Teen Jazz August 2006 Company Interview
John D'Addario of D'Addario
By Shannon Kennedy
The Interview with John D'Addario:
How long has your company been in business? What has some of the growth been that you seen?
“D’Addario is now in its second century, having been established in 1905. Originally importing their strings from Italy to New York, D’Addario eventually began making his own strings using his knowledge from the city where he grew up (which had a history of making strings for classical instruments).”
Who are your targeted consumers?
“D’Addario targets consumers from thirteen to twenty-one years of age, but lately we have been working on our products to target a much broader audience.”
What products do you offer that would be appealing to young musicians? What kind of feedback do you get? What kind of feedback would you like to have? Is your web site setup to receive feedback?
“ At D’Addario, we are constantly developing products as music styles change to try to develop products that work with popular styles. Recent innovations include replacing guys with synthetics for classical strings and creating new combinations of materials to improve our existing products. We do a lot of research on all our products.
"We receive a significant amount of feedback from our customers. We have chat rooms on the D’Addario web site. On top of that, whenever we design a new product, we hire a musicians advisory board of four or five professional musicians to try our new products. The board members are constantly changing. ”
Who are some of your key artists?
“Rock: Dave Matthews, Joe Satriani, and Kerry King of Slayer
Bluegrass: Del McCovry, Rhonda Vincent, Ricky Skaggs
Classical: David Russell, Palo Pera
Jazz: Pat Metheny, John Scofield
Bowed: Jean Luc Ponty, Christian McBride
Evans: Peter Erskine, John Dolmayan from System of a Down, Horacio El Negro Hernandez
Rico: James Moody, Benny Golson
Planet Waves: Slipknot, John Petrucci”
What new products can we look forward to in the near future?
“For 2006, we have a new line of unique tuners for guitars. We also have many more electronics. ”
What do you feel are your most effective methods of advertisement?
“Print ads, internet and some tv.”
What was your inspiration to continue on the family tradition with D'Addario?
“I am the 3rd generation as well as my brother Jim who is the Chief executive of D’Addario, and my kids are the fourth generation. I grew up in the business; I went to my first NAMM show at the age of ten or eleven. ”
How large is your company? About how many employees? Where are you based out of?
“D’Addario is distributed in about 130 countries. We have about 11,000 employees. We are currently based in New York.”
More information:
If you want to find out more about D'Addario or get in touch with D'Addario, you can visit their web site and drop them an email about what you think of their products.
