So much for talk of the electric guitar being dead. Québec, Canada-based Godin Guitars, which counts Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Sweetwater, The Music Zoo, Cream City Music and Musician’s Friend among its U.S. dealers, is having one of its best years ever, led by its eponymous and Seagull brands, as well as Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, La Patrie, Norman, Tric Case and Acoustic Solutions.
To learn much more about what’s going on at the company, we spent five minutes with Mario Biferali, Godin Guitars’ vice president of sales, to learn how music “saved him,” what separates Godin from its competitors and much more. Enjoy.
The Music & Sound Retailer: Discuss how you first became involved in music and what you enjoy most about the industry.
Mario Biferali: Like a lot of people, I started playing guitar as a kid. I heard “Highway Star” from Deep Purple and immediately asked my dad for a guitar. I was nine or 10 at the time. I was lucky enough to attend a fine arts high school. That really saved me. I wasn’t a jock. I wasn’t a cool kid. I was just this kid who loved to play guitar. At the fine arts school, I finally fit in. I became much more interested in music, and the teachers were amazing. After high school, I went to college for music, and in my early 20s I toured across Canada with my band. We got signed to a record deal, but nothing really big happened [regarding achieving fame] beyond Canada. When the tours stopped, I started teaching guitar at a local music store and noticed reps would come in selling products. That was when I realized there was this completely other side of the music industry. The way I got to Godin Guitars is that at the music store…