After a month of excitment and thousands of entries, yesterday I picked a winner: Dylan Steppeler of Mt. Orab, Ohio. Congrats to Dylan and hopefully he’ll send in some photos once he has everything set up.

Keep checking GearPipe.com for more giveaways, and if you’ve not already done so, sign up for our daily and weekly giveaway emails.

But, you probably know that I am extremely dependable when it comes to posting gear giveaways on Facebook and Twitter (and more recently, Tumblr). In fact, I started GearGiveaway365 over a year ago and have only missed a few days (he says as he pats himself on the back).

Not only that, but dozens of people have won gear. My guess is that members of the group have scored over $20,000 in musical instruments.

Since I know how to keep with a good thing, I’ve now added an email newsletter to the mix. I’m offering a daily email, which will be delivered each morning and will include a link directly to the giveaway sign-up page. Or, if you’re pretty good about following this already, get the weekly digest, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Click here to sign up!

If you’re one of those trendy hipsters with a smart phone, you can also access GearPipe on your phone in some cool ways.

First, there is now a free iPhone app in the Apple App Store. It’s not fancy, but it pulls in all of the new GearPipe posts right to your phone, with separate categories for each instrument plus contests and giveaways. Again, it’s totally free, so go to the App Store and download it!

If you’re on an Android equipped phone, a BlackBerry, or if you use an iPhone and would rather access GearPipe through the web browser, I’ve also installed a mobile-specific theme to the site. This detects when you’re coming to the website from a phone and serves up a more streamlined version of GearPipe. This seems to work pretty well, but if you get there and see the regular site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and there should be a switch to toggle between the two versions.

Thanks again for being a GearPipe reader!

This morning I headed down to my local Best Buy store on Colorado Blvd. in Denver to pick up my new computer. For about ten minutes, I’m unable to get help. There was one guy in the department and four people waiting to speak with him. After searching for another “blue shirt”, I grab the laptop I want and go up to the Geek Squad counter to try again for some help. I spoke immediately to a “geek” who was very helpful, who answered all of my questions, and who took $1,000 out of my pocket. This was not a great retail experience, but it’s what I expect these days. I left relatively satisfied.

Next, I crossed the street to Guitar Center. I’m heading out on Sunday for a five day business trip, and I’m going to have to do some audio editing on the road (I usually edit on my desktop). Although I was thinking about downloading Audacity (since it’s free) I wanted to check out some SONAR software, since I use a more powerful version on my desktop.

The guy at the front counter greets me a “Chief,” which is annoying, but whatever. I walk into the pro audio department to find one sales guy, who is helping another customer. I’ve worked retail, and you certainly can’t leave a customer to help another, but a simple “someone will be with you in a second” goes a long way.

I stand around for about five minutes. Mind you, I’m standing right in front of the counter, purposefully not looking at any product, so this guy knows I need help once he’s done.

Another sales guy walks in. Sweet…service! Nope. This guy walks right in front of me, and picks up the phone. I think “ok…he’s got a customer on the line.” Wrong again. He’s talking to another Guitar Center employee about some sale that he made or is about to make, and how he’s going to have to split the commission. Meanwhile, another commission check is standing right in front of him, but he will not even make eye contact with me. Not once. I stand there for nearly ten more minutes as this guy (a tall, light haired fellow…just in case his manager is reading this), talks to his buddy on the phone.

I see the software I want, but it’s behind the counter. I decide to break the first rule of retail and walk behind the counter and grab it myself. Again, no acknowledgment from either sales guy. I’m reading the box myself. Finally, the other customer leaves. Yes! Time for some answers! Wrong again…now the other sales guy picks up the phone . WTF!?!?!?!? After another 30 seconds, I not so gently drop the box on the counter in front of the guy and walk out. Finally, he takes the phone away from his ear and yells “dude…do you need some help?” “Not anymore” I say and walk out.

Moral of the story? In this economy, retailers should be begging consumers like me to spend money in their stores. I wasn’t going to drop a grand like I did at Best Buy, but I was ready to spend a few hundred dollars there. Fifteen minutes standing in front of two people who won’t even acknowledge me? Not acceptable.

I have dealt with Guitar Center for a long time. I’ve worked for various gear manufacturers and have even been an account manager for GC. In another job I was on the road, visiting 2-3 Guitar Center stores per day. I will say that I typically liked dealing with GC corporate (I’ve even paid their offices a few visits). Everyone there was very pleasant to work with and was good at their jobs. The retail stores, though, have always been tough to deal with. Try walking in on a Saturday with money sticking out of your pockets…you probably still won’t get spoken to. Add that to the fact that the sales people typically don’t know much about the product anyway, and you’re in for an unpleasant trip.

