Inside Music - Musicians Centre Official Blog

Hofner Workshop

2010-04-29T14:32:00.001+01:00

A thoroughly good time was had by all at the Hofner Workshop on Sunday. Brian Harris, one of our guitar teachers, discussed his relationship with Hofner guitars over the years and demonstrated some nice jazz licks on a red Hofner Verythin.

Later on Eddie Earthquake & the Tremors played to a packed out room on another Hofner Black Verythin and a Hofner Club Bass.

We now have in stock the Hofner New President and Hofner Chancellor, both hand made German jazz guitars with unbelievable tone and feel.

test

2010-04-23T15:40:00.001+01:00

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'How to Be a Band' Article

2010-04-15T12:13:00.002+01:00

A good article from Bomb Ibiza's Emily, originally published in TNS Records' Fanzine.

How to be a Band, Part 1

By Em from Bomb Ibiza Promotions

Now I’ve never been a musician. I toyed with the technicalities of it at school, but I never had the patience for tedious things like practising. So before I write another sentence I would like to make it very clear that (despite the title) this commentary is in no way going to be aimed at preaching my musical opinions at people. Aside from the fact that I do not have the technical skills to do so, I simply don’t believe that anything about making or enjoying music is ever “right” or “wrong” – it is purely personal preference.

Stick to the stuff you know. And after 120-odd gigs and injecting several thousands of pounds into the pockets of UK and international bands, I know about making stuff happen. Specifically, I know a lot about organisation, communication and sales. So this rant (which may become a series if Andy has the patience with me) is about what, in my experience, DIY bands should do to give themselves the best possible chance of success at properly fulfilling that description.

This particular episode is about responsibility. A lot of bands think that if they make good music they have the automatic right to good billings and good money. Wrong. Any good Kantian will tell you that rights are only valid if you live up to the responsibilities that mirror them.

A lot of people who aren’t closely involved with running / attending gigs don’t always understand the work that goes into setting up a show. Equipment, venues, line-ups, sound engineers, timings and advertising don’t sort themselves (although admittedly Manchester has seen some ghastly examples of wannabe promoters in the last few years who fail to understand this).

By agreeing to appear at a gig (for which they will invariably be paid), bands are not just accepting the responsibility of playing music, Their responsibilities are to be part of the end to end process, and whether they like it or not, their promoters will evaluate them on this – often over and above their musical performance. So if you want the right to more frequent, better quality gigs, here are my top tips:

1) Make sure you have made contact with the promoter in advance of the gig. Each party must understand what is expected of them, & also be sure you exchange contact numbers.

2) Turn up on time, and add contingency to any journeys. If you have a useless stoner drummer who is notoriously unreliable, lie to him about when you need to be there. If, despite this, you run late, let the promoter know.

3) Bring the right equipment. As a start, be sure what equipment is expected of you (refer point 1), but whatever you do don’t turn up without what you have been asked to bring – at least without warning the promoter & working hard to find alternative solutions. It is simply not professional and frankly it is not fair on other bands.

4) Help with advertising. This is, of course, ultimately the promoter’s responsibility, but at the end of the day if you want people to watch you then it is completely in your interests to help out. Any decent promoter will provide you with fliers / posters if asked, & believe me, they will be delighted to have the help. On top of the benefits that come out of this, you will also be doing your own bands reputation / visibility in the scene a lot of good as a side-effect of the marketing you’ll get.

5) Be aware of the timeframe you have, and operate within it. Don’t spend 40 minutes setting up because it didn’t occur to you to tune your guitar earlier. People will leave. Other bands will resent you.

6) Support the other bands on the bill. Promoters (& punters) always notice and acknowledge this, and the benefits you’ll get from networking with other bands on the back of it is invaluable.

7) Enjoy yourself! Being paid to play the music you love is supposed to be the dream! Not all shows go to plan, but making the most of everything and having a good attitude is a massive part of my own definition of “success” and I know most other promoters feel the same way.

Hopefully most / all of this is obvious, but you would be very, very surprised at how few bands tick all of the boxes. Those who do sadly often end up being regularly “put upon” by promoters as a result of their unflinching reliability. At times they are taken for granted, but in the long run they are the bands who get the breaks. Rights and responsibilities.

