Guthrie Govan Discussion

[bender83]

Seemed like a great one this time(from the clips i ve watched).Maybe somebody Gotta say i am little disappointed that Guthrie didn't pop up in any of thevids.Did he attend Namm this year?

[alexkhan]

Guthrie will soon board a flight back to UK after several eventful weeks starting out in Nashville recording the Aristocrats' second studio album that is now in post-production stage. After that, it was NAMM and Guthrie was indeed there doing signings for companies like TC Electronic and Vigier. The Aristocrats also did an impromptu gig at a Vigier party with Guthrie playing the Surfreter guitar.

After that, it was a short tour of 7 dates covering LA, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, SF, and Sacramento. I accompanied the band on the tour and we returned to LA on Feb 3. The tour featured material from the new studio album and I can assure you that it's even better than the first one. All the tunes have a more cohesive quality and the guys are really pleased with the outcome.

The tour was an absolute blast and got better and better as the guys got more comfortable performing the new material. And, as far as Guthrie, what can I say? He just keeps getting better and better, if that's even possible. And the band keeps getting better as well. This really is a band - not just a group of three individual monster musicians.

There simply isn't a band like this on the planet and I heard such comments throughout the tour from fans who couldn't believe what they were witnessing. And things are just getting started here. The goal is to get the new album released before the start of a big 6-week US tour that is slated to start in mid-July.

Meanwhile, Guthrie will soon start rehearsals with the Steven Wilson Band in UK for the world tour that kicks off on March 1. Here are the Steven Wilson dates:

http://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/tour-dates/

These are just the confirmed dates but I believe there'll be more tours covering various other regions of the world, including South America and Asia. Stay tuned!
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[bender83]

Good to know Ed thanks a lot .Can't wait for the second album.Seems that finally Guthrie gets what he deserves.
Any news on the gear department?I am really curious about the gear used in the recordings.

[alexkhan]

Ah, the curiosity in gear never subsides, does it?

I'm afraid I don't have anything new to report on that front. It's still a transitionary phase for Guthrie in that area and that's all I could really say.

What I do know after going on this tour is that the Charvel prototype guitar sounds and plays fantastic and, as Guthrie stated on his FB page, he really digs the guitar. I had a chance to noodle with it for the first time during the tour and it sounds, feels, and plays as good as any guitar I've ever played. I can see why he likes it so much. He's clearly having a lot of fun with it.

Other than that, everything else pretty much remains the same. I wasn't at the recording session so I don't know what other gear may have been used. Honestly, when I hang out with Guthrie we really don't discuss gear that much. There are too many other things to talk about.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[bender83]

I think that many of us here would kill to be in your place for a day !

[alexkhan]

Believe me, I feel very fortunate to be in a position to work with Guthrie and this amazing band and also to interact with them as good friends. I count my blessings every day. I'm really happy to just help out in any little way I can.

And it's most gratifying to observe Guthrie continue to grow in every facet of his career. I'm certain in my mind that he's not even close to reaching his peak as an artist so we can look forward to many great years of his development and artistic output in the future.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[alexkhan]

A couple of photos of Guthrie at the TC Electronic booth along with Steve Morse. I believe this is the first time these two masters met. I'm sure they were both delighted to meet each other.

Guthrie is quite the celebrity now. He definitely can't walk around NAMM for even a few minutes without getting mobbed by people wanting to get autographs and take photos with him.




_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[bender83]

Really nice to hear that i got one question though.How many Mona Lisa Guthrie has? It would be really great to see those two exchanging chops on a stage.

[alexkhan]

Greetings from the fabulous Incheon International Airport in Korea while I'm on a layover to take a flight to China to start another 4-week business trip. I'll be visiting some new places as I meet with reps from Fender and GC to keep moving the guitar industry business forward. Still a difficult time in this industry but the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be showing now.

Met with Marco just before I left LA as he'll soon be joining Guthrie in UK to start the European leg of the Steven Wilson tour. Marco and I commented that we are a true "United Nations" outfit as we get together for a while and then split up to go our own ways to other ends of the world for months at a time. Well, being that Guthrie's a Brit, Marco a German, Bryan a Jewish-American and me a Korean-American, I guess that's about as diverse as a group of guys can get!

A lot of stuff in the works right now: production of the second Aristocrats' studio album, a big US summer tour that Bryan is putting together, the Steven Wilson tours, and even more stuff in the works for 2014 already. Personally, I can't wait for Guthrie to arrive in LA with the SW Band on May 10. I've got a very busy business trip schedule in April and May as well but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I catch that show.

I've heard snippets of the new SW album that will be released shortly and it's awesome. Guthrie fits in just as he should - as a member of this band with SW's overall musical vision in tact. That's the amazing thing about Guthrie. He knows instinctively how to adapt to various different musical situations and become an integral part as an all-around musician - not as a virtuoso who overwhelms the setting as others tend to do.

I must have seen Guthrie live a hundred times by now in all kinds of settings: Asia, Erotic Cakes, impromptu projects and jams, the Fellowship, and the Aristocrats, etc. and it's always fresh and new. And, of course, I've seen through videos what he's done with the techno outfit Young Punx and UK rapper Dizzee Rascal. SW will be yet another new challenging setting for Guthrie to shine and it will be a very interesting musical endeavor to observe and savor.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[bender83]

I was listening to Luminol the other day.Man what a great great track.All i could think was that how much intensity GG's playing would add to the whole sound.Really really stoked about the SW album.Truly exciting times for Guthrie and you Ed.Hope everything goes as planned on your endeavors.Seems quite heavy lifting.

[alexkhan]

[alexkhan]

A day in the life of a business trip to China...