My message to you, my readers? Think about where you’re spending your money. I know I post Guitar Center deals and coupon codes on this site. If you like dealing with them, great. If you can find great deals in their stores or on their website, fantastic. If not, think about which retailers in your town care about you (or at least make your shopping experiences pleasant).

My advice to Guitar Center? Think about your customers. Think about how you can make a potentially great experience like buying a musical instrument exciting instead of excruciating. Try subscribing to Seth Godin’s blog or reading some of his books. Learn about customer service and apply what you’ve learned to your stores.

Now, I’ll unpack my laptop that has been sitting next to me in a box for the past hour.

One free app that I’m really digging is from TED. If you’re not familiar with TED, at their conferences really smart people talk about really interesting things, and the videos from these presentations are free to all of us (probably in the hopes that we all get smarter). So, I now have hundreds of paradigm-shifting videos in the palm of my hand. Pretty awesome!

I’ve recently checked out three videos regarding sound and music that I want to share with you. Hopefully you’ll find them as interesting as I did.

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us
Julian Treasure studies sound and advises businesses on how best to use it. Much of his presentation is about sound in general, but I think everything he says relates to making music. In fact, at 3:44, Treasure says music “is the most powerful sound there is.”

Depending on how you want your listener to feel, you can craft the sound of your music in various ways. Do you want them to feel relaxed? Angry? Perhaps even violent? This may seem obvious to anyone who is an active listener of music, but hearing about the science behind this is fascinating.

Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics
Evan Grant works with cymatics, the art of visualizing sound, and is the founder of the arts and technology collective seeper.

In this video, Grant shows some incredibly cool examples of cymatics. In one demonstration, they have covered a metal plate with sand, then bowed the side of the plate with a violin bow, in turn creating complex patterns in the sand through music.

Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen
Finally, a video that is 100% about music. Scottish percussionist and composer Evelyn Glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by age 12. Rather than isolating her, it has given her a unique connection to her music. In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums.

Of course, there have been great examples of virtuosic deaf musicians (Beethoven anyone?), but watching a deaf drummer is really amazing. This is a very long video (over 30 minutes) but if you want to take one lesson away, skip to 6:45. This is one of the best examples of technique vs. feeling the music that I’ve ever seen.

Hopefully you’ve found these videos as interesting as I did. If you want to watch more, they are all free at the TED website or through iTunes (go to the iTunes store and search on “TED”).

In the world of the Internet, a lot changes in two years. A few other sites have popped up that only post gear giveaways. Manufacturers are launching more and more contests (so many that I could only write about a fraction). And social networking sites have become more and more a part of our everyday lives.

So, I’ve decided to throw a little wrinkle in the way I post giveaways. From now on, I’m going to post one giveaway per day, everyday, on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. If you want to follow this feed on Twitter or become a fan of this page on Facebook, you’ll see these giveaways each day, without doing any extra work. On MySpace, the giveaways will be my status update each day. Then just click on the links and enter.

If you’re one of the few people who are not on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace there are still ways you can stay up-to-date. Each Saturday I’ll post a summary of the week’s giveaways here on GearPipe.com. This will include links to all seven contests. Also, I’ve added a Facebook widget to the right sidebar of the site, which contains all of the links.

Here’s how you can connect to this new feature:

• Become a fan of the Musical Instruments Giveaways Facebook page. You can find it here.
• Follow the @GearGiveaway365 feed on Twitter. If you’re already following my @GearPipe feed, I’ll be retweeting the giveaways each day, so you’re good.
• I wasn’t sure if anyone is still on MySpace, but since the MySpace Music pages are still good for bands, I figured I’d post there, too. Just add GearPipe as a friend.
• Finally, if you just want to check out the weekly update on this site, you can either visit every Saturday, or subscribe to the Contests & Giveaways feed via RSS or by email.

To get you pumped about this, I actually started posting these a week ago. So, as promised, here is your weekly summary of links:

• Enter The Great KISS Guitar Giveaway! Win a Paul Stanley signature Washburn guitar autographed by all members of KISS. Enter Here
• Win 1 of 3 Sets of Istanbul Agop Cymbals from Modern Drummer Magazine. You’ll win either a Lenny White, Cindy Blackman, or XIST Cymbal Set. Enter Here
• Pearl Jam Backspacer Guitar Giveaway! Win a custom Gibson Les Paul Jr featuring artwork from Pearl Jam’s new album, Backspacer. Enter Here
• Win a $20,000 Mic Locker from Sweetwater Sound. 24 microphones including mics from Shure, Blue, Earthworks, Sennheiser, beyerdynamic, and more. Enter Here
• Win 2 tickets to the 2009 Atticus Tour, a custom Epiphone guitar, & a fully loaded D’Addario and Planet Waves accessories package including strings, tuners, picks and more! Enter Here
• Win a Buffet Crampon Greenline Bass Clarinet + a $1K Woodwind & Brasswind shopping spree (total value $10,000) Enter Here

I welcome your feedback on this, so please leave a comment if you have any ideas to make this better.