To you bands out there, please don’t think I’m pretending to know all of the answers – I definitely don’t. Take this as it is intended, to make people think & to recognise good attributes / challenge weaker ones as appropriate.

And finally to all you punters (the people who ultimately foot the bill for all of these shenanigans!) I hope this has been an interesting insight as to one corner of the DIY jigsaw puzzle. Next time you wonder why some bills look the way they do, keep your eyes open as well as your ears and you might just see why.

Em

Thanks to Emily and TNS Records for letting us post it.

Musicians Centre Mini Sites - Schecter

2010-04-02T10:46:00.000+01:00

At the Musicians Centre we are learning every day. We decided that we need a place to put all the new information we learn so that it can be referred to by both our staff and our customers.

To do this we are launching a new concept, Mini Sites. Basically these are websites that try to gather as much information about different brands as we can. Then if anyone needs, say, a Schecter wiring diagram, wants to date their instrument with a serial number etc. there will be a place to go.

We want this to be an involved community based project which anyone can contribute to, so if you have extra information then by all means leave a comment on the relevant page or send us an email and we will add it.

There will be other Mini Sites springing up over the next few months so keep an eye out, for now check out the Schecter Mini Site and tell us what you think. It's by no means finished, in fact it will never be finished, we'll always keep adding information as we learn it. We have a lot of work to do on it, so forgive the sparseness for now.

Tanglewood TW15-NS-WN Wide Nut Guitar Just Landed

2010-04-01T16:32:00.004+01:00

Tom shows off the Pro Set up, all solid TW15-NS-WN which has just arrived.

Edit: Now viewable on-line the Tanglewood Wide Nut Acoustic Guitar

Play at Bloodstock 2010 and Wacken 2011

2010-03-11T14:34:00.001Z

Just heard about this opportunity to play at two of the worlds biggest metal festivals. Taken from Leeds Music Scene Forum:

"You in a Metal Band? Want the chance to Play main stage at The Bloodstock Festival alongside bands such as -

TWISTED SISTER, FEAR FACTORY, CHILDREN OF BODOM, HEAVEN AND HELL, GWAR, CANNIBAL CORPSE AND MORE!!!!

Well here is your chance! I have been put in charge of arranging the regional heat of the 'METAL TO THE MASSES' competition to find an act to play this years Bloodstock as well as many many more prizes!

PRIZES IN FULL......

* PLAYING BLOODSTOCK 2010.

* PLAYING WACKEN 2011.

* RECORDING, PRINTING & PRESSING OF AN EP COURTESY OF SPINEFARM RECORDS UK.

* A UNIQUE DESIGN FOR THE EP COURTESY OF THE MASTER OF METAL ARTWORK - PAUL GREGORY.

* LASHINGS OF ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINKS TO KEEP YOU ON YOUR TOES.

* MOUNTAINS OF BACKLINE FROM THE LIKES OF MAPEX, EDEN, MARSHALL AND MORE.

Heats will take place april/may time at The Parish Huddersfield as well as The Old Cock in Halifax.

Heat winners will go onto the grand final on June 25th at The Well in Leeds, which will be judged by Bloodstock organisers + special guest judges.

The heats and final will also be getting lots of publicity both on-line and in the magazines!

How to enter-

Basically e-mail me @ mikey@fatcatbookings.com

attach a bio and link to your myspace or a track.

Simple

Good Luck!"

Get yourselves applied!

Musicians Centre Twittyvids

2010-03-11T10:03:00.000Z

Twee name, but we're going to start posting small quick videos of what's going on in-store from mobile phones, it's never going to be a good way to get an idea of what a product sounds like because the sound quality is low, but we always recommending trying the thing you're buying first hand to get a good idea of it anyway.. You can see closer details of guitars and things which we post though.

Check the recently posted Twittyvids of the Tanglewood MasterDesign TSM-1 and the Schecter Demon 7 7 String guitar.

Freshman Open Plains Series Just Landed

2010-02-04T10:01:00.003Z

Straight from the factory, the new Freshman Open Plains series is now available in store and on-line.

The Open Plains series is made on Freshman's Cedar Creek line which make the FA350 guitars, FA400s and them amazing no-corners-cut FA500 range. We asked if there would be any electric pick up enabled versions of the Open Plains series and it seems Freshman want to split the series between Open Plains for pure acoustic and the Apollo series for electro-acoustics. This does actually make a lot of sense, it's all about looking at where the money is spent. In the Freshman Apollo Series it goes into the Fishman pickups and an A grade of AA grade spruce top. On the Open Plains all that money is going into the wood with slightly higher grade woods for your pound.

