Contests and Giveaways

Sorry, I don’t have anything to give away here. But “winning” is always on everyone’s mind: the lottery, or at a casino, a sporting event, or an election. Guitar magazines/companies/websites often do giveaways: enter your name to win. More often than not it’s a way for companies to get some demographic info on you for marketing, or even just your email for future notices/spam. Thankfully most email giveaways don’t encourage spam, or unwanted emails. 

I remember entering in every giveaway that was ever offered since I got my first guitar magazine. I’ve never won anything. Thinking of all those 3x5 cards that usually fell out of a magazine, getting them filled out, and into the mail. When the internet came into play, all the web pages with a click here to win button. Yet always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Even now so many years later I still do it, getting extra entries for sharing with Facebook or twitter, even the Instagram ones where you have to capture and repost an image, which is kind of a pain in the butt. All in hopes for a win. A free guitar is a great guitar.

So in the spirit of winning, I’ll share with you a giveaway, it’s from John Mann’s Guitar vault. Every year he goes to the PRS factory, picks out some amazing wood, and sometime later a beautiful guitar emerges. He the offers it up in a raffle, for $103 a chance to win, and there is a limited number of tickets sold. The money raised goes to the Daniel Webster house, a charity for homeless teens in NH. A good cause, and a great guitar. 

Even If I don’t win, I know it’s going to a good cause. Just on a probability scale though, eventually I’m bound to win something one day. Finger’s crossed.

If you want to win, here's a link HERE

Not Abandoned..yet

Blogs tend to get created with enthusiasm, kept up for a bit, then forgotten and discarded. I hate to say it, but this was one of those.

In the past 5 years, I've been busy: Getting married, writing for Performer Magazine,  where I am now Senior Product Reviewer, working with my band "The Goodbye Theory", and dealing with the general stuff that life throws your way.

I'm making a effort to bring this Blog back to life. In the future I'll have links to my articles for Performer Magazine, Pictures, videos, Audio, and other writing musings related to Guitar and music in general. I'm going to try to have some new content a couple of times a week, hopefully it'll be something to keep you all coming back!

Enjoy
Christopher Devine

Northeast Performer- July 2011

If you're looking for some good summer reading, The July issue of Northeast Performer is out, and ready to download. FYI, the reviews I did on the Samson USB Microphone, and Marshall Headphones is on page 55.

here's the link to the magazine's page..

http://performermag.com/

Guitar Center

I don’t often go to Guitar Centers. In fact I’m really not a big fan of big box stores in general. If I need socks, or some item that is a no brainer, I go for the place that has the best price, and that’s closest. If I need info and want an educated & experienced opinion, I’ll go to a specialty shop, or a small business that’s known for good service, which is getting harder and harder every day.

On Memorial Day this past year I was up in Nashua, NH doing some errands. I remembered that I needed a speaker cable for the amp I have at my house, so I figured "Ok I’ll pop in GC, get a cable and be on my way". I walk up to the accessories counter, and a guy that looks like Russell Brand asks me want I’m looking for. I tell him I want a 3 foot monster speaker cable, He says Cool, and we walk over to Pro Audio and he asks me "Ok but are you sure you want monster?" I said "Yes, why not?" His response was "Well, I find that the ends are kind of boxy". I kind of shrugged it off and said “yeah well, whatever” He then went and grabbed a live wire brand cable, and began to ring me up! I was kind of shocked that he ignored my request. Before I could comment on this, he asked me for my information (address, phone #, etc) I asked "do you really need to my information to complete this purchase for a speaker cable?" He informed me that this was Guitar Center's policy, and I said really? He said it would only take a couple of seconds. Again I commented with at Senfield-esque "Really?!" He then asked again for my address. I was disgusted that for a $13 purchase I needed to give my personal information. I said "have a nice day" and walked out. I was appalled that not only do they want my personal info, but that he grabbed another brand (which I believe is the non-descript guitar center brand). I know Monster cables don’t have a lot of markup on them, meaning there’s less profit for the retailer, so pushing their own brand makes sense.

On my way out of the parking lot I was fuming, but then I remembered there is a Daddy's Junky music across the street. I walked in, and purchased the monster cable I originally wanted. No personal information was given during the transaction. I was in and out of their store within 5 minutes.

I came home and told my Fiancé what happened, and she said “You should email them” I said No, I’m going to email GC AND MONSTER! I kept thinking of the movie “Summer School” when Chainsaw wrote to the “Cool Dudes Shades Company” because his sunglasses broke.

So I wrote an articulate email, stating what happened, and why I was disappointed to GC. I then sent one to Monster telling them that when their products are requested at a guitar center, they are directed to buy another brand. Rumor has it Monster PAYS for those spots on the wall at guitar centers. Glad to know that’s money well spent on their part! I also included the email I sent to GC.

The next day I get an email from the store manager of Guitar Center, he asked me to call them to discuss the situation. I did and he apologized for what happened. He tried to defend the request of asking for the personal information, stating that it’s a security thing for credit card purchases. I've since found out that some companies have quotas for getting new names into their system. I told him I was gonna pay cash, and if I’m paying by credit card and he wanted to check my address, he should ask for my drivers license. Otherwise there’s no reason for them to have that information. He couldn’t defend the sales person substuting a monster cable for another brand, and said that the salesperson was spoken to on this. I asked why would he even try and spend the effort to change the item, when it was requested; he had no response to this. I then told him I emailed Monster on the situation as well, and that he shouldn’t be surprised if he hears about this from them.

He then asked if there was anything he could do to win back my business. At this point I was re living my feelings about this situation, and I got a bit pig headed and said “You tell me?” He did say if there was anything he could do, he would love the chance for my business again.

