Shine a Light

THE BUZZ ABOUT B’S MUSIC SHOP

By Michelle Loeb

For more than two decades, Brian Hansen has been serving the music community in and around Mt. Pleasant, Mich., first as a salesperson at Cook’s Music Shop and then, since 2002, as the owner of B’s Music Shop.

It was the original owner of Cook’s Music Shop, Rob Cook, who convinced Hansen to open his own store when he was only 20 years old. “I started a little store with a tiny business loan and about 19 guitars in stock,” Hansen recalled.

Over the years, thanks to an expert product mix, a growing roster of services and top-notch customer service, Hansen has been able to grow the business, which now occupies 10,000 square feet across two buildings in quite possibly the most convenient location in town. “Most stores around here are an hour or more away from us,” said Hansen, “so we like being a destination in the center of the state.”

Today, B’s Music Shop stocks upwards of 400 guitars from some of best-known brands in the industry, including Ibanez, Epiphone, Yamaha, Schechter, Peavey and Reverend, which Hansen is proud to have carried for a long time. Customers who walk into the store are immediately wowed by sheer number of guitars hanging from bars on the walls and the ceilings. “It’s solid guitars!,” Hansen exclaimed.

B’s Music Shop is not only a destination for guitars but also for pedals, as Hansen’s self-proclaimed fascination with pedals has resulted in an extensive offering of approximately 500 models. “There’s a real renaissance now with pedals, and we’ve gotten into some of the weirder brands,” said Hansen. “It’s kind of fun to have a little bit of everything.”

One thing that surprised Hansen is that “a little bit of everything” has come to include vinyl records. This store within a store currently stocks thousands of the LPs coveted by the local college population, among other vinyl aficionados. “That blows my mind that I have a vinyl record store right now,” said Hansen, who said he, personally, only owns about 10 vinyl records. “But it makes people happy, and that’s what I want to do.”

Hansen has also gotten into selling merchandise, with T-shirts emblazoned with the store’s logo proving more popular than ever. “I’m a weird dude with five cats who owns a music store. That’s why my logo is a cat,” he mused. “We sold a ton of pride tanks with a rainbow and the cat logo. We just have fun with it. We’re an industry that’s supposed to be fun, so let’s have some fun.

To help customers navigate the deep and rich inventory, both musical and otherwise, at B’s Music Shop, Hansen currently employs 10 salespeople. Hansen makes sure that his staff is diverse enough to meet the needs of anyone who might walk through the door.

“We don’t want to put people in boxes,” he said. “We work hard not to be a bro shop — one of those places where a woman walks in and is automatically assumed to be buying for her boyfriend. I always thought of those places as creepy. It’s important to make the store better than that and, I think, the industry overall has evolved from that.”

The main thing Hansen looks for when hiring is someone who can not only fill the role but also do right by the customer, helping them out without making a hard sell. “Customers can tell when you’re leaning on their shoulder as opposed to having a real conversation,” he said. “We’re a talking place, and my staff has to be able to talk to people and make connections.”

Making those connections became more difficult as COVID-19 took most of the store’s interactions online. The pandemic forced Hansen to get serious about his online presence, overhauling the store’s website and hiring a professional photographer. “Photos are everything online,” he explained. “You can’t touch or play the instrument online, but you can talk specs and show them the photos.”

Hansen also began leaning more toward limited-edition and hardto-find models, “things we know only a dozen or so dealers have, because it puts us in a better position to pop up and get the sale,” he explained. “It’s important to stand out and do a good job. It’s too easy to be a carbon copy of what the most popular thing is.”

With half of store sales now originating over the internet, Hansen and his team have had to work harder than ever to keep up the level of communications and customer service that long-time patrons have become accustomed to in-store. “We over-communicate to make sure our online customers are happy,” said Hansen. “But if they are buying from us, it’s because they want to buy from a real store with real people. We’re still a neighborhood store, even if you’re in Texas or California.” He added, “The fact is, if they wanted to buy on Amazon, they would.”

The pivot toward online sales has helped B’s Music Shop have its best year yet, even as so many of its contemporaries are struggling. “We’d be down if we didn’t swing into online,” said Hansen, who also moved his store’s lesson program online, with nine teachers giving lessons to approximately 100 students over Zoom.