Inspecting the final assembly area of a large guitar factory in south China with the Fender supply chain department staff members:



Observing blocks of wood glued together turn into a neck for an acoustic guitar:









After a long day on the factory floor and meetings, dinner and some drinking with the factory staff and OEM customer reps, I get back to the hotel room and start working on the Aristocrats business with my Apple gear until well past midnight - emailing with the production engineer and the band members, updating the website, making sure the distributors are well stocked with the merch, and on and on and on. As Guthrie often likes to say: "No rest for the wicked!"


_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[bender83]

Maybe you should get an endorsement and who knows maybe one day Apple would like to dive into the guitar business . From the pics it seems that the Asian standards have come a long way the past decade.Although i understand the need for mass produced instruments stacks of necks and bodies always give me a sad face.

[alexkhan]

[alexkhan]

Greetings from the fabulous Seoul, Korea. I'm sure glad to be "home" after 3 grueling but very interesting and productive weeks in China. This trip to China included meeting with some supply chain execs from GC in Guangzhou (also used to be known as Canton) and visiting some of their massive suppliers in the area.

China just gets more amazing with each visit and I'm actually enjoying the stays there more and more. Arriving at the Guangzhou Baiyun Airport on Monday evening, I took the taxi to downtown as I observed the massive city. Guangzhou is a good-sized city, even by Chinese standards - population for the city proper is around 13 million. Believe me; the big cities in China make New York and Seoul look small in comparison and makes LA look like Charlotte, NC. Shanghai remains the most massive city I've seen and it is indeed the largest city proper in the world: population over 25 million.

As I took the 45-minute taxi ride to the Westin Guangzhou, I decided to put on the music of Animals As Leaders in my earbuds to serve as the soundtrack of the sights and, man, it was just perfect! The violent heavy metal sounds with futuristic electronica and OTT fusion-shred solos just fit the night landscape and the massive skyline so well. It felt like a scene out of 'Blade Runner' - a destitute and massive future cityscape that was at once bleak and awe-inspiring. It was surreal - cool but also unnerving of driving through a humungous city I have never seen in person before.

Then, it was off to work with the GC staff next day and things take on a whole new scale with these guys. Might as well be working with the operations people from the Gap, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc. if you get my drift. This is ultra serious stuff and it's pro to the max. And, you know what? I loved it. Professionalism isn't all that common in this little industry of ours and it's fun to be in a totally different environment like that. I need to be really on my toes with these guys in terms of the numbers, logistics, and execution because we're talking like shipments of 50~60 40-foot containers per week. As far as our little industry is concerned, this is the biggest of the big.

On Wed, I visited what I believe is probably the most massive guitar factory in the world. Yeah, it's cheap stuff - even guitars that would sell on 'Black Friday' for as low as $59. But this factory also had some high-end Warwick stuff and the guitars and basses were actually quite nice. If you can wrap your mind around this, this factory is producing nearly 3,000 guitars per day. It took over 4 hours (not including the lunch break in between) to just walk through the factory checking out the operations. There were hundreds and hundreds of SKU's from dozens of OEM buyers flowing through at once. I feel like I know logistics and operations in this side of the industry pretty well but, man, this was just at another level.

But, I was actually quite inspired by what I saw. And the factory's senior managers were extremely interested in my background to help them out in the future. I'm getting so much work right now in Asia that I really might as well live here, but I'll choose my gigs accordingly and try to get a balance between the "high-end" stuff I'm doing in the US and the "high-volume" stuff I'm doing in Asia.

Another interesting development is that I'm also getting involved with the retail and distribution of guitar products in Asia and that's a whole different ballgame from manufacturing and logistics. Fender is in the process of setting up its own distribution and retail operation in China and all the massive factories are also looking into selling guitars into the growing Chinese market as well.

Now, the guitar isn't like the iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy SIII. It's understood that there are approximately 12 million guitar players in the US, which would include casual girl strummers learning Jewel songs to the next Guthrie wannabes. That works out to around 3.8% of the population. I'm trying to figure out what the percentage would be in China - one in a thousand or 0.1%? That's still well over a million players. And that number will surely go up as China becomes more and more prosperous, which is something I see every few months. I certainly see more luxury cars like Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Porsche in the cities of China than in the US.

Well, I'm certainly working on spreading the word of Guthrie every chance I get. It's actually surprising how many people here in the industry know of him. They may not really care about his music or playing but they certainly have heard of him and acknowledge that he may be the "next big thing". It's a positive development. This is a super tough market but it also has great long-term potential. And that's how I'm approaching it: long-term (10~20 years). It may still be years before Guthrie or the Aristocrats could do a tour in China but it will eventually happen. I'm busy planting the seeds.

Here's a little photo journal of the past week:

I arrive at the 40-story Westin hotel in Guangzhou and prepare to meet with the GC staff and the visits to the massive factories.



My Apple IT system is mobile and extremely flexible for whatever situations pop up during my travels in Asia.



The woodworking mill of the super-size factory:



Just a small section of the factory complex below. Each of the these buildings are way bigger than a football field and there are at least a dozen of 'em.



Thousands of workers filing out for their lunch break:



Sample/reference necks on the factory production floor:



The inside of one of those aforementioned buildings:



Ukelele production:



The solid-body electric guitar line:



Thousands of bodies and necks on a carousel flowing through for electro-static undercoat painting:



And thousands of acoustic guitars awaiting the buffing process before final assembly. This photo just captures a small portion. One photo simply cannot capture 'em all. It just makes your jaws drop...



A view of downtown Guangzhou after dinner with the staff... A very interesting day...



And I'm ready for more now in Korea. So much to do and so little time!
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.