Chesbro Music Company is a privately owned American manufacturer and wholesaler of musical instruments, musical instrument accessories and sheet music. Chesbro Music was founded in 1911 and is based in
Idaho Falls
Idaho Falls (Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: Dembimbosaage) is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, Bonneville County, Idaho, United States. It is the state's largest city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 Un ...
, Idaho.
[The Music Trades, "Integrity Has Built Chesbro Music Co.", March 1974 issue, page 64. https://42663fc993d37656913b-1a6c2ae57a0373e6e645c2f3050e64a8.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/2016/02/MusicTrades_March1974.jpg] Chesbro owns Teton Guitars, and has been run by
female CEOs since 1953.
Early history
Horace Chesbro, an 1897 violin studies graduate of the
Northern Indiana Normal School in
Valparaiso, Indiana, and his brother, Harry, began Chesbro Music Company in a storefront in Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1911. Having manufactured
upright piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
s in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington,
they continued selling pianos and delivered them via horse-drawn wagon to rural Idaho communities.
In 1925, Horace Chesbro started school band programs before public schools began funding and staffing their own music programs. A year later, Chesbro Music was the first to introduce the rural Northwest to recorded music with the wind-up
Edison Chippendale Console Disc
Phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
. From the success of selling phonographs, the Chesbro Music Co. began building a three-story addition onto their storefront in Idaho Falls in June 1927. Through the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Chesbro Music continued operation by honoring debt or credit with trade and housing employees in-store. By the late 1930s, Chesbro Music began offering
jobbing (wholesale) franchises.
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
reported that Chesbro Music was among the top 20 sheet music jobbers in 1944. Horace's son, Henry Chesbro, took over Chesbro Music Company as president in 1945 and began nationally wholesaling newly introduced
LP record
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...
s.
Female CEOs and Wholesale Expansion
In 1953, 70-year-old Ella Chesbro, Henry's mother, assumed management of the company due to the death of Henry Chesbro in a plane accident.
Ella expanded jobbing franchises to include independent dealers
who sold displays of stock music and folios. Five years later, to accommodate wholesale growth, Chesbro Music expanded their original 1911 store front to a 60,000 square foot warehouse and added a modern facade.
Music industry
The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
executives and civic officials attended a ribbon-cutting in 1961 in the new building marking the company's 50-year anniversary. Then, with a Stanford degree in economics, 37-year-old Joan Chesbro Griggs, the company's second female
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, took the reins from her grandmother in 1969.
That year, Chesbro Music began attending the
NAMM Show
The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...
in
Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
with a display of their wholesale business and print music library.
Having met Junpei Hoshino, president of
Hoshino Gakki
is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It is the owner of the Ibanez guitar and Tama drum brand names.
History
The Hoshino company was founded in 1908 by Matsujiro Hoshino originally as the Hoshino Shoten bookstore which mostl ...
, at the 1972 NAMM Show, Joan entered Chesbro Music into a Western United States distributorship of
Tama Drums
Tama Drums, (from Japanese: (Kanji), (Kana), read as ) is a brand of drum kits and hardware manufactured and marketed by the Japanese musical instrument company, Hoshino Gakki. Tama's research and development of products, along with producti ...
and
Ibanez Guitars
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United Sta ...
with
Hoshino USA in 1973. She and Gary Bennett, a top tenured employee, then helped Tama and Ibanez gain domestic popularity over the next four decades.
By the mid-1980s, Chesbro had enlisted membership in the Music Distributors Association (MDA) and was labeled the second largest distributor of sheet music in the United States. In 1999, daughters Vanetta Chesbro Wilson and Tana Jane Stahn, took on co-ownership of Chesbro Music. Distributing the Ibanez brand during the next decade contributed to Chesbro's growth through the 2000s. In 2007, Chesbro Music Wholesale was recognized in the industry as one of the 36 "dealer friendly" companies. In 2008, Gary Bennett was recognized for his nearly 35-year contribution to the music industry with a nomination by ''The Music & Sound Retailer'' as Representative of the Year. The partnership between Chesbro Music and
Hoshino Gakki
is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It is the owner of the Ibanez guitar and Tama drum brand names.
History
The Hoshino company was founded in 1908 by Matsujiro Hoshino originally as the Hoshino Shoten bookstore which mostl ...
ended in 2009.
During the transition, the sisters targeted their wholesale business to independent music dealers.
In 2010, Chesbro Music Co. introduced Teton Guitars,
a brand of acoustic guitars manufactured in China and named after a prominent mountain range near Chesbro Music Company headquarters. That same year Chesbro Music remained on
The Music Trades
''The Music Trades'' is a -year-old American trade magazine that covers a broad spectrum of music and music commerce, domestically and abroad. Founded in New York City in 1890, it has been based in Englewood, New Jersey, since the mid-1970s. ''Th ...
magazine's list of largest companies in the music industry, ranked by sales, in the U.S. The 2010 NAMM Show History Program also noted that Chesbro had "become one of the largest music wholesalers in the country
".
In 2011, Chesbro Music Company marked its 100-year anniversary with an open house for local community, civic leaders, and employees. This anniversary was noted by industry trade magazines
and Chesbro was given a citation of distinction at the 2011 NAMM Show.
Vanetta died November 2013,
leaving her sister, Tana, to run the "Top 100" company. In 2015 and 2017, industry trade magazines listed Chesbro Music as one of the top 100 leading suppliers in the music industry. 2018 marked the 65th anniversary of a
woman
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
CEO running Chesbro Music.
Chesbro Music Company acquired SHS International, a U.S.-based audio company, in late 2019.
Proprietary Brands
* Teton Guitars, Ukuleles, Amplifiers, and Accessories
* Tanara® Acoustic and Electric Guitars
* Harmony Jewelry by Future Primitive. Licensed musical replicas include instruments from
Fender,
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
,
Martin Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
, and
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...
.
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Chesbro Music Company Retail WebsiteChesbro Music Company Wholesale WebsiteOfficial Teton Guitars WebsiteVanetta Wilson InterviewNAMM Oral History Library (2010)
Chesbro Music Co.: A History 1911-2011
Manufacturing companies established in 1911
Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States
List of companies based in Idaho
Privately held companies based in Idaho
1911 establishments in Idaho
Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States