I take pride in visiting Guitar Center stores all over the nation starting from San Francisco to Hollywood to Las Vegas and all the way to New Hampshire. In fact, I frequent Guitar Center stores like they are national monuments.

Today marked the grand opening for Guitar Center – Emeryville

They closed their El Cerrito store a few days ago. That was a sad day for me because that store was only 2 miles away. Now I have to make a 6 mile journey. My family and I were able to attend their grand opening and we had a ton of fun. They had a great line up of fun and entertainment. In fact, the neighboring stores stayed open to feed off the crowd. Well, more that the crowd fed off of them.

Guitar Center – Emeryville is located at 5925 Shellmound St. in Emeryville. If you are familiar with the area, it is in the Public Market area next to the food courts.

I’ve been waiting for this opening for at least a year now and it turned out to be a lot more than what I expected.

First of all, it’s Guitar Center so they have their regular setups of guitars, basses, proaudio, and drums. However, this is the first Guitar Center to have a Studio aka “GC Studios”. “This is a state-of-the-art destination that offers music education, professional rehearsal studios and certified Pro Tools and Logic training. Here we will offer our customers the chance to learn guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, vocals and develop their recording skills in Pro Tools and Logic.”

I was reading about the studios a while ago but didn’t expect what I saw. These are fully equipped rooms where you can book at a really great rate and at the end of your session you’ll get a full recording of what you played while in session.

Believe me, you’ll find me booking these rooms daily.

I can’t rate the store just yet. When I left at 9PM there was still a line around the building to get in and some of the staff came from other stores in the Bay Area. For now, I can say:

1. There’s great parking.
2. The store is clean.
3. They have stations where you can test pedals in a sound proof room.
4. GC Studios!!!!

5925 Shellmound St.
Emeryville, CA94608
Phone:  (510) 559-1055

Resources:
http://www.guitarcenter.com
http://www.gcstudios.com
http://edelalon.com/blog/2010/10/bay-area-guitar-center-review

Someone Like You by Adele

I heard that you’re settled down.
That you found a girl and you’re married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn’t give to you.

Old friend why are you so shy?
It ain’t like you to hold back or hide from the lie.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited.
But I couldn’t stay away, I couldn’t fight it.
I’d hoped you’d see my face and that you’d be reminded
That for me it isn’t over.

Nevermind I’ll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don’t forget me I beg I remember you said:
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead yeah.

You’d know how the time flies.
Only yesterday was the time of our lives.
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn’t stay away I couldn’t fight it.
I’d hoped you’d see my face and that you’d be reminded
That for me it isn’t over yet.

Nevermind I’ll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don’t forget me I beg I remember you said:
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead yeah.

Nothing compares no worries or cares.
Regret’s and mistakes they’re memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Nevermind I’ll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don’t forget me I beg I remembered you said:
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

Nevermind I’ll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don’t forget me I beg I remembered you said:
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead yay yeh yeah.

References:
Adele.tv

I’ve been looking around for voice duplicating, harmonizing, pitch correct, etc…I looked into TC Helicon, Digitech’s stuff, and computer based software. Out of all these I picked the TC Helicon device based on features and price. I got a deal (one that I couldn’t refuse) for the TC Helicon VoiceTone. The other option that I was considering was the Digitech Vocalist Live 3.

There are too many features on the VoiceTone. I think that was the main reason I got it other than that it was $50 less than the Vocalist Live 3. I also heard that the Digitech sounded a little bit more robotic than the TC Helicon (according to a sales rep). But here’s the kicker and probably the main reason why I like the VoiceTone, the ability to do firmware upgrades. What does this mean? It means that if TC Helicon has an update, you don’t have to buy a new device. All you have to do it update it using your computer.

After purchasing the VoiceTone, I quickly updated the firmware to also include pitch correct. Sweet stuff.

How does it sound live? The best feature is the voice doubling and harmonizer.

If you have one, let me know how you like it.

Everything Green (lyrics)

You gave me the first love
That I ever knew
And I folded open
Like wings on a warm day

No one ever tamed you
You made your own rules
When you ran beside me
Your freedom was mine too

I wish you everything peaceful and everything green
Growing lazy and tangled in your long hair
Everything joyful and everything blue
Water crashing around your waist laughing
When I give to you
Everything peaceful and everything green

When they tried to cage you
You ran even more wild
Dark tide water splashing
Bright snow at the tree line
I saw the aurora
Reflect in your eye
And fear melted in me
Like streams in the spring time

I wish you everything peaceful and everything green
Growing lazy and tangled in your long hair
Everything joyful and everything blue
Water crashing round your waist laughing
When I give to you
Everything peaceful and everything green

Everything peaceful and everything green
I want to bring you all the numberless summers and sunrises
I want sing you all the songs I heard from you
Stories I learned from you
Everything left in the world I can give back to you

You gave me the first love
That I ever knew
And I folded open
Like wings on a warm day

I wish you everything peaceful and everything green
Growing lazy and tangled in your long hair
Everything joyful and everything blue
Water crashing around your waist laughing

I wish you everything peaceful and everything green
Growing lazy and tangled in your long hair
Everything joyful and everything blue
Water crashing around your waist laughing

When I give to you
I’ll give to you
Everything peaceful and everything green

I’m prepping for NSSN (Not So Silent Night). My Chemical Romance is one of the highlighted bands next to Smashing Pumpkins. I might be getting old but I think the Smashing Pumpkins should try a new style of music.

