SINGAPORE – To mark International Guitar Month in April, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong posted a video on social media on April 21, in which he talked about how he has been playing the instrument for more than four decades.
He also highlighted three Singapore brands making guitars and effects pedals used by musicians worldwide: Maestro Guitars, Morningstar Engineering and Alabs Audio.
“I’m always excited when I see home-grown Singapore companies in this space,” the 51-year-old politician said in the video.
The Straits Times reached out to the founders of the three companies to find out more about their products and why they are the equipment of choice for musicians such as American pop star Bruno Mars.
Maestro Guitars
Among the three brands that DPM Wong mentioned in his post, boutique guitar-maker Maestro Guitars is the most established and has been around the longest.
Singaporean founder and luthier Ho Zen Yong started out in 2004, selling guitars that were assembled from pre-fabricated parts. In 2010, he overhauled the business by building guitars from scratch.
Mr Ho, 44, estimates that the brand has since made about 10,000 guitars.
The company, which also makes ukuleles, has customers from all over the world, most of whom are from the United States and Europe. Its instruments are sold in stores across Asia, Australia, North America and Europe.
Prices for Maestro guitars range from US$1,195 (S$1,625) to US$6,000, which Mr Ho says are relatively affordable for boutique instruments. Its recently formed offshoot, Hozen – named after Mr Ho’s nickname – makes higher-end custom guitars.
The most expensive order so far cost US$25,000 due to the quality of the wood.
Mr Ho, a Singapore Management University (SMU) marketing graduate who trained with Ervin Somogyi, a renowned luthier in California, works on every Hozen guitar from start to finish.
“Every single step of the way, I am taking care of it,” he says in an interview at the company’s space in a warehouse in Kaki Bukit.
Maestro has seven staff in Singapore at the warehouse and a retail store in Excelsior Shopping Centre. Every other week, Mr Ho flies to China, where the company employs 10 luthiers and three administration staff in Guangzhou.
In his post, DPM Wong flashed a photo – which he first posted on his socials in September 2022 – of himself and Malaysia’s then Minister of Finance Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who was holding an acoustic guitar from Maestro.
While Mr Ho is glad the brand got a shoutout, he has not met and is not in touch with DPM Wong.
Says Mr Ho: “We are very happy to fly the Singapore flag high. We have been doing that for years. I want the world to know that Maestro is from Singapore, we make good guitars and we’ve been doing this for 20 years.”
Morningstar Engineering
What do DPM Wong and Bruno Mars have in common? They both play guitars and use midi foot controllers made by Singapore brand Morningstar Engineering.
Midi controllers are equipment which trigger effects that change the sound coming from music instruments.
In his post, DPM Wong showed off his Morningstar MC6, which he customised with a carbon skin.
American singer-musician Mars uses another model, MC8, in his live performances, including his recent concerts at the National Stadium in Singapore on April 3, 5 and 6.
Morningstar Engineering was started by Singaporean musicians James Toh, 36, and Benjamin Chia, 34. Together with two full-time employees and a part-time worker, the company produces midi controllers, loop switches and utility boxes in a warehouse in Ubi.
They sell about 5,000 products, which cost up to US$399, a year through their website, as well as via dealers all over the world.
The brand’s ambassadors include notable guitarists such as Herman Li from British metal band DragonForce and Jeff Stinco from Canadian pop-punk band Simple Plan.
The pair were thrilled that DPM Wong gave them a shoutout on his post, but it was not a complete surprise as they were already aware he was using their midi controller.
Says Mr Toh: “In November 2020, he registered his product warranty. That’s when we knew.”
They have not met him, but he has e-mailed the company with technical inquiries.
As for Mars, they found out he was using their midi controller when the star’s guitar technician e-mailed them in 2021. They have not met Mars in person, but the pop star’s team invited them for a backstage tour before his National Stadium concert on April 3.
Morningstar’s roots date back to 2010, when Mr Toh started making his own pedals because he found those on the market to be too expensive. He did not have an engineering background, so he taught himself by looking up resources online.
He posted photos of his creations on Soft, an online forum for local musicians, and soon started getting orders.
He and Mr Chia – who both studied business management at SMU – registered Morningstar as a company in 2016. Back then, they still kept their day jobs – Mr Toh was a data analyst while Mr Chia was a real estate agent – and on weekends, they would assemble the pedals in Mr Toh’s bedroom.
Word about their products went around online and orders came from all over the world.
The duo are expanding their product line and their office is littered with prototypes of new pedals they are working on. They are also constantly engaging with other guitarists. Says Mr Toh: “We’re building up a community – that’s always very helpful.”
Alabs Audio
In his video, DPM Wong held up the Cetus reverb pedal by Alabs, a company founded by Singaporean Harden Lee, 29.
Started in 2021 with three other “music geeks” who met one another at gigs, the brand also makes other products: an audio interface, microphones and a set of headphones.
The company’s four guitar pedals run on Alabs’ Wizard Audio Virtual Engine, a piece of technology that Mr Lee, who studied programming and is a self-taught guitarist, created.
After its inception, the research and development team based here was supported by its sales and branding partners from China. In 2023, after frequent shuttling between Singapore and China, the company based itself in Guangzhou. It now comprises 10 people who make up the research and development, sales and branding teams.
In an e-mail reply, Alabs’ spokesman says of their move to China: “This decision was driven by our team’s unwritten tradition of everyone participating in production and quality control. Each person must experience the production line at least once, rather than just sit behind a computer with no interaction with the products or consumers.”
The company started out selling its products to the US market via Amazon, but has since expanded to Britain and Japan, and has partnered distributors in Thailand and Russia. It sells 300 to 600 products a month.
Alabs also collaborates with sister company Starfavor, which makes music instruments, by providing it with digital pianos, drum accessories and home audio equipment.
Artistes collaborating with Alabs and using its pedals include American post-hardcore band La Dispute, Japanese noise rock band Bo Ningen and American shoegaze musician Wisp.
Alabs’ spokesman says they were “pleasantly surprised” to discover DPM Wong’s post, adding: “About three months back, we clocked him following our Instagram. We even toyed with the idea of DM-ing (direct messaging) him, maybe sending him a set of pedals since he’s into guitars and follows a bunch of big brands. But we’re a bit shy and didn’t want to bother him, so we dropped that notion.”
