PlayRecord.Net Blog

London International Music Show 08

jonny — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:53:12 +0000

Over 300 of the worlds leading musical instrument distributers and maufacturers will be packed into Londons ExCeL venue on the 14th and 15th of June to inspire you, the consumer with their latest gear.

London International Music Show is 4 shows in one; London Guitar show, Drummer Live, Unplugged and the Sound Recording & Technoligy show all under one roof and one ticket gets you into all shows.

The show promises all the lastest gear and technology with siminars, conferences and even celebrities of the music world. You can expect to see exhibitors from “Acoustic Guitar Magazine” through to “Yamaha Music UK”, and instruments from xylaphones to bassoons.

On the Live stage you can see Paul gilbert playing on saturday for the London Guitar show, Chad smith will be beating them skins for the Drummer live line-up, and the list goes on….

For updates on the event visit www.londoninternationalmusicshow.com and be sure to not miss the best music event this year.

Tanglewood EE15

Tim — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:20:50 +0000

Aaaaaaw, isn’t it cute! If Slash were a Hobbit, he’d play one of these!

The Tanglewood EE15 is a mini Les Paul and it really is diddy The guitar is wonderfully scaled down, the only thing remaining normal size is the hardware. The 21st fret is ban on 34cm (just under 13.5 inches) from the nut and is clearly aimed at three types of guitarist; kids, travelling guitarists with small luggage space and performers who want to make the audience laugh.

This mini rocker sports 6 die cast machine heads which are very smoothly geared and don’t seam to slip out of tune. The neck has a slightly squashed D profile and is well suited to small and large hands alike. The fretboard is made of a fine piece of rosewood with 21 quite fat frets. Body wields one humbucker, tone, volume and the mandatory tuneomatic style bridge. The body is made of good solid wood that is shown off well through the translucent cherryburst finish.

When plugging this guitar in I did what I deamed to be most appropriate, slapped up the over drive and lauched into Master of Puppets. I then nearly fell off my seat laughing at how good it sounded. It’s supprisingly hard to tell that this is such a small guitar when it’s plugged in, the single humbucker certainly delivers a punch.

The supprising thing about this guitar is that it has a considerable amount of tone. The solid body delivers a good deal of warmth that would be quite acceptable for a full size guitar. The only down side to this size is that the intonation is quite sensitive and needed a little tweak out of the box. Though this is of little consequence for the very young player.

To sum up, this little thing is certainly worth its weight in gold and certainly packs a heavy punch than its size would suggest.

Stagg 10 GA Amplifier

Tim — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:46:00 +0000

The Stagg 10 GA is definitely one of the lowest priced guitar amps in the history of the universe, selling for as little as £24.99.

At this price you’d be right to be wary (I know I was), you’d need to ask questions like; ‘is it made from old beer cans?’ and ‘will it not sound like a dying cat?’. The only way to find out is to plug it in.

Compared to its predecessor the Stagg CA-10, this amp has definitely moved up a notch in build quality. The CA-10 was a funky little ultra portable practice amp, however the plywood casing was a bit too thin to provide much in the way of bass or tonality and it didn’t look very cool. These issuses have been remedied in the 10 GA, the case is much chunkier and care has been taken making the ‘look’ of the amp.

On the control panel the 10 GA features gain, overdrive selector switch, volume, treble, mid, bass, mini jack headphone socket, mini jack CD/MP3 input and the necessary power switch. The knobs themselves are a retro style with smooth action and are solidly mounted.

To test the 10 GA I used an Ibanez at around the £200 mark, so not to taint the sound with a lesser guitar and not to colour the sound too much, as would happen with a £3000 guitar with custom pickups. The amp was quite surprising, starting with the clean sound it provided a very chirpy bright sound and not a tinny one. After messing around with the EQ I managed to get very acceptable bassy blues and twangy jazz sounds. Then moving on to the inevitable overdrive button. It does exactly what it says on the tin, the sound is a very fuzzy grungy one and after tweaking the EQ there seemed to be a good variety of sound. After messing around with the rather confusing Mid control (it’s hard to tell if it’s boosting sweeping at times) it was possible to get some nice vintage sounds and also the clinical metal sounds.

To sum up, it’s VERY hard to criticise an amp of this quality when it only costs the same as two albums or your Christmas turkey. As a starter amp it’s ideal and it can go louder than even the most supportive parent would find acceptable. As a secondary practice amp (while your stacks in storage) it’s ideal, being portable and light. All in all this amp is not a cracker prize, it’s damn cheap and does the job well.

