Live Musician Central

  
   From now until November 26 you can get 15% off your entire order at Music123. Music123 is an online music store that caters to every type of musician whether you play live or just like to record. I’ve always had good experiences ordering from Music123. Here’s an experience I had recently when I ordered a product. I had ordered several different types of guitar picks to experiment with including the Jellifish Chorus Guitar Pick. Somehow, the Jellifish got crushed during shipping and all the wires on it got bent. I called Music123 and they sent me out a brand new one, completely free without making me return the damaged one. Now that’s customer service! So make sure you check out the great sale and excellent products at Music123.

   Now is the perfect time to get your big ticket items for Christmas. These top items sell out regularly and can be hard to get closer the Christmas. I recommend these top selling products from Music123: Read more »

  

One of the most essential tools you can have for your guitar and bass collection is a string winder. It’s a real challenge to hold the string in place while with one hand while having to reposition your other hand every time you want to give the tuning head a half turn. The other tools you need every time you change strings are a string cutter and a tuner. Well, the Planet Waves CT-03 Pro String Winder\Tuner\Cutter is the tool for you. You can have all 3 tools right there in your hand while changing strings. The built-in tuner is so handy you’ll wonder how you lived without it before.

   The Planet Waves CT-03 Pro String Winder also has a built-in bridge pin puller. It’s nice to have that for pulling the bridge pins on your acoustic guitar. The string winder is a really handy tool and makes changing your strings so much easier. Read more »

  

Since discussing playing an acoustic gig in yesterdays post on Live Musician Central I figured I should talk about an excellent solution for bass players. I’d like to point you to the Michael Kelly Firefly 4-String Acoustic-Electric Bass. It’s a very affordable acoustic bass guitar and is an incredible bargain for the price. It can be very difficult to find an acoustic bass that sounds good unplugged but the Michael Kelly Firefly really sounds good unplugged. Of course, it’s on-board electric pickup gives you the ability to plug in and that’s where this bass really shines.

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   I’m going to talk about a common problem that I hear quite often when I’m out listening to bands. It’s a problem I’ve encountered working with various musicians in my studio as well. The problem that I’m talking about is the use of several different electronic tuners while tuning the various instruments in a band. You would think that a tuner is a tuner and that they’re all properly calibrated but the truth is that any individual tuner can be slightly out of calibration. If you have two different tuners and they’re both a little bit out of calibration, let’s say one is slightly sharp and the other is slightly flat, you’ll hear a big difference in tuning between the different instruments that have been tuned on them. The audience will simply hear an out of tune band which isn’t good for any performance by a live musician.

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   I have a Peterson 490-ST AutoStrobe Tuner that is by far the most accurate and best tuner I have ever used. It is a strobe tuner so it has unparalleled accuracy when it comes to tuning your instrument. I use the Peterson 490-ST AutoStrobe Tuner to set the intonation on my guitars and it works flawlessly.

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   One of the most interesting devices to come along for guitarists and bass guitarists is the Ebow. It’s a small handheld device that you hold just above your guitar string. The Ebow causes the string to vibrate using magnetic energy which gived the effect of a bowed cello string. It’s really an amazing little device and it’s been used on a lot of recordings over the years. The Ebow Plus is an updated version of the classic Ebow. The Ebow Plus gets the strings moving a lot easier than the old Ebow which required you to pick the string to get it moving.

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   There’s a couple of really good deals going on at Music123 that I wanted to make you aware of. Right now all the accessories ship free on orders over $49. That’s half the usual amount to get free shipping. You usually have to order $99 to get free shipping but for the accessories you only have to order $49 worth of stuff to get free shipping.

   Second, there’s a great coupon code that you can use to get a 15% discount on all accessories. You can save a bunch of money by entering this coupon code during checkout when ordering accessories. Just click this link: 15% Off All Accessories with Coupon Code: B2S15 at Music123.com That’s a great deal and it’s not going to last forever. So if you’re a live musician, now is the perfect time to pick up some much needed accessories for you and your band.

   Here’s a list of links to accessories that you can buy using the 15% discount code.

Horizon Concert Series 24-Channel/4-Return Stage Snake Standard

Mogami Gold High-Definition Neutrik 1/4″ Straight Instrument Cable 18 Foot

Mogami Silver Series Microphone Cable 50 Foot

Nova 12-Pair Hickory Drumsticks Wood Rock

Roc-N-Soc NRX Nitro Rider Drum Throne Black

Furman PM-8 II Power Conditioner with Digital Volt And Current Meters Standard

Yamaha Portable Keyboard Survival Kit B Standard

Drum One Shield Two Drum Shield Standard

Fingerease Guitar String Lubricant Standard

Fender Instrument Care Kit by Meguiar’s Standard

Big Bends Nut Sauce Tuning Lubricant Standard

Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup Black

EBow PlusEbow Electronic Bow for Guitar Standard

Clayton Acetal Standard Guitar Picks .80MM 1 Dozen

Dean Markley 2556 Blue Steel Regular Gauge Electric Guitar Strings Standard

M-Audio SP-2 Sustain Pedal Standard

   That’s just a small sampling of the types of accessories that you can get right now at Music123. With the combined discounts of 15% off the price of the accessory and free shipping on orders over $49.00 you can save a bundle. So make sure you get in on the sale while you still can!

   If you’ve read up on electronic tuners then I’m sure you know that strobe tuners are the most accurate tuners in the world. You can’t get any closer to perfect tuning electronically than with a strobe tuner. I have an excellent Peterson 490-ST Strobe Tuner that cost me around $750.00 to buy. I use that tuner at home to tune my piano and setup my guitars. I certainly don’t haul it around to gigs with me. What if I told you you could get a strobe tuner for $14.95?

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   I recently had the opportunity to play a ‘59 Fender Bassman Reissue amplifier and I was really blown away with how amazing it sounded. As a guitarist you hear stories of the great amplifiers as you learn your craft and you hear the amplifiers on recordings. But there’s really nothing like playing the amps yourself and really being able to crank them all the way up. The thing about tube amplifiers is they give you more sweetness the harder you push them. Every tube amp I’ve played has had a sweet spot where the amplifier really sings.

   So I got to really push the ‘59 Fender Bassman Reissue and let me tell you, it’s loud. But it sounds so damn good that you don’t care how loud it is. It’s ecstasy because it’s a sound that you recognize from all the recordings that have been made with this amplifier. I love it when an amplifier roars when you really hit your guitar hard and then quiets down and softens as you play softer and roll down your guitar volume. Read more »

   Being a guitar player and using very voltage sensitive amplifiers, I have always struggled with getting good clean power to my equipment. Bad power can cause all sorts of problems from strange noises to complete equipment failure. Today I’m going to recommend the power conditioner I use on my guitar rig, the
Furman PL-Plus II Power Conditioner with Voltmeter.

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