was a challenge in the beginning,” Jennings recalls. “I’d played guitar most of my life and didn’t know about a humid- ified guitar cabinet until I researched doing it myself. When we entered the market the handful of companies that made anything remotely like what we did never advertised. That’s when we bought ad space in Guitar Aficionado Magazine. That got the ball rolling. We advertise now in three or four magazines read by guitar players and collectors and that seems to work well. We’ve found Facebook has worked well for us, and we’ve gotten sales from people who origi- nally saw our products there. I thought a remark from one of our Facebook followers really put it into focus: ‘Another product I didn’t know existed that I can’t live without.” The Guitar Habitat® is truly the flagship of American Music Furniture. This Humidity Controlled Guitar Cabinet is, in Jennings’ words, “stronger, better sealed, better perform- ing, equipped with more features, and easier to build” than its predecessors. American black walnut and cherry are the predominant wood choices amongst a clientele that knows their woods, grains, and finishes. “We’ve done a few in maple and oak, and they looked great, but most custom- ers tend to stick with the walnut and cherry. We work with a local arborist on most of our wood. Luckily we are in a location that’s great for the wood we need.” “We decided to build something that a guitar collector and musician would want.” Recently American Music Furniture forged a business part- nership with both a local stained glass workshop and a guitar inlay workshop to offer the kinds of enhancements collectors and musicians alike want to see. “I see anything we do that reinforces quality, craftsmanship, and care as being important to our customers,” Jennings emphasizes. These partnerships coincide with the launch of a new product called the String Habitat™, “for smaller instru- ments like mandolins, ukuleles, and violins,” Jennings says. “We’ve not built many of them yet, but it’s really nice, especially with stained glass on the top and sides. We use tempered glass, or on a small number of projects we use laminated glass. We always have to use one form of safety glass or another. The Low-E glass is UV resistant, and will block light in the ultra violet spectrum from getting through. I typically advise against it unless the cabinet is going next to a window with direct sunlight (which I also do not advise). You can block the UV rays, but there are rays outside the UV spectrum that will fade your guitar.” Jennings scrutinizes the form and function of all of the designs not simply with his eyes wide open, but also his ears and the company’s patent pending Neck-Tie™ is proof. “A lot of our innovations come from working with customers to solve specific problems,” he explains. “For example, the neck retaining solution that became Neck-Tie™ was a result of working with a customer in Southern California who was
81
NOVEMBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog