One of our esteemed guitar players getting good press
March 2nd, 2010
Lee Gaze – LostProphets on tour
February 27th, 2010
Here are some cool pics done by Shirlaine Forrest of Lee on the UK leg of their tour. Next Australia and Japan. Check their music out, damn fine music it is…LostProphets web site
Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk
Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk
Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk
Shaun Verreault – Wide Mouth Mason..
February 26th, 2010
One of the best parts of what I do is that I get see alot of music. Most is good, actually really good, but every once in a while I run across a guitar player that I am just completely fucking blown away by.
It was Shaun last night, playing a Liquid Metal Tele too, of course But man on man that boy made our guitar sing. He got more sounds, effects, harmonics, things, out that guitar that I have ever heard. It was stunning.
He put on a guitar show, pure and unadulterated guitar show, a la Bonamassa. Great licks and breaks and jams and straight ahead bluesy rock that had the joint jumpin’. And the musicality was there too, you know, the thriving beat that picks you up and makes you dance…The place went nuts everyone was dancing in place and over the head clapping cheers when every song was done. I absolutely loved it.
If you get a chance to take these guys in.. do. Exceptional.
One of the best thing about the Olympics here….
February 22nd, 2010
….is the music. There is music everywhere and it is great music, every genre, every type, in all these different venues and it is free..
Dats what I like about dat….
J.D. Salinger and Holden Quotes
January 29th, 2010
The author of one of favorite books, Catcher in the Rye, I actually read it every couple of years, passed away yesterday. It just made me think of the book and the joy I get reading it. He, JD, was actually very funny with wicked observations on life. This is what I mean:
J. D. Salinger said:
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start to miss them…”
“That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose.”
“If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.”
“You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they’re mean bastards at heart.”
“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”
“It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it.”
My first sale on the steps of a Gulfstream IV
January 26th, 2010
One of the coolest things just happened.
A guy phones me from the air, says he will be Vancouver at 3, can I meet him with some of our guitars. “Ya, for sure”. So I go out to the private jet airport and wait. That in itself is kinda cool
And then this beautiful bright white jet comes honking in, comes to a rocking stop. He waves at me from the cockpit of a Gulfstream IV, the door drops down, he comes bounding down off the jet, comes into the terminal where I have our guitars laid out.
He looks at the guitars and goes “Whoa, those are ridiculously cool” Plays them for a bit and says “right on”
Then he pulls out a wad of 100s “I’ll take em” he says “what do ya need?”
The New Marketing Model For Our Guitars
January 15th, 2010
I find myself in an interesting business model. When we had finished our proto-typing, getting the things that didn’t work so well out of the bones of the guitar, the $#@%&* melt down hit. (I still read the New York Times and get all righteously violated wired up by the crazy greedy shit that caused the problem.. but I digress and but … one more thing… just kidding.. ) back to how the meltdown changed my life..
The thing is, that even in good times it is tough to get a retailer to take on a new guitar. Now even more so when they are backed up with six months to a year in inventory of stuff that usually sells but sales stopped, boom, like that when the fiasco hit.
Talking to them has been okay, they listen, nicely and offer a few insights, pieces of advice and a mild encouragement. All of us still get off on talking about guitars for sure but get onto the subject of the retail business today and the dark clouds coming looming in.
They for the most part like what we are doing, they are impressed with what we have done, love the look, the idea and who we have working with us. But the economy changed and they’re just hanging back, they are polite but no thanks, not right now.
So, this forced me to find an alternative selling venue and that was online. I have to tell you, it is truly an amazing space. It has vast amounts of information and 10 million ways of delivering information and the speed of evolution of the ways of delivering that information is stunning. Not only does it work, but it is a blast.
It is the place where everyone goes for info on something they are about to purchase, you think about it, you google it, find out what you can, this is from cars, cameras, everything.
I initially set up Facebook. Right out of the chute, first month, Super cool, met Travis Toy of Rascal Flatts who has one of our guitars and brought me along to their show when they were here playing to 17,000. That was the first big venue play for us. It was as cool as you can imagine standing in the crowd watching your guitar being played on stage.