Freshman Guitars' Open Plains series split down into three series. The Open Plains 1 dreadnought coming in at the lower end with solid A grade Sitka spruce and an Open Plains 1 OOO. There's also a sunburst version of the OOO. Series 2 has AA grade sitka spruce and series 3 has AAA grade Sitka spruce top and a stunning quilted mahogany back and sides. Now there's a fair old price jump between the second and third series. There's a big jump in cost to that AAA grade Sitka spruce top and the process of making an AAA grade laminate quilted mahogany back and side make up ain't so cheap either. The Open Plains 3 series is available in dreadnought and OOO folk body shapes.

One big difference here from what we've seen from Freshman is a neck profile. It is thinner and so so comfortable in the hand. Binding is walnut with a slither of maple, like on the Apollo 3s.

Sound is amazing, real depth of character even on the Open Plains 1, very pure and the kind of sound which just makes you want to keep on playing. It's very very hard to walk past it once you know the kind of tone and feel it gives.

Search For Guitars Easier

2010-01-28T21:04:00.000Z

We've just implemented a new search drill down in the acoustic guitars section on Musicianscentre.com.

You can now refine your search by body shape and brand name. We'll be rolling this out to other sections of the site soon. Let us know what you think.

The more feed back we get the better we can make the site!

Tanglewood Starter Acoustic Guitar

2009-12-30T14:06:00.002Z

A quick overview of the Tanglewood Discovery Deluxe acoustic guitars in dreadnought and folk bodies.

Detuning and String Gauges For Guitarists

2009-12-18T11:21:00.004Z

This is a bit of a break down of what to consider using for strings if you prefer to detune those guitar strings from the normal E-A-D-G-B-E.

Some different tunings, such as D-A-D-G-A-D which gives you an open tuning of a D suspended fourth and is very popular amongst acoustic players, don't really need a change in string gauges although there's no rules and different guitarists will have different preferences.

In the world of metal detuning is almost prerequisite, tuning down some or all of the strings gives a meatier and obviously lower pitched sound. The very popular Drop D Tuning (from standard tuning just lowering the thickest string by 2 semi tones D-A-D-G-B-E) also means that to play a third chord over the two bass strings (often called a power chord) you only need one finger instead of two. We often hear other drop tunings mentioned, like Drop C (from standard tuning dropping thickest string 3 semi tones and the rest of the strings 2) and occasionally Drop B or even A amongst the sludgier players.

So, as you loosen that string the pitch goes down but the amount of vibration is wider and this can cause the strings to start hitting frets and giving fret buzz. So you need thicker strings. What gauge strings depends on what you are tuning to and what scale length your guitar is. The scale length is basically the distance between the nut and bridge along which the string vibrates. This varies usually between 25.5" (Stratocaster scale length) and 24.75" (Les Paul length). There are some shorter and longer ones than that but most full sized electrics fall somewhere between them too.

Also remember that as you are changing the gauge of strings, you'll probably need to setup the guitar. Thicker strings have more tension and therefore pull more on the neck as well as on any tremolo you might have. You might need to tighten the truss rod to allow that neck to fight back against the higher tension you're putting on it and the tremolo system might either need the claw screws tightening slightly (that's the screws physically screwed into the guitars body underneath which holds the strain of the springs) or an extra spring might need adding so that the tremolo sits straight and is pulling with equal tension to the strings.

Floyd Rose style floating tremolo systems are even more fun. Same principle but because the balance of the trem is finer it can be hard work getting that tension of the springs and the strings equal to allow the trem to sit straight and for it to stay in tune. We usually say have a guitar with a Floyd Rose setup in one tuning and then leave it, don't change to any drop tunings or anything as it will through the balance out.

The general "medium" gauge for a 25.5" scale length is a pack of 9s (9-11-16-24-32-42) and for a 24.75" it is a pack of 10s (10-13-17-26-36-46). So to detune from E-A-D-G-B-E these strings need thickening.

