music accessories

Charles Avsharian is the CEO of Shar Musical Products, which he established in 1962 along with his brother, Michael. The brothers toured for years as professional musicians and along with their father formed a small business to provide instruments and accessories to their friends and fellow musicians. When the company grew the boys decided to work full time for the company, which has continued to grow in size and service.
 

Leonardo Balducci is the President of EMD Music, Inc., a European music wholesaler and distributor that specialize in guitars, drums and percussion instruments, wind instruments, cymbals and accessories. EMD is located in Brussels and sells products to more than 2500 music retailers via two subsidiaries, two branches and 27 exclusive sales representatives. This client base covers the majority of European territory in the sector, namely the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria.
 

Abbott Buegeleisen and his late brother ran the music wholesaling business that his father formed in New York City. Abbott’s father and a friend, who soon after passed away, combined their names to form Buegeleisen & Jacobson. B&J became a strong force in the industry by providing accessories and top line instruments such as accordions from Italy after World War II. Abbott recalls working in the company before the war, but made his mark with his brother after the war in expanding the product line and increasing their dealer base in much of North America. Abbott’s interview was insightful and covered over 80 years in the music industry.

Paul Chandler discovered a specialized market within the music industry as a result of being a rock and roll performer and loving vintage guitars. Over the years, Paul found that he had to replace vintage-style pickguards due to the composition of the materials used back in the 1930s and 40s. As a result he made his own and then, some for friends. Before he knew it, Paul was in business re-creating pickguards and other parts for nearly every brand of guitar. As the business grew, Paul offered other products relating to vintage guitars and parts and over time, became one of our industry’s leading experts on the subject. 

Evelyn Conrad is the president of Tone King, a company her parents started in the early 1950s. Her father was innovative in manufacturing guitar bags and a line of accessories. By the 1970s he had branched into distribution for eight major music companies and by 1976 he took on the Ernie Ball line of products. Within a few years her father passed away suddenly, leaving it up to Evelyn and her mother to run the company. Evelyn has successfully headed the company for over 30 years and clearly enjoys her role in the music products industry.

Jim D’Addario has worked long and hard within the research and development arm of D’Addario, along with his brother John Jr. Headed by Jim, the engineering department has accumulated many important manufacturing and product patents in the field of music strings and musical accessories. He also helped expand the product line by important acquisitions, such as Evans Drumheads (1995) Planet Waves (1998), HQ Practice Products and Rico Reeds (both in 2004). Jim also has a strong interest in the history of not only his family and the family business but the background of the company and products the family has acquired.

John D’Addario’s family history in the music industry can be traced back to the 1670s when Donato D’Addario worked as a “cordaro” – the Italian word for “string maker.” 
Since that time the family has perfected the art of handcrafting strings as well as other music accessories. John’s father had a great interest in alternative synthetic substitutes for the animal products and worked hard to design a new style of string following World War II that would revolutionize the industry. John and his father, John Sr., and John’s brother Jim, introduced a new brand of strings in 1974 and built a new factory in Lynbrook, New York.

Rosemary D’Andrea has always been interested in art and in fact had a series of galleries in and around Long Island, New York. So when her husband, the president of the D’Andrea Guitar Pick Company asked for her help in designing products and marketing materials, she was hooked! Rosemary had the idea to add colorful picks to the line of products, which was a welcome innovation. She also designed glow-in-the-dark picks and the company’s catalogs over the years.

Tony D’Andrea is the grandson of Luigi D’Andrea, the innovative founder of the famed pick company. After college, Tony joined the company and worked long and hard to expand the business over the years. Among his contributions to the guitar pick are the PRO-GRIP products he created to reduce the problem players were having holding on to their picks. He developed imprinting processes that revolutionized the way and speed picks were printed.

Millie Detgen was one of the very few female manufacturers reps in the music products industry in the 1970’s and 80’s. She began working with her husband Gene Detgen after they were married in 1971. Gene was the Sales Manager at Pacific Music Supply in Los Angeles at that time. His main product line was Guild Guitars. Gene was one of the early associates of Alfred Dronge, the founder of the famed Guild Guitar Company back in 1952. In fact, it was Gene who suggested the name Guild for the company name. When her husband suffered a stroke in the late 1970’s, Millie stepped into his role as representative for Guild until 1987.