Donut to Bunyip

If you’ve ever been to the South Coast of NSW you’ll know it has lots of good foodie type places. One of these is the Berry Donut Van. Great doughnuts, terrible spelling.

So what does this have to with guitars?

When Bunyip was just an idea and we knew what we wanted to make, we needed an Australian name for the brand. Seated on that very wall we thought, what is more Australian than a Bunyip? So some searching of business registrations and names and payment of fees to the government later, we had Bunyip Musical Instruments, trading as Bunyip Guitars registered. Step one.

The tag line “The new guitar you have owned for 20 years” came from a parent of one of our early clients, who are still one of our greatest supporters.

Their daughter had just won the Junior Country Musician award for the state. One of the judges said that they had seen her come up over the past two years but this day the performance was so far above what she had done previously that there must be something that had been added to the mix. Was it a new vocal coach, a new practice routine or something else?

She replied it was her Bunyip guitar – it felt like she had owned it for 20 years, so she didn’t have to think about how to play it. The judge said it wasn’t a possibility but he was a guitar player so could he try it. She gave it to him and he struck a chord. The look on his face and the single syllable expletive said it all.

Her father rang me with the tag line. She had owned the guitar for a week.