This chart gives you a rough idea of what to aim for, but there aren't any rules, experiment! We asked our Musicians Centre Facebook fans what they used and results were varied. Bri from Bradford, heavier-than-thou sludge doom merchants Lazurus Blackstar tune drop A (A-E-A-D-G-B)... but use regular gauge strings! Adi from Eyesore Angels sit's nicely in Drop C (C-G-C-F-A-D) with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky (9-11-16-26-36-46). Jack from The Marmozets plays in a Drop C tuning and uses 11s (11-14-18-28-38) but replaces the high C 11 gauge string with a 12. There's always one.

Comment and let us know what you use and we will add it to the table.

	25.5" Guitars	24.75" Guitars
D-A-D-G-B-E	9-11-16-26-36-46	10-13-17-30-42-52

This is an open ended Blog post that will be added to and probably corrected over time.

Freshman Acoustic Amplifier AC30R Instruction Manual

2009-12-18T10:29:00.001Z

We had these little acoustic amplifiers from Freshman land the other week. They're a simple 30 Watt Acoustic Amplifier with XLR input for microphone, jack input for acoustic guitar, overall EQ with built in chorus and delay.

Great amps for this price, one thing though one of our customers pointed out. No instruction manual. So we thought we'd make one. This presentation will be added to as we get time, feel free to suggest additions if you own the amp yourself.

(Right click on slide show and click 'next' to start)

Instruction Manual for Freshman AC30R Acoustic

Getting The Most From Your Effects Pedals & Stomp Boxes Live

2009-12-15T01:31:00.007Z

// BLOG SWAP //

In the coming months we will be offering up a Blog Swap where we swap blog posts with another Blog who we feel can bring something to the Musicians Centre "Inside Music".

Today we have a good friend of mine, Dan Williams from Onion Audio, a Leeds based PA hire company. Dan goes over best use of guitars stomp box pedals, how to set them up, how to use them once set up and what to do when something goes wrong.

If you are interested in doing a Blog Swap with us get in contact. - Michael

Stomp Boxes

Depending on the type of act you play in, stomp boxes and effects pedals can play an important role in the sound of your band. From a simple distortion box, to an elaborate display of delays, samplers, chorus and flangers. Even if you only use one box, setting levels correctly and choosing your settings is vitally important and very easy to get wrong. During this article we're going to look at simple things you can do to make your effects pedals work seamlessly within your unique sound.

Setting Levels

It sounds simple but the gain structure of each pedal is vitally important to getting a smooth transition between each effect. Think about it, if your distortion is way louder than your clean sound and your chorus is a bit quieter, it's going to sound really weird out front. You can't expect the sound engineer to ride the fader, and in a small venue it wouldn't make much difference if they did.

Go though each box you have and adjust the level knob so that the volume stays the same between the dry and wet signal. Obviously having the distortion louder is desirable but it only needs to be a subtle increase, too much and it will ruin the balanced sound a band is looking for. Go through each effect and A/B between the clean and effected sound. This should give you balance from one effect to the next, it should also help if you start adding two effects together.

Looking After Cables

Between each pedal you will need a small jack lead, sometimes called a patch lead. If you ever have a problem and cant hear your guitar then chances are its one of these little babies that's broken. If you already have a large selection of effects then going through your cables to find a fault will probably be a familiar story. For those reasons it makes sense to use good quality cables and keep them in good condition.

I recommend using Vandamme patch cables. They're a lot more expensive than budget cables but they last. The wont let you down during a gig and if you look after them properly most of them will never break! Budget cables will probably last you around six months tops, they will eventually start to crackle and break. If you gig every weekend then it will happen on stage eventually and you will look stupid as you frantically change cables around to find the dud one.

Coil your cable neatly at the end of each gig and tie it up with electrical tape. Don't just throw them in the bag with all the others and pull at them when your at your next gig. Any tension on the cable increases the chance of a fault.

Keeping a record of gig settings

Another simple but effective tip is to keep a record of your knob positions. You can do this by writing them on a piece of paper or by marking on the box. Have a certain setup that you know works sorted before the gig and when you get there move the knobs to the correct position. This way you can experiment all you like in the rehearsal room but be able to get your unique, tailored and tuned sound that fits perfectly with the band straight away. Doing this when you only have a 15 minute change over saves important time.

