 
Petty and Gretsch Team Up
NASCAR driver Kyle Petty has teamed up with Gretsch to raise funds for the 14th Anniversary Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, which benefits children’s charities including the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Petty founded that charity with his wife Pattie.
Petty autographed a Gretsch 6120 Nashville guitar, which will be auctioned off beginning on July 10.
The charity ride lasts eight days on a motorcycle and travels from Traverse City, Mich., to Savannah, Ga. The guitar will be auctioned off on eBay until July 20.
MMR Editor Dies
Don Johnson, who for 25 years has been editor of Musical Merchandise Review (MMR) passed away on May 2 following an 18-month bout with cancer. Johnson dedicated his life to a career in journalism, starting with a stint at a local weekly newspaper in his home state of Ohio and ending with MMR. He is survived by his wife Charlene, who he met working at MMR’s publisher—Symphony Publishing—and his two daughters.
“Don Johnson was a fantastic journalist and even better man,” said Brian Berk, editor of the Music & Sound Retailer. “Although we were competitors, he always took time out of his busy schedule to discuss the music instrument industry with me. He was friendly to me from the moment we first met at a NAMM show. He will be severely missed.”
NAMM Across the Pond
NAMM created a new branch, NAMM International LLC, which will service the needs of NAMM members in countries outside of the United States—approximately 23 percent of the overall membership. Betty Heywood, NAMM’s director of international affairs, oversees the new operation, which is located in the United Kingdom.
“NAMM International will allow us to more effectively support the needs of our NAMM members around the world as well as make their NAMM show participation even more valuable to their businesses,” said Heywood. “Additionally, having a base in Europe will be beneficial to our ongoing work in developing and supporting global music products markets as well as mutually sharing best practices from NAMM and its members in the United States.”
Also, the third NAMM Recreational Music Making (RMM) conference call took place on May 7. NAMM’s Morgan Ringwald announced the launch of www.wannaplaymusic.com, in conjunction with its Wanna Play Music? week that took place from May 5 to 9. RMM will also be a big component of NAMM’s booth at the AARP Life After 50 annual conference, taking place in September in Washington D.C. Also mentioned was that Yamaha opened the Clavinova Connection, an RMM center in Southern California. Area residents will take “wellness” classes there, said Yamaha’s Karl Bruhn. Remo has an RMM center in California as well.
Sound Control Files for Bankruptcy
U.K.-based MI and pro audio chain Sound Control filed for bankruptcy last month, leading to the immediate closure of 14 stores in the chain. Twelve others were kept open for 90 days in an attempt to turn business around and get the best price from bidders. The news could hurt manufacturers and suppliers like Roland, Sennheiser, and AKG that have products sold in the stores and were allegedly denied access to retrieve their stock. Sound Control Holdings also owns several brand names that are now at risk, including Media Tools, Turnkey, and Soho Sound House.
Guitar Center has long been rumored as interested in purchasing Sound Control.
Nigel Sims, managing director, Premier, and Neil Grover, president, Grover |
Grover Distributes Premier
Premier Music International and Grover Pro Percussion entered into an exclusive distribution agreement that makes Grover the distributor of Premier’s marching and orchestral products in the United States. Among the products included in the deal are marching drums, orchestral chimes and bells,
and timpani.
Cavanaugh (left) and Buchanan
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Cavanaugh Talks Business
Jim Cavanaugh, president of The Cavanaugh Company, met with Congressman Vern Buchanan of Florida to discuss initiatives included in a government stimulus package to help small businesses in the United States. The two focused on those initiatives that help musical accessories manufacturers, including The Cavanaugh Company, which has positioned itself for state and federal tax incentives that are “available for companies that are willing to invest in automation and invest in American workers.”
 Hand-held Sound from Yamaha
Yamaha’s new music-making technology, Tenori-on, made its U.S. debut earlier this year in New York and San Francisco. Tenori-on, which translates to “sound in the palm of your hand,” was created by Toshio Iwai and is described as a “handheld, burnished magnesium-encased matrix of 256 LED buttons that glow as you access different sounds and textures over an infinitely repeating sequence of notes.” PC Magazine named Tenori-on one of its 25 Most Innovative Products at this year’s CES.
“The beauty of Tenori-on is that it offers a fresh approach to music creation no matter what your musical background and experience are,” said Athan Billias of Yamaha. “It’s exciting that Yamaha, a company known mostly for making traditional musical instruments, is investing in cutting-edge technologies that will expand the market for music making.”
 Knock on Wood
The Maine Wood Product Association presented its 2008 Pine Tree Award to Vic Firth Inc. because of the company’s “continued investment in their Newport, Maine, manufacturing facility, coupled with the ongoing expansion of two diverse product lines and increasing annual sales,” according to the company. The award is given every year to a Maine-based, wood products manufacturing company that “has taken innovative steps in the past two years to strengthen their business.”
Good for a Girl
Washburn’s Hannah Montana Electric Guitar was named 2008 Girls Licensed Product of the Year by the Australian Toy Association. Made as part of a partnership between Washburn and Disney, the guitar “not only makes children excited about music, [but also creates] a positive experience that allows budding musicians to enjoy learning about and creating music,” said U.S. Music Consumer Division President Larry English. The hardwood-bodied guitar features a shape and size designed for young girls, as well as such demographic-friendly features as star-shaped fretboard inlays.
Coldplay’s summer tour in support of its new album Viva La Vida is getting some support of its own from L.R. Baggs. The company’s M1/IMIX is the band’s primary acoustic guitar amplification system throughout the trek.
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 Hoshino Honors Retiring Retailer
Sam D’Amico announced his retirement from the drum retail business. D’Amico’s shop has been a staple of Philadelphia’s music market since 1974, and so to mark his retirement Hoshino presented him with a plaque to show how much he meant to the industry and the community.
“Sam D’Amico had brought so many people to the joys of drumming, we felt that we couldn’t let this moment go by,” said Paul Specht, communications director for Hoshino. Specht came to D’Amico’s store to make the presentation, along with Hoshino sales rep Neil Buckley and Ed O’Donnell, the company’s new national sales manager for independent dealers who studied drums with D’Amico’s cousin.
 Sennheiser Dealers Awarded
Sennheiser recently gave out Dealer of the Year awards on behalf of its MI and pro products divisions. The MI division recognized L.A. Music Services, while Scharff Weisberg was the pro products division’s choice. Sennheiser expressed its thanks to both stores by donating to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in the stores’ names. Sennheiser has worked with the charity before to support breast cancer research.
 Martin Ritter launched his Madarozzo brand at Musikmesse. More than 100 instrument bags and cases are included in the line—the name of which is derived from Ritter’s father’s last name—as well as handcrafted acoustic guitars and a selection of nylon, cotton, and leather guitar straps. There are both polyester bags and wooden hard-shell cases in the line that are designed for a wide variety of instruments, including guitars, drums, keyboards, and band instruments.
In Memoriam
A 10-year employee of St. Louis Music, Michael Charles passed away after a year-long illness. He followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a sales rep in Canada. Charles continued to work for Loud Technologies after it purchased St. Louis Music in 2005.
The industry is also mourning the passing of Walter Robert Slingerland Jr., whose uncle founded the Slingerland Drum and Banjo Company. He died on March 23 at the age of 80. Slingerland had been battling Alzheimer’s disease. Slingerland was active in drumming and maintained an interest in the family legacy, even visiting the new facility when Gibson USA began producing Slingerland drums in Nashville in 1995. Slingerland played in the Roosevelt Military Academy’s drum and bugle corps, and sat in with the Gene Krupa Orchestra at the Panther Room in Chicago.
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