Artist Endorsed Bluegrass Instruments

Sometimes even bluegrass artists get famous enough that a musical instrument maker will whip up an “artist-endorsed” model and offer it to the public. Usually the artist gets paid a royalty of X number of dollars per instrument sold (or something like that) and perhaps one or more free examples of the instrument, to own, sell, or give away. Of course the instrument maker gets to sell instruments to a very targeted audience – picker fans of that artist.

Additional Bowden Comments

The fictional artist-endorsed bluegrass instrument was B. There has not been ANY artist-endorsed fiddle that I’m aware of. Alison Krauss of all people would be an obvious choice. And Jon Cooper violins/fiddles are certainly considered top level instruments currently made in the USA. But, it just hasn’t happened (yet). Historically too, in bluegrass there has never been a dominant brand of fiddle. You often here “oh this is just an old German fiddle” as Germany was a big “factory fiddle” country in two major cities (Mittenwald and Markneukirchen). There are probably just too many different brands of fiddles for any single one to dominate the bluegrass market.

I guess this trivia question was so easy nobody would lower themselves even to guessing…