I’ll admit I was not a fan of My Chemical Romance when they first started. It took two whole albums until I started paying attention: “The Black Parade”.

Not So Silent night is coming up on December 12, 2010 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

See you there!

Just saw Gwyneth Paltrow on CMA Awards. Her performance was amazing and it totally beats Cruisin’ with Huey Lewis. You can see a hint of nervousness but around midway she starts having fun with it. However, is her guitar even plugged in? It’s understandable if it’s not because her voice rocks!

Country Strong Lyrics:

I know you see me
Like some wide eyed dreamer
That just rolled in off a dusty mid west bus
Yeah, on the outside I look fragile
But on the inside is something you can’t crush

Cause I’m country strong
Hard to break
Like the ground I grew up on
You may fool me
And I’ll fall
But I won’t stay down long
Cause I’m country strong

I have weathered
Colder winters; Longer summers
Without a drop of rain
Push me in a corner
And I’ll come out fighting
I may lose but I ‘ll always keep my faith

Cause I’m country strong
Hard to break
Like the ground I grew up on
You may fool me
And I’ll fall
But I won’t stay down long
Cause I’m country strong

Cause I’m country strong
Hard to break
Like the ground I grew up on
You may fool me
And I’ll fall
But I won’t stay down long
Cause I’m country strong

I’m country strong
Yeah, I’m country strong
I’m country strong
I’m country strong
I’m country strong

There are a number of stores in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can buy guitars, basses, drums, keyboards, PA systems, DJ, and other musical equipment. A good chunk of these stores are 50% music lesson venues to receive music lessons. The other set of stores usually concentrate on one type of item. I.e. We only sell pianos. I’ve tried to patron small shops but I really find it hard to get a good deal and the selection of gear is limited. That’s why I stick with Guitar Center for most of my music equipment purchases.

In the San Francisco Bay Area we have 5 Guitar Center stores. They are in Concord, El Cerrito, Gilroy (yes, I’m counting Gilroy), San Francisco, and San Jose. Each Guitar Center store is individually owned. As a musician, I’ve visited each of these stores and each of them has their good points and sad points. They all have a different look and feel.

I’ve ranked each of the stores in this order (starting off with the best): El Cerrito, San Jose, San Francisco, Concord, and Gilroy.

The following is the criteria I used to judge each of the sites: Friendliness, helpfulness, product knowledge, new equipment, used equipment, and department size. I ranked each of them from 0-10 with 10 being the best score possible.

This is what I used to define my criteria:

Friendliness – What happens when I walk into a store? Do they welcome me into the store? Are the associates easy to talk with?

Helpfulness – When I walk to a specific department, is there someone to help me out? Do they offer me a guitar pick or set of drum sticks? Do they bother to ask about my musical skill?

Product Knowledge – Do they know what they are talking about? Can they explain it to me in a way that I understand?

New Equipment – Does the store have a good set of new equipment?

Used Equipment – We’re all looking out for a great deal, right?

Department Size – Does the store seem to be guitar heavy? DJ heavy? Drum heavy? I ranked these by making sure that (1) there are clear individual departments and (2) the departments seemed equally staffed and had a similar size. I also looked at layout for this section.

Here are some of my notes from each of the stores:

El Cerrito has a great friendly staff that is willing to help you out with anything. The store is well organized and is easy to walk through. You don’t get pressured into buying.

Concord feels cozy. While they can use more square footage, they do really well with what they have. The staff is friendly and helpful.

Gilroy is small. The staff say hello but don’t offer much more assistance. It’s good place to hang when your family wants to go to the outlets.

San Francisco has a great selection of new gear and used gear. Too bad no one really helped me but they helped the rocker looking dude who looked like money.

San Jose is well balanced. I spent more time in there for no reason other than it was easy to walk through. I didn’t see much of a selection of used gear. The Keyboard and ProAudio departments are awesome.

Hope you find what you’re looking for. I need to visit the Modesto store when I get a chance. Oh, I’ve also been to the Bakersfield, Fresno, Sherman Oaks, and Las Vegas stores. I’ll review those at some other point.

