Posted By Peter on February 25, 2010

Matisyahu was sick! I got to see him at the roadrunner concert hall. There were only 30 people there. It was intimate. You could skank in front of the stage (one guy did) a foot away from him. He was funny and a great performer to boot. One of the best shows and live venues I have ever been to. Make sure you come down to EMC this Saturday for your chance to do the same for Real Big Fish and Shinedown. There is nothing like seeing someone up close and personal like that!

Category: Pete's Perceptions
Tags: easy music center, matisyahu, petformance, star 101.9

Posted By Jericho on February 23, 2010

I’ve been a apple user for almost a year now and I’m proud to say I have no regrets. Recently one of my co-workers introduced me to a program called “SuperDuper!” Basically what this program does is make a complete bootable clone of your hard drive to an external. This allows the user the ability of being able to boot from their external hard drive via firewire. How does this benefit me?

Category: Jericho's Journal
Tags: computers, mac, superduper

Posted By Hiroshi on February 23, 2010

My personal guitar’s fretboard

Hello readers!  I’m back to tell you about one of my favorite and slightly strange guitar features/modifications, also presenting to you the pro’s and con’s (in my opinion) of this subject.  This feature/modification is something that is called a scalloped fretboard.  What that means is that in between the frets on the bare wood that your finger tips would usually touch the wood is “scooped” out so that your finger makes little to no contact with the fretboard like the photo above ^.  Unusual, yes but only to the guitar.  Scalloped fretboards are not uncommon on ancient instruments like the sitar and the lute which predate the advent of the modern metal fret wire.

Category: Hey it's Hiroshi
Tags: fretboard, guitar, scalloped, yngwie

Posted By Peter on February 3, 2010

Making beats is what got me started on running a musical instrument store.

It has frustrated me that the very thing that got me into this (making beats) is something I just don’t do anymore.  I was feeling pretty bored and tired of making beats until this new toy by Korg came along.  I am too busy and lazy to make beats, but this thing solves that problem.  You can chop up samples and sequence a song before you could even turn your computer and get a DAW up and running or load a sound set from an Akai MPC.

Category: Blogs, Featured Products, Pete's Perceptions, Products
Tags: beats, easy music center, hip-hop, keyboard, korg, microsampler, ms1, peter

Posted By Chris on February 2, 2010

It’s hard to believe that just over 5 years ago, when I was working at our Ke’eaumoku location, some guys who said they were TV show producers needed to buy some gear for an up and coming TV show that was being filmed in Hawaii.  They bought an acoustic guitar, a couple of cases, a guitar tuner and some other random stuff.

Little did we know that they were buying these items for the show Lost, which just had the first episode of its final season.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: abc, ca-30, final season, gator, gc-dread, guitar case, hawaii, hugo, hurley, korg, lost

Posted By Chris on January 27, 2010

So I’m watching Apple’s presentation of its new computer called the iPad live as it happens!  This device is the next step in mobile computing. The speed and beauty of this device is really amazing.

They’ve created a new store called the iBookstore and you can read books on the unit, just like a Kindle. Yet you have a 9.7″ full color multi-touch screen similar to an iPhone or iPod Touch.

I see so much use for a device like this for musicians.  Look at sheet music, lyrics, chord charts, whatever you want, live at the gig without the traditional laptop. This thing is basically just the screen part of a laptop, or you can say it’s a big iPhone.

Whatever you call it, I think it’s technology like this which will stretch the music industry and create many more possibilities for us.

Starting at $499 for a 16 gig version up to $699 for a 64 gig version, it will be available in 60 days.  Models with 3G incorporated will be shipping in 90 days.

All photos are courtesy of engadget.com.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: apple, ipad, tablet

Posted By Chris on January 26, 2010

Today I’m starting to have all my employees set their own daily goals – clean this, tune these, fix that – so they can have a task in mind throughout the day and to create an opportunity for the sense of achievement everyday.  The goal should be something that can be accomplished in one day, or a weekly goal where specific tasks are chosen everyday to attain that weekly goal.

A quote came into my mind the other day while walking a few miles to Target from my hotel in Anaheim: If you don’t set a goal, you will never reach it.  

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: goal setting, goals

Posted By Peter on January 25, 2010

I get so tired of junk mail. Credit card companies send you outrageous amounts of junk mail. I get a credit card application from citibank every week without fail. “Just throw it away” you say? I wouldn’t if I were you. Someone will sift through your garbage and find a way to use that application to sign up for a card and steal your identity. I shread every single application I get in a paper shredder aka my confetti maker.

What can you do about it? Do what I do. I stuff as much worthless junk back into the envelope (see pic) as I can possibly fit, try rocks or whatever is nearby and handy, and then I tape it shut with clear tape, and I send it back in the mail on their dime. If everyone did this everytime, can you imagine how quickly they would stop sending junk mail? Nope. I can’t take credit for this idea, but it sure makes for a fun moment. Junk the junk.

Category: Pete's Perceptions
Tags: junk mail

Posted By Peter on January 23, 2010

Al Green can still move and sing for a guy who is 66 years old. Konfonnit security guys wouldn’t let me get close enough for a real pic with my beggar ticket.

Category: Pete's Perceptions
Tags: Al Green, live show, performance

Posted By Jericho on January 20, 2010

So NAMM is over and I’m back in Hawaii. It was a really fun experience and I’m glad I got to go. Seeing all the new products that I otherwise would only be able to see online was pretty awesome. Even seeing all the musicians was pretty cool too, like Gregg Bissonette. Don’t worry though about the new product thing. All the cool the stuff we saw, we’re going to bring it in, but for now it’s a secret

Category: Jericho's Journal
Tags: gregg bissonette, NAMM