Buying a box for the box

Buy/make a case for your pedals. Doing this will keep them safe and secure. They will be in the same place every time and wont slip across the stage floor. Setting them up at each gig is tedious and takes too much time. If you only have 15 minutes you cannot set a guitar amp up, place and wire pedals, tune guitar and everything else that needs doing in 15 minutes.

Troubleshooting!

If, after setting up your elaborate array of boxes at the gig you find it doesn't work, don't just stand there! Troubleshoot the setup. I have seen so many guitarist panic and do nothing thought I would mention what is best to do. Firstly, unplug from the pedals and go directly in to the amp. this way you can determine if the guitar and amp are working correctly. Second bypass the effects pedals one by one, start from one end and work your way across. As soon as it starts working the pedal you have just bypassed is the problem. Change the cable test the power supply and do without if necessary.

No Way I Won't Tidy My Bedroom

2009-12-10T12:35:00.000Z

The Musicians Centre are proud to support the Facebook campaign promoting the sale of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of" to try and break X Factor's five year dominance of the UK Christmas number one.

Considering the band have musical talent and do not appear on a glorified Karaoke show is something we here at the Musicians Centre wholeheartly support. To join this campaign joining the group a Rage Against the Machine For Christmas No.1.

Smashed Prodigy Guitar on Ebay

2009-12-03T20:12:00.000Z

Dee Tipping, Development Manager of the Buttery, an Australian based drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity, managed to salvage the remains of a E.S.P. Eclipse II electric guitar after it was somewhat ended by The Prodigy's Rob Holliday at an Australian Gig in January. The signed and authenticated guitar is now on Ebay with all proceeds going to the the Buttery charity.

It always makes us sad to see any guitar broken into two. When we see young kids come in and buy that axe they've been saving months and months for it makes us even more sad to see ones broken on purpose. Still, at least this one has been given perhaps a more beneficial send off.

Have a bid! If you win, bring it in, we might be able to fix it!

Win a PRS Guitar and Marshall Amp From Laruso!

2009-12-03T19:46:00.003Z

Just been given a heads up on Facebook that up and coming rock heads Laruso are giving away a PRS guitar and Marshall amp to celebrate the release of their new single "End of Level Boss".

To do this you have to get the highest score on an Asteroids inspired game. This particular wannabe winner bringing you this news managed to get 5,330, a fair bit below the current score of 16,390 set at the time of writing. Have a go here.

It's a great promotional idea anyway, and something some bands could look at as an example of what you can do to "go viral" and promote themselves in different ways.

Gibson Factory Raided By Feds

2009-11-18T11:28:00.001Z

Gibson's Nashville factory was raided at midday on the 17th of November by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Armed with a search warrant it is understood that the US Department responsible for the preservation of wildlife and seized wood, papers, computers and various guitars in an investigation pertaining to the Lacey act which enforces the "import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant in violation of the laws of the United States, a State, an Indian tribe, or any foreign law that protects plants"

In a recent amendment to federal law, endangered rosewood from Madagascar and Brazil have both been outlawed but it is not clear if this is the specific wood sought in this case.

Gibson issued the following statement on it's website:

Today Gibson Guitar is fully cooperating with agents of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood. As an FSC chain of custody certified buyer Gibson purchases wood from FSC certified and non certified suppliers ensuring that all certified products meet FSC requirements. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and takes the issue of certification very seriously. Gibson Guitar makes every effort to ensure that all its wood purchases are legal and environmentally responsible. The company will continue to cooperate fully and assist our federal government with all inquiries and information.

Sourcing tone woods, particularly rosewood is becoming a difficult process, however it is unclear how much of the demand is purely because of tone or more because of the public perception of which woods a guitar should be made of. We're doing our little bit at Musicians Centre by planting a tree for every guitar we sell. It's a small thing but we believe as an industry everyone should be looking at going beyond what the law dictates to try and secure future generations a decent supply chain of woods for their instruments.

Piano and Keyboard Lessons

2009-11-13T12:05:00.001Z

Just a quick note about our Keyboard and Piano lessons at the Keighley Musicians Centre.

We've been offering keyboard and organ lessons for a long time and have a great team of teachers who can help you progress. We have a dedicated keyboard room which also hosts an organ for those students wishing to learn the keys over two manuals with foot pedals too.

