Former TC Electronic PR Manager Creates Momentum as an Independent
Kim Bang establishes new PR and marketing company aimed at assisting brands in MI, Pro Audio and Broadcast.
Former PR-responsible for brands like TC Electronic, TC-Helicon and Tannoy, Kim Bang, has now established Momentum PR & Marketing – a company dedicated to help brands in MI, Pro Audio and Broadcast optimize their communication and marketing strategy, PR efforts and content creation.
“I had a great time with TC, but all good things must come to an end in order for new great things to happen,” says Kim Bang and continues. “I have built strong media relations in MI and Pro Audio as well as Broadcast during my time with TC and have developed strong, experience-based opinions on how brands can benefit from a mix of a carefully tailored communication strategy, PR, content creation and advertising. It is my goal to help companies stretch their momentum far beyond the initial attention that comes from launching a new product. In today’s dense and fast-paced media world, you simply can’t afford to rely on momentary awareness if you want to grow your business.”
First Clients
Momentum PR & Marketing has already signed up its first customers, including the highly acclaimed studio monitor brand Dynaudio. Mads Aagard, SVP of Marketing at Dynaudio, comments. “Our professional speakers was marketed and distributed by TC Group for more than a decade, and while we cover all there is to know about speakers, this particular market segment is new to us. Therefore, we now team up with Kim Bang, who will focus entirely on this part of the market and also work closely together with our existing marketing team. I am very excited about this collaboration – and for the future of our professional studio monitors in general.”
Another key partner is Digital Audio Denmark (DAD) – an industry-leading provider of high-end AD/DA conversion, audio routing and monitor control. “With circumstantial growth in recent years, we felt that now was the right time to upscale on our PR and marketing efforts,” says Mikael Vest, Sales Director at DAD. “When we learned that Kim Bang was available as an independent, we set up a meeting and hadan agreement in place in a matter of days. Kim will help us on a variety of areas, including PR, communication strategy and social media, and we very much look forward to working with Kim on stretching our momentum in the market.”
In the MI Guitar segment, Momentum PR & Marketing has teamed up with LunaStone Guitar Effects. LunaStone is headed by one of Kim Bang’s former colleagues at TC Allan Strand. “It’s a great pleasure for me to once again work together with Kim on marketing another great brand in guitar,” says Allan Strand. "We worked closely together at TC, planning and executing many marketing concepts and campaigns together with the marketing team. Building on those experiences and mutual trust, I am very much looking forward to taking on new marketing challenges and adventures together with Kim."
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Certain individuals’ inclinations to tinker led to many of the guitar designs that are still boutique-built and factory-manufactured today. One of those folks was country guitarist Chet Atkins, whose working relationship with Gretsch (and later Gibson) resulted in some wonderfully innovative guitars, many of which continue to be built.
While the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins—debuted in 1954—was his first signature model and remains the most well-known, Chet’s influence on guitars extends much further. He pondered, he collaborated, and oftentimes, he just plain got to work. Chet’s workbench has been on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame. When a floating DeArmond pickup on an L-10 wasn’t enough, he added two P-90 pickups and controls to a 1947 Gibson L-7 archtop, and later heavily modified and electrified his Excel built by archtop artisan John D’Angelico. Les Paul was a dear friend, with whom he performed and recorded (if you haven’t heard the 1976 album Chester & Lester, now’s the time). During his Gretsch-endorsed years, he was at least partially responsible for offerings like the short-lived 6121 (a Round-Up/Duo-Jet-ish solidbody version of the 6120), and hit his signature-model stride with his designs for the thinner-bodied 6122 Country Gentleman and 6119 Tennessean. These latter two replaced the cows, cactus, humptops, and branded trimmings with subtler specs like neo-classical thumbnail inlays, inlaid f-holes, and a metal model-name/serial-number plate on the peghead. Chet was partial to a metal nut, loved Bigsbys, and replaced the tone control on his favorite 1959 Country Gentleman with a built-in phase shifter.