Product Review: Alesis Performance Pad

jonny — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:00:45 +0000

The Alesis Performace Pad, a versatile piece of kit suitable for various uses. Eight velocity-sensitive drum pads and a built-in electronic drum machine which sounds like the classic DM5 module. There are foot-switch inputs for a bass drum pedal, HiHat pedal, and a Line-level input to connect a CD Player, iPod, computer, or other audio device.

So, powering up the module you are presented with the display for the unit which i have to say is rarther navigateable. Plenty of pre-set kits are at your disposal and immediately i’m blasting out some beats. You can assign the various on-board percussion sounds to any of the eight pads. Now this usually takes a bit of time and a lot of patience, however I whipped out the manual (unusual, yes) and within a couple of seconds i found the step-by-step instructions and was pleasently surprised at how easy it was to assign the sounds to the individual pads and also manipulate the sounds as far as volume/velocity.

I have to say, if you’re a drummer thats after a percussion set up but dont want to carry the extra equipment or simply dont have the room to accomodate djembe’s conga’s and other various world instruments then this is what you need. Set it up on a stand next to your kit and your away.

So, you’ve heard my opinion, now lets see what the details are:

8 natural feeling, velocity-sensitive drum pads with Dynamic Articulation™
Built-in professional drum machine so you can record and play back your own beats
50 Preset / 50 User drum kits with 233 sounds assignable to any pad
Built-in rhythm patterns to complement your playing
Large LCD display with easy-to-navigate interface
Dynamic Articulation stereo samples with reverb and ambience for realistic playing
2 foot-switch inputs for external kick and HiHat (sold separately)
Stereo input to play along with your CD or MP3 player
MIDI output to play external MIDI devices
High-quality 24-bit stereo and headphone outputs
Lightweight, durable enclosure

Alesis Performance Pad : Buy Now from PlayRecord.Net

Soundcontrol Go Into Receivership : Soundcontrol Stores Closed

PlayRecord.Net Management — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:11:16 +0000

We have just had news that Soundcontrol, the nations biggest chain of music shops has had to go into receivership. This means that stores across the country were unexpectedly closed this morning and staff asked to leave, followed by the locks being changed.

This is a major shock to the UK musical instrument industry and of course a major shock to those people who shopped or visited in their local Soundcontrol music shop.

We offer our sincere condolences to all of the staff and customers who are affected by this development. Hopefully the receivers will resolve everything quickly and satisfactorily.

Please note that PlayRecord.Net is in no way affiliated or related to Soundcontrol.

We invite you to voice your comments by using the blog comment system.

Tanglewood TFC-E

Tim — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:29:45 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Tanglewood guitars for many years, as a Tanglewood was the first acoustic guitar I bought. The reason I bought a Tanglewood was simple, I didn’t have a lot of money and and it was by far the best guitar I could get for what little money I had.

Things have not changed much since then and Tanglewood are still producing great guitars from £100 to £2000. The TFC-E at this price range could be described as high end entry level, it’s certainly not as cheap as many but it’s certainly not going to force you into a credit crunch.

Construction wise this guitar has had a lot of care taken to ensure that all the seams and joins are finished professionally. From the top the headstock boasts 6 rather oddly shaped Tanglewood machine heads that are actually wider than standard machine heads allowing more control when tuning. They are smoothly geared and very stable.

The Rosewood fretboard is well crafted with a very forgiving action and the Rosewood itself has some very characterful blonde streaks running the length of the neck.

The Body, as I mentioned before, is clearly constructed with a great deal of care. The Mahogany is seamlessly put together and the semi matt finish brings out the richness in colour.

Sound wise, the first thing that is apparent is the tightness of the sound. The shape of the cut away body produces a far less boomy sound than a standard dreadnought, this is also apparent when plugged in. The shadow preamp does a admirable job of reproducing the guitars tone and is very easy to use. With a simple 3 band EQ, volume and presence, it’s very quick to customise your sound.

This guitar is simply ideal if you wish to make your first foray into the world of electro acoustics, the build quality and wood and great for the price. Not to be missed.

Tanglewood TFC-E Acoustic Guitar: Buy Now at the Best Price

3000 Guitars! Keith Richards Collection

PlayRecord.Net Management — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:16:14 +0000

Infamous Rolling Stone Keith Richards has declared that he wants to display his humongous guitar collection in his own museum.

“I’ve probably got too many. I have 3,000 guitars and only one pair of hands. It’s an incredible collection of beautiful instruments but I only play about ten of them, and guitars have to be played. Maybe I will give them away or make a museum,”

Keith reckons that only ten of the guitars have ever been played.

