Music Manufacturing
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...
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...
Elianne Schiedmayer proudly serves as the CEO of the Schiedmayer company. Since 1735 Schiedmayer has been at the service of music, building keyboard instruments of the highest craft. In 1809 the company settled in Stuttgart, Germany, and quickly gained worldwide reputation for its pianos and...
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...
Chip Wise served in the piano business for over fifty years and enjoyed the customers he met and the people of the music industry. During the early days of the NAMM Oral History program more interviewees suggested we interview Chip than just about anyone else. His interview took place at the NAMM...
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...