[ Max ] A lot of the Player Series was already in place. We have a roadmap that’ s out two to three years plus, that we’ re looking at in order to plan for the future. Of course things change, the market changes, and we need to be agile with the problems we want to solve.
As you saw from the launches with American Pro and American Elite, and American Original, this type of refresh on the more venerable lines has been going on for years now. This is the cherry on that effort and I think the team has done a really good job with that.
[ WM ] One of the things that I love about the promo videos for this line is that there is a huge range of diversity in the artists that are being featured. If Melanie Faye can’ t convince you that these instruments sound great, nobody can!
[ Max ] There’ s a really exciting movement that’ s going on in music. More and more women are picking up guitar than ever before and that’ s exciting. It’ s bringing a whole new style of
playing, a new style of musicianship, and a new character to the industry as a whole.
We want the players to understand what these guitars, amps, and instruments deliver as a solution for creative inspiration. So, some of the people we feature in these ads are really good archetypes for who we’ re speaking to, and that’ s why they were chosen. They understand it. They resonate with other customers who are looking. It’ s pretty simple from our standpoint as far as the authenticity of us communicating with these artists and our customers, all of it is genuine.
There are all kinds of new diverse music out
Melanie Faye there where guitar isn’ t necessarily a lead instrument. Sometimes its atmospheric. Sometimes it’ s doing other things, like being creative in other ways where historically the guitar didn’ t play that role.
[ WM ] At Summer NAMM you introduced the Albert Hammond Jr. Signature Stratocaster. Ironically, Albert’ s main guitar was a MIJ( made in Japan) reissue of a’ 72 Strat, not entirely different than the instruments in the Player Series. Noting that these instruments will likely be played by a number of the coming generation of influences, how much were you thinking about this as you crated this line?
[ Max ] Tons. Throughout my whole career that’ s been my inspiration. All of us in the product group are guitar musicians. We’ ve all been in bands. We’ ve all toured. We’ ve all done it professionally. We’ re very connected to our customers and artists in that way. We’ ve all experienced that for ourselves, as fans, and through our mentors and what they play. It’ s kind of front and center when we’ re putting
66 August 2018 WorshipMusician. com