Instrument maker has got it licked
MARTIN Pratley’s musical instrument manufacturing business has been no breakout success story.
Rather Pratley Guitars has been 20 long years in the making, which has taken Mr Pratley through the highs of seeing famous musicians play his guitars to the lows of seeing his dream of selling guitars to a major chain fade away.
Twenty years after crafting his first guitar at Griffith University studying design and technology for an education degree, Mr Pratley may be on the cusp of a major success.
He has made a signature electric guitar for a major blues artist which could see sales soar for his Nerang company.
Mr Pratley’s musical instrument manufacturing journey began in 1999 when he made a guitar for his final project in his fourth year studying at Griffith.
“It was a travel guitar that worked in a particular way. The neck came off and it went into a backpack for hikers.”
That garnered some media attention, and Mr Pratley moved back to his native Tweed in 2002 and worked full-time as a teacher at Elanora State High School while he developed his business.
He registered the business name in 2004, and, somewhat ironically, his first product was not a guitar, but a stompbox.
A stompbox is a percussion instrument consisting of a small wooden box placed under the foot, which is tapped or stamped on rhythmically to produce a sound similar to a bass drum.
“One of my mates was playing a set and was tapping his foot on a piece of wood with a sensor on it,” he said.
“I told my friend: you can’t use that, it is terrible looking. So, I made him a proper version of it. These days this is the modern stompbox that I developed.”
Mr Pratley had quick success with his pioneering stompboxes, which he produced from a small tin shed, placing them into the Threeworlds store in Burleigh Heads.
In 2005, Mr Pratley made his version of the cajon, a boxshaped percussion instrument originally from Peru.
However, it was not until 2008 and a chance meeting with the national merchandising manager for now defunct chain Allans Billy Hyde that the business really took off.
“He was passing through the Southport store, which I was visiting, and decided to test my cajon against the major brands.
“Mine sound way better, so he said come to Melbourne and we’ll put them in stores.”
Mr Pratley was teaching full-time when the deal was struck with Billy Hyde, which also took on his stompboxes.
It gave him the funds to open his own factory in 2010 in Burleigh Heads, but it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do: “I wanted to make guitars.”
That opportunity came in 2011 when a major Canadian manufacturer used one of his electric guitars during a prominent guitar show.
Mr Pratley moved to a larger factory and started to gain a substantial profile, particularly when metal band The Amity Affliction started using his guitars.
The following year he sealed a deal for Billy Hyde to stock his electric guitars at their stores – a deal potentially worth hundreds of thousands in revenue – but that same year the company collapsed. “I was two weeks out from putting out the first 10 … when my mum texted me, ‘sorry to hear about Billy Hyde’,” he said.
Mr Pratley went back to teaching full-time to pay the bills, during what he described as a “horrible time”.
He continued to make the stompboxes and cajons, but had to let the factory go. “I thought if I kept my website up and my brand alive, that was all I could do.”
Mr Pratley suffered from depression but received encouragement when he saw American-born Australian singer John Butler using one of
his stompboxes. In 2016 he had a strong response to an invention that enabled players to swap pick-ups in and out of guitars in a matter of minutes. He raised $18,000 via a crowdfunding campaign and although the project was shelved when he failed to reach his target, the exercise bolstered his confidence.
After a year working in a cabinet-making business with a friend, Mr Pratley decided to get back to making instruments, particularly guitars, on a commercial scale again.
The impetus was a deal with Canada-based music store chain Long & McQuade for them to start stocking his stompboxes at their 100-strong store network. Mr Pratley moved into premises in Burleigh before moving to Nerang after purchasing a new factory earlier this year.
A major blues musician is about to unveil a video where he plays a guitar designed by Mr Pratley. He will also use the guitar on stage in Melbourne at an upcoming guitar show.
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