As disruptive as COVID-19 has been for the industry, Hansen

B’s Music Shop 613 N Mission St. Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 (989) 773-0777 www.bsmusicshop.com Mon.–Sat. 11a.m.–8 p.m. Sun. Noon–5 p.m. Brian Hansen, owner

noted that the pandemic has had the benefit of creating new musicians who sought at-home joy to get them through the quarantine. “This is one of the biggest demands for gear since the Beatles were on [‘The Ed Sullivan [Show’],” he said. “We’re an at-home activity, so the pandemic opened us up to a lot of new players. Our job is to shepherd them and make sure they stick with it, because new players are the lifeblood of the industry.”

Hansen concluded, “Music is a good, fun hobby. We help people create fun. The more people we can inspire to try it helps the industry grow.”

Company Pg

AMAHI UKULELES ......17

ARMADILLO

ENTERPRISES.............C-II

CHAUVET LIGHTING ...8

CHAUVET LIGHTING ...9

DRUM WORKSHOP ......10

DRUM WORKSHOP ......11

HOSA TECHNOLOGY...35

JJ BABBITT ....................25

JMAZ LIGHTING...........6

KHS AMERICA ..............7

LITTLITE ........................14

MANHASSET SPECIALTY

COMPANY......................3

MCMILLAN MUSIC ......43

NAMM.............................5

ODYSSEY INNOVATIVE

DESIGNS.........................21

TMP / THE MUSIC

PEOPLE!.....................C-IV

TONEWOODAMP C-III

VOCOPRO.......................13

ZEPPELIN DESIGN

LABS ...............................27

While every care is taken to ensure that these listings are accurate and complete, The Music & Sound Retailer does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors.

SUMMER NAMM IS BACK!

(continued from page 25) retailing has always been school music dealers, until COVID-19 showed up,” Friedman stressed. “Rest assured, school music will once again return to its wellknown profitability as long as precautions are taken to keep students and faculty operating in a safe and healthy environment.”

5. Online music lessons are neither a last resort, nor a passing fad. They are here and

now. “Online lessons may have recently grown out of sheer necessity, but the technology exists to teach music in real time, with zero latency,” relayed Friedman. “Online lessons will surely become the preferred practice for many students and teachers alike.”

6. There will be a continued huge increase in professional home studios for music recording, podcasts, movie editing and other music pro-

duction. “DAWs (digital audio workstations) will keep getting more powerful,” Friedman said. “Plugins are rivaling expensive audio processing effects, and virtual instruments do everything and more.”

7. There will be a continued migration away from buying big-expense acoustic pianos to electronic weighted

keyboards. “Given the cost, capability, sound quality, portability, software upgradeability and space-saving ability of electronic keyboards, is there really any wonder why acoustic pianos have been on a steady decline?” Friedman asked.

8. As technology grows at an exponential pace, so do the truly innovative products. This is decreasing the demand for once-coveted objects of sonic analog beauty.

“Sampling rates are getting so good, you cannot tell the difference. I have studio engineers telling me you can’t hear the difference,” noted Friedman. “What does that mean for these things of beauty that I love? Amps will not go away entirely, but technology is unbelievable and will put a dent into ‘things of beauty.’”

9. As Baby Boomers die off, so do our guitar heroes … and our financially reckless buying of pricey instruments driven by brand brainwash-

ing. “The reason why we bought all of those beautiful vintage guitars was because of our guitar heroes, their music and ‘psychological imprinting,’” stated Friedman. He offered examples of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Jimmy Page as examples of “older” guitar heroes.

10. Consolidations and sur-

vival of the fittest. “There will be consolidations among both manufacturers and retailers and a continued trend for manufacturers to sell direct to consumers,” Friedman revealed. He also noted the following future trends: there is a growing shortage in the music retailing pool; companies that embrace diversity will win; and continued disruption in the supply chain will lead to greater levels of inventory, which means only companies who can afford it will stock it.

Gibson Opens the ‘Garage’

Gibson Brands hosted a special event on July 14, the night before Summer NAMM began, to introduce the Gibson Garage on 10th Street in downtown Nashville. “What Orville Gibson started 127 years ago was something even he could not have imagined,” James ‘JC’ Curleigh, CEO of Gibson, said during the event. “One of the things we often talk about at Gibson is how can we make Orville proud? I am pretty sure if he were here now, he would be proud of what we have all accomplished. … We had a mission: restore Gibson back to its iconic glory. We did not take that lightly. There were times we took a left when we should have taken a right, but we kept on track. Our mission was to be the most loved and played guitar brand again. That’s who we were. That’s who we are.”

