Hi everybody!
Just a brief answer to Frank's Email:
Large instrument manufactureres that do endorsements have a very large profit on each item if you compare manufacturing price with customer end price (all people in the chain like stores and wholesalers also have to make a profit) - giving away an instrument that have a sales value of $5000 won't cost them that many $100 of dollars. On top of this they have budgeted their endorsements, which means that all "normal" customers pay for this marketing method. This means that "Joe Blow" has to pay for "Mr RichMusician's" free stuff, since everything has to be paid for in one end or another. This last point is the main reason why we as a principle don't do endorsements.
But I might consider this idea for the future if you all on the list insist: Higher prices for the enthusiasts and small-time musicians, and free gear for Oasis, van Halen, A-HA etc etc.....
I have also always considered this to be a labor of love, so the answer to "How much of a business do you want it to be?" is really: Not much, because if one would see this purely as a business these machines would cost way over $10.000. Remember that the list price was $3950 already in 1973 (without case). I would be curious to know a qualified estimate what that would be in today's money in the US! In Sweden we have an approximate index so one can compare old prices with new. Since we've had extreme inflation in Sweden during the 70's, the factor is more than 10 (!!!).
You all have a nice weekend
Markus