Well after 18 months hard work yesterday was a big day for us as we took delivery of our first batch of new guitars.
In early 2012 we started down the Registered Trademark route and now have UK Registered Trademarks in place for Cassidy, Axeman, Bluesville, FX and Tonezone in relation to guitars, amplifiers and musical instruments in general.
Then the task of finding a manufacturing partner able to help us achieve our Mission of affordable quality. China was the obvious place to look. Now, I am aware that some of you may have a problem with this as you may prefer to purchase more established brands from America – that’s fine I have a few myself. But if you dismiss all Chinese manufactured guitars as “cheap rubbish” then, in my opinion, you are mistaken and you are missing out. I made the same mistake as a young man in 1978 when I bought my first “real” motorbike. I wasn’t going to have any of this “Japanese rubbish” I wanted a British bike. So I bought Norton Commando – I still have it but it has spent the most of of it’s 35 years silent in my garage with various ailments. I think back to this decision every time I see a pristine 1970’s Honda 4 overtake me on the motorway! Anyway, what I am trying to say is with the right quality controls, I know that high quality guitar manufacture is indeed possible in China which allows us to sell high quality instruments to our customers at affordable prices – rant over…
So…we didn’t just want to but a batch of cheap guitars, we wanted to establish a long term relationship with a quality manufacturer who was prepared to deal with a small company like ours and would be able to supply us with a reliable source of high quality guitars at a price level accessible to most players.
My students have been well aware of these developments as they have been a really great sounding board for all of my ideas on logo design, headstock shapes and guitar specifications – thanks to you all. As this whole thing has taken so long I was beginning to worry that they were thinking that all I do is talk about new guitars. Well today I am really pleased to start the process of final inspection, testing and setting up ready for delivery before Christmas.
This process has only been possible due to my “man in China” – my eldest son Daniel who runs a sourcing Company along with a couple of manufacturing companies in South China. He has been my man on the ground and with his staff we have been able to find the right manufacturing Partner and begin to build what will hopefully be a fruitful long term relationship.
I first went to visit China in May this year when we spent a lot of time in several companies before placing our first order. In touring the guitar factories, working with our selected partner in compiling the specifications of the guitars in our first order and seeing the process from stacks of selected timber in a drying room….
through the very detailed hand finished stages of production….
to the finished works of art – I have learned a lot about guitars.
I returned in November this year when I was able to see the final assembly…
and carry out a quality inspection of the finished guitars. I was very impressed with the finished results – far better than I was expecting.
So, I am pleased to introduce you to our new guitar range – you will find full details of all of our guitars on our Company Website www.cassidymusic.co.uk and you can buy them directly from our ecommerce site www.guitarampbass.co.uk and you will also be able to see the views of our customers on our Facebook Page – please Like it.
I hope you enjoy looking at the photos and videos that you will see over the coming months and I look forward to you owning and enjoying your own very soon.