But more importantly, the Facebook presence resulted directly in sales and they keep coming. With FB, we have now over 1,200 fans and friends that are watching what we are doing getting updates on the company and things like this blog entry. That is exceptional.
The next in line place was Linkedin, this is more for professionals, and this venue for us, is FB on steroids. Great exposure and good guys coming along and seeing what we are doing, asking appropriate questions and I guess, comfortable enough after talking to me and buying things online, that they say “ wrap it up and send me one”
The other thing that has worked is going to the various forums on guitars and jumping into the conversations. Not being belligerent and aggressive about sales, but yakking about what we all like, guitars.
Now this is where the magic is for a company like us, there was a guy on there, wild funny poster, had lots to stay and lots of opinions and was well regarded. So, I contacted him directly, turns out he has a crazy collection of les paul juniors and owns a guitar shop in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania.
We get to chatting on the phone, after a few emails, he listens to my story and says “Okay, send me one. I do and he is now on top of the mountain shouting out our name. Loved the guitar. This is what he said:
and i can say that i am blown away. killer neck, killer fretwork and the carved out aluminum body works. the duncans are perfect in this guitar. as a wood snob, i expected it to be brash and brittle sounding. i was a james trussart dealer for a while, and dismissed these guitars as the same thing. boy, was i wrong. it’s resonant as hell and a wonderful sounding and feeling guitar. are we going to have to start talking tonemetals?
Now this is what gets me all amped up, this is incredible. We are working together, online and on the street, He has a guitar now for folks to touch and play and get excited and as well continue with the online buzz.
This is perfect, I continue on line branding and marketing our guitars and now with FB and LinkedIn, I can micro target our online advertising and send ‘em to Greg in Lemoyne PA.
This gives us all great focused presence.
Absolutely nothing to do with guitars, but funny.
January 8th, 2010
I have friends, I am sure you have them too, that is always sending me stuff.. 90% of the time it is stuff that I open it and go, that is stupid or why the hell would they send that to me and a bunch I don’t read, don’t care about..
But, every once in a while.. for what reason I don’t know, I open them and this insanely stupid was one I did and it makes me laugh my head off. This one, for sure, shows my intelligent, witty side…:)
How much fun it is to perform in front of people, who are having a good time.
January 7th, 2010
The Rat Pack and Johnny Carson…having an absolutely blast on stage singing the Birth of the Blues.
more from ‘When Giants Walked The Earth”
January 4th, 2010
One of the very important things for us is sound. We spend a lot of time listening and coaxing and tweeking our guitars to get a sound that makes me go… ya, ” that’s it. That’s what I want”
I love finding out about what others did or are doing. Reproducing a great sound is always a challenge, but when you do get it right, it is totally worth it. I quite liked this passage of of the book I am reading about Led Zeppelin, about Jimmy Page and John Bonham nailing the sounds of the drums on When the Levee Breaks
Led Zeppelin recorded its version of the song in December 1970 at Headley Grange, where the band used the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.
This is the excerpt-
The big difference , in the first instance was the titanic drum sound. ” It was always an electric blues” says Jimmy, ” but I never quite knew that the minute John Bonham had set up his drum kit up in the big hall it would sound so fantastic.” Known as the Minstrel’s Gallery, the hall at Headley Grange ” was three storeys high and so it was this big cathedral like hall. And Bonham just started playing this kit that had arrived and is sounded so fantastic we went, hold on, lets do, Levee Breaks” and we tried it and incredible sound came out.
The sound was captured on tape by hanging two ambient Beyer m160 mikes from the staircase and aiming them where Bonzo was sitting with his kit, while Andy Johns sat in the mobile truck outside recording the sound through two channels he then compressed usng an Italian echo unit called a Binson belonging to Jimmy that used a steel drum instead of a conventional tape. A separate microphone would normally have been added to record the bass drum but Bonzo’s unamplified kick sound echoing around the great hall was on its own so powerful that there was no need. ” I remember sitting there thinking it sounded utterly amazing” says Johns. ” So I ran out of the truck and said ” Bonzo, you gotta come in and hear this”
He shouted ”Whoa, That’s it, thats what I’ve been hearing.
( And what subsequent generations of producers and mixers have been hearing ever since, making it the most sample drum sound of all )
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