Every live musician I know loves to buy new music equipment. If you’re like me then you want to get the absolute best value for the dollar as well. I don’t mind paying for the best equipment available because I’ve found that if you play the best equipment then you’re skills aren’t being held back by a poor instrument or amplifier. One of the most valuable tools on the Internet for finding the best equipment is the availability of customer reviews. I always read customer reviews before I purchase any piece of music gear. When you’ve read enough user equipment reviews it’s easy to spot the reviews that are written during moments of ‘new gear euphoria’. Any review that begins “I’ve had this guitar all weekend and I love it!” isn’t really going to all that valuable. I personally like reading reviews written by people that have lived with the instrument or piece of equipment they’re reviewing for a while. That’s why the equipment I review on Live Musician Central is equipment that I’ve owned and used onstage with me for some time. It’s for this reason that I find the Music123 Customer Review Contest to be so intriguing. (more…)
Category: 2. Live Band Equipment
What equipment do I need to play live concerts? What equipment should I use in my home studio? Find out here.
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Download Free Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch – LMC Warm Triple
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Amplifier Here’s another of my custom programmed Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patches for all you Cyber-Twin SE users to download. With the recent huge Fender price increase, isn’t it about time you got something for free? Well, Live Musician Central is happy to provide something to help all you working musicians out there. This preset patch is one of my all time favorites and I’ve used it on a lot of my original music. The name of the patch is LMC Warm Triple and as the name suggests, it’s a combination of my LMC Warm Rain and LMC Triple Delay patches which are two of my most popular patches on Live Musician Central.
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Tips For Buying Used Musical Instruments On eBay
Buy The Fender American Stratocaster On eBay This week on Live Musician Central I’ve been doing several posts on the recent Fender price increase. In case you weren’t aware, Fender musical instruments increased prices by as much as 30% at the beginning of March, 2009. This will have a big effect on all live performing musicians who use Fender products. I wrote a post earlier this week about how the Fender price increase affects working musicians. These instruments are the tools of our trade and I personally like using good tools but I don’t want to spend every penny of my earnings on them. That’s why I’ve been putting up posts this week with links for buying Fender guitars and Fender amplifiers on eBay. Buying used instruments on eBay is a great way to pick up some excellent instruments for decent prices. I’ve bought and sold a lot of equipment on eBay over the years and I’ve learned some tips and tricks for getting decent deals from good sellers on eBay. Today we’re going to discuss some tips and guidelines for buying used instruments on eBay.
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Beat The Fender Price Increase. Bid On Used Fender Cyber-Twin Amplifiers
It’s tough enough to survive as a performing live musician without having to fork over all your hard earned pay for a good amplifier. Since Fender jacked the prices up on the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier by a whopping 30% they’re even farther out of reach for a lot of working musicians. I don’t know about you but the clubs sure aren’t paying me 30% more this year and I don’t expect that they will anytime soon. So that leaves us searching the excellent used equipment market. Check out the eBay listings below and you just may find the Fender Cyber-Twin amplifier of your dreams. The original Cyber-Twin amplifier is a lot more common used than the Cyber-Twin SE. The original is still a great amplifier and you can pick them up for a great price on eBay. Keep an eye on these listings though because Cyber-Twin SE’s do pop regularly. The listings below are a great way to find the original Cyber Controller which is the MIDI controller that you can use with the amp as well. If you purchase a Fender Cyber-Twin SE remember to come back here to Live Musician Central for some great sound preset patches you can download to program into your amplifier. Check out the Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Download page to hear sound clips of this amazing amplifier.
[phpbay]Fender cyber twin, 10[/phpbay]
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Beat The Fender Price Increase And Buy Used Guitars On eBay
Let’s face it, as a group we live musicians are hurting just as much as anyone else during this economic crisis. The number of available gigs are going down because people just aren’t going out to the clubs and spending like they used to. I don’t know about you but my pay for gigs hasn’t increased in quite a few years. The only way to make more money is to have a smaller band and as much as I like playing in a trio, I much prefer playing in a 4-piece band.
So with Fender’s painful price increase in full effect, I thought it would be nice to dedicate a post to some of the great deals you can find on eBay on used and new Fender equipment. Feel free to browse the listings below and then get out there and bid on some auctions. Maybe you’ll score a great deal on the guitar of your dreams!
[phpbay]Fender american deluxe, 10[/phpbay]
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Sennheiser HD 380 Pro Headphones Review
Sennheiser HD380 Pro Headphones I’m not only a live performing musician but a studio musician and producer as well. I have tried dozens of different headphones over the years and almost invariably breathed a sigh of relief when an old pair died just so I would have an excuse to buy another pair. It seemed like finding the perfect pair of headphones was like searching for the holy grail. To be honest, I still haven’t found that perfect pair of headphones but I have found a couple headphone solutions that have kept me satisfied for a while now.
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Reason 4 Power The Comprehensive Guide
Reason 4 Power Last week on Live Musician Central I did a series of features on the incredibly powerful Propellerhead Reason 4.0 music production software. Reason 4.0 is an amazingly powerful music program that will let you fully explore your creative impulses. As I’m sure you’re aware, the documentation that comes with most of these great pieces of software is basic at best. There are so many devices available for you to use in Reason 4.0 that it can easily overwhelm you without some direction. That’s why today I’m going to point you to an excellent guide that will help you get up and running quickly with Reason 4.0. That guide is called Reason 4 Power and is written by Michael Prager, a 15 year veteran in the music technology industry. His credentials are too numerous to list but if you want to read them check out the Reason 4 Power product page. Needless to say, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to using music production software.
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Download Free Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch – LMC Pure Clean
My Stage Amp – The Fender Cyber-Twin SE Today for all you Fender Cyber-Twin SE playing live guitarists, I’m posting a brand new preset sound patch called LMC Pure Clean. Over on the Fender Community Forum we were discussing the Cyber-Twin SE’s capacity for creating a true Fender clean amp sound. The Cyber-Twin SE is powered by a true tube pre-amp and it’s natural tendency is for warm, overdriven tube sounds. Even though that’s the case I decided to try dialing up a nice, bright Fender clean sound without using any of the onboard effects. (more…)
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M-Audio Keystation 88es MIDI Keyboard Controller Review
M-Audio Keystation 88es This week on Live Musician Central I’ve been talking about creating a keyboard setup built around the incredible Reason Music Production Software by Propellerhead. Obviously the most essential component to have in addition to the software is a MIDI Keyboard Controller. Today I’m going to tell you about an extremely affordable MIDI Keyboard Controller that is built specifically for interfacing with a computer and Reason music software. The keyboard I’m going to discuss today is the M-Audio Keystation 88es. (more…)
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Propellerhead Reason 4 Introduction Video
Yesterday on Live Musician Central I wrote about how much I love Reason 4.0 Music Production Software. It’s by far the easiest program I’ve found that will allow you to tap into your creative muse with keyboard based music. Today I’m going to post a couple videos from YouTube which will give you an introduction into the functionality of Reason 4.0 music production software. The demonstration is done on an apple Macintosh but Reason functions exactly the same way on a P.C. which is what I use. Reason really is worth every penny to add it to your software collection. (more…)