New Satellite

I'm always up for getting cool emails, but today I got a cryptic one from Adam at Satellite Amps. Apparently there's going to be a new amp debuted at the NY Amp Show.

The debut location and this picture was all that was included in the email:

-Pappy

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

New Segment: Guitar Shop Adventures!

That's right, everyone there's a new segment in town! While long-time readers will remember that there is a "News Below The Fold" section that occasionally comes out that deals with things non-guitar related, we now have Guitar Shop Adventures.

The premise is simple: Have you ever gone to a guitar store and saw something that excited or intrigued you? Something that you thought was odd or needed sharing? Perhaps all the hype about whatever gear is hot wasn't all that accurate to you? Crazy happenings at guitar shops?

Well, that's what Guitar Shop Adventures are.

If YOU have any GSA's you would like to share, send them in! I'd like to read them and if they're particularly entertaining, I may even publish them here with your permission.

I hope you're as excited to read these as I am to write them!

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

The Rapture

Worldwide, people were aware that the end of times was predicted saying that the rapture would happen at 6PM on Saturday.

Well, it didn't.

But if it did, I think this is what it would look like. Many thanks to the folks who sent me their pictures to post here for this and a special thanks to Shawn Roux for the idea. His was the first I saw on Facebook and I sent out the request on the 5th Fret's Facebook page for readers to shoot their own pictures and send them in for a future post. I think the results are awesome!

-Shawn Roux

-Bobby Rivera

- Rhett

-Dave Mac

- Jan Buchholz

- Pappy

-Ian

-Space Jase

-Keith

This post was brought to you by Benford Guitars. Have an idea for a custom guitar? Steve Benford can help make your dream a reality. Have an idea for a custom body but you're satisfied with a stock neck? Benford can use your ideas with the stock neck you want to achieve a guitar made for you at a much lower price than most. Just want an affordable guitar in a familiar S or T shape but tricked out with whatever mods you can think of? Benford's got you covered. You're limited by your imagination and your ability to email him with all the specs to your dream guitar. Honestly, I've emailed him multiple times about different projects and his positive responses and amazing prices never cease to inspire. It doesn't hurt that his customer satisfaction is through the roof. Check them out through the link above and see what Benford can do for you.

MOD Kits DIY: Thunderdrive

Looks like there's something ELSE I'd like to build! :-)

-Pappy

PRESS RELEASE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May, 2011

New Kit from MODTM Kits DIY, the ThunderDrive Deluxe Overdrive

The ThunderDrive Deluxe is an overdrive pedal kit that provides a strong clean signal boost in the early gain settings and smooth distortion at maximum gain settings. Adjusting volume control and gain controls offers a wide variety of tones in spite of its simple construction. The Turbo switch gives an additional boost in volume and less internally generated distortion. The pre-painted black enclosure, red control knobs and red LED indicator give the ThunderDrive Deluxe an understated attractive finish. It is capable of overdriving the preamp section of your guitar amp or adding its own layer of distortion at lower volume. The current draw of this pedal is very low at 1.3 milliamps, allowing for long battery life.

MODTM Kits are designed to give novice and experienced musicians the opportunity to build their own amps and effects pedals. All kits come with clear and easy to follow instructions and use point-to-point wiring. A pre-drilled enclosure and all parts are included. All you need to provide are hand tools, a soldering iron and solder. The effect pedals operate on a 9V battery; for a longer lasting option, a 9-volt adapter can be purchased separately.

For a complete listing of kits available from MODTM Kits DIY visit

www.modkitsdiy.com

Sweetwater GearFest '11

Out of all the online music stores, I like Sweetwater the best. They have a very familiar feeling, their sales staff are assigned to you as a customer and you have one representative so you'll always have this one person to help you out. They call every now and then to check in on you, see if you have any questions about gear and they have never disappointed me when I buy stuff.

GearFest always sounded awesome, now even more so. I wish I could go this year but I have too many trips planned already. If you're available, check it out!

-Pappy

PRESS RELEASE:

Sweetwater Presents GearFest ‘11

Fort Wayne, IN, May 18, 2011 — Sweetwater, one of the most respected music instrument and pro audio retailers in the world, will present GearFest ‘11, a celebration of musicians and the instruments and equipment they use to make music. There will also an indoor/outdoor festival featuring live music, delicious food, amazing prizes, and lots of fun for the entire family. This year’s expo is bigger than ever, with two days full of dozens of informative workshops and seminars, scores of manufacturer exhibits, musical performances, and special surprises!

