The Editorial Page

Welcome Pioneers!

The music business is a huge industry. Last year people spent $20 billion just to listen to recorded music – and that’s not including spending for concert tickets, band merchandise, instruments, parts and accessories, music video production, lessons, and everything else that goes along with it. Music impacts literally every person on this planet. And way off to the side of this gigantic music machine, at the end of a lonely street in a bad part of town, there’s a teeny tiny cul-de-sac inhabited by 12-string bassists.

There’s an old proverb, I was told it’s Russian: “To be successful you need to either be first, or be best, or be different.” While country artist Loretta Lynn is credited with a version of this phrase, she probably learned it the same way I did – as a child, and from a grandparent. On a practical level, there aren’t many “firsts” that are still possible in music, and being “best” is highly subjective. But it’s still possible to be different, and most importantly, not just different for its own sake but different in a way that adds value. This is the opportunity offered by the 12-string bass - this instrument offers a way to stand out from the rabble personally while giving your band a sound unlike every other.

Webster’s dictionary defines the word ‘pioneer’ as, “A person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development”. Where else in the musical world other than with a 12-string bass can you show up to a party decades after it started and still be considered a pioneer? Nowhere. And the field is still wide open - the strength of the 12 has barely been realized, its potential is enormous, and the competition is effectively non-existent.

Yes, there are hazards to being a pioneer - to quote Rush Limbaugh, “The pioneers take the arrows.” I’ll discuss these difficulties and how to deal with them in a future editorial.

But for now, let’s just recognize the capabilities offered by the 12-string bass and get ready to climb the next musical mountain. We’ll climb it together.

Surf