Document text
Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 13, 2006 Michael Farley took the book light concept and adapted it to a handy music stand light for musicians, which started him on his way to his company, Farley's Musical Essentials. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven) Musician markets tools of the trade Musician-turned-inventor markets his music tools and accessories via the Internet and airlines from his home By GREG STILES Mail Tribune GOLD HILL — Long ago, and in lands sometimes far away, Michael Farley was a touring rock guitarist. Today, the 52-year-old Farley is still a global player — sometimes by airline and sometimes by Internet. The Gold Hill inventor and manufacturer sells musical accessories on every continent via a cadre of distributors and the Internet from his home overlooking the Rogue River. Farley and his wife Cathy, a coach at Rogue Valley School of Gymnastics, moved here four years ago. He's one of thousands of émigrés, who left cacophonous Southern California for the comparative peace and quiet of Southern Oregon. It wasn't the promise of employment leading Farley to Jackson County. Like many transplants, he simply unpacked his job when he got here. Farley's Music Essentials sells clip-on lights for musicians, keychain tuners and guitar tools — even throat spray for entertainers. While Farley's Music Essentials' origins are in the 21st century, its founder's retail career extends back to the early 1980s. Advertisement Michael's Music in Santa Barbara had a rental fleet of 200 pianos, says Farley, who bought, sold, rented and tuned pianos. "Whenever Kenny G, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald or Crosby Stills & Nash were in town they would say they want one of Farley's pianos, and the one with this serial number is the one I like the best," he says. A few weeks before the 2000 National Association of Music Merchants Show in Los Angeles, he saw a clip-on book light and figured musicians would find it useful. It proved to be a profitable hunch. He connected with Gold Crest Inc. of Santa Barbara, maker of Mighty Bright lights. Showing off one modified clip-on light at the NAMM Show, Farley racked up 8,000 orders from distributors, and Gold Crest hurriedly cranked out 25,000 units. "Believe it or not, musicians never had a portable clip-on battery-operated light until the year 2000," Farley says. "You could've gone to Borders and bought the book lights at the time; musicians must not frequent those places." In the intervening years, Gold Crest's Mighty Bright line has surpassed its book light sales. Last year, working on commission, Farley says he sold $733,000 worth of lights for Gold Crest. He exchanged his piano sales and rentals inventory for product development and marketing within a matter of months. Farley's real breakthrough came in 2003 following a group guitar lesson when a student asked about his next invention. Farley held up his keychain and told him: "I would like this gadget to produce musical tones to tune by." Another student, who happened to be an electronic engineer, promised a prototype by the following week. "He came back with a funky piece of wood with diodes and capacitors," Farley says. "He showed me exactly how it would function and it all went over my head. All I knew was that I wanted tones." Before long, three-dimensional computer-aided design drawings were on the board. "Now you start spending money," he says. "You spend $1,000 on prototype parts and getting sources where you can get this thing made." A friend of a friend had connections with a Chinese manufacturer. "You just don't look in the phone book and find a manufacturer for something like this," he says. "It was about a two-year journey from napkin to the market." He test-marketed his Pocket Tones invention in the music community, receiving "resounding yeses and some disapproval." It took a $100,000 investment to cover production of the first 30,000 units. When the first batch of 10,000 Pocket Tones arrived from China, he discovered the pitch was off by 1 cent. (Each semitone is subdivided into 100 cents, with 1,200 cents being an octave. Most people can't distinguish pitch differences fewer than about 5 cents.) "It was off just 1 cent, but I destroyed all 10,000 with a hammer," he says. "Since then, the rest have been fine." The production plant made good on the order and replaced the faulty units. He now sells models for guitar, mandolin/violin, cello/tenor banjo and a five-string banjo. "I had been told, if you create a product, make sure that it is small enough to fit 1,000 in your closet," Farley says. "I had been dealing with pianos so long, that just thinking about them made my back hurt. Producing something small, portable, affordable and real practical makes sense when you're sending samples all over the world." Farley admits, however, it isn't always easy to deal with manufacturing plants half a world away. While he regularly deals with U.S. engineers through digital images, he said telephone calls and e-mail exchanges with a production plant in Sialkot, Pakistan, can be challenging. "When they have issues there, the language barriers can be a problem," he said. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Hammocks Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Email Security Advertisement s Advertisement