GearFest will take place Friday, June 24^th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, June 25^th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 5501 US Hwy 30 W, Fort Wayne, Indiana. GearFest is free and open to the public.

Sweetwater Founder and President Chuck Surack remarked, “We are proud to be able to offer this event every year. It continues to grow, and there’s literally nothing like it. It is a unique form of trade show. There’s certainly nothing this big, with so many great attractions, that is also free and open to the public, anywhere else in the country.”

Part trade show, part entertainment event, part flea market, and part musicians’ toyland, GearFest offers something for everyone!

To speed up the registration process at the festival, you can pre-register online; visit: http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/gearfest2011/register.php. For more information, call (260) 432-8176.

An event as big as GearFest demands an equally big giveaway of free gear! We've amassed more than $30,000 in gear that will be awarded to lucky GearFest attendees. Included is some of the hottest gear for recording, guitar, and live sound from
Epiphone, Line 6, PreSonus, QSC, Roland, Shure, and Yamaha. Not only will guests be able to get their hands on the latest audio technology at GearFest, lucky winners will be able to take some home too! You must attend GearFest and register in person in order to win.

In addition, Sweetwater will be offering once-in-a-lifetime sale pricing on many products.

GearFest '11 will host a multitude of guests from all areas of the music industry for some exciting performances and workshops. This year's featured speaker is Alan Parsons, legendary producer, engineer, and artist. Parsons is famed for his work with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and his own group, The Alan Parsons Project.

We will also have a special appearance by remix artist BT, who revolutionized British club and dance music in the 90's. Attendees will have the rare opportunity to learn directly from these guests and more with the amazing sound quality in the Sweetwater Performance Theatre and on other stages throughout the Sweetwater campus. Other informative seminars cover topics such as tracking the band, songwriting critique, recording on a computer, introduction to Pro Tools 9 recording software, and many, many more!

Acclaimed performers Paul Pigat, Johnny Hiland, Frank Bello, David Ellefson and many more will take the stage to perform on the latest new guitars, keyboards, and electronic drums. Plus, the amazing Guitar Gallery tent will feature hundreds of guitars and basses on display for guests to get their hands on!

The entire GearFest ’11 schedule of events is available online at: http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/gearfest2011/workshops.php.

Musicians will enjoy a free guitar setup and restringing service, plus a musicians’ flea market, where used equipment can be bought, sold, or traded. To pre-register to sell equipment at the flea market, call (260) 432-8176.

More than 200 manufacturers of musical instruments, music technology, and audio equipment will be on hand to give musicians a look at the latest gear. This rare opportunity will feature over 35 guitar gear manufacturers, more than 45 recording equipment vendors, 20 software publishers, 20 microphone makers, and much more!

Other attractions will include hourly giveaway drawings for thousands of dollars of equipment and instruments, plus tours of Sweetwater’s world-class recording studios and headquarters.

Travel and hotel information for Fort Wayne, Indiana, is available at: http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/gearfest2011/register.php.

About Sweetwater Sound

Sweetwater began business 31 years ago in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the country’s most respected dealer in high-technology equipment for musicians, recording studios, and broadcasters — from microphones and digital recording systems to electric guitars to electronic keyboards and electronic drums. Sweetwater customers range from beginners to rock stars. The company’s equipment can be found in Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville recording studios, TV and radio stations all across the country, as well as in tens of thousands of home recording studios nationwide. Sweetwater is built on a commitment to the highest level of customer service in the music technology industry. For further information visit www.sweetwater.com.

______________________________

This post has been brought to you by ModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

Music Wood

PRESS RELEASE:


23rd May 2011: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Losing Sound

For years guitars have been made the same way, but now this could all change. A new music documentary, “MUSICWOOD” looks at the threat of forest deforestation to a very different type of species.

“I’ve been married to my acoustic guitar longer than I have my wife”
— Gale Paridjanian, of the band Turin Brakes.

There’s no doubt that we develop special relationships with our guitars. Now, these relationships are under threat, as the unique woods used to make guitars may be running out.

