• June 17, 2002
• Vol. 57
• No. 23

Kid Rock

Tish Ciravolo Gives Girls Their Own Axes to Grind with Her Daisy Rock Guitars

Spending 15 years in the L.A. musical wilderness as a bass player without ever hitting it big no longer bothers Tish Ciravoio. She does, however, harbor a grudge against the stores where she did her guitar shopping. "You always get this attitude of 'What do you need for your boyfriend?'" she says. "There's nothing out there saying, 'This is for girls.'"

Now there is—and for young girls at that. Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, launched by Ciravoio last year, come in heart and daisy shapes and bright colors and have bodies that are up to 40 percent smaller than a grown-up guitar. "I love this," says Sheyna Gee, 13, of Upland, Calif. "It's way easier to play and it's scaled down to my body size."

Inspired by a 2000 doodling session at home in Burbank with daughter Nicole, now 4 (daughter Sophia is 2), Ciravoio, 39, pitched the idea to the president of Schecter Guitar Research: her husband, Michael. "She's passionate about this," says Michael, 41, "which is good, because a lot of people in this business are burnt."

With sales of the guitars (they range from $239 to $399) topping 300 a month and fans like rocker Lisa Loeb—who says, "If I were 9, I'd want to play the guitar after seeing a Daisy Rock"—Ciravoio has a new rock fantasy. She hopes that someday a woman Grammy winner will thank Daisy Rock for prompting her to become a musician. Thinking about that, says Ciravoio, "I get all these chills."