Welcome to

Once again it’s that time of the year. You dig out your tent, remove the beanfeast that’s somehow got into the corner of your sleeping bag, and prepare for some weekends of music and hippy-ness out in some fields away from the buzz of modern-day living….ahh back to our roots!

So whilst your still in the modern-day mentality, taker some thought into what your going to need for those late night camp fire drinking sessions. We have recently taken on a new supplier of authentic hand-made African percussion. From small egg shakers, to some thumping full-size djembe’s, we now cater for all. So before you hike off into the country this summer check out our new ‘World Percussion’ in the Drums/Percussion category and I’m sure you’ll find something suitable for the camp-fire entertainment.

Happy Festival…’ing

When its really sunny like this weekend is looking to be.. you can put down your electric guitar and forget about sitting inside. Grab the acoustic or classical, plus a cold beverage of your choice and preferably some form of recliner or hammock - heck whatever you want.. then chill with your six string in the sun.

We have some new additions to our catalogue, the PLAYRECORD PACKS.

These packs have been put together for great value in price and for your instruments.

Each pack is for different purposes and consists of all the necessities you will need.

The first set of packs are the GIG PACKS.

The two variations we currently have are the DRUMMERS GIG PACK and the GUITARISTS GIG PACK.

Each of these packs come with all the essential components for the gigging drummer/guitarist. Here at playrecord we know just how frustrating it is when you are setting up for a gig and you break a string and you have no spares to replace it with! Well, now there is no need to worry. Take a PLAYRECORD GIG PACK to your every gig and you will have all the spares you need for any possible hick up.

The next pack we have is the GUITARISTS MAINTENANCE PACK.

This is a pack especially designed for the guitarists who takes pride in their guitar and want to keep it in pristine condition. Within this pack are all the essential ingredients you need to do this.

Each pack is now available from our website and in stock. We have each pack on a special introductory offer price and located on our websites home page.

Keep a look out on our website for new PLAYRECORD PACKS coming soon….

There are enough guitars available to buy at the moment to make a… erm.. grown guitarist cry (yes, that’ll do). With China, Korea, Japan, Vietman, Korea, well pretty much the entire far east spewing out ever cheaper guitars and competing over quality, it certainly is a buyers market. Below I’m going to outline a couple of these brands and hopefully shed a little light over what you’re going to get for your money.

Encore Guitars

Encore guitars have long been the staple diet of the beginner guitarist, the low price and very well put together guitar packs as the main attractions. Also it’s worth mentioning that Encore are in the midst of an overhaul and are upgrading all the hardware on their guitars, but keeping the prices the same. Encore’s main sellers as far as beginner packs are concerned would be the Encore Playnow Packs, which are available in guitar and bass versions and also the classical guitar packs which are available from half size to full size. These guitar packs are perfect for beginners and bedroom players, though they are lacking in the quality of output needed for gigs, so if you’re thinking of performing you may want to jump up a notch.

Stagg Guitars

Stagg guitars are in a similar league to Encore, however it has to be said that they seem to be generally better finished than the Encore. A bit more attention has been given to small things like paint finish and seating the frets, which make the guitars a little more comfortable to play and easy on the eye. When it comes to guitar packs though the the Encore packs come with a good quality Kustom amp which are marginally better quality than the Stagg amps. So it’s up to you whether you’d prefer the better quality amp or guitar.

Stagg unlike Encore, does deviate from the Les Paul and Strat ’style’ guitars in their electric range, with semi acoustics and various shapes of electrics such as the flying V shape F300-MA.

Vintage Guitars

Not actual vintage guitars (as in old) but Vintage the brand! These are the next logical step up the ladder from Stagg and Encore, the most notable difference being the Wilkinson branded hardware. This hardware is generally very well machined and will definitely stand the test of time. Also that ‘quality of output’ needed for gigs I mentioned earlier is provided by the Wilkinson branded pickups, which give you that punchy more professional edge. So as the next level up, I would categorise the Vintage range as ‘entry level gigging guitars’. After this I think you’ll be entering a different realm of guitar price, which I will be talking about in the near future.

Merry Christmas and of course a Happy New Year to you all, and as we enter the new year we have started dropping more prices across all our lines. All IN STOCK items over the course of the next week will be on sale at great prices all the way to the end of January. Of course we will still be competitive on price after the sale, but if you want a crazy bargain then you must check out our special offers page….these items won’t stay around for long and will be updated daily!

Happy Shopping!

Howdy folks! Christmas is coming up quickly and if you, like me no matter what I say every year leave all shopping to the last minute, then it’s time to get it done! …. no Christmas eve - impulse buy - petrol-station gifts this year!

