Ibanez Guitars
Chris Kelly has always thought outside the box, which has proven to be a perfect element for marketing guitars to rock bands. While working for Robin Guitars in Houston, Texas, Chris brought a number of instruments to a local performance center and placed them on the grass outside of the tour buses...
Orval Engling has become an expert on the Ibanez guitar brand, so much so that he helped write a book on the company’s history. Orval began collecting Ibanez guitars in the 1990s and has come to discover the many innovations the company created over the years. He has enjoyed learning stories from...
Owen Ray recalls his father buying him a ukulele when he was a kid and his passion for string instruments began! Owen played a vital role in the Australian guitar market when he started repairing guitars as his day job while gigging with his band, the Countdowns, at night. While repairing Fender...
John Scofield remembers the music retail stores around his town growing up and proudly gives gratitude to the many retail stores involved with his career over the years. As a guitarist he bought his gear at stores all across the country and as a noted performer and endorsee, John provided clinics...
Gary Bennett entered the music products industry in 1964 working for Chesbro Music in Idaho. At the time of his NAMM Oral History interview, taped during the NAMM Show in January 2012, Gary was still proudly working for Chesbro. During the 1970s Gary played a vital role in their becoming the...
Yoshitada Hoshino is the president of Hoshino Gakki Company, a music company that has remained in his family since first opening in 1908 to sell sheet music in Japan. The distribution segment of the business began to grow throughout the next hundred years. Along the way the company developed the...
Bobby Cochran got his start in music playing the licks of his uncle Eddie, who passed away when Bobby was just ten years old. As he developed his own style he performed with Steppenwolf, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Leon Russel, as well as his own bands as singer and guitarist. He formed several...
Steve Vai is a man that could be described as a planet that revolves around a star named Music. His life is ever entwined in an orbit that includes composing, transcription, performance, acting, and philanthropy. He first gravitated into exposure as Frank Zappa’s guitarist. Affectionately coined “...
Toshitsugu “Tom” Tanaka, the president of Hoshino Gakki. Ltd, recalled with a smile his early training in the industry under Harry Rosenbloom of Medley Music. That experience not only educated him on the American instrument market, it was also the foundation of his partnership with Mr. Rosenbloom....
Harry Rosenbloom was the founder of Medley Music and one of the true pioneers of import relations with the Japanese beginning in the late 1950s. He developed and maintained key partnerships with the Japanese suppliers and was one of the first advocates for better trade relations between the United...