Yamaha BB414 Black Metallic Bass Guitar

Tim — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:23:20 +0000

The Yamaha BB414 What a chunky monkey!! this is a large bass by any standard. In todays bass market there are loads of fusion size basses out there, but when a friend came to me asking what bass I could recommend, his only prerequisite was ‘not one of those small ones’. All i could think of at the time was either a Music Man, to which he replied ‘I’m not as rich as the actual pope’ or Fender Precision or Jazz, to which he replied ‘but.. but I’m propper metal’.

What I should have said was, check this bad boy out! The bass isn’t specifically heavy metal, you could get away with pretty much any style of music, both sound wise and in looks. The first thing that grabbed my attention were the the pickups and when plugged in they didn’t disappoint. The split pickup delivered a very warm Precision bass sound, though more bottom end than a Fender. The bridge pickup could only be described as cold and calculating. It captures the very crisp high end with a lot of character and if you happen to try a bit of slap it’ll make your eyeballs pop out. Combine the two and you get a very full sound, great for single note backing.

Construction wise starting at the top, the headstock sports big elephant ear machine heads with open backs which reveal large well machined cogs.

The bolt-on neck is reasonably slim, though not as slim as a standard P-Bass. The fretboard is constructed from a fine piece of rosewood and features twenty one very highly polished well seated frets which are a joy to play on.

The body is quite large and contributes to a nicely rounded sound and the black metallic finish is refreshingly subtle. The pickup selector switch is interestingly placed at the bottom right of the bass near to the jack input. This is surprisingly easy to get to and in little danger of getting knocked whilst playing.

If I was to guess the price of this bass I would say around the £400 mark. However it retails for £299 though it is available for £239. Which is very reasonable considering that this bass is definitely not a bottom midrange bass as the price suggests. It is definitely a lot of bang for your buck!

Glastonbury Controversy with Anti Hip Hop Backlash

PlayRecord.Net Management — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:46:35 +0000

Glastonbury Festival is without a doubt the most famous of UK festivals. An infamous quagmire of muddy music fans brazenly braving the worst of the UKs climate to spend a weekend in a field listening to diverse music and generally having a great time.

This year Hip Hop Legend Jay-Z has been booked for as headline slot. He is by no means the first Hip Hop act to grace the stage at Glastonbury, but its the first time that a Hip Hop act, as opposed to to a classic guitars, drums, vocals band will headline.

Organiser Emily Eavis commented on the “interesting undercurrent” to some of the blogs and public statements objecting to Jay-Z’s place on the lineup. “I’m not sure what to call it,” she says, “at least not in public, but this is something that causes me some disquiet.”

So should the Glasto lineup be dominated by Guitar acts, or is it time that the lineup had a shakeup?

Use the comments system to tell us your thoughts…

Product Review: Encore E99 Electric Guitar ‘Blaster’ Pack

jonny — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:27:33 +0000

There’s lots of guitar packages on the market, so there’s plenty of choice for the beginner. The Encore Blaster pack is currently one of the most affordable kits out there, and also one of the best value.

Available for only £149.99 down from £196, this pack is available in cherry sunburst, black or left handed black variations. Included in the pack is the Encore E99, B.B blaster amplifier, tuner, carry bag, stand, lead, strap, spare set of strings and a plectrum. Also included is an instructional DVD and a Tutor listing to get your rock star career started.

So, out of the box you can expect the guitar to be out of tune, nothing untoward there. The paintwork is great for a guitar in its price range and the overall build quality is rather pleasing. As with most guitars a quick set-up would not go a miss, though probably not immediately necessary.

The remaining items in the pack are the amp and the smaller accessories that sort of speak for themselves. The amplifier is basic and suitable for practice only. At 10 watts the B.B blaster amp will not offend your elderly neighbours, and if it turns out that they have super-sensitive spy-sattalite style hearing, then there’s a jack plug for your headphones to stick into (head phones not provided). Other features on the amp include an overdrive switch marked as “zap”, you also get “beef” (bass) “tweak” (treble) and most importantly “enjoy” (volume).

Other accessories include the carry bag,strings, stand and lead. The stand and carry bag are both Kinsman brand. Kinsman are a well reputed brand and whilst the bag provided does not have the padding you may want it is certainly durable.

Overall, this is a splendid pack that is reliable, affordable and has a good standard of build quality. The pack is bundled with all the extra’s you need to keep you going for a good while. A great package for anyone interested in starting out the guitar.

Encore E99 Play Now Blaster Pack - Cherry Sunburst Finish