We’re Getting Ready for our 4th Annual Summer Concert Series!!!
As many of you know for the past three years Centaur Guitar has hosted a series of all ages outdoor summer concerts in our parking lot. Yes… In our parking lot – you do what you can with what you’ve got, right?
Well, we’re almost ready to get rolling with the next batch. We’re still working out the details but the first concert is booked up and the rest are soon to follow! We’ll be kicking things off on July 11th with:
Keep in touch and stay tuned for further details!
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Kelly & Jason spent last weekend in sunny Anaheim, California attending the NAMM show. What follows is a brief photo tour of J’s experiences.
Really, it’s just a bunch of photos of me harassing celebrities, but I thought you might enjoy this…
J shows George Lynch his double chin!
Hey look!
Is that George Lynch?! Rock icons are everywhere around here!
George is a really classy guy and got a kick out of the original name of our shop. For those of you who didn’t know, we started business with another name… I can’t tell you what it was, but it involved the same words that are in our name now.
Rule number one for a successful NAMM visit is don’t show it to the Fernandes girls. Seriously, it’s in the charter.
As you can see, J maintained composure!
Such is the life of the modern independent guitar store proprieter.
After this kind of encounter it’s only right to enjoy an ice cold beverage – at least it feels right…
Thank goodness there are booths all over the convention center for just such an emergency! And if you tip well, they won’t cut you off!
I don’t think anything really needs to be said about these photos.
KISS Elvis!
Don't show it to the Schecter girls either.
Things do get crazy sometimes. This guys name is seven. I guess I should capitalize it… Seven. He plays with Slipknot.
Yeah, I said it, SLIPKNOT!
While I’m not terribly familiar with their work, I do like the mask. Plus the guy’s got a grip like a vise!
Look at this line up!
It’s Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big and Mike Mathews from Electroharmonix.
I offered to buy Mike a beer but he’s working on his gut. I am too but… well… you know.
Look, I know you’re jealous, but these trade shows are not open to the public. Only a privileged few have the right to rub elbows with this bunch. At least you get to look at the pictures, right?
So we were trying the new Death by Audio Fuzz War that we got the other day…
Gerald and I (Jason) were monkeying around with it twirling knobs and switching guitars and Gerald says the filter reminds him a bit of the scooped mids on a Metal Zone. I say “No, you fool! It’s more gritty, like a Rat pedal.” We fight for a while, have a few beers, forget we were arguing, go home, come back the next day, remember we were arguing, decide to bring Kelly in on the discussion and eventually we declare…
Fuzz Fight!!!
Everyone loves a good fuzz, right? Well here’s a brief review of the few we tried out the other night:
- Death By Audio Fuzz War
This is the one that started the fight. Very simple to use but has a great range. The fuzz knob varies the intensity/range of the fuzz while acting as a tone filter at the same time. At least we think that’s what’s going on! This thing shreds when used with single coils. With the fuzz dial all the way to the left the bass is so low I thought it was going to blow the speakers. Maybe not the desired effect but it’s nice to know it’s got that kind of balls! On the other end of the spectrum, with the knob cranked right it goes into more of an abrasive bright fuzz. Also very nice. The volume is line matching so this one doesn’t have a ton of boost but it’s nice for a straight up change of tone.
- Buzz-R Electronics Blammo Fuzz
I’ve had one of these for a while now. I love it. This pedal has some, got it some, of the insane, oscillating fuzz effects that some of the Effector 13 pedals feature. That said, it tends to be a bit more useable than the Truly Beautiful Disaster mentioned below. The Blammo goes from an insane noise machine to a beefy gritty fuzzmaker very quickly as you turn the knobs and there are points in the mix where it is totally unpredictable. Also, tons of gain. This one will definitely bury your bass player!