The keyboard lessons are based in a class of up to six people and each pupil wears headphones and works on their own with the teacher coming round and giving guidance one to one throughout the lesson.

Alongside this we also offer piano lessons one to one on an acoustic piano. We have a separate team of teachers who can teach right up to diploma grade but will quite often teach people who are happy just to be able to bang out a tune and want to learn purely for pleasure.

Give us a ring on 01535 603136 if you'd like to take up our offer of a free trial lesson on keyboard, organ or piano.

Schecter Guitars

2009-11-08T11:34:00.003Z

Michael gives a quick overview of the different Schecter guitars currently available from the Bradford Musicians Centre music shop.

Video transcription:

"Hello, this is Michael at musicianscentre.com. We're going to go over some of these Schecter guitars which we currently have in stock. So, Schecter as a company started in 1976 or so making, basically, custom parts for people. The made parts for Gibson, Fender and various other people. They carried on doing that and they were making necks, pickups, machine heads until it got to the point where they were making all parts of a guitar but not the actual guitar. The next obvious step was they started making custom shop guitar for people.

And then things moved on they got really popular, some of the old guitars are really really well respected now. The demand grew and they released this Diamond Series. So this is the Diamond Series, it's Far Eastern made, built in China and Korea and there's various ones in the range. Now one of the things about the range is it's all mixed up, because they were a custom shop company it's quite a confusing range certainly for us to get our head round, so you'll find that bodies are borrowed from different series here and there but it does give you options and you might find you like the body here and the neck there and there's various things like that which it does mix up like.

So, we'll look look at this one, this is the 006 Deluxe and it's contoured here quite nicely, it's got a contour here so it's really comfortable to play. Nearly all Schecters have got Tone-Pro bridges when they are fixed bridges and strung thru, so the body takes alot of the sustain from the strings and you get a nice tone and nice sustain out of that. The body on this is basswood, which is kind of like a budget mahogany, but it's a really nice sounding wood still, it doesn't look that amazing the grain is a bit dull and boring so they either satin finish it like this so you can't really see the wood grain or they put a flame maple cap on it which we'll look at later. So this has Schecter's own humbucker pickups, they're called the Diamond Plus series I think and you've got volume and tone, really nice guitar, nice action, graphite nut as well so it's not a cheap plastic nut, the string passes through there really easily. It's Schecter's own machine heads so, this is different from having a stock machine head because Schecter have been making these parts for years, they know what are good and don't cheapen stuff by putting their own brand stuff on, which is good. So that's the 006 Deluxe.

We'll look at the V (V-1 Custom) next, similar in that it's got a basswood body and satin black finish and it's strung thru and it's got a tone-pro. Obviously V shape on that, contour there aswell, V's never the most comfortable guitars quite often but you'll find that that has a nice balance when you're playing it. Again, Graphite nut, this does come with Grover machine heads, very smooth machine heads, especially through that Graphite nut. The pickups are Duncan Designed, so that is Seymour Duncan's pickup specs but made in the Far East. Still very good sounding, doesn't make a huge amount of difference but it does make a big difference to the cost. So you've got one volume, two tones, 3 way pickup selector on that V. Nice inlays on there as well, if you can see them there. All the inalys are really nicely set on the Schecters.

Next we've got this Sunset Extreme here, so this is an example of it being a basswood body and... you cant really see the grain of that through there I'll show you grain of the basswood on another one, but it's a flame maple top so that is the actual wood you can actually see and it does help with the tone aswell, you get a bit more of a crisper top end. Schecter's own pickups on this and a Floyd Rose, standard Floyd Rose. It's got a nice coil tap as well, so you can actually make that humbucker a single coil for a snappier, stratty type tone. Locking nut on this obviously, so that's that one.

Next up we'll go and look at the Demon Floyd Rose, that's this one here. Basswood body, Satin black finish we've got that again, Floyd Rose Special on this one with Duncan Designed pickup which we mentioned before, nice inlays on that one as well. Contouring here, so again really comfortable to play and everything. A nice medium thickness neck and Schecters own machine heads on that on there as well.

