Oct 12
Kitchenware might be practical, but it isn’t nearly enough fun. Fortunately, cookware company Lodge has decided to change that by creating a seasoned guitar-shaped cast iron skillet at its Tennessee foundry. More »
Oct 04
Sep 25
Whether you prefer the sound of acoustic or electric guitars, Kikkerland’s got you covered with this set of beechwood spoons shaped like the iconic instruments. More »
Sep 18
“If it’s too loud,” the saying goes, “the neighbors are going to call the cops and screw up your late-night shred session.” In an attempt to solve this eternal conundrum, the guitar amplification specialists at Vox have teamed up with the headphone geniuses Audio Technica to create Amphones. Yes, guitar amplifier headphones. It’s a preposterous idea that’s just crazy enough to work. More »
Aug 28
Bad news for those of you who splurge on front row concert tickets in hopes of snagging a musician’s lost guitar pick. These plastic MagnetaPicks incorporate a thin magnetic neodymium disc that lets them securely stick to any metallic surface—from guitar strings to microphone stands— so they’re next to impossible to lose. More »
Aug 17
A group of students in Japan is trying to develop a machine that lets you pluck guitar strings with your foot. The technology could one day help people who only have one arm play guitar. Some day we might have a world of Rick Allen-like guitar players. More »
Aug 09
Guitar-making is a noble and beautiful art and it’s high time luthiers started thinking about the web. MacKenzie & Marr is a tiny company in Quebec that designs and hand makes relatively inexpensive but amazingly handsome guitars. While they do outsource much of the manufacturing to China, there is not a single robot involved in the building of their cedar-top git-fiddles and guitarists can order their handsome axes with a few button-clicks.
Why did the boys go online? “The music business is the worst distribution channel imaginable. Factory to brand to warehouse to multiple distributors to dealers. High end guitars are almost always in small retailers,” said John Marr, co-founder. This allows them to cut 60% off of the price of hand-crafted guitars.
As an ecommerce play, instruments are a fairly benighted industry. They’re niche, so, like fine wristwatches and pens, there’s some tendency to focus on authorized dealers and networks. By eschewing this, the team saves a lot of hassle and money.
“I was looking for a product that could be sold on the web..had to be expensive (not interested in selling 25 cent widgets) had to evoke passion (word of mouth) and one day Jonathan asked if I had played any Chinese guitars. I said ‘Yes, total garbage,’” said Marr.
“Jon replied that I needed to go try one of the newer solid wood ones. I did and they were good and we knew how to make the better. Voila! The product I was looking for!” he said.
Marr went on to spend a week working in China in order to better understand the process. He said the lack of contract manufacturers and cost prevented him from building guitars with the same craftsmanship in Canada.
“Everyone said no musician would buy a guitar over the Internet. We knew they would.”
And they did. The company sold out of their first run fairly quickly after appearing on Canada’s Dragon’s Den, which is a sort of Shark Tank for the Great White North. You can obviously pick up Fenders and Martins at various online stores but this is the first factory-direct sales model I’ve seen in the guitar world.
They’re not quite ready to offer custom work just yet, but inlays may be on the horizon. “For most makers the quantities we produce would be laughable so even a huge production run by our standards is custom work for someone like Martin,” he said. The guitars start at about $1,000, but some “less than perfect” models can be had for $600.
Jon MacKenzie and Marr met in grade school and have been friends for over fifty years. Marr plays blues fingerpicking and Jon likes folk and Celtic. Marr describes himself as a real hack, but he knows how to build a mean axe.
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