How Rob Chapman turned his guitar passion into a business

Welcome to Products of Music, a podcast sharing inside stories and expert insights on product innovation in music technology.

In this episode host Adam Wakeling speaks with Rob Chapman, Founder of Chapman Guitars.

Rob is an English musician, YouTube content creator, and the founder and co-owner of Chapman Guitars. He is is known for his popular instructional YouTube channel with over 725,000 subscribers and as demonstrator of guitar equipment for Andertons Music Co. 

He is a lead singer and a guitarist, previously playing for the blues/Americana band Clockwork Wolf & Co, and rock band Dorje.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnC9tEEDjNQ

To learn more about Chapman Guitars, visit: https://www.chapmanguitars.com/

Rob's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RobChappers

Chapters:

00:00 Preview

01:07 Intro

02:40 The birth of Chapman Guitars

05:05 The power of customer collaboration 

09:49 How to make a great guitar?

10:41 Rob's skillset that helped boost the brand

13:04 Rob's values and company values

15:12 Steering the ship in difficult times

19:57 The uniqueness of the guitar product market

23:28 Finding 'vibe' in developing products

25:12 The rise of relicing guitars

26:54 Finally talking about the café

28:36 Separating business and creative sides 

33:10 The issue with YouTube product demos

36:17 Agile approach to manufacturing location 

42:53 Decision to release a boutique guitar amplifier

6:10 Rob's final thoughts

48:00 Outro

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