The Musicwood documentary tells this story by following the Musicwood Coalition, a group of the world’s foremost guitar-makers — Chris Martin (Martin Guitars), Bob Taylor (Taylor Guitars), and Dave Berryman (Gibson) — as they drop their competitive differences and journey together to the Tongass, a remote forest in SE Alaska. The incredibly valuable Sitka Spruce trees that make most acoustic guitar soundboards come from the Tongass, the largest temperate rain forest in the world, and they are being logged at a staggering rate. In Alaska, the guitar-makers meet with the largest private company that is logging the Tongass, and struggle to determine the future of the forest and the acoustic guitar.

As Chris Martin of Martin Guitars puts it, to convince them to change will be “as close to a miracle as we are likely to see in our lifetime.”

The filmmakers get behind-the-scenes in the negotiations in Alaska, film the craftsmanship of guitar-making in the master workshops of Gibson, Martin Guitars, and Taylor Guitars, and frame it all to live acoustic guitar performances from the artists Yo La Tengo, Turin Brakes, Glen Hansard, Sergius Gregory…and many more.

The documentary is the centerpiece of a campaign designed to bring awareness, economic incentive and a call for action to support sustainable forestry.

Watch the trailer on the Kickstarter website http://kck.st/musicwoodthefilm
More new videos will be posted throughout May and June 2011. Check out www.facebook.com/Musicwoodthefilm, and www.musicwoodthefilm.com which are regularly updated with information about the film and campaign.

_________________________________________


This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

Past Your Prime

Munky from Korn was featured in Premier Guitar recently and he’s starting to look a little rough and a little aged. No sense getting mad at me, little Korn Kernels, it’s just life. But it made me wonder if Korn came out today, would they have a chance at success even close to the level they’ve achieved over the years? Or would they be ignored just because of their age?

Would they be able to get a record deal?

How many NEW bands that feature members over the age of 40 in the rock field?

Honestly, I think this is a problem that has no easy solution. Korn became famous for having outrageous emotions poured out your speakers and giving both band and listener cathartic experiences. They were the cooler older brother who was old enough to look up to, but young enough to “get” you. What would a forty-year-old be screaming about that you could relate to easily? It would be like listening to your dad scream about something and who wants to listen to an angry dad?

Perhaps it’s a genre thing mixed with a period of life. Consider: the above situation almost demands a new band to be young for rock, but what about something like country? Wouldn’t age be looked at, for the most part, as a bonus? A lot of country songs deal with life’s lessons learned and who is going believe a sixteen-year-old guitar prodigy when he sings about how much he’s learned in his life? The package just seems so much more right when sung in the aged timbre belonging to the weathered face of someone who’s seen it (or at least been around long enough to LOOK like he’s seen it).

And what about pop? Bonnie Tyler (probably my favorite pop singer) was 32 when she released “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” That’s at least ten years older than when pop stars of today are releasing their first hit albums. Who is saying that people over the age of 30 can’t break into the pop scene?

But what about rock? Honestly, it kind of upsets me to think that bands, who could be getting better the whole time they’re together but still small, could be disregarded because their hairlines are receding. How many good bands are we missing out because of age?

Perhaps Slipknot had it right when they put on masks.

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Steph Carpenter Likes Them Low And Long

Here's a little something to kick-start your weekend:

Personally, I'm always tempted to pick up a Steph Carpenter sig and see how it plays and if playing a seven or even an eight string guitar is... manageable. Of course, there are problems. One is that I don't have an ESP dealer around my town (anywhere NEAR my town) and the other problem is that this seems to be a guitar that even ESP dealers are hesitant to stock.

Perhaps it's because most people play six string guitars and are timid about upping the string count.

Personally, when I was younger, I could get along with any string count. Schecter had a guitar called a Cello Blaster that was five strings and tuned like a cello which basically meant one finger power chords all day long and it sounded awesomely bone crushing. I had an Ibanez seven string and got along with it for the most part except that my fervor for wanting to learn made me sloppy and it's REALLY tough to sound good when you play sloppy and you happen to have another low string above your low E.

It's easy to be sloppy and play a six string, at least when you're playing power chords because there's nothing BUT space above the E where there are no strings, but once you add another string you have to start focusing much more and that other string sure is easy to get going.

Perhaps that's why I gave up on my seven string. It could have also been that they started to fade in popularity. I'm certainly not too proud to admit I was easily influenced as a youth.

And the Steph Carpenter guitars just seems so wrong for me in other ways. I like short scale guitars and I don't like middle pickups. Yet there's... there's just SOMETHING about this guitar that calls out to me.

