Last week, Dialtone Pickups went on a tour of central & southern California, and we talked to a ton of really knowledgeable music store managers, technicians, etc. It was easy to find & call them ahead of time to schedule meetings. Now we'd like to find musicians to try out our demo guitar and get their feedback. Other than randomly approaching people who we happen to see playing (like I did a few days ago at the farmer's market!), does anyone have any ideas on how to reach guitar players directly? Guitar Center isn't usually too happy about us going in with our guitar & recruiting their customers, although we've done it a couple of times with some success. :)
Thanks!
- Tory
Tough call. All I can think of is open-mic night type events, but I can't work out how to incorporate the trial playing of the guitar with a working performance that the audience still benefits from. Unless your goal is to get to the guitarists after the show (without disrupting the event itself which would frustrate the venue). If that was an option, the simply playing a set on the one guitar that showcased the versatile nature of the guitar could work.
Not related to that, but have you considered a video along the lines of this BOSS pedal unit video (http://youtu.be/rMqBev9tLSg) that has one guitarist on your PRS playing a few well known styles on the one guitar using your pickup? That could be awesome.
Thanks for your reply, Scarebear! Good idea - we're trying a local open-mic night tomorrow.
I hadn't seen that video before. Thanks! I'll ask Brandon (the musician we work with) about helping us make something similar. We did struggle a bit with how to show off the functionality of the pickup in a timely manner by video.
To me the important part would be showcasing in an uncut video how you can obtain the various tones people would like to achieve with the one pickup. I don't think that needs to be done in a speedy way like the BOSS video. The video needs to be real. I don't picture myself dialling in a new tone mid-song. Others might, but I'd like to see how you could play a song and without swapping guitar, dial into the next song quickly and easily.
Some great ideas by Scarebear, i'm gonna have to check out that Boss video too ;) i would say definitely take advantage of the online community, making a video to try and demonstrate its abilities to the full.
and perhaps promote and arrange an event with the video, or maybe try join a guitar clinic show, showcasing this wonderful guitar for people to try?
just a few ideas. i'd love to see what it could do myself ahha. please keep me posted.
All the best
Connor
I've placed my own pre-order now. I'll be able to test these pickups myself as soon as the first batch of pickups are produced. I'm really looking forward to this :)
Scarebear - good ideas, thanks, as usual! I'm trying to coordinate a time for Brandon to shoot an uncut video similar to the BOSS video. I usually edit out the down time (we've never edited sound except to insert higher quality audio recorded on a separate microphone for the Kickstarter video), just to keep it short, but we'll take a shot at recording an uncut version that fits within a 2-3 minute clip. We're also meeting with a heavy metal band this weekend and I'm hoping to get some good footage of them playing.
Connor - thanks for the suggestions as well! I hadn't heard of a guitar clinic before. I'll look to see if there are any in our area. We were thinking about organizing some sort of tone clinic, where John talks more about the science behind sound, pickups, etc. We also decided to go to summer NAMM so maybe we'll make some good connections there.
Too bad the two of you aren't nearby! We'd love to meet you in-person and for you to check out our demo guitar. Maybe we can eventually justify a trip out to Europe, with a stop in Australia along the way? :) (And maybe we need to get Jason his order as soon as we can so that he can try the pickups out in his own guitar!)
Quote from: DialtonePickups on June 27, 2014, 05:41:46 PM
Too bad the two of you aren't nearby! We'd love to meet you in-person and for you to check out our demo guitar. Maybe we can eventually justify a trip out to Europe, with a stop in Australia along the way? :) (And maybe we need to get Jason his order as soon as we can so that he can try the pickups out in his own guitar!)
Haha! I hope to one day get myself to Los Angeles for your Winter NAMM (and then somehow get in). That seems more reasonable to me than anybody making the trip to Australia ;) Good luck at Winter NAMM though!
Connor - thanks for the suggestions as well! I hadn't heard of a guitar clinic before. I'll look to see if there are any in our area. We were thinking about organizing some sort of tone clinic, where John talks more about the science behind sound, pickups, etc. We also decided to go to summer NAMM so maybe we'll make some good connections there.
I'm loving the tone Clinic idea, I'm sure that will be successful. the science behind sound is a great one! Good luck at NAMM, I'm sure you'll meet lots of great contacts. :)
Too bad the two of you aren't nearby! We'd love to meet you in-person and for you to check out our demo guitar. Maybe we can eventually justify a trip out to Europe, with a stop in Australia along the way?
I know, such a shame were far away. If you do make it to Europe, Keep us posted, would be great to meet you too!
All the best
Connor