We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jim Van New Kirk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jim, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
I was very intent on using the word, “Tone” in the name, then, “Sky Tone,” popped in my head and I was sold! It expressed two different meanings to me. One was the fact that, the sky’s the limit when it comes to creating awesome guitar pickups with amazing tone that fit the guitar player and their playing style. The other was, that the word “Sky,” brings to mind, heaven and my faith in Jesus Christ.
Jim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My professional background is very diverse, since I never really knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, other than wanting to be a rockstar. I got married to my high school sweetheart when she was 16, and I was 17, so trying to follow a career in music was not a realistic possibility for me, since I needed to bring home a paycheck.
In 1988, I joined the Navy and repaired submarines in San Diego for three years, then worked in the the construction field and warehouse management until 2012, when I was laid off from a company worked for, for twelve years.
In 2009, I started writing, recording and performing songs as a solo act, so after I was laid off, I devoted more time to finding solo gigs to play, but after ten years of chasing that dream, COVID shut down any possibility of playing live gigs for any foreseeable future, so I decided to work on a few unplayable guitars that I had in storage, and that is what started the ball rolling for me to step out to start my own business.
My wife, daughter and I were living with my dad in his home at the time “and still are,” due to my dad’s failing health after the loss of my oldest brother and mom a few years earlier. My sister and I take care of him, and I also take care of my wife who has MS, so starting a home based business made a lot of sense, since I need to always be available for them.
In early 2o21, I was doing some local guitar setups and minor repairs, when I decided I wanted to start a business winding my own brand of electric guitar pickups, but I had no business background whatsoever, so I spent a lot of time cramming a lot of information into my, “not so big,” brain, and jumped headfirst into the process of starting a business. I sunk all we had into buying tools and parts, and started a website. I hit up a few guitarists that I knew from my time performing to see if they would let me install my pickups in their guitars, and I promised them that their endless search for great guitar tone was over. I’m pleased to say that I was able to keep that promise!
As 2021 was coming to a close, Sky Tone Pickups was still a struggling new company and the the loss of another brother threatened to cause me to close up shop. I was taking care of my wife, helping to take care of my ailing and grieving dad, as well as tending to all of my brother’s affairs since he was never married.
The beginning of 2022 was touch and go for a long while, but I knew that I needed to do all I could to make Sky Tone Pickups a success, so I became laser focused getting the word out my company, but I had no budget for promotions or adds, and I was not able to hit the road to attend trade shows, since it was more important for me to stay close to home, so what do I do now? My wife talked me into getting a booth at the local Farmer’s Market herein Corona, but I was faced with the fact that I didn’t have a large and diverse enough inventory to capture the eyes of people come out on a hot Saturday morning to buy lettuce, Oranges and locally sourced honey. I had recently purchased a laser engraver/cutter to make custom pickup and guitar parts, so I used that to make custom earrings, necklaces, guitar pick boxes and other items. I also had some of my handmade guitars on display that I would play for customers. I finally started making sales, acquiring guitar repair jobs and making connections with the local community. My sales weren’t huge, and some times, the space fee was more than I made for the day, but it was much cheaper than having a brick and mortar shop.
2003 saw the end of one website and the beginning of a new one. I also decided to focus more of my time on guitar building as well as doing more local guitar setups and minor repairs. Despite the fact that Corona, California is home of one of the largest, and most well known guitar and guitar pickup manufacturers in the world, this city and the immediate surrounding area, is sadly lacking in quality guitar repair and basic services, so I believe that I can help to fill that gap, where customers can trust my dedicated workmanship, and enjoy some friendly banter with someone that actually cares to solve the issues they are having with their guitar.
I especially enjoy working on young student’s guitars, because I want them to learn on a guitar that is a joy to play. I’d like to also teach them to work on their own guitars, and maybe even wind their own killer guitar pickups. It’s an awesome feeling when you hand a guitar back to a customer and they immediately notice that the frets ends are no longer jagged, the strings don’t buzz, it stays in tune and it feels like a customers made guitar.
I guess you could say that my mission statement would be: (1) Do not promise more than you can deliver. (2) Deliver more than you promised, “even if it’s just a little something special.” (3) Don’t talk down to the customer if they don’t know as much as you do, educate them with a caring tone. (4) learn from those customers who know more than you. (5) Ask plenty of questions to understand what the customer is looking for, don’t assume you already know what they need. & (6) Don’t be afraid to turn down work when the customer is looking for something that might be beyond your ability, but try to offer an alternative if possible.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
When I decided to start a custom guitar pickup manufacturing small business, I knew very little about the process, but I briefly worked for a large guitar manufacturer, assembling pickup bobbins. Assembling a few hundred bobbins a day helped give me a basic understanding, but I still needed to do a lot of research on guitar electronics and wiring, as well as guitar building. I’m still learning everyday, by reading articles and watching video by others who wind pickups, as well as studying wiring diagrams and pickup specs for current and vintage pickups.
I hand wind all of my guitar pickups, but I do need to source all of parts that I currently can’t make myself. There are many different styles of electric guitar pickups and guitar accessories, so there are a lot of parts to source, something I had no idea about when I first started out.
There are pickup bobbins, that include magnets, with different types, sizes, materials and strengths, magnetic winding wire that gets wound thousands of time on each pickup bobbin, then there are various screws, pickup covers, hookup wires, springs and other items that are used in each pickup assembly
The list of parts and supplies are endless, and so I needed to source as many different vendors as possible, because I may need to buy from 3 different vendors to make one pickup, or other guitar components. I try very hard to use high quality products made in the USA, and I try to make whatever I can, but often times, I do have to source products outside of the US, because many items are not made here.
I do have a dedicated list of five vendors that I go to first, but there are many different factors that I take into account before and when I finally decide to place an order: (1) cost before shipping (2) Shipping cost (3) shipping delivery fulfillment wait times (4) product quality (5) customer service response to name a few.
The best and most cost effective way of purchasing parts is by buying in bulk, but that if very difficult for home based business to do, so in order to get the best price, I spend a lot of time researching all sourcing avenues, and if I can find what I need local, it may be more expensive, but I need to pay for shipping, or worry about placing a minimum order to avoid a shipping charge.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
(1) Offering and delivering a quality product that is catered to the needs of the customer. (2) honesty
(3) listening to my customers
(4) I stand behind my product
Contact Info:
- Website: Http://skytonepickups.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/skytonepickups
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SKY-TONE-PICKUPS-102616528549977/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnLWNjzq94evrhG6YfyxhJw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/skytone-usa-corona?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
Image Credits
All images by Jim Van New Kirk