Posts in category Products

Instrument storage solutions

Mar06
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Editor

If you live in a small house or apartment, you might have some trouble deciding how to store your musical instruments. For example, I have a friend who rents a tiny studio above a garage, and barely has enough space for a bed, couch, desk, chair, and TV, let alone his various guitars.

So what he did was buy a guitar wall mount at wwbw for each instrument so he could get them up off the floor and out of the way.

Simple, convenient, and cheap… that’s precisely how all true storage solutions should be!

Seeking acoustic guitar

Jan18
2013 Written by Editor

hummingbird acoustic A friend of mine is looking to buy an acoustic guitar. She doesn’t mind if it’s new or used, but it has to be of decent quality and not too expensive. I think she said her budget is only $300-$400, so if you’ve got one in that price range, send me an email.

In the meantime, I’m going to tell her to check out this Epiphone Hummingbird at music123. This particular model has received lots of good reviews and costs just $299, which would be perfect.

Then again, I know nothing about guitars, so my friend will have to be the final judge.

Best guitar strings?

Jan06
2013 Written by Editor

My cousin has been playing the guitar for a while now, and is starting to take the endeavor more seriously. He’s upgrading just about every piece of equipment he can, including his guitar strings. The problem is, he’s not sure which strings are the best in terms of quality and value.

After some quick research, I’ve discovered that Dean Markley is a pretty trusted name. The company has been around since 1972 and pioneered some kind of cryogenic technique to make their strings last longer. As you might expect, they’re a bit more expensive than lesser known brands, but you can buy discount Dean Markley at Musician’s Friend if you happen to be in the market.

I guess I’ll pass this info along to my cousin and leave it up to him to act!

Guitar Pedals

Nov16
2012 Written by Editor

I know nothing about music. I took piano lessons for a while when I was a kid, but I stopped in elementary school so I’ve forgotten what little I did learn.

But since my nephew wants a guitar and/or accessories for Christmas this year, I was doing some online shopping today. I found IK Multimedia Guitars at Musicians friend, which set me to wondering what guitar pedals do. Are they necessary? Is this something a beginner would need and/or appreciate?

Some pedals cost almost as much as the guitars themselves, so I’d like to find the answer to this before I actually buy anything!

Joining the band?

Mar28
2012 Written by Editor

My son has taken a great interest in his music classes at school, and now wants to join the band like some of his friends. I’m all for encouraging his love of the arts, but I’m going to approach this a bit cautiously.

Since he wants to play percussion, that means we will probably have to buy him a drum kit and maybe some paiste cymbals at some point. But before laying out that kind of money, I have to be absolutely certain this isn’t just a passing fancy that will disappear completely in a few months like so many of his past would-be hobbies.

I guess for right now I’ll just play it by ear and see if he can just use the school’s equipment for the rest of the year before deciding what to do.

Best wedding favors

Nov06
2011 Written by Editor

My husband and I are going to a friend’s wedding in two weeks, so I’ve been busy browsing through wedding gifts to see if I can find anything good before then.

Whenever I shop for wedding gifts, I can’t help but reminisce about my own wedding and all the wonderful presents we got on that day. Since it was more than 10 years ago, many of the material gifts we received have long since broken or worn out. Just about the only things that remain intact are the personalized champagne flutes that we ordered as favors.

We absolutely love these flutes, and bring them out once a year–on our anniversary, of course–to drink to our success while we watch our wedding video. Yeah, maybe it is a little cheesy, but we can let this one slide, can’t we?

Anyway, I’m tempted to get the new couple a set of personalized champagne flutes so maybe they can start a similar tradition. What do you think?

Libre Ebook Reader

Apr28
2010 Written by Editor

My mom really wants an eBook reader, but isn’t willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the device. Fortunately, the market has expanded quite a bit in the past year or two, so now there are several different brands to choose from. As I was browsing around Buy.com this morning, I came across this Libre eBook Reader from Aluratek, which looks like it might be perfect for my mom.