We'll look at some slightly going up in price ones now... but just before we do that we'll get this one, this is the Omen Extreme that is basswood body and you can see the grain on that. Sort of fairly plain, so they don't tend to make a big deal about the actual look of it but, again, the tone is nice from it especially with humbucker, metal type music. That's a flame maple top, so it does give it a lovely sort of finish from the front look of it. Again, Tone-Pro bridge, strung thru body, Schecter's own pickups, coil tap on this which taps the bridge pickup and gives it a nice snappy tone again. Graphite nut again on this, Schecter's own pickups (Ed: I think you'll find you meant machine heads!). It's quite a big neck on this one but it fits really nicely in the hand. Don't be too put off by it not being an ultra thin neck, sometimes because it can actually be really comfortable to have that filling your hand like that, that's definitely worth looking at.

And up from that we've got a Damien Special, this is the Damien Special with a Floyd Rose. Mahogany body on this one now if you can see the grain of that, compared to that basswood it's just a little bit more interesting. It's heavier as well, basswood is a fairly light wood, but still a nice tone wood again but fairly light. Mahogany is a lot heavier I can feel the weight of this it does weigh a fair bit more, flame maple top on there. EMG ceramic humbucker pickups on this one from the H series. A Floyd Rose, volume, tone and three way selector switch. Grover machine heads on that one as well, cor.. it does weigh some that you know! If you like a bit of weight to your guitars that's definitely worth looking at.

And then we got this in yesterday, this is the 2009 edition of the Black Jack. Playing card inlay there, we like that a lot it's lovely. Seymour Duncan pickups, Tone-Pro bridge, strung thru body. Two coil taps on this so you can tap either (pickups) you can get a massive range of tones out of that, it does make a big difference to what you can get out of it. Black Grover machine heads on that. That's the Tempest shape, there's various other models that are called Tempest and that relates to that body shape. This is a Blackjack Tempest and there's other Tempest models as well.

So yeah, they're really good guitars. One of the things that does make a big difference and that we really like is they're made in the Far East and then they go to California where they go to the Schecter custom shop in California and they're all setup there, all the frets are properly polished, if you go on Youtube there's actually videos of guys doing this. And they come into us and we don't have to touch them, which is great, because we're busy. To not have to touch a guitar when it comes in is very handy.

So definitely worth trying, need to be known about by more people I think because the name's big in America, huge in America but not elsewhere.

And last of all, the Synyster Gates model. This is the Avenged Sevenfold Synyster Gates one, it's his own design, his own mahogany body, that sort of shape. Duncan Designed Invader style pickups, Floyd Rose, coil tap here, nice headstock on there. It has actually been quite a hit with everybody, not just Synyster Gates fans, really nice guitar. So yeah, come in and check them out, they are good guitars."

www.musicianscentre.com/schecter

Website Product Zoomer and Live Support

2009-11-05T11:25:00.001Z

"Come And Get A Little Closer"

We've just implemented a new feature on musicianscentre.com, a way to zoom into highly detailed images of the products you are looking at.

One thing we always here about people looking at guitars and other instruments online is that they really want to zoom right into that machine head, or inlay or tiny detail to get a better idea of what it is like.

So we're pretty pleased with what we've managed to get going here. It's not perfect, it is of course reliant on having high resolution photos of all the products, something we don't always have. Not all suppliers can supply us with decent sized images and while we'd love to take all our photos ourselves we would struggle a bit for every item we stock! This might happen gradually in the future for images we aren't able to get from our suppliers, but until then there will be some products where you can't get a very detailed view. We'll try our best to get the most detailed shots we can online though for you to check out. Of course if you ever do want to see a better photo of some small detail send us an email and we'll just take a photo and / or explain anything you might need to know.

You can see the new zoomer by clicking on any product photo. Bare in mind we are in an ongoing process of trying to get the best quality images on there so there will be quite a few where there's not much detail. This will only get better over time though. Schecter and Yamaha products are good ones to check out for now.

"Hello, Are You Real?"

Another thing we have just rolled out is the ability to press a button and talk to a member of staff over an Instant Messenger type interface. Anywhere on the website shop you should be able to see three buttons on the left for each of our store and the name of the person who is working there. Feel free to ask us any questions you might have over there, bare in mind we're not always available to talk so keep an eye out for them "Busy" or "Away" icons and try and pick member of staff who looks like they're available.

Website Live

2009-10-23T15:52:00.001+01:00

After a long hard slog we've finally got our new website up. It's still a bit rough round the edges and we have much work to do adding products but it's a start.

