Which Building is DiMarzio's?

[Michael Vee]

Just on a whim this morning, I did a Google Maps street view on 1388 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY. This is the street address for DiMarzio. This is also the street address for Solomon's Porch, a church. Would someone who's been to DiMarzio explain this curious address overlap? Does DiMarzio share part of the building with the church?

 

[bassist4dalord]

Very interesting, indeed..

 

[Matthijs]

You've discovered di marzio is just a marketing front for a chinese electonics corporation.

Or maybe di Marzio is run by a small non confessional religious organisation that's liked by 4 people at facebook.

 

[Bassmanbob]

Jesus in the basement coiling wire around magnets.

Now there's a picture.


.

 

[hdracer]

Jesus in the basement coiling wire around magnets.

Now there's a picture.


.

That's why they are so good!!

 

[Michael Vee]

The Street View pictures have a "DiMarzio" location icon showing on the corner of Elm Street and Richmond Terrace. That's Solomon's Porch.

The green building adjacent to Solomon's Porch looks like an old garage, and I thought that might be DiMarzio there. There is a what appears to be an open door between the bushes, and a sign on a post, which cannot be read from Street View. However, that building is on Elm, not Richmond Terrace.

The street address overlap may be some weird Post Office / Staten Island bureaucratic hitchie, or it may be due to the building being attached to Solomon's Porch. One building, one street address?

We really do need someone who's been to the "factory" to clarify the actual location. Or maybe a DiMarzio employee.. do any of them do Talkbass?

I could just call DiMarzio's office and ask, I suppose.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Someone has the green and tan buildings marked as DiMarzio. Not what I was expecting! The green building has a sign over the door that look like it might be the DiMarzio logo.

 

[Michael Vee]

The green building has a sign over the door that look like it might be the DiMarzio logo.

I can't read the sign from the left side- going down Elm Street from the intersection with Richmond Terrace- but when I went past the green building and looked at the sign from the right side, it does indeed look like the red and black DiMarzio logo to some extent. Still blurry, but I think we might have a location!

I did a screen capture of the sign and cleaned up the focus and contrast a little bit. It's attached below.

 

[jbiscuti]

I've lived in the area my whole life and never seen it.

 

[Michael Vee]

I think it's interesting when all we've known of a company for years is their logo, their website, and their products, possibly communicating with the owner and employees via phone or email, and then have a chance to actually see the physical shop and building in which they work and run the business.

I'm not in the least bit saying that I think less of DiMarzio, having seen their humble green garage building in the street view picture. They are an internationally-renowned parts builder, and they really crank out the pickups in that little building on north Staten Island. And I love the sound of the DiMarzio pickups I've played and heard on recording and in concerts all my life. I'd love to see inside that building, a factory tour, if you will. In person especially, but it'd be nice to do a pictorial tour of DiMarzio, too.

I am going to launch another thread that will be something along the lines of "Show your shop or factory" in which our many bass, amp, parts, and accessories makers can show off their buildings or neighborhoods. And those of us who live in those towns and cities can post pictures, and we can all chip in Street view pictures. Could be a lot of fun.

 

[Michael Vee]

Just heard back from DiMarzio via email. They said:

"That is correct, we have the same address as Solomon’s Porch. We don’t offer inside views or factory tour videos."

And that was that.

 

[Munjibunga]

Hmmm. Solomon's Porch, Inc. has a very low internet profile. Very low. They clearly aren't too interested in increasing the size of their flock. It makes one wonder if DiMarzio just isn't interested in having people visit their shop, hence, a different name on the building.

On another note, a lot of you would probably be surprised at the shops where a lot of very high quality instruments are built. Luthiers aren't necessarily interested in ostentatious surroundings.

 

[Bassmanbob]

On another note, a lot of you would probably be surprised at the shops where a lot of very high quality instruments are built. Luthiers aren't necessarily interested in ostentatious surroundings.

I've found this to be true.

I've had the pleasure of visiting four very well respected boutique bass shops, and none of them had an impressive shop/store front. Two were in the New York area and the other two in two different cities. It can be argued that four is a small sampling, but none had fronts that drew attention to what goes on there.

If you we're building expensive instruments, would you want to draw attention to your place? Not me.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Most of us small builders don't have store fronts. There isn't really much need for one. The great majority of my business is done by mail order, and I've only personally met a small percentage of my customers. I'm not trying to hide from them, but they are scattered around the US and the world. When a customer does visit, I'm glad to give them the shop tour and sit them down at my assembly bench to test out basses.

Most of the other builders I know are the same way. Some work out of their residential home and garage. Most of us rent or lease small industrial buildings. And we go for the cheap, grimy ones, not the fancy ones in the strip malls.

