SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) NOVEMBER 14, 2019
Today, Ciari Guitars, a music-tech startup based in San Diego announced its partnership with b8ta, a software-powered retail store that provides consumers first-hand access to discover and try new products. Starting tomorrow, Ciari Guitars will feature the recently launched Ascender, the world’s most innovative electric travel guitar, at five b8ta locations in the U.S., including Austin, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Scottsdale. At each of these retail locations, The Ascender will be available, out of the box, for consumers to test and experience playing.
The Ascender is the first and only premium travel guitar, boasting gig-ready, pro-play quality with unprecedented convenience. The Ascender features a patented folding mechanism that allows the guitar to fold symmetrically in half. To do so, a hidden lever is rotated to immediately loosen the strings and unlock a mid-neck hinge. The neck folds backwards while the strings “follow the fold” and rest gently and neatly within six protective V-grooves for elegant string management. Within seconds of unfolding the neck and returning the lever to its concealed location, the Ascender reverts back to a full-sized pro-play electric guitar with a classic look and feel.
For years, musicians of all skill levels have grappled with the pain points of guitar air travel:1) Do you check your guitar and run the risk of damage or loss?; 2) Do you carry it on the plane and fight the “battle for the bin”?; or 3) Do you leave it at home and deny yourself and others the joy of guitars? The Ascender solves these. When folded in half, the Ascender can be placed inside a gig bag or backpack that never leaves your side, easily fitting underneath an airplane seat. The Ascender’s unprecedented convenience, backed by medical-grade engineering and superior quality hardware components, has positioned Ciari Guitars as one of the most disruptive, market making companies in the guitar industry.
b8ta is a new kind of retail store that offers glimpses into the future of technology, innovation and retail. Since 2015, b8ta has been providing consumers the chance to see what the world is creating. Ciari Guitars Founder and CEO, Jonathan Spangler, a patent attorney and frequent business traveler, set out to solve for the friction associated with guitar air travel. As a result of his problem-solving mindset, Ciari Guitars and the Ascender have arrived for the benefit of guitarists-on-the-go, including professional and amateur musicians alike, and b8ta provides the perfect retail setting to debut the guitar.
A partnership between b8ta and Ciari Guitars is optimal in the modern retail era, in which highly innovative and technically robust products require that consumers touch, interact with and test groundbreaking products. Digital marketing technology has made it easier than ever for direct-to-consumer companies to reach end users, and b8ta’s retail-as-a-service creates space for consumers to shop for brand-new products in-person, in a traditional brick and mortar store setting.
“For Ciari Guitars, a partnership with a company like b8ta is a match made in heaven. We are thrilled to have b8ta as our very first retail partner because Ciari and b8ta share a similar mission. b8ta’s mission is to get products into the hands of people to test and try and our mission is to unleash the mobile musician.,” said Jonathan Spangler, Founder and CEO of Ciari Guitars. “By allowing people to try our Ascender first-hand at b8ta stores, we can de-stress guitar air travel and achieve our mission one customer at a time.”
The Ascender is outfitted with Seymore Duncan ’59 pickups, Graph Tech Ratio Locking Tuners, a Tune-o-Matic Roller Bridge and an electronics set-up that provides wide tonal variety via stacked tone and volume controls and coil split for both bridge and neck pickups. Each Ascender is made in Nashville, TN in association with celebrated luthier Joe Glaser of Glaser instruments, where each neck is Plek’d for optimal action and playability.
To date, Ciari Guitars has been featured in Forbes, Guitar World, Premier Guitar, USA Today, CNN and more.
Musicians are invited to visit their local b8ta store to play the Ascender and explore purchase options.
For more information about Ciari Guitars, visit http://www.ciariguitars.com
About Ciari Guitars
Ciari Guitars was founded in 2016 by CEO Jonathan Spangler, a patent attorney and amateur musician. Based in San Diego, CA, Ciari Guitars is poised to revolutionize the guitar industry with a game-changing folding technology platform that allows a full-size, premium guitar to fold in half for backpack portability for unparalleled convenience and uncompromising quality. Ciari has received strong interest and industry praise, including USA Today’s “Coolest New Products” (first out of 7000 brands) at The NAMM Show ’19 (120K attendee music instrument tradeshow in Anaheim), CNN (only 1 of 3 companies highlighted in CNN’s NAMM Show coverage – out of 1K+ exhibitors), Guitar World’s No. 1 Live Fee at The NAMM Show, and Forbes August 2019 “The Most Convenient Guitar in the World.”
About B8TA
b8ta, a software-powered retailer designed to make physical retail accessible for all, was founded in 2015 by Nest alums Vibhu Norby (CEO), William Mintun (EVP of Operations), and Phillip Raub (President). b8ta helps people discover, try, and buy new innovative products while empowering makers with a simple Retail as a Service model that puts them in control. b8ta has fourteen locations in San Francisco, Santa Monica, New York City, among others. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.
