{"id":16489,"date":"2019-05-07T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16489"},"modified":"2019-05-08T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T11:17:01","slug":"musical-matchmaker-paul-heumiller-of-dream-guitars-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/07\/musical-matchmaker-paul-heumiller-of-dream-guitars-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Matchmaker: Paul Heumiller of Dream Guitars (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"The Inspiration of Handcrafted Instruments
\n<\/b>Heumiller explains the inspiration that guides him. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of things,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course, there\u2019s my love of guitars and music, and how much guitar affected my life.\u201d And he relishes the opportunity to match players with instruments. \u201cI just had a 14-year-old classical prodigy in here; I helped him and his mom find a guitar,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s<\/i> why I do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he suspects there\u2019s an inherited dimension to his inspiration as well. Paul draws a line back to his grandfathers, both of whom were born in Germany. \u201cOne worked at Steinway Pianos in New York City,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd my other grandfather was a metalworker in Germany. I\u2019ve always loved metal shop, wood shop; for years I used to put together my own electric guitars.\u201d While he insists he shouldn\u2019t be classified as a luthier, Heumiller acknowledges that he has received training in the art of guitar building. \u201cSo from that side, I totally appreciate what it takes to build one of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

That appreciation extends to a kind of reverence for custom guitar makers themselves. \u201cEven now when I meet builders and see how passionate they<\/i> are, I really love being able to help them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re just awesome folks; it\u2019s a great community.\u201d Ultimately, Heumiller is more a matchmaker\u2014bringing together musicians and custom guitar makers\u2014than a dealer or middleman. Spending time with him, one gets the feeling that he\u2019d do this even if it wasn\u2019t his livelihood.<\/p>\n

When talking about the experience of guiding a player toward the selection of a custom guitar, Heumiller often uses the metaphorical phrase \u201csoul food\u201d to describe the end result. And he has no end of anecdotes that illustrate the idea. \u201cOne of my favorite clients is a 72-year-old guy,\u201d he says. \u201cHe called me up and said, \u2018I put off learning guitar my whole life. I had my kids, they grew up, and I had to help them. Now I\u2019m going to play.\u2019\u201d The man bought an instrument from Dream Guitars. \u201cHe called me up six months later,\u201d Heumiller says, a warm smile on his face. \u201cHe told me, \u2018I\u2019m in a guitar orchestra now!\u2019 I want to be part of helping people do things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some two decades after starting his business, Heumiller remains happy that he has taken Martin Simpson\u2019s advice about focusing only on high-end instruments. He expresses boundless admiration\u2014awe, really\u2014for the care and effort that goes into the making of a handcrafted guitar. \u201cSomebody spends 100 or 150 hours making them,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been in shops where they\u2019re deciding, \u2018Do I take one more pass of the chisel to get the most tone, or do I leave it alone?\u2019 He says that approach stands in sharp contrast with the factory method: \u201cCut it the same way, glue it the same way, stamp it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heumiller emphasizes that one can see and hear the difference between a fine, handmade guitar and a mass-produced one. Waving his hand in the air to draw attention to the instruments on the walls of his showroom, he says, \u201cI\u2019ve had people crying in here. I hand them a handmade guitar, and the price doesn\u2019t matter. I hand them something that is so open and so moving that they literally well up. These guitars are different<\/i>. And you can\u2019t do that at a thousand-dollar price point. You just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the guitar makers with whom Heumiller works make as few as 10 to 20 instruments a year. \u201cThat\u2019s about all you can do when you\u2019re building by hand,\u201d he explains. \u201cMost guys make one or maybe two at a time; it takes months for those to be done, then they move on. And if there\u2019s any kind of inlay or artistry, that takes another 100 hours.\u201d That extreme high-end, labor intensive process helps explain the lofty price of the guitars Heumiller has on offer. \u201cSome guitars have to be $20,000, $30,000, $40,000,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause it takes [builders] so many hours of time, and so many years before that figuring out how to do it.\u201d He makes the added point that most handcrafted guitar makers only see a profit in the last five to ten years of their career. \u201cIt takes a long time for a builder to get on the plus side of things; it\u2019s a big learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dream Guitars\u2019s stock consists of a few hundred guitars from high-end builders, plus occasional trade-ins. And Heumiller often serves as a liaison between builders and clients wanting a special, built-to-order instrument. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of what we do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Considering the price point of these fine acoustic guitars\u2014it\u2019s rare to find an instrument at Dream Guitars priced under $5,000\u2014the demographic of Heumiller\u2019s clients is primarily in the 50 to 70-year old range. \u201cThey\u2019re people who have either played guitar their whole life, or who are getting into it later in life,\u201d he says. His clients are a mix of professionals, semi-pros and collectors. \u201cAs logic would dictate,\u201d Paul adds, \u201cyounger clients\u2014age 30 to 50\u2014are buying from the lower end of what we offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most everything about Dream Guitars\u2019s approach is the opposite of the customary retail method of selling musical instruments. Volume dealers\u2014both of the brick-and-mortar variety and their online counterparts\u2014may sell good quality guitars, but the primary focus is on moving inventory. \u201cOn the business side, I\u2019m where I want to be,\u201d Heumiller says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sell even 500 or 1,000 pieces a year.\u201d He says that in a typical year, Dream Guitars might sell 200-300 instruments. And the timeline from initial inquiry to the guitar finding its way into the client\u2019s hands often takes several weeks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to wonder why a prospective buyer might not simply go direct, cutting out any middleman. Heumiller smiles knowingly at the suggestion. \u201cThe first reason is that we\u2019re the same price,\u201d he says. \u201cMany people think we add on to the builder\u2019s price, but we don\u2019t.\u201d Dream Guitars takes a commission from the sales, and builders are happy to have Heumiller and his team do all the marketing and support work. \u201cWe\u2019ve built a machine for representing builders\u2019 work at the highest possible level,\u201d he says, noting that dreamguitars.com received nearly a quarter million visitors last year.<\/p>\n

The other reason clients come to Dream Guitars is for the expertise. \u201cWe want to help you find the guitar that\u2019s going to motivate you and make you want to play,\u201d Heumiller says. \u201cI think that\u2019s our reputation.\u201d He says that many prospective clients are looking to be educated. \u201cThey know there\u2019s this world of custom builders; they have an idea that those instruments are better than the factory guitars they\u2019ve been playing for the last 20 years.\u201d An initial phone call starts the education process. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of back and forth. Like, \u2018Who is Bill Tippin? Who is Jordan McConnell? Who is Ervin Somogyi?\u2019\u201d Paul notes that Dream Guitars\u2019s website features a demonstration video\u2014featuring high-definition audiovisuals created in the company\u2019s Weaverville studio\u2014for every guitar in stock.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… The Inspiration of Handcrafted Instruments Heumiller explains the inspiration that guides him. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of things,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course, there\u2019s my love of guitars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,3668],"tags":[2439,3793],"class_list":["post-16489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-music-business","tag-dream-guitars","tag-paul-heumiller","cat-41-id","cat-3668-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16489"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16807,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489\/revisions\/16807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}