"The new [digital] modeling amplifiers were brought out by Line6 and they have the lion's share of that new business," says David Angress, senior VP and general merchandise manager of Guitar Center Inc., the leading U.S. musical instrument retailer.
Traditional analogue amplifiers still account for the majority of sales., Angress said. But even so, Music Trades magazine reported last year that digital modeling amps have been rapidly gaining market share since 1998 as guitar players discover the new technology.
Digital equipment has "breathed a lot of life back into the guitar amp business," says David Bergstrom, marketing chief at Yamaha Corp. America--which, he adds, is second only to Line6 in the category.
What's the attraction of these new devices? Bergstrom explains: "If you're sophisticated enough in the programming of these modeling amps . . . you can sound like just about anything."
Modeling technology was introduced by L.A. audio engineers Marcus Ryle and Michel Diodic, who in 1996 obtained a patent under a company they founded called Fast Forward Designs Inc.
Modeling uses digital signal processors--generic chips commonly found in audio devices such as cellular telephones. Line6 was spun off with the backing of Palo Alto-based Sutter Hill Ventures.
Muench, who joined Line6 after 11 years with Apple, was a trumpet player at Westminster High School when his idols included the brassy rock band Tower of Power. He later took up keyboards and played professionally in a handful of L.A. rock groups, driven by dreams of stardom until, he said, he realized he was surrounded by vastly more talented and more driven musicians. After graduating from USC, he earned an MBA at Harvard.
He was lured away from Apple, he said, because music has always been his passion.
"I find there is a high correlation between people who are in music and people who are in computer technology, because of the structured thinking in both," he said.
At Line6--the name has no special musical meaning, Muench said--he found that educating the market was a crucial hurdle. So he borrowed a strategy he developed at Apple in selling PowerBooks at leading retail stores. He dispatched an army of 12 expert guitarists to visit 700 retail stores nationwide to demonstrate Line6 equipment and to coach salespeople in how to use it.
Line6 sales more than doubled last year to $20 million from $9 million in 1998, with the help of the product specialists, who show often-skeptical consumers the benefits of the high-tech gear.
