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Dean Markley Interview: "I Try to Make Products that Touch People's Souls

Added on January 11, 2012

Alison Richter, Aritsthead Contributing Writer 

Quality, honesty, integrity — they’re the values with which Dean Markley was raised and the foundation on which he started Dean Markley Strings 40 years ago.

Markley was born and raised on a farm in Bennington, Kansas. He began playing guitar when he was 16 and joined a band called The Thundermen. He worked for Bowman Music Company in Missouri, and eventually relocated to Santa Clara, Calif., where he opened and later bought the store that became Dean Markley Music.

In 1972, he founded the Dean Markley company, establishing the name as a leader in musical instrument strings. Over the years, the company expanded its line to include amplifiers, pickups and accessories, and is now celebrating its fourth decade in the forefront of product innovation. In October 2007, Markley was honored by San Jose Rocks for his many contributions to the history and growth of the Silicon Valley music scene.

Ten years ago, Markley shifted gears, working from home with less of a hands-on role in the company. This year, as Dean Markley Strings celebrates its 40th anniversary, he has returned to his full-time position as founder and president.

While he has an innate talent for staying on the cutting edge of product development, Dean Markley still embraces old-fashioned business methods: the customer always comes first, a man’s handshake is his word. He is proud of his accomplishments, but humble when discussing them. In this candid interview, his first since resuming his role at the Santa Clara office, he discusses his professional goals for 2012, upcoming product launches, the state of the industry, and why it is critical for manufacturers to support independent retailers.

Let’s begin with a look at the past decade. Why did you leave and where have you been?

I didn’t totally leave. I just quit going to the office all the time. I have an office in my home where I have all my graphics computers and stuff like that. I do a lot of the package graphics and some of the advertising and a lot of the order forms and catalogs. I wasn’t ever totally out; I just wasn’t making the day-to-day decisions. There were other people doing that. I was doing a lot of designing and coming up with various ideas. In the last couple of years I worked with my friend Jeff Landtroop, who’s the manager of the string winding division, American Winding. Jeff is a fantastic guy and knows a lot about making strings and coming up with ideas and working out new techniques to do things better and different. In the last couple of years we came up with the new Helix string. Currently, there’s a line of electric and two lines of acoustic strings.

What is the story behind Helix?

Read More...

 

 

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