Warning, May Be Addictive.

If you're into guitars and other stringed instruments check out Jake Wildwood's blog.  He does instrument repair in Rochester, Vermont, and works on everything from 21st Century electric guitars to late 19th Century banjos.  Lots of cool instruments with lots of good pictures are featured.  But be warned, you might spend hours slowly going through the entries, because there is so much to look at.

Power Shortage.

It seems I need to have some 9 volt batteries around.  I accidently drained the one in my guitar tuner, and when I starting pulling them out of my other guitar gear I found most of them were dead or dying.  I managed to find one that isn't dead, but now I need several replacements.  Most of them can be powered by AC power, but a few are battery only, and using batteries is sometimes just convenient.

Music Store Etiquette Tip.

If you are going to play an instrument through an amplifier at any sort of volume, please make sure it is in tune first.  It doesn't have to be perfectly tuned, just in tune with itself.  Otherwise it is very annoying to others in the store having to hear your out of tune blues licks.

When I Rule The World 11.

The term keytar shall be banned, for the term is an abomination.  The proper terms will be strap on controller or remote keyboard. 

Weird Combo.

I took my regular trip up to Long and McQuade today. (L&M is the closest Canadian equivalent to the US Guitar Center chain.)  In the acoustic room I found a slightly weird instrument.  It was a Fender ukelele with a Telecaster type headstock.  Fender isn't a name one associates with ukes, and ukes generally don't come with that style of headstock.  But ukes seem to be a bit more popular of late, so Fender obviously wants a share of that market, and decided to give the instrument a distinctly Fender look.

Today there was an article in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix about the closing of HEL Music, which I mentioned on here last week. Unfortunately the article is only available online to website subscribers so I can't provide you with a link. (That seems to happen a lot with Star Phoenix articles I'd like to present here, much to my annoyance.) Owner/founder Ralph Johnstone states that his closing the store is simply for personal reasons and not market ones. In fact he says this year has been a great business year, with sales and profits up. The HEL building, which Johnstone owns and had built specifically for HEL, has been on the market since January, predating Long and McQuade's move into their new Saskatoon "big box" style home on 43rd Street. It has finally sold to the owners of Outter Limits , a Saskatoon outdoor clothing and camping equipment store also located on Broadway Avenue. Johnstone has simply decided he'd prefer the winters in British Columbia to those in Saskatoon. It must be nice to be in a situation where you can make such a decision when you feel the time is right. He also notes that although HEL Music was too big for a takeover by its employees some of them are considering starting their own musical instrument retailer sometime next year.

The HEL building has housed a number of other musical tenants over the years. Currently Ed's Musical Instrument Repair is next door to HEL Music on the street level of the building. Upstairs is the Vinyl Diner, a new and used record and CD store. The space they occupy had for a number of years housed Audio Art Recording, one of Saskatoon's recording studios. At one time HEL had their consignment room upstairs, and it was interesting to climb the rather steep stairs needed to get there. I always wondered how they got some of the heavier and bulkier stuff, like large keyboards and speaker cabinets, up those stairs.