Tulsa
Ceth Barnett, General Manager
Business this year: We’ve had a great 2013. If we keep going at the current pace, we should be up 8-10 percent from last year.
New lines or brands you’ve taken on with success this year? Our new line of 2013 that we are TOTALLY excited about here at Tulsa Band is John Packer Musical Instruments. Very high quality product for band instrument rentals, especially in the JP Rath series, with great margins to make a good profit as well.
Evolution in the industry you’re excited about? We are excited about engaging more customers in social media, specifically Instagram and Facebook. It has been a huge source for us communicating to consumers about new product and specials that we run in our shop and website. We find ourselves concerned about the large quantities of off-brand products that are purchased online and how we can help educate our customers about the difficulty we have trying to repair these products.
Product of the Year? Emerson Custom Guitars and Effects, local custom guitar and pedal builder. The Emerson Em-drive has been a huge success for us in 2013. These pedals have become very popular with the boutique and Praise and Worship guitarists. They are all USA parts, designed and built here in the Tulsa area. We’ve also had a huge success with the Strymon lineup of digital effects. Our Brand of the Year is a toss-up between these two awesome companies!