What do you think? Could you ever go up (or down) in string count and still be happy or do you think it would be more of a hassle than it's worth? There was a time when I would say the latter, but now that I'm trying to focus on getting more accurate, perhaps it's time to give them a try again.

For more information about Steph Carpenter's guitars, check out the link HERE.

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Benford Guitars. Have an idea for a custom guitar? Steve Benford can help make your dream a reality. Have an idea for a custom body but you're satisfied with a stock neck? Benford can use your ideas with the stock neck you want to achieve a guitar made for you at a much lower price than most. Just want an affordable guitar in a familiar S or T shape but tricked out with whatever mods you can think of? Benford's got you covered. You're limited by your imagination and your ability to email him with all the specs to your dream guitar. Honestly, I've emailed him multiple times about different projects and his positive responses and amazing prices never cease to inspire. It doesn't hurt that his customer satisfaction is through the roof. Check them out through the link above and see what Benford can do for you.

Max Cavalera's Signature Guitar

Here’s a question posed by I Heart Guitar to Max Cavalera during a recent interview (that you can read HERE).

I saw at NAMM that you have a new ESP signature model. It’s quite a different shape for you.

Yeah! I’ve been trying a couple of different things with ESP. I love all of their guitars, and I’ve been using the Viper for so long. I still use it and I still love it. It’s one of my favourite guitars. I tried the Axe, and now I’m trying the EX model, which is also really cool. I just kinda keep switching from year to year, trying different guitars they have. Some people are not using a lot of those guitars, so I look at the catalog and I say “Are a lot of people using this?” and they’ll say no, and I’ll use that for a while. My goal is to design my own guitar. I have some sketched I’ve done that are really pretty cool. I’m getting pretty close to getting something that really looks awesome, they way I like it, and I hope that I can make that with ESP and have my own model designed by me that is going to be completely unique and different from everything else.

___________________________

I love signature guitars and I am always curious about how they come to be, what the artist thinks, what the company thinks, whether there’s any strategy to it or if it’s more loosey goosey. So far, this is the most open I’ve ever heard a signature artist speak and I was so taken by it that I wanted to share it with you folks (not to mention give a completely unnecessary push for I Heart Guitar).

I think it's fitting that Max Cavalera is the first I've seen to open up about getting signature guitars. He seems like quite the honest guy. Out of his previous three guitars though, I liked the Viper the best. That thing looked wicked!

In the end, this was just something interesting I saw and I Heart Guitar was OK with me publishing it for you folks. I hope you enjoyed it! You can go back to your normal day now.

-Pappy

This post has been brought to you byModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

The Perfect Sig

I think while we all have different ideas about WHAT the perfect signature guitar is be it someone else’s or your own dream guitar, I’m pretty sure we can agree that Gretsch may have just set the bench-mark for HOW the perfect signature guitar is made.

It starts with Duane Eddy. Duane Eddy has been playing a 1957 Gretsch 6120 for a very long time and has kind of become synonymous with the model even though he has had quite a bit of experience with other models from other brands. Careful measurements and inspections were done by Fender Master Builder Stephen Stern and he began to work on prototypes. The goal was to make a NEW Gretsch 6120 that was as close as humanly possible to the original 1957 6120. The prototypes were sent to Eddy who took them out on the road and gave them thorough tests, remarking on things like neck width which Stern took to heart and incorporated in the next prototype.

Over time, the model was finished. It had been made and it was shipped off to Eddy again who road tested the model taking it across the world at multiple venues until it was finally given the clearing from him. After that, the recipe and measurements were sent to Japan and they began work on the new model.

Now, besides the fact that it’s made in Japan, this sounds similar to most tribute models (what with the pain taken making sure the guitar is as close to the original as possible) but this is no tribute model. The guitar is a normal, production model that features no relicing nor the heavy price tag. But it’s still treated as if it is a tribute model as far as build goes, the building just happens to take place overseas.

Personally I couldn’t be happier about the news of this new model. When FMIC took over production and marketing of Gretsch Guitars there was some hesitation on the fans’ part, but FMIC has been nothing but good to the brand and the fact that they’re going so far out of the way to offer not only modern interpretations of classics, but modern guitars that were started with the goal to make them as close to the original as possible is a great thing. Between those two there are the tribute models, the budget models, the limited runs and quirky niche pieces that make Gretsch have just about something for everyone.

