Custom Peavey Guitar Becomes Symbol of Optimism in Katrina's Wake

PEAVEY INT'L. HEADQUARTERS — Peavey Electronics gave Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour a sample of its modern craftsmanship during the 54th annual Mississippi Manufacturers Association convention.Cecilia Derrington, Manager of Industrial Relations for Peavey Electronics, presented Barbour with a one-of-a-kind HP Special USA guitar—adorned with the Mississippi state logo and built in the Peavey U.S.A. Custom Shop—as a fitting conclusion to his optimistic address on the state of Mississippi manufacturing after Hurricane Katrina.The specially customized Peavey electric guitar is a sample of the work now under way in the Peavey Custom Shop, located in Meridian where Hartley Peavey founded the globally successful company in 1965. Peavey will soon unveil its new PeaveyCustomShop.com web site, which will take musicians step by step through the process of designing custom Peavey instruments to their own specifications. This new interface will be the only online musical instrument custom shop to offer a custom color palette where consumers can dial in their exact custom colors.Peavey revolutionized guitar manufacturing in the 1970s with its T-60, the first guitar made using CNC computer-controlled machinery. The T-60 bridged the gap between the vintage and modern eras in guitars, and twenty-eight years later the musical instrument and sound equipment giant's guitar-making innovation has become the industry standard. Peavey is moving further into high-end musical instruments than ever with the Peavey Custom Shop."Building guitars is a science, but one with art," said Peavey Electronics founder and CEO Hartley Peavey. "When I set out to build guitars using computers, people said 'you can't do that.' But anything in life that is truly worthwhile is tough. That's why we set out to build the best guitars, right here where blues and rock & roll started: Mississippi."