Music Manufacturing
Kim Breedlove began building banjos in the 1960s, during the Folk Music movement and the popularity of such performers as Pete Seeger. After working with his brother for a few months he moved to the east coast while his brother moved to Oregon to form Breedlove Guitars. As Kim moved to Oregon, his...
Tony D’Andrea is the grandson of Luigi D’Andrea, the innovative founder of the famed pick company. After college, Tony joined the company and worked long and hard to expand the business over the years. Among his contributions to the guitar pick are the PRO-GRIP products he created to reduce the...
Rob Mazzella is the vice president of GMS Drum Company. As a teenager, Rob combined his love of drumming with this love of machine shop work and began creating small accessory items for local music stores. Rob established GMS, which stands for his series of products called Grand Master Series, in...
Jerry Donegan began his career in the music industry in October, 1966, when his brother arranged for him to get a job in the shipping department of the Zildjian Cymbal Company. He found that early experience in the shipping department was a wonderful training ground in learning about the company’s...
Charles Avsharian is the CEO of Shar Musical Products, which he established in 1962 along with his brother, Michael. The brothers toured for years as professional musicians and along with their father formed a small business to provide instruments and accessories to their friends and fellow...
Michael Ciravolo is the president of Schecter Guitar Research and the designer behind the company’s Diamond Series guitars. Schecter was formed in 1976 to provide replacement parts for guitars made by other companies. With the help of engineers and designers the company changed focus and began...
Andy Zildjian is the president of the cymbal company his parents established in 1981, Sabian. With a long family tradition of cymbal making, Andy is proud to continue developing the company. Andy has worked to continue the core set of values established by his parents regarding customer and...
Andy Hildebrand is the creator of Auto-Tune, which has had a big impact on music makers since it was first released in 1997. After a successful career as a scientist, Dr. Hildebrand had an opportunity to form his own company and began working on computer plug-ins related to music, his first love....
Gabby Barajas joined Merlin 5 in the early 1990s to work with the company founder and designer, Bill Gerien. The company has become an industry leader in manufacturing, providing machined parts for several musical instruments with a special focus on the electrical guitar. Gabby oversees the plant,...
Yuichiro Yokouchi was once referred to as "the world's largest guitar maker" by a music magazine, a tag line he has liked to use over the years. His OEM guitar factory in Japan was responsible for over 15,000 guitars a month at the peek of the Beatle boom of the 1960s. He attended his first NAMM...