1990 – 1999 Rockinger Break, göldo

1990 – Break

In 1990 Rockinger broke up. Too many problems with Züli and his wife, who had taken over the bookkeeping for us and after a short time felt called upon as a "boss's wife" to send our esteemed Ines Knauer running errands: "Go to the bank and pick up the bank statements ...". This kind of "abuse of power" is impossible and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  At a certain point, I just couldn't take it anymore. "We have to split up!" was the only logical consequence for me. Unfortunately, patience strings are not available in every desired strength and - like guitar strings - they break sooner or later depending on the load. My predetermined breaking point was reached.

But that was not so easy. A year of legal disputes followed. As a result (acute shortage of money, bills and reminders from the health insurance companies that we were absolutely unable to pay) I finally filed for bankruptcy. After that I was unbelievably fired as managing director with the locks changed and no more access to my company, my lifeblood.

Seen in the rear view mirror, I may have overreacted here and there, showing no (or too little) insight into certain things. I took too much perhaps too personally and was sometimes also quickly irritated by customer calls.  So I founded göldo guitar parts, a wholesale outlet for music shops and importers of guitar parts.

Fortunately …

Due to a changed majority in Rockinger GmbH, I was able to kick Züli and his wife out of this business.  Andreas Mertens (an old customer) then took over Rockinger.  An excellent Hanover guitarist with business acumen and the necessary, far-sighted commitment to the guitar, with whom all customers are certainly in good hands. But he didn't want to continue our wonderful and once so promising custom concept for kits or other custom-made products or even repairs. Shortly before the break, we had already realized that this was not really worthwhile any longer.  We probably should have charged double for our custom-made products, so that they would have been profitable. But could we still have sold them in that case? Nobody knows.

In short, both I as "göldo" as well as Andreas with the new Rockinger company had come to the same conclusion: just concentrate on selling parts! No more custom work and no more repairs.

Together we sold part of our machinery and a large part of the showroom instruments etc., keeping what might have been needed for new guitar production: a bench router for fretboard, a stationary router, the fret saw, fret press and lots of cutters, as well as several smaller tools. From these sales all kinds of money came into the cash box again. In addition, I was able to sell the back building to the dry cleaner, who was located on the ground floor of the front building for a good price. A new beginning ...

1991 – Move

My göldo company moved. However, it was just only about 300 meters further into another back building, a tasteful 50s style unit with lots of space.

Of course, the transition was a hard time full of hardship and I had to start over relatively small again. But once you have gained a foothold in a business, you can get back on your feet.

1992 – Chandler, San Francisco

I met Adrian and Paul Chandler at the trade fair in Frankfurt, a somewhat crazy duo with exceptionally good taste. They offered a huge assortment of custom pickguards in crazy celluloid colors, as well as various guitar parts. They also produced some well-designed guitars and basses and were into lipstick pickups. We had an instant bond, and göldo took over the distribution of their products.

1993 – San Francisco

In May I visited them in San Francisco. Quite a respectable firm. Paul was a little depressed because a Vietnamese employee had just terminated his employment without notice after weeks of painstakingly training him for pickguard production - "Today, last day!" With Paul's vintage Sunbeam we took a wonderful trip through the canyons and also visited an antique store. There I discovered this beautiful, 50s dinette table group and had to have it.

It was quite easy to take it apart, so Paul offered to send it to Germany by sea in one of his big fair crates. Yes, bought, dismantled and shipped. Everything arrived safely, and this beautiful furniture has survived until now - 2020 - and is in my Madrid apartment.

And what a coincidence: Shortly before the table group arrived, Paul called me and asked me to order 30 hollow bodies and various spruce and maple tops from the Erlangen tonewood company. They made it all to measure and sent it to us. We filled Chandler's trade fair case with them in Hanover and then put them on the ship. Everyone was satisfied.

1993 – Frankfurt trade fairoforte

We shared our stand with the Clovers and the Chandlers. It was a good mix and a success for everybody. (At the bottom right you can see some empty champagne bottles)

1994 – Cornelia

Unfortunately, Ines Knauer, our colleague who I hold in such high esteem, didn't want to work in the guitar business anymore. (The quarrels with my partner Zülsdorf and his wife the financial guru probably did her in ...). As a result, Cornelia B. began working for us as a new employee in 1994. A very capable woman, who had everything under control in no time.

And a fresh wind in the knob business!

In autumn we sent her to Formentera for a guitar building course to improve her skills and she came back proud and enthusiastic with the bass she had built. "Unfortunately", or rather to our disadvantage, she had fallen in love with Thomas Stratmann, which led to her pregnancy at the end of the year.  She left in the middle of the next year, a real loss. But it was for Thomas so it was ok.

1994 – WD – Larry Davis, USA

There had been too many problems with Chandler despite all the good times. The typical "custom" problems, too many mistakes. To compensate for this, we took over the distribution for WD products ("W" stands for "Wendy", Larry Davis' wife). Like Chandler, they offered lots of pickguards, bodies and necks, and lots of other guitar parts. Good addition to the göldo selection. Unfortunately the pickguards, like Chandler's before, had almost as many mistakes in the details, which constantly caused complaints from customers. But you could live with it for a while. And they were businessmen - not hippies like the extremely likeable Chandlers. Here's a photo - Wendy with Glen Quan, the inventor of the badass bridge.

1995 – again with Ines

Cornelia left us but fortunately I was able to persuade Ines to join us again.  We carried on as before.

Lag? Fronkroisch?

Shortly before the fair Bruno Bianchi, the German representative for the French guitar company "Lag", asked me if I could take over the distribution instead of him. I thought I would have a look at it, although I (see my letter of invitation to my dealers) already had a certain aversion to this fair at that time.

Lag shared the booth with the "Metal Hammer" including a pirate ship-like bar. There was always a heavy metal aspect, which is not really my thing. They also had a pretty tasty, hollowed out semi-acoustic, but the Grós just didn't suit my taste. Besides, there was this garish guy named Manfred Eisenblättler doing a real song and dance all the time. In the end I did not take over the distribution.

But the good thing: Besides Bruno Bianchi (right), I met one of the Lag bosses, Fred Garcia. After an hour of conversation it was as if we had known each other for years. A great guy and still today one of my best friends.  After leaving the Lag company he soon became the French göldo and Duesenberg distributor.