Curleigh brought out a special guest to join the Gibson Garage celebration: Joe Lamond. While Gibson is 127 years old, NAMM clocks in a similar 120 years of existence. Curleigh asked Lamond to sum up the past 120 years for NAMM. “If there is any one word I can use to sum up 120 years, it is passion,” said Lamond. “We are all unsuited for any other occupation — except you [JC]. The rest of us are hopeless,” Lamond joked. “This is what we love, do and believe in,” Lamond added. “Passion and change are the two things that have stuck with us the whole time.”

Lamond also said how great it was to see a large audience at the event that had made it through the worst parts of the pandemic. “The end of last March, many [retailers] probably said, ‘Oh my, we are in trouble.’ We are now all together,” he affirmed. “We put a stake in the ground. We put the band back together. We came back to Nashville. The pandemic is not over yet, but we are here. The family is back together.”

Curleigh then noted that the MI industry has both an opportunity and an obligation to keep the energy for guitar buying that was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic going. “If someone told me in 2020 that there would be a terrible situation that would lead to a dynamic shift of energy for your industry, your fans and every guitar brand, I would not know what that would look like,” he said. “We now know what that looks like. We have more guitarists engaging in guitar in the last 15 or 16 months than probably the last 15 years. How do we take advantage of that, not just in the music industry, but how do we become culturally relevant across industries? We have a chance to do that.”

Everyone in the MI industry is transformed by being a part of it, Lamond responded. “We are creating a changed human being for every person whom we put an instrument in their hands,” he said. “Everyone likely has a story and can remember to this day when they first played an instrument or opened the case. … We have an opportunity to create a lifelong music-maker at that moment. We also have the opportunity to turn someone off. Choose the former.

“We can change a human being every time we put a guitar or drum sticks in their hands. We get to do that every day. That has to be the coolest job in the entire world,” Lamond continued. “That is the future. No matter if there are pandemics or economic recessions, every day we get to do that, regardless of the conditions. For 5,000 years of recorded history, people have made music. Based on that, we have a really good shot of this continuing a bit further if we do our jobs right.”

NASMD MARKS MI's RETURN TO IN-PERSON EVENTS

(continued from page 27) because we had to. It was something we chose to do. I banked on human nature probably being unchanged post-COVID.”

Leadership involves excellent planning, and NAMM has long-term plans regarding how The NAMM Show could grow. But COVID-19 threw those plans out the window. “What did Mike Tyson say? ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,’” relayed Lamond. “Right now, our goal is to get through the next phase.”

Lamond offered an analogy of martial artists often “doing their thing” and acting on instinct. However, Bruce Lee would continually assess a situation and adjust to it. “That’s what we need to do,” he said. “We have seen lots of challenges in my time in the music industry. I expect we will see a lot more of them.”

One positive the pandemic has brought MI retailers is the ability to handle crisis management. “I think everyone now has a master’s if not a Ph.D. in crisis management,” concluded Lamond. “I can picture someone coming into your office in the future and saying, ‘There is a huge crisis. We have a big problem.’ You will say, ‘Crisis? Sit down. I will tell you what a real crisis is.’”

Jimmy Takes Over

Jimmy Blackmon, who has led high-risk military missions all around the world, including serving as the air mission commander on the operation that netted No. 2 and No. 3 in the “Iraqi Deck of Cards,” on July 13 delivered the closing keynote session at the NASMD show at the Hilton Nashville Downtown.

Blackmon spoke in-depth about his highly dangerous combat missions and then correlated what he learned on these missions to the business world. He called today “The Age of Disruption” and acknowledged there is one big problem: an ability to prepare for the competition, something that provided a huge advantage in the past, is gone.

“In the Cold War, we had all the knowns. We knew the enemy was the Soviet Union,” said Blackmon. “We knew the size of their army. We knew their GDP (gross domestic product). We knew the budget that they gave to defense. We knew their ‘big seven’ weapons systems. We knew we were going to fight them in the plains of Eastern Europe.

