Notes from the Director
November 2011
Nothing like the smell of woodsmoke in the air to get your Autumnal emotions rolling. Halloween was a mere blink of the eye (geez I do miss the former regularity of the Frank Zappa Halloween Concerts – RIP Frank) and you know what that means. CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and more, all across the country, have broken out Christmas decorations whilst we’re dreaming of turkey, football relatives whilst nicking a few Butterfingers and Baby Ruth bars from the leftover Halloween jar. But I digress – there a few guitar shows remaining so keep an eye out for those. MORE IMPORTANTLY – it’s time to break out your humidification for those acoustic instruments. Don’t Forget!!!
Tips and Tone
NAMM & the Amp Expo 2011
By John LeVan
One of the most exciting parts of my job is attending conventions where I can check out the latest gear. Two of the best are held in Nashville each year; the NAMM convention and The Nashville Amp Expo. Each is radically different, but together they provide the best of both worlds for all musicians. This Summer I attended both, here’s an overview of the events… Read more
SPRING 2011
Summer is just around the corner!
After what has been a very turbulent and stormy spring, many of us are looking forward to a warming trend with less rain, less erratic weather and maybe a little beach time or possibly a little down time from the 9-to-5. Read more
Tuning War
How to win the battle!
by John M. LeVan
I have received some great questions lately that fall into the category of “Tuning Problems”. Getting your guitar to play in tune can be a daunting task. This has been a fierce battle that has been raging since the invention of the guitar. There are several issues that, overlooked, can & will cause your guitar to play out of tune. After many years of fighting this battle, I’ve discovered some ideas to help, so here we go… Read more
Some lucky Gbase GearHead will win the recently re-released Europe ’72 by the Grateful Dead. This pivotal Dead release has long been an anchor point for many Dead fans. From ‘One More Saturday Night” to the more ethereal ‘China Cat Sunflower’ – they’re all here and a must for any fan. Read more
Greetings GearHeads – we hope those of you in the Eastern half of the US have been enjoying the extra-snowy winter months. Some of you we’re guessing……..not so much! However, we really shouldn’t exclude anyone from this wintery greeting, as 49 of the 50 US states got hit some some amount of snow, including Texas one-day before the Super Bowl.
We received lots of email through the holidays from family members of Gearheads looking for very particular guitars, EFX pedals and other goodies that were surely wrapped up and given as presents… Read more
This month, we’re heading east on the wildly popular and highly trafficked Long Island Expressway. Our destination – Syosset, New York, home to John DeSilva and owner of My Generation Guitars. He has a very unique collection of Guitars, Basses and Amps – you can check out his Gbase Store – MyGenerationGuitars – you’ll find everything from Dan Armstrong to Grestch. Be sure to do a little perusing – and now without further adieu, let’s see what Mr. DeSilva has been up to?
Gbase: What was the “moment” that started your interest in guitars? Read more
Tips and Tone
You’ve Lost that Unplugged Feelin’
By John LeVan
Has Your Guitar Lost It’s Magic?
So, this past Christmas, you got the guitar of your dreams, but for some reason, it doesn’t play as well as it did when you first got it. Sound familiar? Over the past several weeks, this is exactly what I’m hearing from my customers. My shop is full of great guitars that have been ravaged by the extreme weather changes we’ve all seen since Christmas. Here are a few tips to restore the magic your guitar has lost.
Welcome to this edition of Geek Speek - please know that this column is not for the meek (wow that’s a lot of “eek” rhymes but not intended). The information provided here is to help those who are mechanically inclined to improved their technical expertise. You can refer to the linked sites below to gain more information with regard to the detail herein provided. Proceed with caution!!!
Many thanks to our good friends over at Guitar.com for taking it to the trenches during the most recent 2011 Winter NAMM show. Here you’ll find a few of the many hundreds of exhibitions that were to be perused on the show floor in lovely downtown Anaheim, California. If you’ve never been to the NAMM show, it’s like Christmas morning for a musician – 4-days straight. It’s guitars, amps, drums, EFX pedals, PA gear, software, hardware, accessories, artist appearances, concerts, contests, product demo’s, product samples and on and on. It’s a lot to take in, in just a few days – exhausting in fact. But for gearheads and the like, it’s a lot of fun. Take a peek at what went on this year on the show floor…
Anaheim, CA – January, 2011 – The 2011 Winter NAMM Show is now officially a memory. It was 4-fun-filled yet packed days of music education, new product announcements, artist appearances, concerts, product demonstrations, G.A.S., and of course people – lots and lots of people. We were fortunate enough to be on-hand for all four days checking out the many new announcements. There was so much to see, you can never take it all in but here is our consolidated effort to show you some of the cooler new releases for the coming year along with updates on many of the classic products already out on the market.
C.F. Martin Guitars shows us their latest and greatest from the Custom Shop and from their classic line of strings:
We got to spend a few minutes with Adrian Emsley of Orange Amps – they have some crazy stuff coming out in 2011.
If you ever got yelled out for your band’s rehearsal being too loud – here’s the perfect solution – JamHub (www.jamhub.com)
Crazy, Cool EKO Guitars – they look so very retro and play better than you can imagine:
And speaking of Retro-cool, Danelectro has plenty of that – plus they’ve got their own new headstock tuner:
Planet Waves and D’Addario latest and greatest releases for 2011:
Ernie Ball/Music Man has the new “Game Changer,” which it certainly is – check out this amazing new pickup technology:
Daisy Rock has brought a whole new flavor to the world of guitars – Check out the new Cherry Bomb:
L.R. Baggs has raised the bar on the world of D.I. Boxes – introducing the Venue:
Red Witch makes the most incredible sounding pedals, not to mention that you can charge them and the charge lasts for 2 weeks:
This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. For more gear announcements and product overviews from Ibanez, Washburn, Parker, Randall, Visual Sound, Mi-Si, DBZ Guitars, Godin Guitars, Eastwood and much more – click here for Part 2