Regarding the fact that a signature model was made to be as close to the original guitar as possible while still keeping the price tag in the mere-mortal’s range and making it a production model (NOT a limited run) is pretty great. So while we all may have ideas over which is the coolest guitar to begin with, I’m pretty sure we would want whatever signature guitar we liked to go through the same process to get to us.

Who’s with me?

EDIT! For more information about the stunningly beautiful duane Eddy signature guitar, please go HERE.

-Pappy

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

Conversion Necks?!

I spend a lot of time on Warmoth’s web site. I like building dream guitars and seeing how much money it’s going to cost me in the end. I was looking at how much it would cost to get a neck recently and noticed a “conversion” neck. I’ve never heard of one so I looked into it and Warmoth said that their goal was to change the scale of a guitar without any modifications to the body.

Instantly my mind blew up. I’ve been falling more and more in love with shorter scale guitars and the idea of replacing a traditionally long-scale guitar’s neck with a shorter scale sounds pretty awesome.

My mind is abuzz with a build idea…

What do you think? Is the scale of a guitar important to you and if so, do you think a Strat with a Gibson-length scale would be a good thing?

Man, I can’t WAIT to get my hands on a conversion neck to try out and write about! It’s all very exciting!

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Sponsor News

There was a time a while ago that I used AdSense thinking it would be a handy way to make some money to make the blog easier to operate. I think I had it up for a day, maybe less. I didn’t like that it was using ads that I didn’t really want it to. On a blog I used to have I had ads in the corner and that wasn’t very cool. It took content and turned it into ads and my blogging was so random I didn’t like what the ads were for. I felt more like the tool instead of the operator.

I tried again on the 5th Fret, putting ads among the posts, but I did not like this at all. It was OK at the bottom, but I looked at the posts themselves like I look at magazine articles and I do not was ads in the middle of my articles, you know? And the ads were so small and meaningless. Random things trying to get your attention and no input from me, the person getting your attention in the first place.

That’s why I went out and got sponsors. I went out to companies and shops that I believed in and sold them ad space on the right (---->) with links to their pages. I started the policy that I wouldn’t advertise a company, shop, or product that I wouldn’t use and recommend to my friends and readers. I think it’s a pretty good stance to take.

The problem is that while people DO come to the site, a lot of you are reading from alternate means, through RSS feeds or Google Readers. That’s fine, but I thought it wasn’t good enough for my sponsors. After all, I went to them so I could push them a bit and there’s no point in them sticking with me if they aren’t getting attention and sadly, they aren’t getting much attention.

That’s why I started to include a little blurb about the sponsor in the footer of the post with a link to their site. Unlike podcasts, magazine or even TV ads, there are obvious ways to see if your ad on a webpage is successful (by viewing “came from” in whatever analytics program they’re using) and if they don’t see enough hits to meet their personal criteria, they know they’re dropping the site that is contributing the least. Dead weight. Who can blame them?

Anyhoo, I just wanted to write and explain why the footer ads are there. Unlike footer ads from bigger agencies like Google, these are companies that I’m getting behind as a blogger and guitarist and there is a reason I chose them. They’re awesome in one way or another and I hope you take the time to check them out yourself and see why I like them and see if you like them too!

-Pappy

And who are my sponsors? I'll lay out the current ones for you right now in an effort to make it easy to check them out and every post after this will feature one of them on a rotating basis (I don't want my posts to swim in ads, and I would like the placement to be meaningful to both sponsor and reader)! They'll look just like this though:

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

This post has been brought to you byModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

This post was brought to you by Benford Guitars. Have an idea for a custom guitar? Steve Benford can help make your dream a reality. Have an idea for a custom body but you're satisfied with a stock neck? Benford can use your ideas with the stock neck you want to achieve a guitar made for you at a much lower price than most. Just want an affordable guitar in a familiar S or T shape but tricked out with whatever mods you can think of? Benford's got you covered. You're limited by your imagination and your ability to email him with all the specs to your dream guitar. Honestly, I've emailed him multiple times about different projects and his positive responses and amazing prices never cease to inspire. It doesn't hurt that his customer satisfaction is through the roof. Check them out through the link above and see what Benford can do for you.

