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BEN BOLLAERT.
As a son of a musical father (sax player)...music came natural to him... Ben started off with violin, recorder guitar and piano, until electronic instruments got his attention...and there was no holding back.
Ben got all the classics... from Fender Rhodes piano, to Hohner Clavinet, the famous ARP 2600, the Yamaha CP80, even the Memorymoog and both Porphet 5 and Prophet T8...were under his fingers !
Needless to say that the rise of electronic music had something to do with this. Ben played with different bands in Gent and among them where : Alain Tant, Ronald Van Huffel, Dirk Blanchard, PDW, Piet Meeus, Jef De Visser, Willy Seeuws, etc.etc... He even worked with Walter Stes at Theater Arena where he wrote for the musical "Johnny Limbo".
In collaboration with Etiene Delarue (who he played with in the band Kandahar) Ben finally recorded an album under the name SUNSTROKE, 1985 saw the album "Nothing's wrong in paradise"... It hung proudly of the Music Man walls as a "must have"... .. !
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Ignace Van Hyfte.
Well... I guess Emerson Lake and Palmer triggered my interest in synthesizers...The moment I heard my first ELP album.. I had to have one ...a synthesizer that is... So I started off with a simple Korg MS20, soon to be replaced by the great sounding ARP Solus and a Fender Rhodes...
I played in a couple of bands, but let's be honest, none of them were great (and neither was I...I guess)
So while I studied Architecture, I became a typical bedroom musician.. until Rudy's Music Shop offered me the job of Synthesizer Specialist... Needless to say I jumped at the occasion, and I became well know. I have to thank Rudy's back then for teaching me my trade, but also for giving me the opportunity to work with every possible piece of kit available back then... you can't name a synthesizer...or I had it in my department back then... I saw MIDI arrive on the scene, I saw the first DX 7, and was crazy about Oberheims (still am) and got the Chroma, the full PPG wave system, all Prophets, and a pile of Mini- and Memorymoogs...
Until...
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Well... It was back in 1983 that Ben Bollaert met Ignace Van Hyfte, and soon plans emerged to start
The Soundfactory.
Originally aimed at designing "SOUNDS" (hence the name sound-factory)...they started off programming on commission...
But customers wanted more so the idea quickly turned into a shop,,,
Back in 1987 we rented a shop in Gent and within weeks, it became clear we were gonna hit it off... and The Soundfactory became a full time successful business.
We pride ourselves at being honest and try to serve our customers, by looking for the best possible gear within the budget of the client, often advising against a sale... but then again... that's what our customers like... our opinion, our honesty and proper advice.
That's what made us into a success...
and we intend to keep it that way...
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Tom Van Collie
In March 1999, Tom Van Collie made contact with Ben and Ignace from The Soundfactory for the first time. He was struck by their different approach with the customers.
At that time, Tom was working at another (mega) store where he had to focus only on how much money he could bring in ! As a musician himself, Tom knew that this wasn't a good way of working ....
And one day, a fellow musician who knew Tom's dilemma told him to take contact with the guys from The Soundfactory..It took about 5 minutes for Tom to take one of the most important decisions of his life ...
For Ben and Ignace, off course they couldn't decide in 5 minutes ...
for them it took about a day or two ... :-)
Now, Tom is the full blown manager of The Guitarshop and is finding the perfect balance between being a musician, running the shop and having a good time with his family, friends, customers and his approximately 250 guitars :-))
Tom " Yooooo" Van Collie
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