Tell us what you think with the form at the bottom of the front page or comment on this post.

There's a distinct lack of champagne at the Musicians Centre so we're going to celebrate with a cup of tea and some Johnny Cash.

www.musicianscentre.com/

Jimi Hendrix Signature Gibson

2009-10-21T16:01:00.009+01:00

A few weeks back Gibson did something that made everyone in the industry check the date to make sure it wasn't April the 1st. On their Blog they posted a "Live From the Gibson production Line" entry outlining a mysteriously familiar body shape.

Then a few days later Music Radar put out a press release announcing the Jimi Hendrix "Experience" Electric Guitar Package in association withAuthentic Hendrix properties, the company which takes care of all official Jimi Hendrix merchandise and is solely owned by the Hendrix family.

Lordy, what an unbelievable torrent ensued of comments from Gibson, Hendrix and Strat fans alike. Some choice comments from the Gibson Blog post previously mentioned include:

Dan

"Somebody call Bellview and have Henry commited."

Andre

"Gibson just made the biggest mistake of their lives. Jimi played an SG and a flying V, pick one or both! Not the Fender! Are you guys crazy?

At least you could have created a left handed version configured for right hands to capture the true Jimi Experience! Guys buy lefty Strats all the time to do this. Is this too obvious?"

Jimmy St-Germain

"Gibson made a big doodoo."

These comments were pretty much mirrored all over the internet with MI Pro dropping their normal independent stance and basically trashing the idea like everyone else.

Needless to say, not exactly the response Gibson was hoping for. Which is probably why they removed any mention of it from their website and blogs. We managed to grab some of the photos of the factory where they were made before they binned the idea and presumably sold the parts for firewood.

Shine Electric Guitars

2009-10-16T16:02:00.007+01:00

A quick overview of our favourite sub £200 electric guitars from Shine.

Shine Tele Copy

Shine SG Copy

Shine Flying V

Shine Music Man Style Bass

Shine Red Electric Guitar

Shine 5 String Bass

Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Series

2009-10-16T15:58:00.006+01:00

Here's a quick overview of the Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve series guitars. Solid spruce tops, rosewood back and sides. We like.

Today we're going to look at the new Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve range. This is the jumbo, the TRSJ-CE cutaway electro, B-band A3 pickup the top is solid spruce from Alaska. The back and sides on this are rosewood, not solid rosewood but you still get that characteristics of deep and complex bass end from rosewood that you would get from solid.

Really nice guitar, the machine heads are really good as well, tune really easily. So this is the jumbo it comes in at £379 (reduced since filming!). They also do a parlor shape which is very nice, the rosettes on them all are also a rosewood inlay which is a lovely little touch, done really well. There's also herringbone binding. That's £339 the parlour. Same Alaskan sitka spruce and rosewood back and sides. And there's a OOO shape which we've got there, that's got the vintage sunburst finsh on it and there's also a dreadnought shape, this is a bit narrower on the shoulders if you notice this has a less curve than a normal dreadnought, kind of like a J45 Gibson thing, not alot of guitars like that and it's got a nice big dreadnought sound to it.

Like I say, this isn't solid rosewood. This is a TW45-FLR-B, the range up this is £629 (afraid I said this price wrong, it's actually £755.95) with solid rosewood back and sides. You do get a bit more bass end to it, it's a bit more interesting but you pay the premium for it. Tanglewood say they've got about four years of rosewood left, that's it, no more after that. So we'll find that guitars like this will shoot up in value, they've already gone up a bit anyway and I think they're trying to experiment with new ideas and new things to do with the back and sides material that's not, basically from stocks which are depleting. Which is good to see.

Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Folk Body TRV-VS

Tanglewood Rosewood Reserver Jumbo-Electro-Acoustic Guitar TRSJ-CE

Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar TRD-VS

Freshman Acoustic Guitar Visit

2009-10-16T15:56:00.002+01:00

A year ago we visited the guys at Freshman Acoustic Guitars in Glasgow. Here's the video!

Guitars featured in this video:

Freshman Apollo 1 DC
Freshman Apollo 1 OC
Freshman Apollo 2 DC
Freshman Apollo 2OCS
Freshman FA350D
Freshman FA350DCE
Freshman FA400GAC
Freshman FA500GAC