To realize the brilliant sound in his well-known 1965 solo for The Who‘s “My Technology,” John Entwistle purchased an inexpensive Danelectro bass, eliminated the strings designed by John D’Addario Sr., and transferred them to his Fender. The plan labored till one of many strings broke — and Entwistle had to purchase two extra Danelectros only for the strings.
Jim D’Addario, who constructed a multimillion-dollar guitar-strings empire on the inspiration of his late father John’s early improvements, tells this story in a Fiftieth-anniversary video collection known as Jim’s Nook. D’Addario, which sells drumheads, saxophone reeds, pedalboards, earplugs and different musicians’ gear along with its signature guitar strings at 3,300 stores, earned $220 million in world income final yr and employs 1,100 individuals, has taken a company victory lap all through, combining historical past with “When You Know You Know” adverts starring youthful gamers like Chris Stapleton, Herman Li of DragonForce and Yvette Younger of Covet.
“Most individuals are very apathetic about their strings, they usually often take heed to their instructor, or an artist that’s endorsing the product, to get them to attempt our strings,” says D’Addario, now chairman of the board of the corporate he named after his household in 1974. “Those that know actually know ours are higher — and constant.”
Along with the video collection, the corporate that began with teenaged Jim accompanying his guitar-playing father to music-business commerce conventions within the ’60s launched a beer, Eddie Ate Dynamite (GoodBye Eddie), in early December; held a beer-launch occasion on the time starring a member of the Notorious Stringdusters; and spent a lot of 2024 releasing limited-edition merch and packages of strings in retro containers.
D’Addario acknowledges the corporate faces trade headwinds — the musical-instrument enterprise, he says, is declining 2%-3% per yr, which impacts an organization whose guitar strings make up 45% of its enterprise. “Individuals purchase a guitar for his or her child, and if he doesn’t play, they don’t put it within the attic or the basement anymore. They put it on eBay,” D’Addario says. “All the pieces a seller sells, he’s going to compete with that instrument. That has had a really severe impact on the devices purchased at retail.”
However principally, D’Addario is upbeat, describing the guitar pedalboards his firm has spent two years designing, pedalboard energy provides containing USB batteries and coated strings that resist “moisture, perspiration, pores and skin, particles.” Says D’Addario, “We maintain an ideation record for every model. We’ll have loopy issues on there. When we now have bandwidth, we’ll throw one on the active-project record.” Right here, he discusses the corporate’s previous and current in an hourlong Zoom from his residence workshop in Farmingdale, N.Y.
What do you hope individuals find out about D’Addario from the Fiftieth-anniversary marketing campaign occasions?
It’s not the Fiftieth anniversary of the household making strings, it’s the Fiftieth anniversary of the model identify D’Addario. My dad and my grandfather had been afraid to place their identify on merchandise. Italians can be discriminated in opposition to and it was a troublesome identify to pronounce. They felt like, in sure markets, it won’t be accepted. In August of ’74, I mentioned, “Nah, we’re going to get credit score for guaranteeing stuff, and our identify’s going to be on it.”
Are you able to hear when a guitar participant on the radio makes use of your strings?
No, that’s unimaginable. There are quite a lot of good strings on the market that sound good. It’s very arduous to discern that simply from listening to it on the radio.
Within the early Nineteen Nineties, a package deal of strings had an envelope for every of the six strings — a paper envelope for every one, recognized for every word, in a vinyl pouch with a elaborate label. So there was a minimal of eight items of packaging; generally there was a bit of commercial as properly. My daughter Amy was in highschool, they usually had been finding out environmental friendliness and recycling and packaging, and I used to be altering my strings on the mattress and I had all this rubbish once I was accomplished. She mentioned, “You need to actually do one thing about that, that’s actually legal, you’re placing a lot junk within the waste-stream simply to alter a set of strings.”
So it received me pondering. I got here up with a system of color-coding the ball finish on the string a special coloration, then coiling these collectively in a single corrosion-resistant plastic bag and having them color-coded, so the silver one is that this word and the brass one is that this word. It eradicated 75% of the packaging. Since that point, we’ve saved billions of timber and tens of millions of kilos of carbon not launched into the ambiance. That was one of many issues that distinguished our strings. That’s a method we will inform onstage if our strings are getting used. In any other case, it’s very troublesome. You possibly can put branding on the package deal however after they’re taking part in on stage you may’t see it.
What music stars are your most loyal clients?
Plenty of jazz guys, like Pat Metheny, who’s an excellent buddy, and Julian Loge. However there’s additionally a complete contingent of recent people who I won’t know. John McLaughlin, Blake Mills, Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek, Sierra Ferrell, a mandolinist [who’s] going to be a famous person — these are the artists that actually gravitate to our model as a result of they know they’re going to get the easiest product.
How has the musical instrument market modified because you began?
It’s fairly completely different. We additionally make drumheads and drumsticks and snare wires and guitar straps and cables. We make drumheads for acoustic drums and drumsticks and different equipment for drummers. The acoustic-drum market is 40-60% of what it was in 2004. Drums have been digitized. As a substitute of 20,000 drumheads a day, we’re solely making 10,000. The opposite factor is the guitar was actually the solo instrument, but it surely’s not anymore. You don’t hear a guitar solo in each hit; you hear repetitive rhythms and digital sounds and synthesized sounds.
How a lot does this fear you?
We’ve seen this so many instances — within the early ’90s, it was video video games, and for 3 or 4 years, the guitar market didn’t have a lot development. However then it got here again. The acoustic guitar market was within the tank for the entire decade of the Eighties, and “MTV Unplugged” occurred, then bingo, the acoustic guitar took off once more. It at all times comes again.
What are your retirement plans, if any?
We don’t wish to promote our enterprise. Our household identify is on the product. D’Addario strings are just like the Titleist of golf balls, like Scotch Tape. While you stroll right into a music retailer, 40% to 50% of the strings on the wall are our model, and that’s in virtually each nation around the globe. I’d have hassle strolling right into a retailer and seeing my packaging screwed up or listening to individuals complaining in regards to the high quality.
