Daddy’s Blog

Maybe the notion of a three day trip to China wasn’t my best idea but when Behringer called and generously invited Daddy’s to attend the 5^th anniversary of the formation of Eurotec, the manufacturing arm of the Behringer company, the offer was too good to resist.  Not only would we get to spend a day in vibrant Hong Kong but also get to observe first-hand the incredible manufacturing growth in China that has profoundly affected the musical instrument retail industry.  The efficiencies of modern Chinese manufacturing, the low cost of labor and generous government subsidies has caused a price vs. features revolution in music stores.  Our established expectation for price points on certain products has been ripped apart over the past few years.  While this may be great for consumers in many ways, these changes have forced musical instrument retailers to radically change the way they do business.  Suddenly lower prices in a limited specialty retail industry do not result in a larger volume of sales, but more frequently just cause smaller revenues.  While $99 guitar/amp packages, for instance, do not attract many more customers to Daddy’s or any other musical instrument retailer, the lower price points have certainly attracted the attention of mass merchandisers who look at the popularity of musical celebrities today and believe that will translate into significant entry level instrument sales.

Frankly, they’re not wrong.  It was widely reported that close to 1 million guitar units were sold to non-traditional musical retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Restoration Hardware, you get the picture).  So the “big boxes” are happy, they’ve found a new source of revenues.  The manufacturers are happy, they now get the volume in entry level goods that they felt the traditional music stores could not provide for them and, theoretically, there are more new customers exposed to the joy of making music.  All well and good, except for one thing.  This model doesn’t work.

These mass merchandisers cannot and will not do the work that will turn these first-time buyers into players.  That kind of nurturing effort, built on the promise of future revenues if that young beginner sticks with the instrument is not in their business model, nor will it ever be.  So we’re left with only the dedicated musical instrument merchants that can provide the lessons, the proper advice and the hand-holding that is necessary for the process of growing new musicians.  Without new musicians, things start to change in a bad way and, unfortunately, if the current route of suppliers turning this entry level business over to mass merchants continues, I don’t see an alternative model out there.  So, support your dedicated music merchants, like Daddy’s Junky Music Stores, for example!

But back to our original story, I’m here in Hong Kong and it is an exciting place to be.  There’s lots on people in a very small space but it’s run well and there’s a lot going on.

I went the Peak Tram,  a site located at 370 meters above the city and offers a spectacular view of Hong Kong, the harbor (3^rd busiest in the world) and the buildings sprouting up over in China.  Here’a daytime and a night time view.

Tonight we dined at one of two existing floating restaurants in Hong-Kong as Behringer employees and  dealers have gathered from all over the world, a very enjoyable evening.  Thursday and Friday promise to bring even more surprises, so the 22 hours I spent in the air to get here are looking better all the time. Plus, Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong based airliner that covered the last leg of my journey, showed uncut versions of “The Departed”, “The King of Scotland” and “Queen”.  Not bad.  Will have more tomorrow.

Once again this year, Daddy’s Sound Solutions is pleased to announce a series of church audio seminars featuring nationally known clinician Kent Morris.  This year, thanks to your requests, we will be holding a seminar in the NH Seacoast region and we will also be presenting a one-night plus all-day-Saturday seminar in Salem, NH which will explore more advanced topics.

Thursday, March 8:  6:30P-9P in Rochester, NH (location to be announced.)  Kent presents the fundamentals of church audio for sound techs, worship leaders, and worship team musicians.  $10.

Friday, March 9:  6:30P-9:30P at Granite State Baptist Church in Salem, NH.  Same content as Thursday presented as an introduction or review for Saturdays seminar.  PLUS!  The evening concludes with worship led by Pastor Greg DiCecca with Kent commenting from the mixing console.  $10.  Free if you attend Saturday as well!

Saturday, March 10:  8:30A-4P at Granite State Baptist Church, Salem, NH.  Kent, with a break from other presenters, explores topics such as Unity Gain, Microphones and their Role, Compression and other Effects, and the Role of Lighting and Video in Creating an Exciting Worship Experience.  Lunch is included along with plenty of time for questions and hands-on practice.  $30.

Reservations and pre-payment are requested.  Please contact Dave Fuchs and Daddy’s Sound Solutions for tickets and more information at 603-623-7900 x101 or (even better) at dfuchs@daddys.com.

