Music Manufacturing
Dennis Guillaume began his career in the music industry in piano retail in the late 70's, a position he feels very much assisted him when he worked for Kimball Pianos throughout the 1980's. During this time the piano industry was experiencing steady decline. In an effort to reverse the trends,...
George Jacob greatly enjoys creating musical products for musicians –of all levels and ages. When a customer needed a softer sound with his drum sticks, George came to the rescue and developed a full line of drum sticks and mallets. Among his innovations was the use of materials not yet used in...
Spencer Aloisio began working for the Slingerland Drum Company in 1969 and stayed with the company until 1986. During that time he worked on the selling, promoting and marketing of the popular percussion products. Spencer worked his way up from factory employee into the office as sales manager and...
Jim Catalano loved playing drums as a small boy but never imagined a life in music. Jim jumped at the chance to work for the Ludwig Drum Company in the early 1980s. There he became known throughout the industry at trade shows and conferences promoting music education materials as well as the...
Johnny Davis had several key roles within the music products industry, which made his Oral History interview particularly meaningful for the NAMM collection as we seek to preserve our industry’s great history. For example, Johnny worked for the Barcus-Berry Company when both founders were still...
Ritchie Fliegler has come to be known throughout the music products industry as “the Amp guy.” He wrote several articles and two popular books on amplifiers. He has been in the forefront of the technology that helped advance the amp, particularly when he was working with Fender Musical Instrument...
Bill Mendello retired as president of Fender Musical Instrument Corp in the fall of 2010 after a long career in the industry. He was hired in the accounting department of CBS Musical Instrument Division in 1978. Bill soon began working with Bill Schultz who was hired by the president of the musical...
Jim Funada has proudly served the music products industry in several important ways over the last 40 years. He began his career by working for the Yamaha Corp. in keyboard retailing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jim oversaw the Yamaha school programs among keyboard dealers in the San Francisco Bay...
Billy Grammer formed his own guitar company after years of playing country music in and around Nashville. Billy recorded several hit records on his own as well as playing behind some of the biggest names in country music. In 1958 he recorded “Done Laid Around” and the chart topper “Gotta Travel On...
Neil Grover was playing percussion in the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he discovered a bright and unique triangle. When he bought a new triangle he realized it was nothing like that of the symphony and thus started a quest to find, produce and play the perfect triangle. Along the way, quite by...