382-3249 • Email: jaymartpianos@sbcglobal.net “The Piano Store For Piano Stores”

Repair Tools BOW REHAIRING Expert Bow Service

Order forms,Pricing and Shipping label at:

www.bowrehairing.com Violin bows as low as $10.00 per bow in quantity incl. shipping (see website for details.) 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: info@bowrehairing.com

*Use Coupon code: NAMM for a 20% Discount on MIGHTY GRIP gloves or powder

Miscellaneous BAND INSTRUMENT REPAIR VIDEO Save $$$ on repair expense. Earn extra income. Journeyman repairman offers “How To” videos on the repair of brass and woodwind instruments. For information write to: B.I.R.V. Co. 880 Slater Rd. Bellingham, WA. 98226 (360) 384-6707 AUGUST 2008

For 60 years we have provided musical instrument repair tools to technicians and musicians around the world. We have a wide selection of pads and other supplies in addition to our repair tools. Contact us today for a FREE CATALOG.

BAND INSTRUMENT REPAIR Complete woodwind/brasswind repair, from rental return service to complete

FAST TURN-AROUND ON STOCK REPAIRS NATIONWIDE NAPBIRT member, 26 Years Experience Contact: Dan Rieck, 801-733-4243 dan@utahwoodwindrepair.com

overhauls. Dealers welcome. All work guaranteed. Member of NAPBIRT. Quality Repair Service PH #574-268-5360 email: mwebb451@embarqmail.com MMR 101

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Sales Reps Wanted

Services INDEPENDENT SALES REPS Sales Reps Wanted Band & Orchestra Instruments Most territories open A Great Job! AMERICA LONGXING

Boulder Creek Guitars seeks Independent Sales Representatives Morgan Hill Music is seeking independent sales Representatives for their exciting new line of Boulder Creek guitars. Along with the Boulder Creek guitar line, representatives would also have access to the Wedgie pick and accessory line, the new Wedgie Powerband drumsticks, Natural One Acoustic Preamps and Pickup systems, and the Pitch Pocket tuner line. We are interested in Sales Representatives that have current active territories. Available territories include most of the western United States and the Northeastern States. Please contact Morgan Hill Music @ 408-779-3845 for inquiries. You may view our product Lines @ www.morganhillmusic.com, www.bouldercreekguitars.com, and www.wedgie.com.

LOCAL & NATIONWIDE PIANO MOVING • CRATING • STORAGE •

(800) 222-2888

(310) 830-3362 (FAX) • http://www.pianomove.com

(718) 706-0828 Ask for Paul ahanlin0596@hotmail.com

Seeking Employment Pianos/Digitals/Organs I Don’t Sell, You Don’t Pay Closer for hire! 20 years experience Outside promo specialist timfeager@msn.com • 561-379-4718

For Classified Sales Call Maureen

800-964-5150 ext. 34 mjohan@symphonypublishing.com

SHIPPING YOUR PIANO

with Lone Wolf Trucking

is a “grand” idea!

An independent, long-distance Mover specializing in coast-to-coast residential Relocation.

1-800-982-9505 Alamogordo, New Mexico. 88310

ICC MC-256289

Software

Sales Representatives Wanted!! Michigan-based Brass, Woodwind and accessories line. Join a great new organization with an “artist-endorsed” product. Competitive Commissions with incentive. Contact: toya@dymusicusa.com 734-384-1705

SALES REPS WANTED

National Distributor of established saxophone line seeking reps for the following areas: New York, Pennsylvania,New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, Idaho Competitive Commissions:

Contact 866 330-9633 102 MMR

Guitar Show Operators Promote your show dates and reach every guitar dealer in the US through the classified pages of MMR. Call Maureen

800-964-5150 ext 34 AUGUST 2008

Visit the Classifieds on the Web: www.MMRmagazine.com

Vintage Instruments

Wanted To Buy ’re g e W in

y os u B ian P

We are buying grands — and smaller verticals Honest - Professional - We Sell Nationwide JAY-MART PIANO WHOLESALERS P.O. Box 21148 • Cleveland, OH • 44121

800-411-2363

Fax: 216-382-3249 Email: jaymartpianos@sbcglobal.net “The Piano Store For Piano Stores”

www.mmrmagazine.com

Wanted USED TUBAS ANY CONDITION-CASH PAID

www.mmrmagazine.com

THE TUBA EXCHANGE 1825 CHAPEL HILL RD. DURHAM, NC 27707 1-800-869-8822 WWW.TUBAEXCHANGE.COM

WE, BUY, SELL, TRADE and ship worldwide. Written APPRAISALS available. GRUHN GUITARS, 400 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

(615) 256-2033

fax (615) 255-2021

www.gruhn.com

Vintage Showcase WE, BUY, SELL, TRADE

What’s it worth? We buy, sell, trade, consign and appraise fine guitars, banjos and mandolins.

629 Forest Ave., S.I., N.Y. 10310 Phone (718) 981-8585 mandolin@mandoweb.com www.mandoweb.com

and ship worldwide. Written APPRAISALS available.

GRUHN GUITARS 400 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

(615) 256-2033 fax (615) 255-2021

www.gruhn.com

Call Maureen Johan 800-964-5150, ext 34 or mjohan@symphonypublishing.com

for Special Offer Details! AUGUST 2008

MMR 103

Adindex COMPANY NAME

Access Bags and Cases Ace Products Group Allparts Amati’s Fine Instruments America Longxing Inc. American DJ Supply Inc. Anderson Silver Plating Antigua Winds, Inc.