FM Savior

I’ve come to save FM radio. Yes, that’s right, this is a saving that is provided so close to death, it might technically be correct to replace “saving” with “resurrection” but regardless, it is one I’m handing out. For free, I might add. Why free? Well, honestly because there needs to be more decent radio stations and I’m fed up with the garbage handed out today that somehow gets turned on in my car. I aim to fix it.

So here’s the deal:

1) The first thing that needs to change is the record labels saying what can and cannot be played on the radio.

A DJ is probably in the mood to listen to new music and flesh out artists and only has a limited amount of time to do it and record labels saying they want to push this particular song over a different one is holding the DJ back, it’s holding the artist back (because people think they’re limited in range because they’ve only heard one or two songs), and it’s holding the fans back (because they aren’t sure if the artist is of the caliber that warrants buying the WHOLE album versus one song).

Also, I don’t think there’s any DJ out there who is deliberately mean toward music. If they were, why would they become a DJ? The opportunity to become a celebrity? Get recognized around town? I doubt it. It’s radio, after all and even if you wanted to be famous like Howard Stern, he became famous because he was among the first shock jocks and once you’ve had your sense rattled once, it’s hard to get them rattled again unless the rattling is stronger and, in this case, the FCC is there to try to stop the rattling from getting too crazy.

My point is that fame might be a bit of a lofty goal for a DJ, but if they signed up because they moved the music, I bet they would like to play what they like or at least what they like within the confines of the radio station. If they feel that a song is particularly played out, but a sign on the wall says they have to play X twice an hour, then they can dig for different songs. So long as the song doesn’t violate any rules set forth by the FCC, I see no harm.

Honestly, the only drawback to this situation is if the whole album is awful save for a song or two, it will get known pretty quickly, but really, there’s only so long you can play the game before the suckers tell their friends that the album is junk.

2) There’s a place for the past, and it doesn’t span 24 hours.

Well, that’s not ENTIRELY true, but if you think about classic rock and what it’s supposed to mean (the music from a generation ago or, we’ll say, 25 years max) then doesn’t it seem weird that so many classic rock stations have been playing the same songs for so long? I know some people love Skynyrd and just can’t get enough Sweet Home Alabama, but there have been a lot of great songs since 1974 and they are being completely disregarded.

Classic rock has stopped dead in its tracks when there is a whole new classic ready to take its place.

But this doesn’t mean you have to get rid of it because there’s always…

3) The possibility of more dedicated shows during a day or week.

If you HAVE to have the bands from when mustaches and bellbottoms were totally boss, then I think there should be a dedicated hour or two a day or week to satisfy this hunger. There’s an audience for just about anything and if you say “from X to Y this itch will be scratched” you’ll probably have a good bit of success with it.

How do I know this? While living in a foreign country as a youth we had one English-speaking radio station. Just one. Unless you wanted to listen to the native music, this was your one choice – your alternative to silence (or the cassettes that were used at the time) and they made good use of this one station. They had different shows at different times, the more popular ones had a show every day, the lesser popular ones a show per week and they even managed to jam in some syndicated radio stuff as well so there was time to fill (with Car Talk or Rush Limbaugh more often than not). The result was me and my young friends counting down until Saturday nights at 9:00 PM when the radio would be taken over by Joe’s Alternative Zoo, the only place where you would hear anything remotely metal.

4) Time to experiment!

This also gives you a bit of room to experiment. Pad your time and then try out new things. For a while there was a rock station in Biloxi that for an hour each week played nothing but homegrown music – stuff from local bands. There didn’t have to be a record label or PR or anything like that. It didn’t even need to be a quality recording. If you and your band played live in the area and had anything that could be played on the air, then you had a good shot of hearing yourself on the radio. This is a GREAT idea! How often do you think that you would really like to go out to more shows, but you’re not interested in seeing a bad band? Well, now you can listen to the show, hear a song you like, cage your ears and hear who they are and where they’re playing next and plan your weekend accordingly.

You can also experiment with different genres or levels of genres. A no-kidding METAL hour or a rockabilly hour. You never know what the crowd is going to like if you keep shoving the same old crap down their throats. Give them a taste of something different and see how they react. Perhaps once everyone settles on the new format with different shows and all that, people will tune in JUST to see what you’re playing just then.

