By Jim Basara
This is Part 2 of an interview with several Hohner guitar execs - Rick Gagliano, Product Manager for Hohner Guitars and Laney Amps, Butch
Sarma, VP of Marketing for Hohner USA, and Mike Blaylock, Hohner’s head
guitar tech - which provides
interesting insight into guitar development, overseas manufacturing,
and where Hohner intends to go in the future.
Read Part 1 >
GJ – How do you go about getting artists to endorse your product? Do they receive compensation?
Butch – No, we do not pay our artists to endorse our products. The artist must genuinely play the instrument and then have the desire to endorse the product at events and in photo shoots.
Author’s note: There’s nothing that bugs me more than companies paying artists to endorse their products when the artist doesn’t actually play that instrument. When I picture a kid (or even an adult) saving their hard-earned bucks to buy the instrument they believe their favorite player uses to get the sound they love, and the artist doesn’t even use that guitar/model, I am completely disgusted. I’m all for players making money, but not at the expense of misleading fans who believe in them.
GJ – I’m particularly interested with your process for exporting German engineering and quality control standards, which are regarded as the highest in the world, when building guitars in countries such as China and Korea. I’ve been impressed with the rapid increase on quality of the guitars coming out of China. How does Hohner manage the quality control?
Butch – We are very involved in the building process. Much of the equipment used to manufacture the guitars is German designed and built. Our engineers and executives frequently visit with the manufacturers to impress upon them the importance of quality and to monitor the operations. We even send our marketing folks out to help the workers understand the need to maintain high quality and how it affects our brand, so that we build pride into the manufacturer. Each builder has very precise specs and tolerance ranges for things like string height, saddle height, nut width, relief, finish, etc, and every instrument with a retail price greater than $150 list gets manually inspected and adjusted.
GJ – What do you mean by that? Do you have someone checking the instruments or do you actually have a Hohner tech making repairs and setting the guitars up when they arrive in the US?
Mike – That’s right. Every guitar gets pulled by me or one of our other techs. We tune it up, visually inspect it, and look at all aspects of the setup. We look at everything including the neck, string height, fret dressing, etc. and we make all of the necessary adjustments to get the guitar up to our standards, or we flat out reject it. We then feed all of that information back to the plant so that their quality can be measured and improved upon.
GJ – That’s impressive. What level of setup are you shooting for?
Mike – Our goal is to have the guitar set up so that the dealer can take our guitars out of the box and hang them on the wall, with the expectation that they will be consistently set up to a high quality. We realize that a lot of dealers don’t have time to spend a half hour or more with a guitar before they can put it up for sale, and it does neither the dealer nor Hohner any good to have sub-par guitars on the floor.
GJ – What do you look for in dealers?
Rick – We look for dealers who understand value and quality who will support the brand as a whole. They don’t have to stock every instrument we make, but if they only have one Hohner on the floor, they’re not doing a positive service either to themselves or the brand. The dealer must also have a brick and mortar location (i.e. no internet-only dealers).
GJ – And how do you support the dealer?
Rick – We try to make it an easy decision for the dealer to support our brand. We structure our pricing and programs such that it is advantageous for a dealer to carry a variety of Hohner products. We also offer a limited lifetime warranty, which helps the dealer represent that Hohner makes a quality instrument. We develop close relationships with our dealers and reps travel into the field frequently to get feedback, provide support, and to understand the dealer’s local market. And, Mike and his folks provide top-notch tech support. Mike will spend the necessary time to help the dealer make a customer happy with a Hohner product.
GJ - How do you see the landscape of the guitar industry changing over the next three to five years given the increased purchasing over the Internet, given the rising quality of guitars from outside the United States?
Rick – I think that the Internet has greatly increased the musicians’ ability to research the instrument that will be best for him, but I also believe that the purchase of a guitar is a highly personal experience. Even with today’s modern, computer-controlled building techniques, every instrument that is manufactured seems to still have a very individualized feel. Unlike electronic products that are produced virtually the same from piece to piece, there is no substitute to the tactile experience of selecting the perfect stringed instrument for YOUR music…I expect this trend will continue. The consumers of today have the added benefit of using the Internet to compare models by specifications, take “virtual” factory tours, etc. In addition, the build quality of instruments produced outside the United States has increased exponentially over the past ten years. This is partly due to the increased capacity of factories in Asia, combined with involvement by many major guitar manufacturers (Hohner included). Many manufacturers are sending their qualified luthiers and guitar technicians to the Asian factories to help ensure quality. I expect the quality of instruments produced from around the world should continue to improve.
I know that we here at Hohner have dramatically increased our quality, as well as aiming more
products at the professional player. Pros as diverse as JoJo Garza (Los Lonely Boys) and Dan Schaefer (Shania Twain) have chosen Hohner quality instruments as their first choice for stage and studio, and we expect to continue to work in tandem with artists worldwide to continually expand our reach to the guitar community
GJ - How is Hohner positioning itself to take advantage of these changes?
Rick - For starters, Hohner is addressing its’ Internet presence to ensure that it is directly focused on the consumer’s needs. Of course, consumers will find complete specifications on all instruments, but we will also include genre-specific guides to help you determine which instrument is right for you; a “tech-talk” bulletin board feature to communicate directly with technical personnel; warranty information for all Hohner Instruments. We will also be working in concert with our global manufacturing partners to continually enhance and improve all of our quality instruments. I will personally be visiting factories worldwide to ensure exceptional build-quality. The international Guitar Product management team will be focusing on new and emerging technologies for guitar, as well as embarking on several unique and innovative instrument designs. We will continually improve and expand our product line to ensure high-quality instruments that have been designed with the performer in mind.
GJ – What does the future of Hohner guitars look like? Where do you see the company in five years?
Rich – Hohner guitars’ aim is to become a leader in the design and manufacture of fretted instruments for all skill levels worldwide. We expect to continue our long-standing heritage of providing outstanding student and intermediate level instruments, while continually expanding the product offering to include higher-end products aimed directly at the pro and semi-pro player. With over 150 years of musical instrument manufacturing experience, Hohner will continue to make instruments by players, for players, worldwide…Sound. Quality. Passion. That is what we’re all about at Hohner.
Summary – I came away from my visit with Hohner extremely impressed, particularly with the level of quality control that they instill in their foreign manufacturers. During the tour, Mike took me thru the check and setup that they perform on every instrument that is priced over $150 list and it was very thorough. If they can put this level of quality into mid-range guitars, I personally can’t wait to see what they come up with at higher price points.
As an added bonus, Hohner agreed to send me a couple of their guitars to review, which I will do in the coming weeks. Should be educational and great fun.
As always, feel free to send questions, comments, and topic requests to [email protected]
By Ken Volpe
