News
Arbiter announces new lines for music fair
Rob Hughes May 21 2008, 12:09pm
London Guitar Company and Spector join list of instruments on display at 2008 AMF
Hertfordshire-based distributor Arbiter will once again host its music fair (AMF), at the Belfry hotel and golf complex, on Sunday 6th and Monday 7th July 2008.
Following well-documented ups and downs earlier in the decade and the recent loss of several percussion brands as a result of Fender’s acquisition of Kaman, the company is determined to strengthen its portfolio with the addition of several new lines for the fair.
The void left by Kaman was filled recently with the signing of a long-term distribution agreement with Premier drums, while Arbiter’s own brand, Java Percussion, is attracting significant interest, especially from education dealers. The official Premier handover is July 1, making AMF an ideal platform for a UK re-launch of the British brand. Premier will sit well alongside Arbiter’s other drum and percussion brands, including Remo drumheads and percussion, Sabian cymbals and Vic Firth drumsticks.
“We can now offer a genuine one-stop service to the drum retail sector,” commented Arbiter’s managing director, Andrew Landesberg. “It’s as if Premier was the final piece in the jigsaw.”
Change is also afoot in the new guitar and amp division, launched at last year’s event. After the news from Frankfurt Musikmesse that TJ Baden had appointed Arbiter as UK distributor for his new range of handmade acoustics, the company will now add four new amp lines to its range, which already includes Italia, First Act and Sound City. Following Sound Control’s recent troubles, two of the retail giant’s exclusive brands, Spector basses and Schecter guitars needed a new UK home, and Arbiter will now be handling both of them, which the company assures will now be available to the wider UK MI industry.
“Spector are a giant in bass guitars, just look at the endorsement list, and we are delighted to be involved in a partnership which should greatly increase the brand’s UK visibility.” said Landesberg. “To be able to add Schecter at the same time is unbelievable. This is a well-known brand of real substance and fits so well with our other six-string offerings.”
Marketing manager Nick Sharples explained how Arbiter has addressed its lack of mid-price acoustic guitars with another own-brand, the London Guitar Company: “We have looked long and hard at the acoustic market, the people who have done well and the brands that have come and gone, and although it’s crowded we felt there was room for a classy, mid-priced range of all-solid instruments with distinctive, minimalist styling and a careful blend of the modern and the traditional.”
In the music technology department, Arbiter will be taking orders for the new Rhodes piano at the event, and showing Arturia’s revolutionary new hardware synth, Origin. Studiologic’s stylish Numa keyboard will make its UK debut, along with innovation from Arbiter’s range of music software products, including Native Instruments, XLN and Celemony, whose new version of Melodyne was one of the big crowd-pullers at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.
For further details on the AMF, contact Bryan Borcherds on 0208 207 7868.
www.arbiter.co.uk/amf
