Simply The Best
In the music products industry, as in most industries, various groups and organizations bestow a great many different awards to honor the manufacturers, executives, dealers and products that populate the market. No accolade, however, is more eagerly coveted in the music products space than Music & Sound Awards (MSAs) are. This year, they were presented for the 28th consecutive year to dozens of richly deserving honorees. Music & Sound Awards are especially meaningful because the winners are not determined by an editorial board or by looking at advertising revenues. Instead, The Music & Sound Retailer’s huge universe of dealers votes for manufacturers, executives and products; meanwhile, our industry’s manufacturers choose which dealers to honor. The credibility of this process gives a Music & Sound Award win its stature.
In this month’s issue, we feature comprehensive lists (see page 27) of all the winners—manufacturer and dealer alike—along with photos taken at the NAMM show of the awards being personally presented. Here, though, we catch up with the manufacturers that took home trophies and share comments from some of them about this signal achievement. The Retailer once again congratulates each and every MSA winner!
Earning honors as Best Acoustic Guitar of 2013 was Taylor’s Grand Orchestra. Andy Powers, Master Builder, said, “When I designed and built the Grand Orchestra, I was seeking a powerful voice from a larger-body acoustic guitar that would offer more than a single sonic flavor. Often, a large-body acoustic guitar gets typecast into one of two traditional large-body acoustic guitar designs: the dreadnought and jumbo, and the stereotypical sounds associated with them. This guitar’s immediate acceptance in the hands of musicians affirms its dynamic and broadly expressive musical