“If you have all the knowns, you can create a strategy for overmatch,” he added. “If I know how many competitors I have in business; how many shifts they have, how many employees they have and what their margins are and the markets they are in, I can create a strategy to beat them. But we do not have those knowns anymore. So, we have to fundamentally change the way we define the environment.”

One thing business owners cannot do is predict the future, because everyone is terrible at it, Blackmon stressed. The unknowns always change. The environment always changes. “We have to align to a common purpose and vision, and we have to understand the talent, potential, maturity and judgement of everyone on the team. And the smaller you are, the more important it is,” he said. “If you have 20,000 employees, you can afford to have a bad day. If you have 12, you better get it right.”

One mistake businesses make is promoting employees due to performance, as opposed to demonstrated potential for increased responsibility. “If you do the latter, you are a global unicorn,” asserted Blackmon. “People promote because someone did a good job and they say they can do another job. So, they promote to incompetence. It is alive and well at every business out there. There are a lot of ways to promote performance, but we have to ask, what are the skill sets required for this job? Then, pick the people based on the skill sets required. Instead, we encourage incompetence day in and day out. You have to optimize the potential of your organization.”

Blackmon offered examples of businesses who have gotten it right and ones who have gotten it wrong in terms of business strategy. He started with a company who got it wrong: Nokia. “They are an engineering company that made the best phone out there,” noted Blackmon. “They were so good that in 2007, they owned 46.8 percent of the market. What happened in 2007? Steve Jobs walked across a stage and pulled an iPhone out of his pocket. But Nokia had a strategy for the long term. They said they made the best device, and that will win the day. In 2010, Nokia owned 23 percent of the market and still did not hire one software engineer. They did not get it was not about the phone, but the apps. In 2012, they owned 2.8 percent of the market share and Microsoft bought them at a bargain. Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop’s famous quote was, ‘We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.’”

Blackmon offered Blockbuster Video, BlackBerry and Kodak as other companies that failed to innovate correctly. “Getting ideas right and constantly innovating is vitally important,” he said. “If you get caught on your heels, you are going to get outmaneuvered. That is true in pretty much every industry because things are changing quickly.”

On the other side, Blackmon offered up Intuit as a company that made the right strategic moves. “They did not originally brand themselves as Intuit. You and I knew them as Quicken, TurboTax and QuickBooks,” Blackmon said. “But they transitioned their programs from desktop software to the cloud. They went from a closed platform to an open platform. You want to talk about risk? You’re talking about people’s finances here, and you are going to let third-party companies have access to their apps? Absolutely, because it is essential for reaching the objectives they had. Intuit went from a North American company to a global company. They rebranded, sold off Quicken, and every year since 2007, they have maintained a 12.6 percent annual growth rate. If that is not enough for you, they are Fortune World’s ‘Most Admirable Company to Work For’ 14 years in a row.”

The closing-session speech ended with interesting anecdotes, as well as a discussion of the characteristics of successful 21st-century companies. Blackmon said these successful companies share six characteristics: they have a clear vision and strategy, they are performance-oriented, they enforce accountability to standards, they pursue relentless innovation, they have a passion for growth and they are collaborative. “Performance-oriented” refers to measuring objectives and key results. “Accountability and standards” means the company on a daily basis lives up to what it says it is going to be. And regarding “relentless innovation,” “passion for growth” and “collaborative,” Blackmon said as companies scale, they need to expect to face complex challenges and know how to overcome them.

And regarding “a clear vision and strategy,” Blackmon stated “Have a vision. What do we look like today? What are we going to look like in five years? What are the milestones we need to reach to get to where we want to be, knowing we will have to adapt along the way?”

MCMILLAN MUSIC

15 Britain Dr., New Britain, PA 18901 E: mcmillan@comcat.com | P. 800-441-0603 | F. 215-441-8531 | W.www.mcmillanmusicco.com

ORDER OUR CUSTOM CARE KITS TODAY!