Some people have blogs that really encourage reader interaction, so at least they feel like people are reading what they’re writing. This is not that type of blog. GearPipe has a fair number of subscribers and the site traffic is pretty good, so I know people are reading this, but it doesn’t always feel that way.

So, I’m at a bit of a crossroads. I’d really like to keep this site going. I could just start it back up as is, which would be fine, but I’d really like to turn it into something cool. For once, I’m asking for your comments and your feedback. What would you like to see from GearPipe in 2009? What do you like? What don’t you like?

In addition to general stuff, I have a few ideas I’ll float out there.

• GearPipe Podcasts. This is what I do for my day job, so it kind of makes sense to use these skills for this site. I’m not really sure of the form they would take. I’d probably do some interviews with gear manufacturers, maybe incorporate some sound clips, talk about new gear, etc.
• Local Deals. A while back I did a survey on this site, asking readers where they bought their gear. It was split just about 50/50 between online retailers and local music stores. Personally, I’ve always tried to support local stores, since I started working in a small music store when I was 17. I think it would be great to have some local sections where retailers could post about sales they have going on, list used gear, and stuff like that. Think craigslist-style.
• Audio/Video User Reviews. There are a million websites out there that post user reviews (from anyone). However, I don’t think I’ve seen a site where people can submit audio and video, other than YouTube. What do you think about this? With the ease of recording audio and video these days, it would be really easy for people to produce these. I think it would be really fun for people to put together, too.

I’d love some feedback on these ideas, plus suggestions for other thing I can add to the site.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Jeremy

It seems that they’re really pulling out the stops this year. If you’re not at the show, they’ll be posting videos on their blog all weekend long. You can check out the different sections of the booth, interviews with artists, and live performances.

I want to direct you to this page specifically, featuring Big Tex and the Blazin’ Pintos, a band made up of Fender employees from their Scottsdale headquarters. Back in the day when I worked at Fender, I played drums with Big Tex for a few shows while they were between drummers. They’re a really fun band a really great guys. My moniker during those days was Ol’ Grizz, due to the beard I sported at the time.

Please check them out and visit the Big Tex website for more.

Of course, the most popular product may not be the best piece of gear for you, but it’s always good to see what other people are buying.

I realized I’ve posted nearly 50 of these, but the only way to browse them is to select the “Best Sellers” category in the drop down menu. Even then, you have to scroll through all of them. So, I figured a new archive would be a cool thing to add to the page.

As I post more “Best Sellers,” I’ll update the page as an ongoing archive of these top 10 lists. If there is a product group that you’d like featured in an upcoming GearPipe “Best Sellers” list, please contact me and I’ll do my best to research it and get it online for you.

Check out the GearPipe Best Selling Musical Instrument Archive!

I do, however, want to take this opportunity to ask you to register to vote. Today is the deadline to register here in Colorado. I know that the deadline for a few states has already passed, and it’s coming up in the next week for many others.

This is without question the most important election of my lifetime (having spent 31 years on this planet). I suspect that for anyone alive today, it also ranks toward the top. Whichever way you lean, we can all agree that change needs to come to Washington DC. The best way you can affect this change is to vote on November 4th, and you can only do that if you’re registered.

Again, I’m not getting on a soapbox to tell you who to vote for, but I want to point you toward the resources to get registered. There is really no excuse. With the way this system is set up, you can register and vote from the comfort of your home. Register online, request a mail-in ballot, send it in. Do it all without losing out on your valuable practice time!

• Register at Barack Obama’s Vote for Change website
• Register to vote at John McCain’s website
• Register to vote and find your state’s registration deadline at Rock the Vote
• Overseas or in the military? You can still register here

I’m sure I’m very convincing, but just in case I’m not, please watch this video:

Just in case you’re not into a bunch of Hollywood elitists telling you to vote, here’s something to well some patriotism up inside you. I guaran-f-ing-tee that Lee Greenwood is going to vote.