 

[Bassmanbob]

Right. I didn't mean to imply that you guys are hiding from us (your customers). I meant to imply that if I were a luthier, I'd not want to draw attention to my shop from the local thieves.

 

[DoctorX]

Just past the door pictured earlier is a very small waiting room (about 6 feet by 6 feet, with a chair or two). Just beyond is the front office, with receptionist, bookkeeper, etc. as you walk in. Bearing left is (or was) the passage behind Larry's old office, which now is inhabited by the production manager. More like a man cave than anything else. Continuing past the office is the shipping, packaging, raw materials and finished products areas. Beyond that are the assembly areas. Tucked in the middle of this maze are the R&D, data processing and receiving areas. Expansion in recent years has taken over other parts of the complex of non-descript buildings beyond the gate to relocate departments already mentioned as employees are added. A very well thought out and refined layout which is subject to change from time to time. Essentially a very well-oiled machine. I doubt you would get a chance to see "what lies beyond the door" unless you are part of the inner circle, or a product endorser, or an employee. Even then, you might be subject to arcane, but no less serious 'sign here....NOW, please' non-disclosure agreements. These are crafted by the one man who can give the legal profession a run for its money in his sleep. His warnings are issued in the form of a question, creating near-panic in the recipient who tries, in vain, to decipher them before it's too late to redeem him (or her-) self. All told, this invariably will give you cold sweats in mid summer, and is all accomplished before he gets up for breakfast. Gently, of course. To have a negative employee review is a study in the phrase "For you my friend, the war is over". Your review hermetically seals you within a cocoon of logic that is inescapable, and your final destination is assured. Houdini knew his grandparents.

Let's not forget to mention the R&D guy. His acidic repartee is enough to make Dr. Doom weep and beg for mercy. I have seen people rush headlong into the water off Richmond Terrace and drown themselves to evade his non-stop stream of invective. If you are one of the lucky ones who knows how to conduct themselves properly in a business situation, they are the nicest folks you will come across. Hands down. If you aren't so endowed, you would best be served by erasing Elm Street and Richmond Terrace from your map. There be dragons.

All in all -- a very happy family.

Seriously, if you pay close attention to how things are done there, as opposed to what they are making, then you have a model of how a business should be run. They have, after all, been in business since about 1973. That means they are coming up on 40 years. They have had their share of issues, but they are still kicking. It would make a hell of a book if someone wrote a tell-all about the history of DiMarzio.

But I digress.....

Dr. X

 

[ctmullins]

Really? All that fuss over wire and bobbins and magnets?

 

[DoctorX]

You'd better believe it.

Even the hurricane kept its distance....

 

[Michael Vee]

DoctorX: Thank you. That's exactly what we needed in this thread. Very colorful and fun to read. I'm glad you were one of the fortunate ones who've been inside that building!

 

[DoctorX]

Thank you for your compliments.

Thusly encouraged, please allow me to continue.

Part of the reason for the non-descript appearance of the building and 'What Lies Beyond' is that the neighborhood is in a...well, how shall I say it? A war zone. Non-descript is much better and enhances survival. Directly across Richmond Terrace are dry docks, where the Staten Island Ferries were occasionally brought in for repair, retrofitting, etc. In the winter, the wind blows so cold off of the Kill Van Kull you'd swear you were on Lake Superior. Now, on Staten Island, you have one or two other companies that are legendary. One of the others is Mandolin Brothers, up on Forest Avenue. Perhaps not so coincidentally only about a mile or so away from DiMarzio, also in the magical town of West Brighton. I say magical, because on some very nearby streets where DiMarzio is located, you need to utter incantations to avoid getting robbed, shot, or both. Both companies, especially since both are in the music industry, had their share of LARGE egos running amok in the countryside during the days when they were the big kids on the block and the only game in town. To be a fly on the wall in both locations was quite 'enlightening'. To be fair, a good number of their customers had large egos, too. Mix the two, expose to the public, and let the games begin. Picture in your mind a combination of The Three Stooges, "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", and "Dallas" - all rolled into one flaky "double cream" filled pastry.

The economy and the internet, have changed things significantly for both of them.

But I digress.....

If you want a picture of the inner workings of DiMarzio, look no further than Seymour Duncan. Their website, especially the Q & A section, is a short class in pickup making. There are photos of the interior of SD's factory that are the functional equivalent of DiMarzio's facility, only larger. Some of the other pieces of the DiMarzio puzzle can be answered this way: know your product intimately, know your suppliers / vendors, and have more than one source. Some years ago, DiMarzio's main plastic and metal parts supplier imploded without warning, forcing DiMarzio to rescue their tooling and find other molding and fabricating shops to pick up the slack.

Dr.X