Oh my God do I hate packing peanuts!! As a retail shop, we receive anywhere from 10-20 shipments each week. Most of them come from distributors and manufacturers that are well versed in fitting product into a box with minimal or no packing materials. The nicer instruments we receive usually come in heavy duty boxes with special inserts at the top and bottom that cradle the instrument and protect it from damage during shipment.
But at least once a week we get a box, usually from a private party, sometimes from certain distributors, that is filled with these horrible packing peanuts. Why these infernal pieces of waste have not been nationally outlawed is beyond me. Not only are they made of styrofoam, one of nature's worst enemies, but it is absolutely impossible to unpack a box containing peanuts and not get them everywhere. Thanks to static they cling to clothing and skin and usually whatever you're trying to get out of the box. Those that don't cling will just fly out of the box willy-nilly while they try to scatter themselves all over your freshly vacuumed floor. Due to my utter hatred of these devious bits of Satan skin, I have actually paid to send a box full of nothing but peanuts back to the sender just so they would have to deal with it! I know, I'm very petty, but they got the message............I think. Till next time, Mike
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Hey! Before you go pluggin your amplifiers into a buncha speaker cabinets, be sure to take a look at Roger Sadowski's informative, and preventative, posts regarding impedance. He even has an Ohm Calculator through his site to calculate exact ohmage when running speakers in parallel. If yr playing outta some nice vintage amps into some special cabs, be sure yr doin everything correct so you don't blow anything up. You're welcome.
Impedance Ohm Calculator Let's face it; everyday should be women's day. Where would any of us be without them? They say behind every great man is a great woman rolling her eyes, and today is the day we celebrate those patient, loving, smart, powerful, beautiful women in all of our lives. What better way for a guitar shop to celebrate than with some songs by some fem-nominal female musicians. In a few short weeks the very first Fretboard Summit will be taking place just north of our fair city in Pescadero. This summit is being put on by the Fretboard Journal which, if you're not already familiar, is arguable the best stringed instrument magazine ever published. It will feature such illustrious speakers as Dick Boak (Martin Guitars), Richard Hoover (Santa Cruz Guitars), and Bill Collings (Collings Guitars), and amazing performances from the likes of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge, Blake Mills and more.
The Summit is taking place at the fabled Costanoa Resort which is about a 25 minute drive north of Santa Cruz. This beautiful property has stellar ocean views and rustic indoor settings that is surely going to give the weekend a magical feel. And as luck would have it, you can buy tickets to this amazing event from Sylvan Music. Give us a call or stop in to buy tickets and check out the Fretboard Summit website for any further details. Can't wait to see you all there! A huge change has just occurred here at Sylvan Music: we have created an entire room in the shop dedicated to our vintage electric guitars! We were running out of wall space in our Vintage Room so we thought "Why not make a room specifically for the electric stuff?" and that's exactly what we did. So do yourself a favor and come down to plug in one of these bad boys. You can even crank it up to 11!
-The Sylvan Staff A long awaited day has arrived with a much needed win for equality. Today the Supreme Court voted to legalize gay marriage nationwide. In honor of this momentous event lets recognize some gay/lesbian musicians of past and present. I'm also going to add this Beatles song because I think it's fitting. Congratulations America, you're heading in the right direction.
For the 12th year in a row, our little town has been lucky enough to host the annual Mandolin Symposium! For those who aren't familiar with the Symposium, it takes place up on the UCSC Campus and it's basically a mandolin fantasy camp. The instructors are David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Roland White (Bluegrass), Don Stiernberg (Swing and Jazz Master), Rich DelGrosso (Blues), Drew Emmitt (Jamgrass), Caterina Lichtenberg (Classical), Tim Connell (Irish Trad/Brazilian/Improv), Sharon Gilchrist (Mandolin Fundamentals), Dudu Maia (Brazilian Choro), Eric Stein (Klezmer), Mike Mullins (Artist in Residence).
These are 12 of the best mandolin players in the world (factual) and they spend the week teaching classes and workshops to the lucky few students from around the world who attend. The focus ranges from bluegrass to classical to klezmer to blues and way, way beyond. Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is the instructors concert where they each come out and play solo and with each other to demonstrate their mastery of the instrument. It's the type of performance that will make you either want to give up the mandolin completely or go home and practice for 12 hours straight! I will be attending this concert and recommend you do the same; it's only $15!!!! For you mando players, stay tuned to their website and sign up for next years Symposium. If you're serious about improving and learning from the greats, it's the best way to do it. -Mike The bottom bout is being glued and clamped up to the waist. While mating the heel cap to the heal, the chisel and old Mrs. Bessie Gibson had her way with me. In 35 years of repairing musical instruments, this is only my 2nd serious injury. I've been lucky, if you have ever attended a woodworking trade show, most of the audience are lacking a few digits. Till next time, Al Electro-Harmonix came out with the Freeze back in 2010 and holy crap does it rule. It takes a split second of the signal from your guitar (or whatever), and perfectly sustains it for as long as you require. It allows for intuitive transition between chords, so if you are trying to fill up all of that space with all of that noise, you can do so easily. What's also neat about it is that it can capture all sorts of different timbres from your instrument, like if you click it on while you're pick scraping for instance, it sounds like a damn machine conveyer belt or something. Rad! Coupled with other effects you can make fun new sounds too! With a POG (or any pitch shifting effect), you get some very convincing organ tones. There are tons of other applications, but anyways here's a few cool videos for you to check out. It's really simple to be honest, and it can really fill out your sound. -alex
I have two passions in my life; Music and Motorcycles. When I'm doing one I'm thinking about the other. If I'm in the garage working on a bike, I've got rock and roll blasting. They go together so well that it seems fitting to make a blog post about music and motorcycles, so here are a few songs that are either about motorcycles or make me think of motorcycles. Enjoy. |