studionews SWITZERLAND Taking note of Schertler By Erica Basnicki
AFTER YEARS of relative quiet, Swiss acoustic amplification manufacturer Schertler recently jumped onto PSNEurope’s radar with a flurry of new distributor appointments in the past 12 months, many of which are in Europe. Noble Guitars is representing the company in Austria and Germany; Netherlands-based PB Music in Benelux; SC Sound, Vejen, is distributing in Denmark; IMS Distribution in Port-Mort has been appointed as distributor for France; Waltons Music is now handling sales in Ireland, plus most recent appointments Andromidas in Greece and Power-Sound in Finland.
“One of the reasons for this has been the need to have representation in territories where we have previously only done business directly,” said Drago Dujak, Schertler’s international sales manager. “A second reason is that, with our developing product lines, it has been important to have distributors who are able to serve the needs of different markets such as MI and pro audio.” Since its inception, Schertler
has developed products for musicians that keep the pro- audio world in mind, including its flagship A-DYN contact microphone, which the company claims “is perhaps the most accurate and natural sounding universal contact microphone on the market”.
The company’s ‘developing
product lines’ will see Schertler take on an even greater pro- audio focus, though for now the company is keeping tight-lipped on details: “One or two new product ideas that are currently on the ‘drawing board’ include a summing amp and a mic preamp, both Class A, made entirely with single semiconductors, fully balanced, no negative feedback loop – even the summing amp,” says company founder Stephen Schertler. “I’m also doing basic research on a totally new microphone principle. We’ll have to say more about these various developments later, but for now it looks very promising!” Based in Mendrisio, Schertler has been developing contact
“A musician’s company with the technical approach of a pro-audio company,” says Stephen Schertler
microphones and acoustic amplification systems for musicians since 1986. The company’s products are used by a long list of musician ambassadors, and were deployed for last year’s Classic Brit Awards in the UK as well as the
high-profile Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert. A visit to Schertler’s website
confirms its musical pedigree: rather than listing employees’ contact details, it lists the instruments they play. “Schertler is a musician’s company with the technical approach of a pro-audio company,” says Stephen. “As a musician during the
1980s, I was constantly looking for a solution to accurately amplify my double bass. It is a complex instrument whose natural sound is very difficult to reproduce and back then I felt there was nothing on the market that could really bring out its best qualities. Passion for the instrument and its sound inspired me to develop my own contact microphone system. The word soon spread among the bass playing community and the first orders came in. You could say the company grew from that first product.”n www.schertler.com