We’re Derek Webb and Abbie Parker — two working musicians who built the Dead Ringer out of pure necessity. Derek needed a way to take just one acoustic guitar on the road, but still capture the rubber-bridge sound he’d used all over his new album. Nothing existed that could do it, so we designed something ourselves.

The Dead Ringer wasn’t designed in a boardroom. It was born in our home studio, tested on stage, and refined until it worked. Once it did, we realized other players might want it too — so we started building them by hand, one at a time, here in Nashville.

Thanks to more than 1,400 backers who funded our Kickstarter campaign, we’re now in full production — still a tiny team, still doing everything ourselves.

• Derek is a veteran artist and songwriter (Caedmon’s Call, nearly a million records sold, Dove Awards, and a decades-long solo career).

• Abbie is a sought-after studio vocalist and music business veteran (formerly of I AM THEY), who also designed the first Dead Ringer prototypes and co-engineered every part of the process.

We’re both entrepreneurs and freelancers at heart, and the Dead Ringer is our little “mom and pop” operation — dreamed up in the studio, tested on stage, and brought to life right here in our home.