I think these are all slick ideas and when I broached the topic to friends they said that they wished ads went away too. Meh… I don’t mind the ads, especially when they’re paying for good things. I don’t mind TV commercials when I’m watching my favorite shows because my favorite shows are good shows! I just remind myself that if they weren’t there I would have to pay for it and that makes my frugal bone shudder.

So yeah, labels need to back off a bit from radio stations and radio stations need to stop relying on labels to provide them with the format they need to fill their spaces.

I would listen to it.

-Pappy

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Who Runs The Show?

Muse says they will no longer be playing songs from their album Origin of Symmetry live.

I guess it kind of makes sense. The album was released a decade ago and since then they’ve released three albums with new music and I can understand why they would want to let more songs from the new era shine.

But is a live show really about the artist?

Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a huge piece of artistic integrity that comes into play here. Who wants to see a performer that is less than inspired to be running through one of their oldest songs? But who wants to go to a show where you see the band play songs you don’t know or don’t like?

Personally I’ve always looked at a show as a greatest hits scenario. The artist plays the songs with the biggest reactions and makes for a good show where the audience is enjoying themselves – something that will hopefully make the performer perform even better because they’re feeding off the vibe. And in this session of awesomeness where a lot of everyone’s favorite songs are being played, the artist can sprinkle in new songs – perhaps songs that are coming out on the next album or songs that they’ve written that they would like to road test. They can gauge the crowd’s reaction and adjust accordingly.

I can see it both ways, honestly. You have a band like Muse that seems to love to play live and seems to want to share their newest stuff – stuff they think makes for good listening and they don’t want them to take a back seat to older songs that everyone already knows. Why go out and play the same songs every time? If you did that, how many people would come to your shows the next time you were in town?

But how good of a time would a crowd have listening to newer stuff that hasn’t become their favorite songs?

Bands like AC/DC and the Beach Boys have been touring on basically the same set list for YEARS – perhaps even decades and the crowds still come. Perhaps it’s because of the crowd’s love of the hits and the band’s love of the crowd’s love that makes playing the same songs fun every time (assuming it IS fun to play every time). The Beach Boys thought that the song “Kokomo” would be a “beer song” where everyone in the crowd hears a song they’re unfamiliar with, or a song that hasn’t become their favorite yet and uses it as a break to go get some beer.

Obviously that turned out differently than they expected but they’ve been playing so long that this was the honest expectation, you know what I mean?

I guess because I can see it going both ways I just try to enjoy any show that I can. If they want to play nothing but hits all night, hey, that’s fine with me. I can sing along and have a great time. If they want to play new songs, hey, why NOT listen to some new stuff? It might be less fun for me, but I could possibly walk out with a new favorite song that I never expected.

What do you think?

-Pappy

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Music Books

I was listening to the Flatpicking Guitar Podcast (GREAT podcast with all sorts of good interviews, tips, and music that (provided you’re not a huge flatpicking fan) might be a welcome break from the norm) and they were interviewing a music instructor who was just about to release another book and the instructor emphasized to the publish company that he wanted a spiral-bound book.

Why?

Well, obviously he wants the music book to lay flat when you’re playing.

Man, what a revelation! A book that can lie flat. A book you don’t have to put weights on the edges, potentially blocking your view of notes and certainly making turning the page a process that is hindered at best and potentially page-tearing at worst.

It seems like such an OBVIOUS thing, doesn’t it? Music books that lie flat. It blew my mind. And then I started to ask myself why ANYONE would want music books that DON’T lie flat – i.e.: the music books most of us are aware of today. Two things jumped to mind.

1) Shipping. Stacking spiral or round bound books could be a tricky process. They easily catch and snag on each other and who wants to buy a brand new music book (especially for the prices they usually go for) if the binding isn’t new-looking and smooth to operate? You remember in high school when you would carry around a spiral-bound notebook for the whole school year and at the end of it, it’s completely wrecked because it’s been squished and snagged and thrown and worn, and as a result you can barely open up the thing?

THAT’S probably what publishers and stores want to avoid. After all, if the store gets them damaged, they’ll want a refund or exchange for a new one making the publisher pay more. If the owner keeps the damaged book, it probably won’t sell and the shop eats the cost after a while.

2) Damage while displayed. Continuing on this lifespan line, if customers keep coming in and thumbing through the books and not buying them, the edges are going to get just as worn – perhaps more so – than if they were damaged in shipping and the end result would be the same. The shop eats the cost.

Oh, but would the gamble be worth it?

