To control the quality of the printing and packaging that accompanies its musical instrument accessories, D'Addario relies on its in-plant.

Making Music for Three Centuries

According to a baptismal form from 1680, Donato D’Addario is named as a cordaro, which means “maker or seller of ropes and strings.” Long before the introduction of synthetic and steel substitutes, the D’Addario family made strings for lutes, guitars, harps, violins and other assorted musical instruments from sheep and hog gut. For more than 200 years, the family string-making business thrived in Italy.

In 1905, an earthquake devastated the town of Salle, forcing Rocco and Charles D’Addario to emigrate to America. There they started a business importing and selling the strings made by their family back in Italy. In 1918, Rocco returned to Salle. Charles, on the other hand, remained in Astoria, in Queens, N.Y., and began making his own strings in a small shop behind his family’s home.

Nearly 100 years later, D’Addario employs 1,100 people worldwide, 10 of whom are D’Addario family members, including Jim D’Addario, chairman and CEO. The company is headquartered in Farmingdale, N.Y., on Long Island, and proudly manufactures 95 percent of its products in the U.S.

D’Addario’s diverse line of innovative, high-quality products includes proprietary brand names D’Addario, Planet Waves, Evans Drumheads, ProMark and Pure Sound Percussion. D’Addario musical accessories are sold in more than 120 countries and they are the preferred choice of world-renown musicians including Dave Matthews, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, Neal Peart, Ringo Starr and numerous others.

A leader in the design, manufacturing and distribution of musical instrument accessories, such as strings, drumheads, drumsticks and guitar and woodwind accessories, D'Addario & Company, Inc. is a family-owned company with roots dating back to 17th-century Italy.

With a centuries-old reputation for quality, efficiency and cost control, D'Addario naturally needs to keep a close eye on all of its package design and print advertising. To enable this, the Farmingdale, N.Y., company operates a busy in-house ad agency and in-plant printing division. The 10-employee operation includes a prepress department, press room and bindery and creates nearly all package design and print advertising in-house.

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Wayne Carbone

The In-plant Behind the Music