The fretboard phoenix

Hardly anyone in business gets a second chance to do things right.

Rusty Shaffer thinks he's among the minority.

Shaffer, the president and chief executive officer of Reno-based Optek Music Systems, believes the company is only a year or so away from making the big step into retail chains such as Target and Best Buy.

Not bad for a company that was shuttered, leaving only a single page up on the Internet, at the start of this decade.

Shaffer's story begins in the late 1980s in San Jose, where he struggled to learn to play a six-string electric guitar the old-fashioned way looking at printed diagrams that showed him where to place his fingers on the strings.

His inspiration: Why not put lights in the fretboard that activate to show players where to put their fingers to play a chord, a note or a song?

The first version of Optek's Fretlight guitar provided a rotary dial on its body that the student used to select a chord or scale clunky by modern standards, but innovative enough that Shaffer began building a solid book of business.

His second inspiration was less inspired: Seeing the potential in the mid-1990s to operate the Fretlight from software on a personal computer, Shaffer redesigned the guitar system to run on Windows '95.

"The rest of the world wasn't there," he says. "Sales went through the cellar."

Chastened, Shaffer wrapped up the company's business and headed off to law school. All that remained of the Optek and the Fretlight was a single Web page, telling potential customers that the guitar no longer was in production.

Shaffer was working as an attorney in the Northeast when that single Web page began to stir up business a few scattered inquiries at first that translated into a growing demand from potential buyers.

"I took a hard look at the product," Shaffer recalls. "And I decided we had a golden opportunity to relaunch."

Technology USB plug-and-play systems, better LED lighting systems had progressed since the early incarnation of the Fretlight. The personal computer had found its way into most American households. And Shaffer was confident he could work with Chinese manufacturers to meet the quality standards his customers demanded.

The company's 42 shareholders mostly family and friends agreed to revive the company. Shaffer began collecting advance deposits from customers and introduced the new Fretlight in late 2004.

"We did things a bit better this time around," he says. "Since 1992, I've learned that being an entrepreneur is different than being a businessperson."

The arrival of four children in his life provided more focus.

"I was forced to think about profitability," Shaffer says.

The drive toward profitability led Shaffer to move Optek to Reno from Windham, N.H., earlier this year. The company employs five in its headquarters and fulfillment operation here, and expects to employ three or four more as it gears for its holiday rush.

The region's dry climate is good for warehousing of guitars, he says, and its proximity to West Coast ports gets orders to customers four days faster.

The company has been in the black 26 of the past 27 months as it's widened its product catalog to include 11 guitars, five software packages and hundreds of individual songs. Sales have gotten a boost from favorable mentions on "Good Morning America" and in other national media.

On the horizon, Shaffer says, is a line of videos that show guitar wizards playing solos. Students will be able to play along, slowing things down if necessary while they learn.

It's the software and the possibility of video learning systems that intrigues major retailers, Shaffer says.

Like retailers who essentially give away razor handles so they can sell millions of blades, big chains think Optek's learning software could generate a long tail of sales to guitar purchasers.

"We're not ready yet for Best Buy or Target," he says. "But we're going to be there next fall."