dbTwang

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F.A.Q

What is dbTwang?

dbTwang is a place where right now you can

  • put details of your guitar(s)
  • talk to others about their guitars
  • follow instruments that you find in other people's collections

So it can be considered as a social network for people who love guitars!

Over time we will bring you additional things to do:

  • trade guitars with other dbTwang members
  • find people with similar interests in groups

Do you have suggestions on what else you would like? Use the Feedback tab on the right to let us know.

Why should I use it?

To keep even basic details of your guitars somewhere (in an easy to use way). By doing so you are recording the provenance of the guitar which will make it more valuable if you come to selling it. You can use dbTwang to find others who love guitars as much as you and enjoy their knowledge of the instrument.

Who is behind it?

dbTwang started as an idea which Fintan (one of the co-founders) had. He owns a number of older guitars which other people have had before him and he was really interested in the history of each instrument (in art terms the provenance).

So he developed the idea of a guitar passport which would be a physical record of the guitar - its purchase, distinct features, where it was played etc. Over time this idea was developed into dbTwang.

He was joined in this development by Keith who is a good friend of his and then by a number of others who also had a love and knowledge of guitars.

We are based in Kilkenny Ireland and although the business will grow in size the co-founders will always be based here.

How do I use it?

  1. Set up an account
  2. Go to the navigation menu and select Add a guitar
  3. Enter details of the manufacturer and model and a photo if you can
  4. Done!
  5. If you own more than one guitar then enter the rest of them if you want.
  6. Then explore the main guitar database - find guitars you like.
  7. Follow them and comment on them.

What are you going to do with my guitar data?

We will store it for you - it is your data and yours to do with as you wish. In future versions we will give you the ability to export it in a structured format so you can use it in other places. We will also give you a facility to download a nicely designed pdf if you want to send details of your guitar to someone.

As part of the terms and conditions we do say that we will keep a copy of your guitar data for use by dbTwang in the future. This is to allow us to achieve one of our long term goals - that in 30 or 40 years time someone buying a second hand guitar can log onto dbTwang, enter the serial number and pull up its history. That history will only include the details of previous owners by city and country reference unless you have given permission to share more.

Otherwise we will only use the data to extract aggregate information from our database - the most popular guitars, mapping changes in value etc.

For specifics see our Terms and Conditions here and our Privacy terms here.

I am concerned about security

We get that. You can do two things to ensure your security:

  1. Select a public username which is not your real name. That will ensure that no-one can identify you as the owner of your guitars.
  2. Select - Keep My Collection private option in your Profile.

That will mean that none of your guitars are shown to anyone.

In addition we do not make any of your profile details public except your username and your profile photo.

It is free now - will you suddenly charge me for access to my stuff?

No. In common with many services we promise that whatever you can do free now will always be free. If you are asked to pay it will be for new and additional services and/or content.

How are you going to make money?

That is always one of the first things we as internet users ask when we find a service which is both useful and likely to be of long term benefit to us. We prefer to pay a small amount each month to ensure that we can build the use of the service into our routine without having to worry about it disappearing.

So we are planning to raise revenue in a couple of ways:

Monthly subscriptions

As we develop dbTwang we will bring in new services and functionality and premium content. We will charge a small subscription each month for access to those. If you do not want to pay you will be able to use the basic service for free.

Sponsorship

As heavy internet users we both dislike the advertising which litters many websites (although accepting it as part of the payback for access to those sites). We are going to do things differently with dbTwang and adopt an emerging model used by some sites who take sponsorship from businesses in return for content which is useful and of interest to their members.

We are currently negotiating with our first sponsor and we are confident that the content they bring in will be of use to you.

Other revenue streams will be possible as we figure out what our members want from us and each other.