After hanging up with him I realized “oh crap, I could use a BBE sonic Stomp pedal”. So I contact him and tell him “I was a bit hasty and probably a bit gruff as talking to him I re lived that experience, but I could use a BBE Sonic stomp, is there a way we could make a deal on this?” He offered me the last one he had in stock for ½ price. Ok I can deal with that.

Monster got back to me during the week as well, thanking me for letting them know about the situation. I don’t know what that really means in the real world, but they did thank me for going out of my way to buy their product, and they sent me a swag bag, of a couple of cable ties, a T shirt and some stickers. The swag bag isn’t a big deal to me. The fact that they got back to me, and let me know that they appreciate my business was nice, especially from a big company.

The next Saturday I go back to GC and I pick up my new pedal, and the guy that caused all this problem was working there. Great, this could be awkward. Thankfully I blended in with every other 30 something wearing khaki cargo shorts, & a baseball cap.

The manager hooked me up with the pedal, at ½ price. He was nice and amiable, and amazingly enough, you could tell he wasn’t doing this begrudgingly. He was sincere, and very gracious.

So for all this I didn’t spend $13 at guitar center, I spent $43, did they make any money off of the sale? Maybe, but probably not as much. Ok, will I ever go to a GC again? I dunno. In my opinion they didn’t really fix anything, they now have the same reputation with me as they did as before all this happened. I still prefer to go to small places, or just get the best price if it’s something I just need, that’s a no brainer. I can tell you this though; I don't often go to guitar centers, but after this, I'll be going into their stores less.

How much is that old Telecaster in the window?

In my not so recent past, Saturday's and Sunday's were spent getting up in the morning (actually more like coming to), and grabbing a soda and bagel, hopping in my car and hitting all the local music stores.

My route depended on what else I had going on that day. Starting at a Daddy's Junky Music in either Salem or Nashua, working my way down to Mr. Music in Allston.

I knew the schedules of all the stores. This one opened at 10 on Saturday's, noon on Sunday. That one closed at 3 on Saturday's, and was closed on Sunday's, but only in the summer, as the owner liked to go fishing in the good weather.

No shopping agenda, just looking and occasionally pulling a guitar off the rack and giving it a whirl. These sessions weren't just window shopping, I ended up with my strat via this method of wasting time.

You got to know which places let you grab any instrument, and plug it in as loud as you wanted. Likewise, you knew the places where the people that weren't as friendly, and viewed you as if they were the bad guy in a Scooby doo cartoon (you meddling kids). If you went in there and bothered them for anything you knew you'd have to make a purchase, even if it was a small one. I bought more strings and picks in this manner, placating a shop owner for bothering them while they watched a black and white TV from behind a counter. It was a pity purchase.

The interesting stuff back then, was the cool used gear, which wasn't few and far between back then, The used Wal bass that was at Daddy's in Peabody for a week, the chandler Digital echo (that I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy for $200), the PRS EG III. Every trip you found something cool, even if you didn't buy it. Heck, on one of these trips, I found a double neck Rickenbacker, that a friend of mine promptly bought upon my reporting it's location to him.

Eventually these jaunts kind of lost their luster. I had all the gear we needed, and the stuff we wanted, was now so rare, or expensive, that finding the lost Ark of the Covenant would be easer.

Recently walking through Davis and Porter Squares, I noted that all the cool stores in the area that provided me with this cheap fun on the weekends were gone, and I realized that a lot of other stores that I used to frequent died off as well. I romanticized at the time I ran into Ron Carter Jr playing bass at rock city guitars, the time I (supposedly) just missed Joe Perry at Cambridge music.

Maybe it's the economy, as people are still out of work, or making less, and paying more for the things we need in life, as opposed to what we want.

These days my Saturdays are usually spent doing tasks I couldn't complete during the week. On a good day, behind the wheel of my MG, with my girlfriend in the passenger seat. However, I do miss the days of wandering into a store and asking "hey, how much is that old Telecaster in the window?"

Ears Not Eyes

One night my band at the time was playing a fairly large club in Somerville, MA called Goodtimes. It had a huge stage, and was big enough to backline the gear of all the bands playing that night. My band was going on first, followed by 2 modern metal bands. The 2 guitar players in the bands were on after me were friends with each other, and set their Mesa Rectifier halfstacks up side by side. I admit it looked very impressive.

I had a small rig, an Avatar 2x12 and a rack that housed a power amp, and a Line 6 Pod Pro. I placed my speaker cabinet off to the side, near those chrome plated monsters. After my band played our set, I was breaking down my gear, and 2 guys came up to the front of the stage and complimented me on my sound. I said thanks, and was kind of stoked that someone would go out of their way to pay someone a compliment.

They asked how I got all my equipment to the gig, and I said, in the back of my Honda Civic. They looked at me, and pointed to the 2 half stacks, you get ALL of that into a civic?! I realized at that point that they thought that wall of speakers was the rig I had played through. I had a little chuckle, and said no, pointed to the nondescript rack and speaker cabinet.

"THAT'S my rig."

Their jaws dropped.

"THAT Little setup?!"

"Yep."

"Wow."

I have to say the compliment was nice, but I think they were a bit bummed out that I wasn't cranking up those diamond plated beasts. Needless to say it was an eye (ear?) opener. Picking your gear based on how it sounds, not the brand, or any other reason should be the priority. If it sounds good, it is good.

Oh and the guys the played after us with the Mesa Rectifiers sounded great too, BTW.

Guitar tip#1 (coil taps)

If you have another guitar player in your band, and you both have humbucker equipped guitars, you may have an issue separating one sound from another. Installing and using a coil tap can allow you to quickly and easily cut through a mix, while not overpowering the other guitar. It gives you a bit of your own sonic space, while not stepping on the other guitarist's sound.