Bass Dynamics Benedetto Guitars Buffet Crampon

E-MAIL/WEB ADDRESS

www.accessbagsandcases.com www.kaces.com/www.reunionblues.com www.allparts.com www.Amatis.us www.huntermusical.com www.americandj.com www.antiguawinds.com

58 29 76 51 72 15 94 14

www.dalagria.com www.BenedettoGuitars.com www.buffet-crampon.com

87 93 27

www.ceciliomusic.com www.collingsguitars.com www.compositeacoustics.com

89 80 20 40

www.daddario.com www.extremeheadphones.com www.jimdunlop.com www.dustystrings.com

12 89 10 84

Al Cass Cecilio Music Collings Guitars Composite Acoustics

D’Addario & Co. Direct Sound Headphones Dunlop Manufacturing Inc. Dusty Strings

E/F

Eleca International www.eleca.com www.emgpickups.com EMG Inc. www.essentialsound.com Essential Sound Products Flaxwood Guitars North America www.flaxwood.com

George L’s Good for the Goose Products Goodsell Electric Grover Gulf Music Sales

H/I

Hal Leonard Corp. Harris Musical Products Inc. Hoshino Irradiant, Inc.

PAGE

www.georgels.com www.chopsaver.com www.goodsellamps.com www.grotro.com www.gulfmusicsalesonline.com

69 67 73 cov 2

18 95 90 79 86

www.halleonard.com www.harrismusical.com www.ibanez.com, www.tama.com

5 39 43 19

Jodavi, Inc. K & M Stands Kaman Music Corp. Kaman Music Corp. Ken Smith Basses Ltd. Kyser Musical Products Inc.

www.zzyzxsnapjack,com www.k.m.de/envitonment www.kamanmusic.com www.kamanmusic.com www.kensmithbasses.com www.kysermusical.com

69 33 74 68 79 85

Lee Oskar Harmonicas Levy’s Leathers Ltd. LP Music Group

www.leeoskar.com www.levysleathers.com www.lpmusic.com

20 9 41

J/K

104 MMR

COMPANY NAME

E-MAIL/WEB ADDRESS

LP Music Group

www.lpmusic.com

www.meiselmusic.com sales@metmusic.com www.middleatlantic.com www.monocase.com mpathx.com mpathx.com mpathx.com www.musicorp.com

65 75 78 82 91 95 93 57

NAMM www.namm.com National Educational Music Co. www.nemc.com www.nationalmusic.com National Music Funding

22-23 59 72

Meisel Stringed Instruments Metropolitan Music Co. Middle Atlantic Products, Inc. Mono Case MPathX MPathX MPathX Musicorp, Inc.

P & D Wholesale Panyard Inc. Peak Music Stands Pearl River Piano Group Petrof USA Pioneer ProDJ PRS Guitars (Paul Reed Smith)

R/S

Real de los Reyes Remo Inc. Saga Musical Instruments Samson Technologies Corp. Sennheiser Electronics SHS International Sher Shubb Co. Sibelius Software Inc. SKB Corp. Sontronics Stellartone Super-Sensitive Musical String Co.

T/U/V

TKL Products Corp. Unk Guitars Vandoren Violet Design Visual Sound

W/Y/Z

Walking Bird Publications Waves Wittner GmbH & Co. KG Wm. Rees Instruments Wyman Piano Yamaha Corp. of America Zuni Guitars

PAGE

www.PDWholesale.net www.panyard.com www.peakmusicstands.com www.PearlRiverUSA.com www.petrof.com www.pioneerprodj.com www.prsguitars.com

76 91 84 86 71 11 17

www.realdelosreyes.com www.remo.com www.sagamusic.com www.samsontech.com www.sennheiserusa.com www.shsint.net www.shermusic.com www.shubb.com www.g7info.com www.skbcases.com www.sontronics.com www.stellartone.com

10 35 77 3 21 16 88 83 63 13 76 96

www.cavanaughcompany.com

www.tkl.com www.unkguitars.com www.dansr.com violetdesignusa.com www.visualsound.net www.walkingbirdmusic.com www.waves.cim www.wittner-gmbh.de www.harpsicleharps.com www.wymanpiano.com www.yamaha.com www.zuniguitars.com

1 cov 3 31 81 cov 4 92 88 37 96 92 7 40

AUGUST 2008

ROUTE 66

H2O

Normal/Lush switch added on Chorus channel. Same great chorus and echo tones that H2O is famous for.

JEKYLL & HYDE New noise reduction on New noise reduction and improved Compressor channel. Additional Mid control on Hyde channel. low-drive range on overdrive Additional low-drive range on channel. Same great compression Jekyll channel. Same great and overdrive tones that overdrive and distortion tones Route 66 is famous for. that Jekyll & Hyde is famous for.

LIQUID CHORUS

COMP 66 The compressor channel of the new Route 66 in a single pedal.

The chorus channel of the ROUTE 808 new H2O in a single pedal, One channel of Double The Hyde distortion channel Trouble in a single pedal... with an added Depth knob. from the new Jekyll & Visual Sound’s interpretation Also has 2 outputs, normal and inverted, for running Hyde in a single pedal. of the TS-808 (with bass in stereo. boost and lots more volume).

SON OF HYDE

4922 PORT ROYAL ROAD B-11 5 SPRING HILL, TENNESSEE 37174 5 1-931-487-9001

www.visualsound.net

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Visual Sound’s interpretation of the TS-808 (with bass boost and lots more volume), times 2! Use either overdrive by itself or combine them.

ANGRY FUZZ A brand new effect unlike any fuzz pedal you’ve ever heard. Blend in an octave up with the Anger Level knob and get crazy low octave overtones to boot! Octave tracking is flawless even with the fastest shredding imaginable.