Two friends, who grew up side by side in adjacent dingy rooms in an alley in Chashipara, near Kalindi, are stringing a shared future in the music business. Pritam and Raju Mondal are childhood buddies, who have floated the Jacksun brand of guitars, ukuleles and mandolins, that are distributed across music shops in Bengal and beyond.
Their set-up is now spread across four rooms in three areas, including the two rooms they grew up in. One is the cutting section, another is the colouring area. “And here is where we string and pack them,” said Raju, pointing to stacks of guitars leaning against the wall, ready to be packed in black plastic bags and loaded into a waiting taxi to catch the evening’s train to Pune.
Their products are sent across India and also to Bangladesh and Nepal.
Opening chords
The two friends used to work in sales as college students, supplying branded guitars to shops. “In 2020, we pooled in Rs 2,500 each and decided to start something. Our families were not impressed but had no say as we did not ask them for help,” said Raju.
By then, they had spent hours sitting in workshops, learning the manufacturing process. “We are grateful to the veteran craftsmen who taught us the ropes,” Pritam added.
Pritam Mondal shows an iron format that would give shape to a plywood piece of Indian mahogany.
They chose the name Jacksun to mimic the American brand, with a slightly different spelling. Then the journey started, going shop to shop with samples, getting rejected, seeking feedback and coming back to rectify the defects. “We had a tough time initially as the established players in the market were selling in bulk and offering rates that we could not match. But we knew we had to grit our teeth and hang on,” Raju recalled.
The duo started out with seven pieces, which was crafted by a veteran hand in another company. “He really gave us the start we needed. It took us close to a month to sell those pieces. We kept margins of barely Rs 100-150 on each piece as our main motive was to introduce ourselves in the market,” Pritam recalled.
In end-2023, they were in a position to take on full-time employees. “Now we make 300-350 guitars per month and have eight employees on our rolls,” Raju said.
Made in Bengal
The friends shared an interesting statistic. “About 90 per cent of the guitars made in India come from Calcutta and its environs. In fact, a significant share originates in the Dum Dum area,” Pritam said.
He attributed the mushrooming of local manufacturers to J. Reynold’s & Co. which, under John Remedios, became the first company in India to manufacture acoustic and electric guitars. “Many of their workers quit over time to set up their own outfits,” he explained.
“At one point, about 50,000 guitars would be manufactured from Calcutta by five or six companies. But now the number of players has multiplied, so the competition is fierce,” Raju reflected.
Add to that the entry of Chinese guitars. “Their finish is so good that our local makes, which are hand-made, are left wanting. The Chinese ones are all machine-made, so that accounts for precision and higher volumes,” Raju reflected.
In their set-up, a guitar takes a week to make. “It has nothing to do with the number of hands on the floor. Every step follows a specific timeline. The colouring takes another six days. You need a total of 38 items to make a guitar. It takes an hour to do the fittings once the colour dries,” Raju pointed out.
The duo can play the guitar but admit to being “no great shakes”. Beginners make the mistake of falling for a guitar’s look while veterans focus on the sound, they agreed.
Eye on future
The 28-year-olds, born seven months apart, have moved into flats close by, a distinct jump from their earlier modest habitations. They have set themselves a target of hitting the production capacity of 1,000 guitars by 2026. “We are not in a position to invest in machines yet. But we want space to scale up. Trained hands are short. Our focus is keeping our employees satisfied so we can retain them,” they said.
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