| April
2011
Musikmesse 2011 a big success for JHS
Musikmesse 2011, the biggest trade show of its type in Europe, saw John
Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. and other top musical instrument firms
visit Frankfurt to show their new products.
The sizable JHS stand was prominently placed in Hall 4.1, and over the
four days of the event was packed with distributors, retailers, musicians
and consumers.
More than 100 instruments from across the JHS range were present at
the show, including Fret-King, Vintage and Encore guitars and basses,
Santos Martinez classical guitars, Odyssey Premiere brass and woodwind
instruments, Antoni violins, Vintage ukuleles and folk instruments,
and the colourful line of SpongeBob SquarePants real musical instruments.
Of particular interest was the groundbreaking Fret-King Super-matic,
and designer Trev Wilkinson, who was on the JHS stand throughout the
event, spent a significant portion of his time explaining to amazed
onlookers exactly how the self-tuning guitar works.
The new Fret-King Black Label JD guitar, designed in cooperation with
top six-stringer Jerry Donahue, also caught the attention of many. Donahue
was present on the JHS stand, and gave a number of well-received demonstrations
of his new instrument, which will be available in July 2011.
Demoing JHS gear with Donahue was the renowned German musician, writer,
producer and Vintage/Fret-King endorser Andreas Schmid-Martelle. With
more than two million record sales to his name, Martelle is a respected
and popular musician. During the show, he could be seen playing his
latest acquisition, a Fret-King Eclat Standard, which, he explained
with delight, will replace his much loved Les Paul!
Martelle also organised
his yearly Muskimesse gig, Flaming Guitars, which this time featured
four top guitarists who all play and endorse Fret-King and Vintage guitars.
Playing to a packed out crowd at the KJK Sandgasse venue in Offenbach,
near Frankfurt, Martelle and Donahue were joined by Procol Harum guitarist
Geoff Whitehorn and German guitar virtuoso Thomas Blug, both featuring
their Vintage signature models, for a raucously-received set of covers
and original works.
Blug then joined the Jerry and Martelle at the JHS stand for a storming
set on the final day of the Messe, where his Vintage V6MRTBG signature
guitar was taken to its limits before an excited audience.
The JHS stand before Musikmesse opened it doors.
Speaking on this, JHS's 32nd appearance at MusikMesse, Managing Director
Dennis Drumm said: ‘Outstanding, truly outstanding… with
players of this stature endorsing our guitar brands, which are now sold
in over 70 markets, I guess the only question is – why wouldn’t
you play a Vintage or Fret-King as a player? From a commercial perspective,
our guitar brands bring a value/feature combination together which works
in markets as diverse as Los Angeles and Tokyo,
Cape Town and Oslo, making an ideal business proposition for distributors
and dealers worldwide.’
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