Music Manufacturing
Brooke Ludwig Crowden remembers her grandfather, William F. Ludwig, working around the factory inspecting drums and insisting on a quality product. She remembers the day her father, William F. Ludwig II, took her to meet the Beatles on the occasion of her father presenting Ringo Starr with a...
Bill Crowden was one of the true veterans of the music products industry! He owned and operated Drums Ltd, one of the hot spots for jazz, symphonic and rock drummers for several decades. The store was located on Wabash Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. When Bill married into the Ludwig family by...
Agness Tsao earned her college degree in banking and always had a love of music, singing in choirs from a young age. After college she began working for KHS Musical Instruments, which had a retail store in Taiwan and its manufacturing in the country as well. Agness was only the fourth employee to...
William F Ludwig III, known within the industry as B3, sat next to his sister Brooke as the two reflected on the Ludwig Drum Company’s 100th anniversary for the NAMM Oral History program. He spoke of his father and grandfather, the company founder, and the impact they had on the music products...
Dennis Awe is passionate about the organ! As a recording artist he has performed on many products, endorsing the Lowrey Organ for many decades. As a keen salesman, Dennis has written books on the process of marketing and selling to encourage others. As a music maker, Dennis has brought the sounds...
Jim Dunlop started the Dunlop Manufacturing company in 1965 in Benicia, California, and followed his dream to provide quality products for fellow musicians. Along the way he created the Dunlop Cry Baby, an innovative wah-wah pedal for the electric guitar. Jim focused on the accessories market and...
Tom Getzen is president of the horn company his father established in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The Getzen Company is world renowned for the hand-made products such as trumpets and trombones and has introduced several innovative improvements to the instruments over the years. Tom’s father also helped...
Rob Turner’s first instrument was the drums; in fact it was the drums that brought him to establish one of the world’s best-known guitar pickup companies! While on tour in the early 1970s his drum kit was stolen, forcing him to rent a kit for the remaining tour. The experience caused him to rethink...
Robert Godin grew up in love with woods and handcraftsmanship. He worked along side a luthier long enough to understand he had found his passion. Robert designed and perfected a style of building that produced a unique sounding guitar, special in many ways. He took extra care in selecting the woods...
Andrew Barta was born in Hungary and came to the United States with a dream of working in the music industry. Having been in rock bands in Europe, Andrew formed a band in America and worked as a technician repairing instruments in New York music stores. Along the way, he began designing a project...