Final day of the show for us, we fly home on Sunday morning. Saturday is always the worst day, the halls are incredibly crowded with citizens from the greater Anaheim area who have managed to get a pass to the show. This is supposed to be a trade-only show but that proclamation seems to be greeted with a wink and a nod, it’s not a trade-only show on Saturdays. Please remember that I’m speaking from the vantage point of someone who has to get around the show and complete his appointed rounds before the show closes at 6:00 P.M. On one hand, it’s exciting to see so many people interested in music and their musical heroes but on the other hand, it’s frustrating that every trip between booths takes twice as long as they should. Enough of the whining, it was a very good show. Coming off a lackluster retail year, the musical instrument retailing industry showed up in record numbers for this show, ready to do battle in ’07 and to learn as much as they could about that really happened in ’06 so the proper changes could be made.

The Daddy’s crew started the day off at 8:00 A.M. with an AIMM (Alliance of Independent Music Merchants) buyers breakfast. AIMM is the trade group that Daddy’s joined in 1997. One of the best features of the group is the opportunity to gather a large group of non-competing dealers and exchange the kinds of information that will help to make Daddy’s a better music store. The buyers always talk at this meeting about the new gear that we’ve seen on the show floor, what’s exciting and what will appeal to our customers.

This Buyer’s breakfast included buyers from seven different stores from all over the United States, all with different ideas on what will be a hit and what will be a miss. Here’s a list of the “hottest” gear, the closest thing we came to as a consensus. 1. The Gibraltar Catapult Linear Motion bass drum pedal (see Thursday’s blog)

1. The Boss ’59 Bassman and ’65 Deluxe Reverb pedals (see picture)
2. Samson H-2, baby brother of the immensely popular H-4 (see picture)
3. The Tascam MPGT-1, an updated guitar trainer that will take MP-3s as a sound source.
4. Sabian XS-20 cymbals, not exactly brand new but a new manufacturing technique gives them turned out appearance. Great sound and great value.

There were many more exciting new products but this short list was of some of the early stars, look for them to be coming to your local Daddy’s store within the next 30-60 days.

See you soon.

Thursday, January 18^th, the Winter NAMM Show finally opens at 10:00 A.M. but the Daddy’s staff is there at eight o’clock attending a breakfast meeting with Vox, celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the company. It was a pretty lively affair for that hour of the morning. We got to see and hear the AC15H1TV hand-wired combo, very crunchy. This amp combines the 1960 preamp channel with the 1963 Top Boost channel all-in –one amp and it sounds fabulous. No price has been announced and Vox is looking at availability in Spring ’07. Stay tuned, we’ve got some coming to Daddy’s. Once the show opened, we rushed to the Vox booth.

From there it was on to the Kaman display where we saw the Gibraltar Catapult Linear Motion bass drum pedal. This pedal uses natural ankle motion to avoid muscle fatigue and is extremely responsive. It’s coming soon to Daddy’s. The Kaman folks also debuted the Ovation 2007 Collectors’ Edition with a solid bear claw spruce top, inlaid spalted maple epaulet and the Ovation VIP-5 Virtual Imaging Preamp. It’s a beautiful instrument and due at Daddy’s very soon.

The Fender exhibit is always interesting but a lot of interest was generated by this Custom Shop rendition of Eddie Van Halen’s “customized” Strat. EVH has authorized Fender to recreate this guitar down to the finest detail and at a $25,000 retail price, there’s a lot of detail!

Our Canadian friends at Godin are currently shipping the brand new Simon&Patrick Songsmith. We saw it for the first time today. It has a select pressure tested Solid Cedar top with a lovely semi-gloss Varnish Burst Finish. This guitar is alive and responsive but will only cost you $299.99 with a heavy duty bag, exclusively at Daddy’s.

Later on in the day, a number of honors came our way. Schecter name Daddy’s Best New Dealer of 2006. Here you see Daddy’s Product Manager Paul Rindone, Chris Gleason receiving the plaque from Schecter’s Gregg Burns. We’re proud to say that Gregg is a Daddy’s alum from our Boston store and has been very successful at Schecter. Daddy’s will be selling Schecter at all 21 stores within the next few weeks.