The Libre eBook Reader comes with all the features you need in one of these devices. It supports a bunch of file formats (PDF, TXT, FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PRC and RTF) right out of the box, without having to go through tedious conversion processes. Moreover, the EPUB and MOBI formats allow you to read ebooks “borrowed” from public libraries, which some of the other popular devices cannot do.

The Libre eBook reader uses an exclusive LCD technology that renders print the way it would be on a real paperback. This, coupled with the absence of backlighting, reduces eyestrain and makes the reading experience pleasurable — even in long doses.

Other neat features include a built-in MP3 player (with background playing support), expandable memory (up to 32GB), auto-off function, adjustable font size, and content search. Plus, the device comes pre-loaded with 100 classic titles such as Moby Dick and Pride and Prejudice to get you started.

The Aluratek Libre eBook Reader is on sale at Buy.com for $129.99 (with free two-day shipping) as part of the store’s Weekly Deals. That’s about as low a price as I’ve ever seen for a fully functional eBook reader like this! I’m thinking the Libre would make a perfect Mother’s Day present, so I might have to go ahead and order this one!

Slingbox Media Tuner

Mar18
2010 Written by Editor

I’ve been hearing a lot about Slingbox media tuners in the past few months, and am intrigued by how they work. I guess if you have one of these things you can “placeshift” your media consumption by streaming feeds from your home television to your laptop or cell phone. That would be awesome for times when I’m on the road during a football game or a hockey game that I really want to watch! But would a Slingbox be easy enough for me to set up? Is it affordable?

Well, I was just over at Buy.com and they have this Sling Media TV Tuner as one of their Weekly Deals. The product description makes this thing sound even better! Not only can you fully control your home television (as long as it’s on) with an on-screen remote that mimics your TV remote, but there are absolutely no extra monthly fees to use Slingbox! That’s pretty amazing! Plus, you can of course change the channels, so you’re not at all stuck watching whatever channel your TV happens to be tuned into (which is something I wasn’t sure about).

This Sling Media TV tuner is on sale for $249.95 right now — more than $50 off the regular retail price. It’s still a bit expensive for my tastes, but this is the kind of product that sounds like it might be well worth the bigger price tag. I’m going to do some more research into Slingbox and see if this is something I should get for my family.

LG 42″ LCD TV

Mar14
2010 Written by Editor

We’re trying to turn our basement into an entertainment/media center, but the process has been pretty slow-going — mostly because of financial challenges. Nevertheless, we’re still moving forward and purchasing furnishings and equipment whenever we can, which is why I keep scoping out the deals at places like Buy.com. When I saw this LG 42-inch LCD TV offered at less than half the retail price this morning, I immediately checked my savings account to see how much money I had in there.

This LG LCD TV looks like a great bargain! It comes with a bunch of features such as Auto Tuning, Channel Labeling, four language choices (English, Spanish, French, Korean), customizable closed-captioning and subtitles, child lock, and more. Plus, it even has HDMI inputs to accommodate sophisticated gaming systems like the PlaySation 3. I won’t pretend to understand all the technical specs, but I’m going to assume that they’re commensurate with similar television models out there.

Anyway, the best part about this LG 42″ LCD TV is the price tag. It’s on sale for just $649.99 as part of Buy.com’s Weekly Deals — and comes with free shipping. Now that’s the kind of bargain that I simply can’t afford to pass up! I know furnishing our basement media center hasn’t been a priority in the past, but we’ve got to get a move on here.

“New Moon” Merchandise

Jan13
2010 Written by Editor

I know New Moon premiered a long time ago, but I’m still seeing people walk around with all kinds of themed merchandise. T-shirts and promotional tote bags seem to be particularly popular these days. Did they hand these out at the theater or what? Because I really can’t believe that this many people went out and bought the same items! Of course I’ve seen action figures, calendars, and other products in stores, but not the particular tees and bags I’m talking about, which is why I think they were freebies.

Honestly, I just don’t understand all the hype about New Moon. Granted, I have not read the books, but a love story involving teenage vampires doesn’t seem like it would be quite my style anyway. And I seriously don’t get all the panting and drooling over Robert Pattinson. Really? Is he all that? He does nothing for me. To each her own, I guess!