He continued his relationship with Gretsch until 1980, 13 years after the brand was sold to the Baldwin Piano Company. Aesthetically, the 1972 Gretsch 7680 Deluxe Chet featured in these photos is clearly the evolution of models like the 6120 and 6122 Country Gentleman. The body is 17" wide and 2.5" deep, with a single rounded cutaway, two bound f-holes, and Autumn Red finish. The 3-piece maple neck, with bound ebony fingerboard, has neo-classical thumbnail inlays, zero fret, and a triangular truss-rod cover on the back of the body for truss-rod adjustment at the neck heel (a Baldwin-era “innovation”). The two black-top Filter’Tron humbuckers have two volume controls, two tone controls, master volume control, and a 3-way pickup selector switch. Accounting for the Rocker Bar bridge and Gretsch-branded Bigsby tailpiece, one might assume that Chet transitioned to working with Gibson not only because they had moved to Nashville, but also because, like a lot of 1970s guitars, the ones Gretsch was making had quirks to them that may not have suited a gentleman like Chet.
We acquired this Deluxe Chet from our friend George Bradfute, a stalwart Nashville producer/multi-instrumentalist/luthier extraordinaire and one of the few people we know who collects and uses Baldwin-era, Atkins-designed, later-’70s Gretsch Super Axes. As an added bonus, the ones in his collection have electronics that actually still work! Chet tinkered and innovated, but the 9V battery in the Super Axe may have drawn the figurative line in the Gretsch sand.
Chet Atkins called Nashville home and spent as much time working on Music Row as he did on the road. While you may have heard of CMA Fest, during Chet’s era it was known as Fan Fair—a days long event that was indeed fan-focused and an annual opportunity to collect as many autographs as your country-music-loving heart desired. There are few glimmers of the 20th century Nashville I remember, but one longstanding annual event remains: the CAAS (Chet Atkins Appreciation Society) Convention every July at the Sheraton Music City Hotel and Convention Center.
The Chet Society boasts “over 1,000 worldwide members” on their website, and their 2026 four-day convention schedule included up to 12 hours of live music per day on two stages, as well as workshops like “Basic and Intermediate Thumbpicking” and “B-Bender Techniques.” Day three’s evening schedule included John Knowles and Tommy Emmanuel, both of whom were Chet’s friends and collaborators. The convention can feel like a mini NAMM show, featuring booths with vendors like Gretsch and, up until his recent passing, Kirk Sand, the builder who collaborated with Chet on thin-bodied nylon-string guitars. We mean this in the kindest possible way when we say the whole thing feels kinda culty. Over the years, many guitar players have experienced the overwhelming desire to learn Chet’s picking techniques, or at least take a stab at Merle Travis’ “Cannonball Run.” When we worked at a Nashville guitar shop on Broadway in the early 2000s, our colleague coined the term “peach-cutting” to privately announce that CAAS attendees were filling the store with Chet pickin’, since the festival coincided with the ripening of the South’s most delicious fruit.
These days, a large historic home on Music Row briefly owned by Chet has been dubbed “the Chester” on Airbnb; it sleeps 12 at a cost of about $3,500 for the four nights of the CAAS Convention next year. If you get a wild hair to see both the new and old Nashville, I highly recommend stepping back in time at the Chet convention. You can fly solo with your Chet Atkins model of choice, or bring 11 friends—each with an electric archtop—and stay on Music Row at the Chester!
Epiphone is proud to announce the launch of the limited-edition Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior in Radiant Red, developed in partnership with Green Day frontman, songwriter, and punk rock trailblazer Billie Joe Armstrong. Designed around the no-nonsense philosophy that has fueled Armstrong’s career for decades, the new model captures the raw energy, unmistakable tone, and rebellious spirit that have made both the artist and the Les Paul Junior legendary. The Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Limited Edition is available worldwide in Radiant Red at authorized Epiphone dealers, Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London, and online at www.epiphone.com.
Chapman Guitars has launched its new electric guitar models spanning three series. The new range includes the Scout Traditional, Scout Legacy, and Law Maker Legacy with player-focused features, and a company-wide quality control initiative designed to improve consistency across all instruments.
Scott Holiday announces solo project HOL1D4Y and debut album TOPOLOGY, out September 25th, 2026 on Rival Sons' label Sacred Tongue Recordings, distributed worldwide via Thirty Tigers.
