loop device endorsement - was Santanas looping bassist

[Hedewa7@aol.com]

matthias, you said something about product endorsements being old-school & 
boring, or something much like that.....

personally, i think that endorsements can be very useful & more than a 
little 
practical, when:
1) they reflect real useage, 
2) the market niche is well-defined, and 
3) they are pursued w/some long-range plan w/educational depth, especially 
and most specifically in regards to 'hidden' instruments..... such as the 
edp.
(this is certainly the repeat of a discussion that i began having w/both 
kim 
and the then-not-ready-for-committment-folks-at-gibson, when the edp was 
first released, after the failure of lexicon higher-up execs to stick w/a 
long-range plan for marketing the jamman).

with a hidden *player's* instrument like the edp ---(ie, the instrument is 
being used intensively, but the audience can't *see* either it or the 
player's direct interaction with it ---eg, benny reitveld at the santana 
performance --- unlike a les paul/a dw drumkit/or even a waldorf synth 
etc)--- it seems that such endorsements might even be necessary;
my strongest suggestion, those years ago and *still*, would be to follow 
up 
the endorsement w/a series of **regular** looping clinic-tours sponsored 
by 
the manufacturer, w/instructional videos (or whatever) made available for 
sale (but, free-of-charge to salesfolk at the retail level), also by the 
manufacturer.

of course, in my own case, gibson dropped the planning-ball many, many 
moons 
ago;
though:
i made myself available, for whatever that might have been worth ---(not 
very 
much to them, obviously, i guess!)--- ..... and left the door wide open, 
w/absolutely no response from any business-planning folk at 
gibson/trace/gibson.
that little bit off my hairy chest:
i'm sooooo very glad to see that andré/kim/etc have (rightfully, as andré 
is 
such a rocking edp-badass) begun a new forward-thrust, on their own 
initiative.

so, regarding looping-devices, i guess i'd opine that some truthful 
endorsements might be --- at least, eventually--- more than a bit valuable 
to 
a manufacturer interested in (and capable of actuating) longer-range 
planning.
if the manufacturers want people to buy the product, but folks 
a) don't have an idea of what-it-is, and
b) are clueless as to how they might use it, themselves, well.....

the word must go out, somehow --- i guess that's what LD is for, eh? --- 
and 
i'm led to speculate that the manufacturers, themselves, tend to lose 
deeply 
via their lack of marketing commitment/planning vis-a-vis looping 
instruments.



just ruminating.....
best,
dt / splattercell