CUSTOMIZABLE KITS FAST DELIVERY DEDICATED TO 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

CARE KITS OFFERED FOR THE FOLLOWING INSTRUMENTS:

TRUMPET T-BONE ALTO SAX LOW BRASS CLARINET FLUTE

FIVE MINUTES WITH: CORDOBA MUSIC GROUP

(continued from page 29)

Now that we have rebuilt the brand, we are the point of, how do we build the brand back up [on the marketing side]? We are going through a website redesign and a bit of a branding redesign. We are doing a lot more on social media now. As far as marketing goes, there is so much to be gained from content marketing. That is where we are making a big effort. We are getting our guitars into the hands of artists. We are creating content pieces. We launched this series called Guild Factory Sessions, where we have artists come in and perform in the factory and the machinery areas where we are building these guitars. It is a nice intimate take on performance. Content pieces like these go a long way. Shareable content is great on social media.

Guild is an exciting brand to tap into. The more I learn about Guild, the more and more I am impressed by it.

The Retailer: Is content creation a way to help replace the in-person experience we unfortunately have not had without trade shows like Winter NAMM?

Buck: It is hard to replace anything in person. The tangible aspect of that event still goes a long way. [On the internet,] you can show something as beautiful as you can and create an environment where you can almost touch it, but you still cannot touch it. The big thing we are missing out on without trade shows are the relationships you build, the communication you have with people on the floor and showing people the guitars and letting them play them. There is a connection involved with every guitar you pick up. You know it when you pick it up. That is hard to simulate. There are things we are doing like the website build and content pieces that get you as close as you can to the guitar. We are also doing everything we can to launch experiences and show the product in different environments. We have also worked to dial up the audio environment so you can really hear the guitar too, which is as important as looking at it. We just launched an eight-string baritone, and it is hard to replicate the feeling of playing it. But we are trying to bring some lifestyle elements into our products. Product demos are also huge. We are really putting a lot of work into them.

But of course, we are missing the aspect of seeing a product and picking it up. Hopefully we can do that again soon.

The Retailer: You mentioned a new product. Can you mention any other products you have coming out or will launch soon?

Buck: On the Cordoba side, we recently released the Matiz series. They are colorful guitars that are very cool. The C1 model in our Protégé series also offers a low-end price point. They sound great for an entry-level classical acoustic. They also come with a gig bag that matches the color of the top of the guitar. There is a notion that classical guitars look all the same. You might say that if you saw a wall of classical guitars, but that isn’t the case here. It bucks the trend and really stands out. This [new product] launched in Pale Sky, Classic Blue, Aqua and Choral. Those colors really stand out on a guitar wall. The gig bag is made from ocean recycled material too, which is great.

We will also have more Cordoba launches later this year. I can hint at a few of them. One of them will be a game-changer that will bridge the gap between stage-performance classical nylon-string electricacoustic guitars. That will be launching closer to The NAMM Show. We also have some exciting ukulele products coming out tied to our sustainable efforts with recycled ocean plastics. We are working to tie those plastics into making instruments and gig bags.

At Guild, there are no shortage of products coming out. Everyone there is working nonstop and having a lot of fun. There is a solid-body launching around Winter NAMM that will be a gamechanger in the electric guitar side. We will also have a big artist launch later this year. I cannot let the details out of the bag quite yet, but I can say we are very excited about it. We are expecting that to launch in October.

The Retailer: Most every guitar, ukulele and guitar accessory manufacturers have told us sales were good during the pandemic, and many new players joined our industry. If that was true, how do we keep these players involved in MI when we reach a postpandemic period and they have other entertainment options?

Buck: We certainly saw an uptick in the number of people picking up guitars for the first time during the pandemic. Ukuleles as well. One thing we are focusing on is education. Before, we did not have a lot of educational material to keep people playing. We had a few demos online, but as far as actually learning, and continuing training, we were not offering a lot. Right away, we said, “OK, we can solve it. But we also want to help people grow throughout their journey. We want to have them keep playing.” We are offering free educational courses on YouTube now for intermediate players. Our beginner courses launched with four classes. These courses teach songs, chord progressions and how to hold a ukulele on the beginner side, and then it goes up to intermediate and advanced courses, which we will launch as well. We have about 12 videos that help continue that [musical] journey.

The good thing about ukulele is that if you have any kind of training, it can be easy to learn, especially if you played a guitar. If not, getting a few chords down is easy to do, and you can learn how many songs you can play with two chords, which is great, because it can keep you motivated to continue playing the ukulele. So, it is all about education.

I mentioned social media earlier. We are doing a lot of giveaways. We have done fun challenges like when we have had people do covers of a particular song. We will be doing a lot more of that.