Concord
1280 Willow Pass Rd., Ste. A
Concord, California 94520
Phone: 925-363-7770
Store Hours:
Mon-Thur: 11-9 | Fri: 10-9 | Sat: 10-7 | Sun: 12-7

El Cerrito
10300 San Pablo Ave.
El Cerrito, California 94530
Phone: 510-559-1055
Store Hours:
Mon-Fri: 11-9 | Sat: 10-7 | Sun: 11-6

Gilroy
6910 Chestnut Street
Gilroy, California 95020
Phone: 408-848-2583
Store Hours:
Mon-Thur: 12-7 | Fri: 11-7 | Sat: 11-7 | Sun: 11-6

San Francisco
1645 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, California 94109
Phone: 415-409-0350
Store Hours:
Mon-Fri: 10-9 | Sat: 10-7 | Sun: 11-7

San Jose
3677 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Santa Clara, California 95051
Phone: 408-249-0455
Store Hours:
Mon-Thur: 11-9 | Fri: 10-9 | Sat: 10-7 | Sun: 11-7

References:
guitarcenter.com

I’ve been researching wireless devices for my guitars for a while now and I’ve been comparing Shure, Nady, Sennheiser, and Line6. From my standpoint, they are all really great devices. I used the follow criteria before making my final choice on which line to buy:

1. Price
2. Size & weight
3. Distance
4. Expandability
5. Power source
6. Sound
7. Other people’s reviews

I finally picked the Line6 G30 mainly for price since most of the other features are the same across the 100 foot range. I jumped on an opportunity to buy the G30 for $249 at Guitar Center.

Yes, it’s all digital. I’m sorry but most of the music you hear today on the radio is digital and there’s hardly any analog. The other things I really like about the G30 are the size and weight. Both side (transmitter and receiver) are really small. The receiver matches and falls in line with my other pedals. The transmitter is small and light. Did I mention that it uses 2 double A batteries?

On expandability, I had to sit down and think about it a little bit. Will there be a time where I’ll need more than 6 wireless instruments at a time? That’s a guitar, guitar, bass, other, other other…that’s a lot in your band. If you have it, great. If not, I think this device is good in terms of expandability.

I had no problems with distance and interference within the 100 foot range. I still need to test how far it can go.

I forgot to mention ease of use. The other systems had channels and numbers that had to match up. The G30 makes this process simple: Transmitter says channel 1, Receiver says channel 1. That’s it. So simple.

The only problem I have with this device is that the channels are too easy to move on the transmitter. If you accidentally brush up on something, the channel has a tendency to change channels. This is rare but something to keep an eye out for.

If you want a really good wireless system for your instrument, I recommend this device…especially if you can get it for $249. Definitely a good buy if:

• Stage is less than 100 feet
• Have a band with less than 7 members
• Really like Line6 products
• Don’t want to mess with getting a FCC license
• Want plug and play equipment

Enjoy!

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big, black bat? Apparently, not me! I finally have a PRS all to myself and I named her Fanihi. I’ve been looking at PRS guitars since my wife and sister-in-law purchased a PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow body for themselves. While I was tempted to do the same, it isn’t the guitar for me.

The other day I voyaged into my favorite Guitar Center and by some crazy random happenstance I came across a PRS SE Paul Allender at a price I couldn’t refuse. For years, I’ve been watching the Paul Allender series and I’m glad I waited for this one.

First of all, why did I name her Fanihi? One of the main things you’ll notice about this guitar are the bat inlays. PRS usually has bird inlays while other guitar makers have a circle or a square. This guitar has 7 bat inlays. Fanihi is the Chamorro (native language of Guam) for fruit bat. Naming her “Fanihi” seemed like a logical choice. I also had to get the scarlet red burst.

Back to the guitar, this is the first PRS guitar that I’ve seen without PRS pickups. Well, after doing more research, it looks like they are loading more of the SE series with EMG pickups. The soap bars also threw me off too. This was a change from the original with humbuckers. I had to try it out. I was absolutely floored (I think I started drooling or crying or both)! The tone was amazing and just like the Custom Semi-Hollow it has several voices and acts differently depending on how you hit the strings.

I tried a couple of settings by playing with tone and switching pickups and I heard nothing but amazing results. This guitar is definitely better than its purple predecessors.

Here are the specifications:

Body

Back Wood: Mahogany
Top Wood: Flamed Maple Veneer

Neck

Number of Frets: 24
Scale Length: 25″
Neck Wood: Maple
Fretboard Wood: Ebony
Frets: Jumbo
Neck Shape: Wide Thin
Inlays: Paul Allender Bat Inlays

Hardware

Bridge: PRS Designed Tremolo
Tuners: PRS Designed Tuners
Hardware Type: Chrome
Treble Pickup: EMG 89
Bass Pickup: EMG 81TW

Oh, it gets better. Just when I thought I geeked out the look, feel, and sound, I discovered the push/pull volume and tone knobs. What do they do? So far, magic. I haven’t figured out the volume portion but my guess so far is balancing the pickup volume. But here’s where the magic comes into play. When you pull the tone knob, you can easily make the guitar sound like it’s using a single humbucker…and these are soap bars!  Push/pull knobs rock! This sweet feature makes this under $1,000 guitar and turns it into a $3,500 guitar.