• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

hottoddy

Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2003
Messages
24
I was there wow nick hanich a blast from the past.....

its all handshakes....think about it....If someone doesnt want to play our guitars, am I going to take the to court?

Signature artists get a nominal royalty.

Very cool! I remember some guys from Ernie Ball being there, doing the introductions. I also remember Steve Morse being a little concerned about all the audio visual equipment. He relaxed when someone assured him it wasn't for recording, but rather the overflow crowds in the other rooms.

Hanich moved to a less visable location about a year later, and went out of business not too long after that. I was always puzzled by the move away from the prime freeway location.

I spent the rest of my high school days catching clinics and small shows in the basement of the Fret House in Covina.
 

paranoid70

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 9, 2007
Messages
2,647
Location
Long Beach, CA
How do the clinics work? Seems like those are kinda like mini-advertising tours, and that some sort of compensation would be involved other than the gear.

I saw Steve Morse in the mid 80s at Hanich Music (now defunct) in Covina, CA. It was an Ernie Ball string event, because I remember admission was string covers. We also got some "Steve Morse" picks and couldn't be happier. I was around 16 and got to sit about 10 feet away. So may people showed up, they had to turn on a CCTV system for the overflow.

Hanich music? Damn I forgot all about that place. I grew up in West Covina so I spent some time at that store when I was first learning to play. I also bought an acoustic at the Fret House that I still own!

If you were 16 in the mid 80s we might have went to high school together. (I went to Nogales).
 

Kenny Anderson

New member
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1
I ended up here by accident, looking for some information about Hanich Music. Never the less, here's my EBMM story.
I had a music store in Hemet, Ca. I was going to buy from the original founder. One day, I had a visit from Mr. Hanich, and we talked about his store. As I remember, I had an opportunity to visit his store, doing a product exchange. We were both Peavey dealers. I have since heard some very bad rumors about Mr. Hanich's death. If anyone can elaborate, please let me know. I still have the coffee cup he gave me in the mid 80s when we met.
Okay.. on with the EBMM memory. I had a member in my band who always used to talk about how he and Albert Lee used to pall around a lot, and told me stories about Albert being asked to play with what ever band was on stage, thus leaving poor Dave to sit and get loaded at the table. I always took those stories with a certain amount of speculation, knowing how we musicians tend to glamorize our stories, giving more bravado to them than they really require. I went to the NAMM one year, and there was Albert Lee in the Ernie Ball/Music Man booth. I approached him for an autographed photo (which I still have hanging on the wall), and I told him Dave Wendell said to tell him hello. He stopped the clock! Nothing in that room made any difference to him, and he asked if Dave was going to be coming to NAMM, and how can he get in touch with him. Well, I was shocked, surprised, and impressed that David never embellished a thing. He and Albert WERE friends, and all the stories were true. Albert is a very gracious, and personable artist, and I thank him to this day for such a wonderful memory.
Of all the brands of strings I carried, and I had just about ALL of them, Ernie Ball was the number 1 selling brand, bar none.
Thank you for reading this post.
 

vinniemallet

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 5, 2013
Messages
51
Location
Lisbon - Portugal
Not sure about endorsements but after 10 years playing guitar, I can say this is the best guitar company I've ever saw. I had contacts with the support team and with the marketing team and everyone was amazing dealing with me, it's also super cool to enter in the forum and watch the management team posting and replying everyone and of course the guitars are amazing and top quality.

For a "small company" and family business EBMM is in a step ahead. Also most of the artists that I follow (metal guys) are with this company for a long time and they rarely change to others brands (probably for a good reason right? haha).

But back to the topic I think most of endorsement deals works with discounts and some benefits like having acess to the custom shop and support in social media platforms, tour sponsors etc which is a great thing. :)
 

straycat113

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
2,506
Location
Born and bred in Brooklyn NY
There are all different kinds of endorsement deals ranging from strings to guitars. As Sterling pointed out the heavy hitters who have a sig model do make a royalty off of their models sold. EBMM also has some of the gretest players that ever lived with their name on a headstock-Lee-Petrucci-Morse-Lukather and of course the Axis used to be the EVH. So you would be hard pressed to get yourself in that company. But there are smaller endorsements of strings to possibly getting a guitar or two made if your an artist doing well. As far as moving over to another company Sterling has copyrights and trademarks on everything so you would not see anything similar if someone left which would be close to a miracle if they did. As I have honestly never seen the relationship between CEO and artist from any other company like he has with his. If you read some of the old blogs Albert Lee lived with the Ball family for a few years when he came over from the UK and he and Sterling have more of a brother type relation. He is also Godfather to quite a few of his guys kids and they are truly as tight as family. Besides all of that he is one smart cookie when it comes to business!
 
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