Monster Cable presented Daddy’s with its highest award “The Most Monsterous National Pro MI Dealer” for 2006. Here is Chris Gleason, Daddy’s Product Manager Lew DiTommaso, Monster’s Mark Posgay and Richard Dean Associates Mark Rahilly (lovely young woman is unidentified). Mark is also a Daddy’s alum from our Peabody store. We were competing against all the national chain stores for this award but we couldn’t have won it without the help of our dedicated sales staff and our loyal customers. Thanks to you all.

Finally, PreSonus named Daddy’s “Most Improved Dealer” for 2006. This was a pleasant surprise, we have enjoyed our new relationship with this company and they are, as you can see, very supportive.

There’s lots more to report on Friday, talk to you then.

Wednesday, January 18^th, the Daddy’s Junky Music Stores team is up at the crack of dawn to attend a 7 o’clock meeting with Loud Technologies, the new home of Mackie, Ampeg and Alvarez. Even though the show doesn’t start until tomorrow, Daddy’s was able to get a preview of the ’07 models. We’re ushered into a large room at the Hilton that’s filled with just the newest gear from these three companies. Here are a few things that we saw: the Alvarez RD-6, which is essentially the RD-8 with a flat finish and without the hardshell case. It will be selling for $149, a lively sounding entry level acoustic. The RD-6 is being held by Paul Meisenzahl, the product manager for the Ampeg, Alvarez and Crate brands.

The Ampeg J20 Jet is a 15w, class AB amplifier with tremolo and a 1×12” speaker. Three 12AX7s and two 6V6s power this little monster and is the latest entry from Ampeg in the Diamond Blue Series amps.

Mackie has also been busy with new models; the SRM-150, shown here in its mic stand monitor configuration. The 150 ($389.99 retail) has 150 watts of power with hi and low z inputs, mixing capability and is extremely portable.

The now famous line of VLZ mixers have been reworked to include a new quieter power supply, more headroom, lower noise with the new XDR2 mic preamps and an even more musical EQ. Here’s the 1642-VLZ3, all three models will be priced like the original VLZs. All these models should be available soon and can be viewed at Daddy’s 2007 Products Preview to be held at Daddy’s Boston on February 23^rd and 24^th.

We then left immediately for the AIMM (Association of Independent Music Merchants).
This trade group includes 47 of the strongest independent music dealers from across the country and Daddy’s is a proud charter member. We are able to share information about store operations, marketing and product with the best people in our industry and ultimately, it helps Daddy’s become a more efficient in serving the needs of our customers. Daddy’s monthly catalog was recognized by AIMM as we received the Marketing Excellence Award for 2006.

Here it is, a mere 17 hours after we started this morning and we’ve just finished up. A busy day but a good one for Daddy’s. We got to see some new gear, get an award and most importantly, exchange some ideas with other independent dealers. Tomorrow the show starts and we’ll have lots more to share with you.

Tuesday, January 16th, 10:00 AM. The Winter NAMM show in Anaheim doesn’t officially start for two days and it’s pretty quiet here right now. As you can see from these pictures, the 65,000 to 75,000 expected attendees have not arrived and while displays are being set up in the Anaheim Convention Center and signs are being hung, the craziness is still two days away. By Friday night, the show will be in full swing. During the day, the show floor will be crowded and all your senses will be assaulted by the noise, lights and sheer crush of humanity. At night, all of that madness moves to the bars at the Hilton and the Marriott (right next to the Convention Center). They will be jammed to capacity, full of industry types, the great and near-great rock stars and assorted hangers-on. As the evening wears on, the crowd ebbs and flows and gets more boisterous. A general state of intoxification sets in. Some of the rowdiness is fueled by concoctions mixed at the bar but much of it springs from a close sense of community in this industry and the delight in spending time with people that have shared what is for some of us, a live long avocation. The music industry is all we’ve done and although the characters in this play come and go, there are enough constant players who have hung on through the good times and bad because selling gear, making gear, buying gear, just because it’s fun to do. Pack all of that into a tiny corner of the world and crazy stuff happens. This is the 30th winter show for us at Daddy’s Junky Music Stores, we’ve seen a lot but there’s always something new and exciting here. We’ll give a sneak peek at the latest gear and talk about everything else happening at the show.

Tomorrow, we attend the annual Alliance of Independent Music Merchants meeting, pictures and the story will follow. See you then.