New plant key to Riversong success

Mike Miltimore is pretty much running every day to keep up with the burgeoning success of his new Riversong guitar line — and is now looking at creating a production plant to keep up with orders that are coming from all corners of the world.

DAVE EAGLES/KTW

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Mike Miltimore can’t wait to get out of the basement.

It’s been a fine location as he started production of his innovative Riversong guitar line, but it’s time to move up — and out.

Miltimore is working with consultants to finetune his guitar line and build a production plant following a successful presentation at the National Association of Music Merchants conference in Anaheim in January.

“It was pretty amazing,” Miltimore said of the visit, which saw him line up a few licensing deals and take a step toward a worldwide distribution opportunity.

“I have to tell you, I sat back and went ‘Oh gawd, what does all that mean now?’ ”

That’s why he’s hired some experts through the Business Development Bank of Canada — and they’ve already made some observations Miltimore said he’s never thought about for the production line.

“To make the neck [of the guitar], they said we’re taking like 1,000 steps to do it and they’d like to get us down to three” Miltimore said with a laugh.

“They asked us ‘Aren’t you tired at the end of the day?’ ”

Everything from the financial side to handling orders to designing a factory are being reviewed.

With nothing more than some ideas in his head — which is also how his guitar design came about — Miltimore said he’s envisioning an 8,000-square-foot plant either downtown or in Valleyview, ideally a stand-alone building where he could move production and ramp up to meet the growing demand.

He’s already got plenty of back-ordered requests to fill.

There are many aspects to its construction that make the guitar unique but key is a neck that extends through the body, enhancing structural support.

The neck is attached to the body at the top with a pivot that can be adjusted with an Allen key, making setup easier and quicker than with a traditionally built guitar.

One immediate change the line’s growth has caused is you won’t find Miltimore in his usual office at Lee’s Music on Battle Street.

He’s relocated into another area — and one of the first things he did there was to put up a map of the world on the wall to keep track of where his guitars are now going.