After reading the article, I realized that thieves did not make off with 60,000 amps (which would have been quite a feat!), but rather 141 Orange Tiny Terror combo amps worth £62,000. These amps were part of the first shipment of the new amp into the UK.

According to the press release, the amps were “stolen from a temperature controlled, sealed forty foot container. The robbers couldn’t break the locks so they attempted to use an acetylene welder and then angle grinders to cut through the quarter inch locking steel plates.”

Of course, the authorities and Orange are trying to find more information about this crime. Orange Amplifiers are putting up a reward of 5000 (not sure if it’s dollars or pounds) for information that will lead to a successful conviction and recovery of these amplifiers. If you have any information please contact the local Police force on 0845-3300222, quoting Crime Number J1/08/3588. The company has the serial numbers of all the products stolen which is available on it’s website.

This morning I updated to a new version of the software I use to create this site and, unexpectedly, it also fixed the feed issues. So, if you do subscribe to one of those feeds, you were probably overloaded with old posts. Think of it as a refresher on the past few months! Sorry about that…

If you do not yet subscribe to GearPipe, please do. It’s much easier than coming to the site each day to check out what’s new.

If you’re not familiar with this store, it’s a midwest institution. In fact, when I first starting playing the drums, I ended up on their Drums in the Wind catalog mailing list. No kidding…I used to stay up and read that catalog under my covers like it was a porno mag!

Stay tuned for more, but if you want to check out some Woodwind and Brasswind highlights, visit their Steals of the Week and Outlet Store.

Get It: Please visit the Woodwind & Brasswind homepage

Most of you are probably familiar with VH1′s Save the Music Foundation. Since 1997, Save the Music has provided nearly $40 million worth of new musical instruments to 1,500 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of over 1 million public school children.

If you do regularly give to charities, this is a great one to channel some funds through. If you don’t feel like you’re in a financial position to donate to charity, you should check out this promotion just released by Save the Music, JCPenny, and Levi’s.

Starting today, buy two pairs of Levi’s jeans at participating JCPenney stores or at jcp.com and Levi’s will donate $5 on your behalf to VH1 Save the Music. In return, you’ll receive a $10 JCPenney gift card. Just think, you’ll get your back-to-school shopping done early and get a little extra money in your pocket… all while helping contribute to a worthy cause.

Expires: August 2, 2008
Get It: Click Here For More About This Deal

However, I am also a huge supporter of local music stores. I started working at a local shop when I was 17 and have always tried to support them. Now…I’m not that old (31), but old enough that buying online wasn’t an option when I started playing.

I’m very interested in where you shop. Do you always support your local retailers? Do you like the convenience of shopping online. Do you shop both, depending what you’re looking for?

I’ve set up a survey in the right sidebar and would appreciate it if you’d take a second to respond. Since the survey is very cut and dry, if you have more opinions on the matter, please leave a comment on this post.

Thanks!

Earlier this month, I attended BookExpo America, the country’s largest trade-show for the publishing industry (it’s no NAMM, but pretty cool). Over the course of the weekend, we recorded about 75 interviews with authors about their new books.

One such author was Marc Canter, a childhood friend of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. Canter was that guy who has been hanging out with the band since their earliest days, saving ticket stubs, recording shows, and taking photos in situations no one else would have access to. Canter brought Slash to BEA with him to sign and promote his book Reckless Road: Guns N’ Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction.

After the signing, Canter and Slash stopped in our booth (The Authors Studio) and spent 10 minutes talking to us about the early days of GnR. It’s a pretty cool interview. The interviewer (not me…that is me setting up Slash’s mic in the photo) even tried to bait Slash a bit with an Axl Rose question, but Slash was very PC in his answer.

In case you’re wondering, Slash was super-cool. The show was closing for the day and he totally did not need to stay and talk to his. He was very nice and gracious, and was even cool to a lady who ambushed him with a free squirt gun she thought he had to have.

So…listen in! If you’re into books, we interviewed some other very interesting authors, as well, including Kevin Nealon, Chris Regan, Dennis Lehane, and Joshua Leeds, who wrote an interesting book about the effect of music on dogs.

Here’s some more info on the book:
Reckless Road is the definitive book documenting the beginning of the legendary band Guns N’ Roses and the creation of their groundbreaking rock album, Appetite for Destruction. With nearly one thousand never-before-seen photographs and over dozens of interviews, Reckless Road chronicles Guns N’ Roses’ rise to stardom by the original band members and the people who were closest to them. Authentic gig memorabilia including show flyers, ticket stubs, set lists, press clippings, and hand-written song lyrics round out this unique collection.