I think so. I would be FAR more inclined to buy music books I can use easily and flip to my heart’s content and should the book eventually get so damaged in the binding that I can barely open it up, who’s to say I wouldn’t buy it again?

But I’ll tell you, I don’t like normal music books that don’t lie flat. It seems like a waste to have a book packed with so much good information and then make it a pain to use. Not cool.

So with me, and probably just me, the gamble is a good one. I’m more likely to buy a spiral bound music book at LEAST once whereas I am not prone at all to buying the modern standard.

What do you think? Are regular music books working just fine for you? Any tips for using them? Would you prefer lie-flat books instead? Which would you buy more of?

-Pappy

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Craft Fairs

The season has officially started for craft fairs. These fun distractions from normal everyday life usually take place in a fairly nice area, usually with some woods and nature to observe and are filled with booths that sell all sorts of stuff, some handy to all, some handy to some, some novel and therefore handy to none (well, perhaps they would serve as a fun gift to give someone).

The craft fair season usually stretches from spring to fall because that’s when the weather is nicest. I enjoy going to these things because they truly are a distraction from a normal Saturday spent on the couch watching Spongebob Squarepants or (shudder) toddler TV like Dora the Explorer or the Wonderpets.

The most recent one I went to was the Mossy Creek Festival which takes place twice a year. It’s full of… rural goods. There were people carving canes and walking sticks from bigger sticks, there were people chiseling nature and religious scenes into canvases of wood, there were people dressed as frontiersmen (both male and females, but mostly female) who were cooking soap in a cauldron over a fire, there was a man making bullwhips and then giving demonstrations on how to use them (it’s tricky to learn at first, but you can pick it up pretty quickly, just watch out for the snapping end because it hurts), there were belt makers and there was even a blacksmith. Among these truly interesting demonstrations (these people had not only brought wares but were making them in front of you as well), were the normal craft fair people – people who did their craft making at home and then brought everything in.

There was even a pretty awesome bluegrass band that I really enjoyed. Flatpickers. Man, they can play!

I rarely buy anything at these shows – they’re mainly an escape. Get the kids out of the house, have them walk around, perhaps pick up some lunch and then it’s back home or to the park or whatever else can be done. But there are SO many things you COULD buy. There are silverware windchimes, stained glass, pottery, metal work, $130.00 dolls, plush animals, wooden toys, rocking chairs, salad dressings, books, etc. etc. etc.

There’s one thing missing: Guitars.

Now, I hope I painted a good enough picture for you to know that the goods sold are decidedly for country folk. That’s not a slam on country folk at all though, it’s just that people who come from an urban environment will probably be hard pressed to find a use for a bullwhip – at least one as long as the ones sold at this show.

So if it is indeed country folk the show (and most craft shows in general) is appealing to, why are there no guitars? There are musical instruments sold here, the top three being dulcimers (expected) and (not expected) huge bamboo flutes and HARPS.

Harps! The things you rest on your shoulder while you sit and pluck out the Trooper or whatever harpists play. You’re telling me that there’s an audience for HARPS but none for guitars, one of the most commonly known musical instruments in the world?

Ridiculous.

Now, I’m not saying Martin should open a booth or anything, but there are independent luthiers who may be able to use the venue to sell some guitars. If dolls go for 130.00 and knives made out of rocks right in front of your eyes go for 150.00 than HOPEFULLY you could get some real money for your handmade in the USA guitar.

Perhaps it can be an American version of the opening scene from Once Upon a Time in Mexico where there’s a dusty booth where two guitar makers are putting the finishing touches (though not putting finish) on their guitars before the Mariachi comes up and gets one. Only instead of a nylon string flamenco guitar, it would be a flat-backed steel string more than likely with pre-war bracing.

Don’t put it past someone not to buy one of these! If I ever go to Mexico I will look for a place like this where I can get a guitar handmade there and the idea of picking a guitar up that was just being finished right in front of me at a craft fair is pretty cool too.

And you get so much more attention at a craft fair. More people are coming who aren’t guitarists but may know a guitarist, or perhaps you can luck into a whim buy where someone says “you know, this money is just burning a hole in my pocket and I’ve always wanted to learn guitar…” and you won’t be competing with other companies. If you’re the only booth selling guitars, congratulations, you sell the best guitars there.

See?

Hopefully the next craft fair I go to, someone brings along some guitars!

-Pappy

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