We have been adding products to the special offer page for a few days now and there’s some cracking deals. A couple of my favourites are the two Pearl kits, these are at an exceptionally good price for the standard of kit you are getting (read my Pearl blog for more info). Of course, we have great deals for guitarist’s; acoustic, electric and basses hugely discounted. Many small accessories have been dropped in price, quite a few useful cables and all those little plugs and adaptors you didn’t realise you needed.

As we are getting so close to Christmas, to guarantee your delivery in time give us a call to check stock availability or alternatively check the product your looking at, as they will say ‘in stock - next day delivery’

Happy Shopping!

We’ve recently updated our catalogue, as a result we are selling discontinued items that we have stock of at great discount prices. You can see a range of instruments and accessories by clicking on the Special Offers’ button on our homepage.

As we update our catalogue we will be adding items to this list of great deals, so keep coming back to check on what hot offers we have to offer.

The guitar is one of the most popular instruments in contemporary music. Excluding electronic music and classical music (though not completely) the guitar is present in nearly all modern musical forms. Part of the popularity of the guitar is that it is relatively simple to play and with a little effort you can be producing recognisable music with your guitar within a few weeks.

Of course there are countless hours of practice needed to become a virtuosso guitarist, but for most people the dizzy heights of jazz improvisation or high speed shredding are not really what it is about. The ability to knock out a three chord pattern that you and your mates can sing along to is the guitars greatest strength. Combine this with the portability of the acoustic guitar and you have the perfect instrument for taking to festivals, holidays or just round to your mates flat.

The electric guitar offers easier playability than the acoustic guitar but does require some kind of amplification which makes it less portable. However it lends itself much more readily to playing live gigs or playing along with a band where any kind of guitar is going to need amplification to match the volume of a drum kit etc.

The other great thing about electric guitars is the plethora of different electronic effects you can apply to the sound of the guitar. The most popular is undoubtedly distortion or overdrive. Some people might not even regard that as an effect it is so ingrained into the conception of the electric guitar sound. Other very popular electric guitar effects include the wah wah - the signature sound of Jimi Hendrix, tremelo - Beach Boys et al, Pitch Shifter - Rage Against the Machine… to name but a few.

To conclude, playing the guitar is definitely an excellent life choice and is well worth the minimal investment in a suitable beginners guitar. If you take to it fully then you will probably aspire to owning something a bit more special but that is all part of the pleasure.

Here at PlayRecord we love our lunch time sandwiches, so when we found the NEW Way Huge Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator pedal we had to add it to our site for other sandwich lovers to take a look.

The Fat Sandwich represents a new era in pedal design for Way Huge. In addition to carrying on the Way Huge tradition of amazing tone, rugged construction and cool names, the Fat Sandwich delivers heaps of crunchy distortion goodness via its innovative multi-stage clipping circuit.

If you are not a sandwich lover could we tickle your fancy with a pork loin?!

Make room for one more Way Huge original! The Pork Loin incorporates two distinct tonal pathways that are blended together – a modern soft clipping overdrive and a modified classic British preamp for clean.

If this still doesn’t quite do it for you take a look at the Swollen Pickle!

The Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz The most sought after and corpulent Way Huge pedal is back! The Swollen Pickle MkII surrenders super high-gain fuzz with copious amounts of smooth low-end to all who dare plug into it.

Yes, it is possibly one of the most heart breaking times of the year for anyone of school age. The sickening smell of new school shoes, forgetting how to write, sitting there regarding your new pencil case with nothing but razor sharp contempt, the list of badness could go on for ever.

However at least the parents accross the land parents are collectively breathing a sigh of relief, not having to entertain the little angels 24 hours a day. But there must be a way to keep them occupied in the evening… there simply must!

The answer has just arrived and it’s very inexpensive! Get them a guitar and make it perfectly clear that if they don’t practice for at least one hour a day they’ll never be famous (which is pretty true).

The Encore Classical pack is an ideal way to get introduced to the world of guitar playing.

Complete with gig bag, pitch pipes, spare set of strings and  a tutorial DVD. The guitar itself is a Classical guitar and is perfect for the little beginner, with nylon strings (kind on the fingers) that have slightly higher action than the average steal strung acoustic (great for getting technique upto scratch).

As you can see the guitar is very high quality for the price, quality machine heads, precisely finished frets and a solidly crafted body. This is perfect for the young beginner and a very prudent way to see if your budding Hendrix is really serious about committing before you shell out on an electric guitar and amp.