One of the most exciting and gratifying things about running my company, Daisy Rock Guitars, is being able to combine a lifelong passion for making music with my desire to level the playing field for dedicated female guitarists and bass players of all ages. When Daisy Rock started taking off a few years ago, I was bold about declaring that "the boys club is over," and it's great to see how our guitars have inspired women musicians of all ages to play. This is the first of hopefully many monthly columns in which I will be exploring issues close to us as female musicians.

We're making progress but we still have a long way to go. I've been a working musician in bands since the early '80s and every time I walked into a guitar store, I'd ask myself why they thought I was picking up something for my boyfriend. Or why, as I've discovered, only something like 5% of guitar magazine readership is female. Why isn't it 50-50? I'm not going to stop until half the guitar-driven albums on the Billboard Top 200 album chart are by women guitarists!

Our customers like the fact that, as a fellow woman musician, I can relate to them. For the past few years, I've been playing bass in sASSafrASS, one of the coolest new punk bands in the world. I have also played almost every type of music in different Los Angeles-based bands over the years. One was an all-girl metal band called Lypstik that opened for groups like Poison and Warrant back in my big-hair days.

An interviewer once asked me what it feels like to revolutionize the world. I told her that I don't think I've quite done that, though my whole experience with Daisy Rock has been an incredible journey. So many great things have happened since I drew that little pink daisy guitar on a piece of paper five years ago with my daughter Nicole!

In fact, my whole dream that every girl who plays a guitar plays a Daisy Rock is centered around my love for my two daughters, Nicole, who is now seven, and five-year-old Sophia. They're both showing a deep interest in music and when the time comes, I want their experience as musicians to be different from when I was growing up. In those days, every available guitar was designed for men. I want them to be able to walk into a music store anywhere and be able to find something made with them in mind. Daisy Rock is not about making me rich and famous or being a hero to anyone. It's simply an opportunity to leave a legacy for my kids. Oh, and change the guitar industry as we have known it.

The story of how Daisy Rock started is pretty charming, actually. One day as I was drawing and coloring with Nicole, we had just colored a huge daisy when I decided to draw a guitar neck and headstock in the shape of a leaf and attach it to the daisy. I took the drawing to my husband, Michael Ciravolo, who is President of Schecter Guitar Research, and we decided to make the drawing into a Daisy Rock guitar. We did extensive research in the design--lighter weight, slimmer necks, fun colors.

When we started the company, we sat down with the luthier (the woodcutter who determines weight and balance) and talked about models that were light weight and well-balanced. We had him build a neck that was very slim but in tune. The idea was that girls with small hands could play this neck without hurting their hands. The other criterion, of course, was that the models were cute. The idea behind so many color combinations was to inspire young girls to see it in a window and decide, as girls do, that they couldn't live without it.

Michael had witnessed the struggles I had endured as a gigging musician in L.A.--not being treated as a serious musician by everyone from retail salesmen and club employees to record company A & R folks. When the first guitar came in, it struck me that I might be on to something. I had designed the first guitar made specifically for a girl. It didn't take long to realize that if Daisy Rock caught on, I would have the opportunity to change the way the music industry perceives girl guitarists.

What followed was really magical. I started receiving hundreds of emails every week from girls all over the world thanking us for finally creating a guitar that was made just for them. They noticed every last detail in the designs - it doesn't physically hurt you because the guitar is lighter, it's easier to play for girls with smaller hands because the neck is thinner and many girls just emailed to tell us that they didn't even know they wanted to play guitar until they saw Daisy Rock's cool flower and heart shapes, and now they can't stop playing. I smile every time I read their emails. All our hard work--it's all for them.

There are so many things I love about Daisy Rock Guitars and all of the endeavors we are involved in here. But truly, there's no greater feeling than reading letters from young girls who had no idea there were guitars out there for them. Between coming up with new guitars and designs all the time, sponsoring scholarships to send girls to music camps, and publishing easy to read books to inspire more young girls to play, I'm really committed to doing whatever it takes to get more females of all ages to pick up the guitar, get out there, and play.

Until next month...

Tish