Check it out at Amazon.com

Listen to the podcast:

Sponsored by Fender, GHS Strings, and Hal Leonard, these clinics will be absolutely FREE. He’ll be performing songs from his instrumental albums, as well as two songs from his upcoming release Requiem. John will be answering questions, signing autographs and posing for photos. John 5 merchandise will be available at each location.

He’ll be at the following Guitar Center locations:

• Guitar Center Phoenix, AZ – June 2 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center La Mesa, CA – June 3 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center Las Vegas – June 4 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center Hollywood – June 5 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center San Francisco – June 9 @ 6:00 PM

Get It: Click Here For More Information

If your name is Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, Jason over at Little Rock Jams has offered all three presidential candidates a free guitar lesson when they pass through Arkansas. I wonder which song each candidate would want to learn???

Read the post.

As we’re finishing these up, I’m going to start daily posts again.

Thanks for your patience and sorry about the cobwebs!

Check out the Best Selling Musical Instruments Archive.

They can be very broad (Top 10 Best-Selling Acoustic Guitars), brand specific (Top 10 Best-Selling DW Snare Drums), or something totally obscure (Top 10 Best-Selling Alto Sax Reeds).

Leave your suggestions in the comments below, and I’ll put a list together for whatever catches my fancy!

As expected, the majority of GearPipe readers play guitar, so we’ll obviously keep pumping those guitar bargains your way.

I do believe we’ve been slacking on the bass guitar deals, and it appears that there are a lot of bass players stopping by, as well.

Finally, I’ll do my best to search out more recording discounts, since a lot of you have told me you’re also into home recording products.

Thanks again for participating!

I’ve recently discovered Squidoo, which is a very cool site where anyone can create a lens (page) about any subject they’d like. I thought it would be cool to extend Jason’s original idea and create a lens focusing on guitar blogs, which I have dubbed The Guitar Blog Collective.

This lens pulls together content from over 25 blogs, which updates automatically. So, you can check out this single page, see who’s got a new post, then click thru to read the entire article.

Do me a favor and check it out. If you’re a member of Squidoo, please rank the lens or leave a comment.

If you run a blog that’s listed, please do what you can to promote this page, either by writing a post or adding a link/banner to your blog. If you run a guitar blog that’s not listed, please drop me a comment and I’ll add your site.

This got me thinking, though, about who is actually coming to this site. If there are actually hundreds of oboe players visiting per day, I’d better find some sweet oboe and oboe-related deals!

So, I want to know…what do you play? I’ve set up a poll in the right sidebar, so please take 10 seconds and let me know. Or, if you’d like to elaborate, please leave a comment after this post.

There are three ways you can get GearPipe content delivered to you: Email, RSS feed, or by installing our custom GearPipe Google Toolbar Button. You can subscribe to any in the Get Deals Delivered section of this page’s right sidebar. You can also visit our Subscribe page to learn more about all three options.

If you’re a boutique effects pedal addict (and who isn’t these days), this article is a must-read. Teese hands out tons of information about what he’s done to build his pedals better than the standard wah pedal, the best ways to utilize a wah, and hints toward a new signiture wah pedal coming later in 2008.

Check it out.

I’ve recently set GearPipe up on Twitter. If you’re a Twitter user, and want to check it out, here’s a link. Not only am I feeding the GearPipe posts through this account (so it can be an easy way to follow what’s going on here), but I’ll also add in the typical Twitter-esque comments (a lot of talk about what kind of coffee I’m drinking, etc…). Enjoy!

Now that I have this rolling, I’m introducing a new feature: The BiblioPipe Music Media Library. Through special arrangement with Amazon.com, I’ve been able to set up a complete online book and DVD store on GearPipe.com, with only the products I choose.

Browsing on Amazon can be daunting, due to the tens of thousands of titles. I’ve handpicked (yes….it did take quite a while) a few thousand titles that are relevant to musicians. I think you’ll find this is a much better way to find the books and DVDs you’re looking for.

Also, I’ve set up some specialty sections that you won’t find anywhere else. For instance, there is an entire category of rock ‘n’ roll movies. One section is full of nearly 100 titles that were pictured in the linear notes of Rage Against The Machine’s Evil Empire album. Check it out….there’s much more.

Here’s the best part! You can shop on our site and load up your shopping cart, but when you’re ready to check out, you’ll be redirected to Amazon.com. This means that if you already have an Amazon account, you’re set to go. You’ll make all payments through their website and they’ll ship the product right to your door…just like if you shopped directly in their store.

Please take a second and visit BiblioPipe now, and let me know what I can do to improve the selection.