Music Manufacturing
Chuck Erikson is known as The Duke of Pearl! His business supplies luthiers and large guitar companies with shells and other in-lay products for instrument making. As a luthier, Chuck saw the need early on to provide high quality materials for small shops. The business grew to service larger...
Brock Kaericher is the President of REMO Inc. and over the last few decades he has worked closely with the company’s founder, Remo Belli. Brock has been a strong supporter in the products as well as the many programs the company supports including music education and music wellness. As a member...
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...
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 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....
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...
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...