The mini guitar market also is continuing its trajectory. There are more and more mobile musicians and options for people to bring them wherever they are. Our Mini line grew a lot during the pandemic.

We hope people continue playing. Our take is, keep them educated and become a resource for them. We are really increasing the editorial content on our website to help with this as well. We need to have people keep coming back [to music].

The Retailer: To follow up on the last question, during the pandemic, the MI industry faced an issue it rarely ever faced before: more demand than supply. How, as a manufacturer, did you adjust to make both MI retailers and consumers happy?

Buck: We definitely ran into that. There have been supply issues globally. If it were just the MI industry or certain brands that were affected by this, it would be a big problem. But there was a bit of acceptance of the fact that everyone is suffering from this right now. People were more open to some of the issues we ran into. People who put in orders knew they may not see it for six months. That is a long time to wait, but if you want the guitar badly enough, you might wait that long or longer. Speaking for our supply chain, I know they have done everything they can to find any opportunities, including expanding the staff and the factories we work with to fulfill the demand.

We also made sure we communicated as much as possible with our distributors and dealers to explain what we can fulfill. We did not sugarcoat anything. We were clear with our customers what is available right now and what is not.

On the advertising side, it is hard to advertise anything when you know there is no inventory. So, you get stuck in a tough spot. But the opportunities we had were less product-focused and more brandfocused. It gave us an opportunity to highlight products people may not have known we carried or that we did not place a lot of focus on previously. We saw people purchase guitars that were in stock instead of something they may have been initially focused on. It was an interesting year, but we took it as an opportunity to build our brands.

The Retailer: Anything you would like to add?

Buck: We are very excited about what we are doing with the Cordoba and Guild brands this coming year. Keep coming back to our website. You will see us more actively promoting our products. We will be active on social media and will give away a lot of fun stuff. We also are very excited about our new product launches coming out later this year and early 2022. Stay tuned.

MI SPY

(continued from page 33) shaka signs is welcoming, for sure. (You can even find a picture of none other than Jimmy Buffet smiling and flashing the shaka during a recent in-store appearance.) The feed mostly included photos of guitars, ukes and a few amps, but there were also photos of the inside of the store and its entrance and windows, which were nice to see for someone who was virtually visiting from so far away; it helped me to imagine what the store must be like to visit in person. As I mentioned before, Goodguys Music & Sound also has an IGTV video blog, which you can access on the store’s Instagram page and website. Instagram makes it easy to host the kind of video content Goodguys Music & Sound is producing here, and it’s a great way to show off your store’s personality.

Island Guitars islandguitars.com Instagram @island_guitars Facebook @islandguitars

Island Guitars has been around since 1984. Its website has a laidback setup, offering straightforward photos and stats for the products available with not a lot of gloss.

The website has a slightly nostalgic feel to it (although obviously not as vintage as its 1984 founding). Most of the photos on the homepage have an old-school look as far as the color quality and composition, and they come off a bit kitschy. Even the store logo of musician, dancer and palm tree in silhouette gives off a throwback vibe; it would make for a great design on a vintage ringer tee.

Now, your MI Spy is a good-natured sort, but there are a few things that I get picky about, and one of them is misspelled words on a website. (I had a few really harsh editors once upon a time.) In the last paragraph on the homepage, which advertises online music lessons via Zoom, there was a misspelled word that caught my eye, and it irked me a bit.

Minor nitpicks about its level of polish aside, the Island Guitars website is easy to navigate. You can explore the store’s inventory of acoustic and electric guitars, basses, ukes, and accessories. The products are displayed in unadorned photos with accompanying text, and prices are listed clearly. The “About Us” page features friendly short bios of the store’s four staff members. Another interesting feature is the “Resources” page, with links to helpful websites.

Instagram Stats (as of 7/19/21): 461 posts, 629 followers

Island Music’s Instagram feed is much more modern in spirit and a real contrast with its website. It’s a mix of product displays, some artsy pics and a series of videos of Pete from the store cheerfully speaking to us and demonstrating various instruments — mostly acoustic and electric guitars, but also a banjo, a lap steel and a few collectible stringed instruments. These types of videos are very effective, if a tad corny; they’re an excellent way to hear and see the instruments, and they offer a personal touch that works great for a neighborhood music store. (Island Music also posts these videos with enough frequency and consistency of composition that you can track the growth of Pete’s pandemic hair just by scrolling through the feed.) The Facebook page offers similar posts (again, Island Guitars is likely mirroring posts between Facebook and Instagram, which is a good move for ensuring that you cover both audiences).

