Talk:Damon Marks

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COI edit request – article cleanup

I am Damon Marks, the subject of this article, and I am disclosing my conflict of interest in accordance with Wikipedia's COI guidelines. I would like to request independent editorial assistance with cleaning up and improving the article rather than editing the article directly myself.

I believe the article would benefit from a more neutral and encyclopedic structure, including:

• Revising and tightening the lead to focus on the principal biographical information supported by reliable sources.
• Reorganizing the career information into a clearer "Career" section.
• Consolidating the separate discography sections into one "Discography" section.
• Removing or substantially reducing the "Equipment" section, which contains specific product and endorsement information that may be unnecessarily promotional.
• Tightening the "Traveling Guitar Foundation" section so that it focuses on Marks's role in founding the organization and activities supported by reliable sources.
• Correcting the Foundation's formal incorporation date. New Jersey incorporation records establish March 12, 2010 as the date of incorporation. I can provide the incorporation certificate and IRS determination documentation if useful to an editor.
• Reviewing the "Recognition" material and retaining only information that can be adequately supported by reliable sources.
• Removing or replacing weak, promotional, self-published, or obsolete references where stronger independent sources are available.
• Cleaning up citation formatting and any deprecated archive references.

I have also submitted Draft:Traveling Guitar Foundation through Articles for Creation rather than creating the organization article directly because of my COI. If that draft is eventually accepted, the Traveling Guitar Foundation section of this biography could potentially be shortened further and linked to the standalone article.

I am happy to provide proposed replacement text and sources here on the Talk page for independent editors to evaluate. I will refrain from making the substantive changes directly to the article because I am the subject.

Thank you for reviewing the request. Audiodog24 (talk) 18:35, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

As a follow-up, I would like to make the requested changes as specific and easy to review as possible.

I suggest the following initial changes, subject entirely to independent editorial judgment:

1. Lead

I suggest simplifying the lead so that it concentrates on the principal biographical information supported by reliable sources, rather than endorsements or equipment.

Suggested wording:

Damon Marks (born October 6, 1971) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He is the founder of the Traveling Guitar Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides musical instruments and music education support to schools with limited funding.

2. Equipment section

I suggest removing the current Equipment section, or substantially reducing it. The section lists specific Schecter guitar models, EMG pickup models and Mérida guitar models and relies primarily on manufacturer/endorsement sources. I believe this material may be unnecessarily promotional for a biographical article.

3. Career

The existing statement regarding Alicia Keys could be made more precise. Yamaha's published account states that Marks performed with R&B artist Jermaine Paul during Alicia Keys' 2010 Freedom Tour:

https://usa.yamaha.com/news_events/2010/20100617_yamaha-and-traveling-guitar-foundation-partner-to-help-build-school-music-programs_us.html

Suggested wording:

In 2010, Marks performed with R&B singer Jermaine Paul during Alicia Keys' Freedom Tour.

4. Discography

I suggest consolidating the two existing top-level discography sections ("Discography (with Lipstick Magazine)" and "Discography (with Livre')") under a single ==Discography== heading, while retaining the existing sourced releases.

5. Traveling Guitar Foundation

I suggest reducing this section to a concise summary of Marks's role as founder and the organization's documented activities. A 2013 feature published by the U.S. Air Force's 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs independently documents Marks and the Traveling Guitar Foundation's activities at Ramstein and other military-community music programs:

https://www.ramstein.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/305774/travelling-guitars-play-a-new-tune-for-kmc-music-programs/

Draft:Traveling Guitar Foundation is presently awaiting Articles for Creation review. If that article is accepted, this section could subsequently be shortened further using summary style.

I am intentionally not requesting that unsupported or weakly sourced promotional claims be added. I would prefer that an independent editor determine what material is appropriate for the biography.

Thank you. Audiodog24 (talk) 18:45, 9 August 2026 (UTC)