Mighty Beast Bailey Straps make everyone Happy !
It’s been oh so quiet…
(sorry)
It has been around 10 working weeks since, THANKS TO ALL OUR AMAZING SUPPORTERS, our unbelievable Indiegogo campaign smashed the target.
It became “In Demand” which means the whole campaign stays live and apparently less than 15% of campaigns achieve that status- so totally brilliant! We did alot of public thank you’s online and in person, but then winter & the holiday season hit us, plus a series of ‘natural’ disasters (including needing to replace the entire GuitarMaking site on Xmas Eve so Rudolph could deliver the Air guitars and vouchers for online courses)
This, and getting organised to fulfill everyones’ “perk”, has meant we have been off the radar for longer than we had planned.
The “perks” for supporting the campaign were either digital items, T shirts, Straps, “experiences” or guitars – ready finished or made to order – including our special new model ‘The Bandsman Nantucket’ featuring a Bareknuckle Nantucket P90, available at a special price to campaign supporters (thanks to Dave, George, GrahamMc, Stephen Mc, Tim, Nigel)
Both Bailey and Mighty Beast have been working flat out to try to fulfill all the promises made – and we wanted our first update to be the celebration of the straps and the great collaboration between our creative companies. YAHOOOOO – they are HERE !! (more below)
Not just a crowdfunder
People also contributed in other ways –
- buying guitars and other stock items from our shop or direct: particular thanks to Dave J and Dave Y, Scott W, Ken, & Carl B, ;
- booking BYO courses in advance and paying way more than the normal deposit …Dave H, Theron, Chris M, Bill M, Jacob;
- pre-orders for Design Sessions and new electric and acoustic guitars- Rosalyn, Serena, Dave T, Dave F, Val, Bart, Steve D, Bill , GrahamG
- we had £490 in cash donations and gifts from many people – several just thrust into our hands when we went out – those folk wanted to remain anonymous but thank you (you know who you are);
- Tommy and others who wouldn’t take payment for work done for us,
- and others offered expert help when the time comes to restore the buildings (we won’t forget your names Nick and Paul 🙂 🙂 )
- Moyra T, with help from Tina, even made Xmas cards and sold them tirelessly at gigs…raising £100.01 and giving it all to the campaign… (that one brought a wee tear)
- moral and beyond duty, campaign support with promotions from Fin and Robyn at Pricross (new website coming)
Unbelievable … thank you all.
The Mighty Beast delivers … the first bulk order of Bailey Straps !
Some of you, our brilliant Indiegogo supporters, will have already found a plain flat box on the doormat, containing a brand new Bailey Strap – made in the West of Scotland by Mighty Beast. A few more of you who live further afield (USA and Netherlands), will be getting your box very soon.
Last week, Rachel Robinson (the craftswoman behind the Mighty Beast brand) came down to the workshop with 2 large piles of ready-boxed straps – we were all really excited to see her again AND to take delivery of the special, custom embroidered, Indiegogo perk straps that were made especially for the campaign.
Mighty Beast Bailey Straps
As well as making the first embroidered vegan straps for us, Rachel has been busy working on Outlander (making costumes and corsets) developing new strap lines and working on a range of printed materials.
If you ordered one- its already on it’s way to you – and we have all our fingers crossed you love it ! Both companies would be glad to hear any feedback as this is our first batch & joint venture, so all comments are helpful. We ordered extra ones, and so they are still available through INdiegogo, but will shortly appear in our Bailey on-line shops too. We have already started discussions with Mighty Beast about 2 new Bailey straps …amongst other things.
Your support for us has a double benefit – buying the straps help us AND another handcrafting business, which Rachel hopes to expand over the the coming year. THANK YOU again
The Gift of Song
One of the many, many great moments in the campaign was finding out that Bailey Acoustic Player, Sam Winston, had secretly organised an ALBUM with tracks donated from across the land, and beyond. “Save Bailey Guitars” was the emotional title to an amazingly ecclectic album of mostly original tracks from both Bailey players/friends and folk we hadn’t met – all of whom gave a piece of their music to make up a compilation album available to dowload on Bandcamp.
All the money raised goes towards the fund to help us buy and restore our workshop – it is a beautiful & interesting 28 track collection of music from across the genres, and we cant thank the artists or Sam enough for making it happen. We plan to do more to share this album this year – everyone should hear it !!
Sam is currently here in Ayrshire on a mini tour, gigging and meeting some of the musicians he persuaded to donate… Sam is a great musician and singer – if you are local enough to catch one of his gigs … come along and meet the man behind the playlist, or at least check out his website, watch his innovative videos and his stunning first album “The Fire and the Icicle” mastered at Abbey Road Studios.
Surprise, Surprise…
We had several surprise and super generous heartwarming gifts – 2 totally unbelievable ones from two old friends, which we cant talk about yet (oooo… it’s exciting news coming soon, and much later in the year), and a lump from a wonderful guy from the US who gave because he liked our “vibe”THANK YOU !!! ALSO some of you “old customers who became friends” made us very very generous gifts … and some of the money came from people who we know dont have any spare… when we think about it the wee tear returns…it was so kind of you all…. and of course our anonymous VIP donor who took the total over the target in the last days with £5000… you’ll never know who s/he is but we do and we will be forever grateful !
Money really isn’t everything!
Finally, it wasn’t just about the money
We were overwhelmed by the messages of support, offers of all kinds and the time people put into sharing and writing about it – we felt to be part of a pretty awesome international community of great people – and it confirmed that we want to stay here and carry on doing what we do. It will also mean that the people we work with, team Bailey and our suppliers will still also have work & our custom.
So now we have a deposit, a fast growing workbook that helps us plan into the future, and an even wider circle of people we can now call friends
Words really aren’t enough 🙂
Thank you from us all here at Bailey’s
Mark, Carol, Billy, Fiona and Lewis