Had the chance to chat with Vinnie Zummo yesterday. For those unaware of him he's got his own website:
http://www.vinniezummo.com
Super nice guy and we talked about about guitars and music and 'bergers for close to an hour. He was an early notable and passionate adopter of Steinberger, and still relies heavily on his GL's to this day. If you listen to the clips he's got on his site most of them are played on his trusty GL. He's got several, but his main axe is an early GL with Type1 TT. Of note he swapped the EMG's for some custom DiMarzio's.
Main reason for our chat was that he's been testing a Synapse TranScale for 3-4 months now. Had some interesting observations, and definitely has postive options about it. Even some pleasant surprises. He uses it quite a bit for his projects now.
I'll be doing a formal Q & A to post. Vinnie's also agreed to record some sound samples and let us share those as well. Thought it'd be nice for guys to actually hear the guitar if they couldn't play it first (especially the piezo) and Vinnie was kind enough to offer.
Again look for this in the upcoming weeks. Will post here when it's up.
Posted by andyyak 1/26/2005 08:08:48 AM
Here's the first MusicYo update for '05:
HOLIDAYS -> The holiday season went well for them. Sales were at least the same, maybe a little better than last year. They luckily got most of their product in by Dec. 7th, as the second week of December is usually the busiest buying week by far. Sales were strong for both Steinberger and other Yo brands.
SPIRITS -> They seem to have good inventory on them and hope to do so for the near term future. No new news for the line.
USA -> Work continues to get the supply channel of bodies going. They admit that not having them has been the biggest hindrance to the USA stuff taking off in any meaningful way.
They've also been getting lots of requests from international distributors for USA built product. Some are prepared to buy as much as 50-60 units at a time. But since inventory has been sparse at best they've declined selling to dealers overseas. As they stated "we're just scratching the surface" for the USA line. Once inventory builds up they hope to open things up considerably overseas. It should be noted that in Steinberger's heyday 50% or more of the instruments were sold outside of the US. That kind of global skew is unusual for a USA built guitar and is something they'd like to capitalize on again.
PARTS -> They've got stock on more parts: TransTrems, S-Trems, R-Trems, trem arms for all, gearless tuners, bass jaws. Should be good for the near future on these.
SYNAPSE -> As everyone is aware, Musician's Friend will be the first online retailer to sell the new line. Prices are posted on their website which you can link to directly:
http://www.steinbergerworld.com/mflink.htm
Though they list availability as mid Feb, chances are late Feb./early March is more realistic. Also the first batches will have relatively few instrument. Even if they show up early, don't be surprised if items go in and out of stock a lot in the first month or so. Be prepared to also start seeing major ads in the upcoming weeks.
I'd add that they will NOT be showing the Synapse instruments at NAMM, so don't expect to see or be able to play any on the show floor.
As always will post regular updates, especially when we get news of the Synapses actually arriving in stock.
Posted by andyyak 1/17/2005 03:56:40 PM
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