The Ukulele Store ukulelestorehawaii.com Instagram @theukulelestore Facebook.com/profile.php?id=100039830966025

What would an MI Spy story about Hawaii be without a report on The Ukulele Store? If you have ever wanted to feast your eyes on a serious selection of ukes, then you have to browse this website.

According to the homepage, The Ukulele Store offers “The Finest Hand Selected, Hand Crafted, Hawaiian Ukulele” (I’ll have to take the owner at his word). This website and the store itself are as much a tribute to the ukulele and Hawaiian musical culture as anything else. And dig that store logo of an uke surrounded by palm trees and a big wave — does it get more Hawaii than that?

Your MI Spy has been to many musical instrument stores in the continental United States and seen plenty of ukes for sale under $100, but this website doesn’t feature those types of ukuleles. The ukes displayed for sale here are pricey, for the most part. Several are listed as “Call for Price.” These are serious instruments, and quite a number of collectibles are included among the pack here. If you’re in the market for a high-end, professional model, this is a great destination.

Instagram Stats (as of 7/19/21): 500 posts, 1,836 followers

Some of the posts and videos on The Ukulele Store’s Instagram feed feature the owner (even including some cute pictures from when he was a kid). Scroll through the feed, you can see how the posting style has changed over time: more recent posts include multiple pictures, while older posts feature album-style layouts where all the pictures are included in one slide. One thing that has remained consistent about the posting style is the use of appealing closeups to accentuate the details of each instrument. The videos of the owner playing are a really nice touch; you can watch him play a Stratolele or cover “Take On Me” by A-ha! There are also posts featuring vintage, collectible ukes and intriguing factory production photos. This is definitely an enjoyable and entertaining Instagram feed.

The Sale

Sigh … I really want to go to Hawaii someday. Until then, browsing through these store websites and social media accounts was a treat, and a musical, cultural and historical learning experience, too!

Overall, while I was impressed by a lot of what I saw, I think these stores could be utilizing social media in an even more savvy manner. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to post more regularly and with enticing photos, and most of these stores are already on the right track. One thing I noticed was a lack of essential information at the top of many of the stores’ Instagram pages, such as the address and contact data, store hours, and the like. However, they did include links to their websites, where that information could be easily found. The stores also used their Facebook pages fairly well, but there is a greater impact in certain ways with an Instagram feed.

The best store website for my money was Easy Music Center; it’s a slick site with a great deal of appeal. I found the site easy to use, and it displays the products, and their specs and prices, very well. As for the best Instagram page, Island Guitars has a really good feed that does a way better job of promoting the store than the actual website. A lot of that is thanks to Pete, whose cheerful and skilled demos make the store’s Instagram page exceptional.

UNDER THE HOOD: PRS HX AMPS

(continued from page 46) objectives Hendrix and the amp techs explored. We have married our part-selection process with historical research and the Museum of Pop Culture amplifier to create an amp with the same great tone, feel and reliability.”

PRS HX amps bring power and balance in both 100- and 50-watt formats. According to PRS, the HX amps are designed to push the high end so it is very clear, but not so much that it’s harsh, and HX allows for aggression that can be backed off for smooth, sweet tones. PRS HX amps are also designed with internally bridged channels with individual volume controls. This eliminates the need for a jumper cable and allows players to more easily dial in their distortion level and tone through blending the lead and bass channels, bringing more modern convenience to the amp. PRS has also designed matching 2x12 and 4x12 cabinets for the HX Amp family. Modified Celestion G12H-75 Creamback speakers are intended to “push” and “punch” to complete the package.

“Designing the PRS HX was not an exercise in over-engineering; it’s a fairly straightforward build with the right parts and circuit. We kept historic specs where it made sense, and we made substitutions based on availability, safety and experience. In the end, I think we have made a great-sounding amplifier with exceptional build quality and enough power to blow your pantleg when you play it,” concluded Paul Reed Smith.

The new lineup of PRS HX Amps is available now.