Mon 7/7/2003

I like parades. And I like marching bands in parades. And, because they are the most rock & roll part of a marching band, I like the drum section the best. What I like the least is the new plastic snare drums that marching bands are using these days.

You know how when you're walking down the street in the South Side, and you hear music off in the distance? And you know how even with modern CD technology, you can still tell whether it's a live band vs. a loud CD player? And you know how that's always `cause you can tell the sound of real, live drums? Nothing can really substitute for the sound of a live snare drum.... especially not those tick-tick-tick plastic snare drums marching bands are using. In the parade I watched last Friday, right after a huge high school band was one of those 6-piece Civil War groups. (I don't think they were actual Civil War veterans, since none of them looked a day over 80...) And they had three real, wooden snare drums, and they sounded better than the whole high school band.

My point here? Sometimes modern technology is good (i.e.pocket calculators), sometimes it's just cheap sounding plastic.

An example of good modern technology is the new the Korg CA-30 Tuner. It's small, chromatic, lightweight, inexpensive and accurate. (Though it still sounds bad if you hit it with a drumstick...) The CA-30 is the email special this week, at more than 50% off the list price!

And speaking of the 4th of July parades last Friday, that's the reason this email special is arriving late. Which works out OK, because next week's will be late, too! We'll be out on the sidewalk celebrating the annual South Side Summer Street Spectacular. That means fabulous sidewalk sale sales for you, and lots of drinking for us... The SSSSS starts on Thursday. We'll be open late Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We're gonna have a good time... come down and join the festivities.

See you soon,
Carl

PS: Some examples of this week's Street Spectacular Sales are: Harmonicas: $1.87, Kazoos: 47¢, Strings: $2.33, and more!

PPS: This week's Customer web site:
Salena Catalina

Sat 7/19/03

Whew.... I'm exhausted from last weekend's South Side Summer Street Spectacular. All that sittin' outside, listenin' to music, and drinkin' beer out of a paper bag will wear you out...

Late in the evening I had a chance to walk around and check out some of the other sidewalk sales and I found this guy selling old pictures. These were probably taken by Teenie Harris, a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, who took thousands and thousands of photos during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The guy on the sidewalk had some pictures of old cars, some guys on motorcycles, some people walking down the street, and some musicians. The one that caught my eye was this super cool picture.

I'll wait while you look at it....
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I don't have any idea who these guys are, but I love the photo. The bass player is playing a Gibson EB-1, Gibson's first electric bass. They made these from 1953 through 1958, and the EB-1 had no high end whatsoever. It's hard to believe that the guy in the photo could get any volume at all through the small Gibson amp behind him. The amp appears to have four eight inch speakers, and I'll bet they distorted like crazy with that bottom-heavy bass.

Meanwhile, the guitarist is using a wonderful `56-ish Les Paul TV Model. (Made from 1954 thru 1957, the "TV" model was just like the regular, one pickup, sunburst Les Paul Junior but in the "limed-mahogany" finish. Gibson called it the "TV Model" because the blonde finish looked good on black and white TVs.) That guy is playing through a cool Danelectro amp propped up on the chair in front of them.

I can't quite decide why they have the back of the chair blocking the speaker on the Danelectro... That guitar and amp set-up could certainly blow away the bass rig; there would be no reason to even put it up on the chair... Here's my hypothesis: I think they have the mic plugged into the amp along with the guitar. And I think they are using the back of the chair to bounce some of the sound back to the singer and the other guys... as a monitor. The back of that amp is open, so there would also be sound coming out of the back, but if the singer stood directly behind it he would have more of a feedback problem. This reflective approach might have been the solution. It's a clever idea....

Any thoughts? Any idea who this band is?

For the email special this week, we're featuring the strings these guys were probably using: Gibson flatwounds. (Or, if you'd prefer, D'Addario "Chromes" Flatwounds.)

See you soon,
Carl

PS: Did you notice that the drummer is standing up?

PPS: The Teenie Harris Archive Project

PPPS: This week's Customer web site:
Sodajerk

Sat 7/26/2003

I was so inspired by the Gibson EB-1 and Les Paul Junior in the photo from last week's email, that I decided to change the display case in the back of the store to 1950s Gibsons.

Now you can stop in and see an EB-1 and several Les Paul Juniors live and in person. (Though I guess "live" isn't exactly correct...) (OK, "in person" isn't true either, since they're just pieces of wood....) (But, you know, now that I think about it, guitars DO have personalities, just like most people. It takes a long time to change the display case, because I have to stop and play each guitar... and they all feel different, just like most people...)

(Now that I think about it even further, you know how sometimes you can tell in the first two minutes whether or not you're going to get along with someone? What's up with that? I don't even mean in a male-female kind of way... although that is my preferred kind of way... I mean that some people are immediately compatible with you and some aren't. It must be some sort of unseen mystery vibe thing. Guitars are like that too. Last weekend I was in Nashville at the NAMM show, and at the Martin booth I tried the new Andy Griffith D-18.) (At every show Martin introduces a limited number of Signature Edition guitars. This one is modeled after the D-18 Andy used on The Andy Griffith Show.) (I suggested that it should come with a Don Knotts bullet! But Chris Martin, the pres., said they have a strict no-weapons (or bullets) policy at the Martin factory.) (Well, this D-18 just spoke to me. It felt great, it sounded great, I wanted to go home and sit on the porch with it...) (I couldn't... it was the prototype...) (Hey, I guess when it comes to people, we're ALL prototypes...)

Speaking of the NAMM show, in order to get the best prices from Fender (which will, of course, be passed on to you) I had to order a whole pile of stuff. So next Thursday we're getting 58 boxes of guitars and amps. I'm not sure where we're gonna put them, but it wouldn't hurt to clear out some big, floor-space-using items beforehand. This week's email special is on a variety of larger items. Buy these, so we'll have room for the 30 new Fender acoustics I just ordered. Thanks. I appreciate it. So does Aunt Bea.

See you soon,
Carl

PS: Here's the link to the photo from last week.

PPS: This week's Customer web site:
Veruca Salt