- Effector 13 Truly Beautiful Disaster
Definitely lives up to the hype both good and bad. For those willing to spend time with it, the TBD becomes almost indespensible. This thing has it all… An effects loop, a photo eye expression device built in, and a broken sputtering exploding fuzz sount that is pure genius. Our good friend Pat Kearns who runs Permapress Recording out of the back half of the shop loves this one for keyboards! From an ease of use point of view, well… it’s a bit tricky but worth the fight. Running a boost or another distortion into the front end of the TBD smooths it out quite a bit and definitely makes it a bit more approachable initially.
- Guyatone TZ-2
This tiny thing cooks! Kelly likes to describe its sound as a Fly in the Ointment kind of fuzziness. This is a more traditional buzzy, tinny, Davie Allen kind of fuzz. Very easy to use. Very rewarding. And at $67.50 it’s half the cost of the others. On the downside, it’s more of a one trick pony, it doesn’t have the range or variety of sounds that the more exotic effects mentioned above do.
- Electroharmonix Big Muff Pi (USA)
For all the hype and insanity surrounding the boutique fuzzes mentioned above, the Big Muff holds it’s own. It’s a classic. If you don’t have one, you should get one. There’s no excuse not to. Seriously. Buy one. You don’t even have to get it here, you just need to get one.
Well, I know there’s way more stuff out there. Hell, there’s way more stuff here. Here are a few noteworthy effects missing from the line up above:
- The entire line of Devi Ever FX
Come try ‘em, seriously Steve, seriously. Did we mention that Billy Gibbons likes them?
- Effector 13 Soda Meiser
Not as intense as the TBD but a really unique, kind of disharmonic, but very useable fuzz.
- Homebrew Electronics UFO Fuzz Octave
I’ve always loved it. Kind of a traditional fuzz with a footswitchable octave up.
- Black Box Effects UltraViolet
Three filtered fuzzes blended with a straight fuzz. Think fuzz wah meets fuzz wah meets fuzz wah meets fuzz.
There are tons more too, but that’s enough for now, don’t you think? As always, feel free to stop by and try any of them or give a call with questions.
Thank you. That is all.
Sharp dressed men.
As most of our regular customers have already heard we were recently visited by rock & roll royalty! Mr. Billy F. Gibbons stopped by the shop last week to try out a handful of Devi Ever: FX and Effector 13 fuzz boxes.
We always knew this stuff was cool!
We were honored to spend a little time with the right Rev. Gibbons and he was kind enough to invite us all down to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to catch the ZZ Top show that evening and yes, it did rule.
Alright Everybody!! Well, nobody can say that we can’t procrastinate with the best of them. It’s one week before our three year anniversary and we finally have the party plans all lined up. Be here next weekend for some rockin’ good times with a bunch of awesome bands.
Join Us Next Saturday, April 5th starting at 2PM:
Legend of Dutch Savage
Pure Country Gold
Howie and the Hot Knives
Disciples of Rock n Roll
Decliners
Hawthorne
Broken Bodies
All of these bands have been great friends and have been helping keep us going since day one! So come on down and join us for the rock!
We’ve just started carrying the full line of Black Box Effects – HOORAY!! Our need for new, kick ass effects has been filled – at least for the moment. Black Box is the brainchild of Lorren Stafford. He started designing these effects after he realized that there were really no effects on the market that filled the needs of instruments other than guitar. Black Box is currently manufactured by Ooh La La manufacturing, a small Minneapolis based company manufacturing just a couple lines of effects for designers who wanted to focus on design. For those of you in the know, Jason Myrold of Zvex fame is painting all of the OohLaLa products and they look awesome! Check out the pedals we have available online to see some samples.
The bottom line is, we’ve tried these pedals and we love them. If you have any questions or would like an in hand description, give us a call.
Centaur Guitar is now a state licensed pawn shop. What this means for our customers is that from here on out, when in need of a few extra dollars, we offer an option other than selling your gear. We promise to take care of your gear like it was our own – better, in fact. We have a heated, secure storage area where your gear will be kept until it’s returned to you.
Click here for more info!