MI Pro

It took everybody by surprise when Fender announced it was to purchase the Kaman Music Division in October last year, but that was nothing to the shock, when, with the ink on the $117 million deal barely dry, it was revealed that Fender Europe was to take on the distribution of Taylor Guitars.

The Kaman deal was confirmed on January 1st, shortly after all the European distributors of Kaman brands and Taylor Guitars were informed by the new owner/distributor that work should begin on a smooth handover immediately. The Taylor agreement will become effective on July 1st and the other brands should start coming on line in the Fender catalogue from the spring onwards.

In the UK this affects a pretty wide range of well known distributors: Korg (which has carried the Takamine line for some 30 years now), JHS (for whom Ovation has been a regular for many years), Sutherland (which has only recently introduced Genz Benz amplifiers to the country, but has already established the brand across the country’s indie stores), and Arbiter (Fender’s first drum and percussion lines in the shape of Gretsch, Latin Percussion and Toca).

Then of course there is Sound Technology, which has taken the Taylor brand from its earliest days and turned into a best seller in the UK, utilising a network of the very best guitar dealers in the country. Sound Tech’s owner, Robert Wilson, became firm friends with Taylor’s eponymous founder and even sat on the board of the American luthier. One would have to wager that no-one saw that split coming.

One does have to be as philosophical as Wilson is reported as being, however. Third party distribution is always going to carry the risk of losing a line – even a major line – however well things are going. It is interesting to note that in this case, across all the brands concerned, things were going pretty well.

David Marshall, Sound Tech’s MD pointed out that while Taylor is indeed a major earner for the company, there are at least two other brands on the books that earn at least as much.

Rob Castle, the boss of Korg UK, has Korg, Vox and Mapex, to name but three, and both Dennis Drumm of JHS and Nick Sharples of Arbiter described the loss of their lines as ‘a minor inconvenience’ in the background to the bulk of their ongoing work with other brands.

The hardest hit by the events are Korg and Sound Technology, but both companies have an awful lot to fall back on while, possibly, looking for suitable replacements for their respective catalogues.

Pretty universally, the UK suppliers see the disappearance of one line as an opportunity to do something different, to get out into the world of MI and find a brand to build, which is – albeit on a slightly different scale – exactly what Fender is doing.

For its part, Fender is extremely keen to alert the world to the fact that previous brand purchases have been a success and that when Fender takes on a line, it has a track record of maintaining the brand image, while improving both design and sales. “Gretsch is more ‘Gretsch’ now than it has ever been.

The same goes for Jackson, SWR, or whichever other brand you care to look at. It will be the same for Taylor,” commented Graeme Mathieson.

He spent considerable time at the NAMM show passionately assuring MI Pro and its readership that he would be setting up an expanded team in the UK with specialists in different areas – and the official announcement regarding Taylor said that there will be a special ‘Taylor division’ in Europe.

That said, it are still some 18 brands on Fender’s books, with four dedicated amp lines, drum kits, and two percussion ranges. This still leaves about ten guitar lines to pull on dealers’ budgets from a single supplier. The pile does seem to be getting a little high.

The other big, blue-chip guitar company, Gibson, also made the news at NAMM for merging with TC Electronic’s holding company, the TC Group. Gibson is acquiring no less enthusiastically than Fender, but it is clearly moving along the path, from instruments, through processing to speakers – much like the big pro audio companies have done. This is a tried (if not fully tested) business model.

Fender is determined to remain ‘a guitar company’ above all, but wants to grow.

Can it cope? Almost certainly. It is one of the biggest MI companies in the world and it has a lot of turnover and no lack of cash and resources. For its part, Fender is not merely confident it can do this, it almost considers it its destiny. It will take these brands and improve them, both as sale models and in terms of construction and technology. It will not be deflected from this belief.

Many will look at it and will see the world’s top selling guitar, the Stratocaster, having barely changed at all over 50 years.

Fender will point to the figures and ask ‘why should it change?’
Maybe it needn’t – but many Ovation and Takamine (and perhaps one day Taylor) fans around the world will hope that their favourite brands will continue to change. It is what has made them favourites. If Fender is true to its word, they needn’t worry – but players and dealers alike (not to mention some jilted suppliers) will be watching very closely.