Black Friday Part II: The New Incarnation Celebration

Join us this Friday, December 2nd for a First Friday Artwalk Party, for which we will be debuting our new showroom and store layout. The New Incarnation Celebration will start this Friday and go through Sunday, featuring store-wide discounts and package deals, along with instruments and other items at blow-out prices.

August Seminar Schedule

2 SEMINARS THIS WEEKEND, 5 SCHEDULED FOR NEXT WEEK.

SATURDAY @ NOON:

Intro to Creative Improv on Guitar. FREE class.

SATURDAY @ 2:00:

Leo Kottke Finger-Style Guitar Workshop. FREE class.

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NEXT WEEK'S SEMINARS:

ALL ABOUT STRINGS SEMINAR
Monday, August 15th: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
If you've ever wondered what makes strings different in terms of sound, construction, different instrument types, etc... all your questions will be answered in this FREE class.

FLAMENCO GUITAR PART II
Thursday, August 18th: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Thomas will teach a continuation of the Intro to Flamenco class. Additional techniques and more advanced rhythms. FREE class.

FINGERBOARD LOGIC
Saturday, August 20th: Noon - 1:30pm
Would you like to know your way around the fingerboard a little more? Thomas will teach some new ideas and approaches to understanding the fingerboard. FREE class.

TWO-HANDED TAPPING TECHNIQUE
Saturday, August 20th: 2:00 - 3:30pm
Ben Kammin will teach you some awesome riffs and rhythms using a two-handed fingerboard tapping technique for acoustic or electric guitar. FREE class.

GUITAR REPAIR & SETUP PART I
Saturday, August 20th: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Part I of a two part class. This will serve as a lecture and demonstration. Part two will be the lab portion of part I. Bring your guitar to the lab workshop where you'll work on own instrument. This class is $10, part 2 will be $15.

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MORE WORKSHOPS SCHEDULED THROUGH AUGUST.

Summer Seminar Series Continues

Our Seminar Series begins again on Monday, August 8th, with Ryan's Guitar Maintenance Workshop. Learn to dial your instrument in for maximum playability and tone. This hands-on workshop starts at 6:00pm. Please sign up at the store, and stay tuned for our entire series of workshops being held on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays through the end of Summer.

Sale Starts Friday!

If you haven't heard, our 7th Annual Fall Super-Sale Event starts this Friday, goes through Sunday.

Be sure to join our email list or join us on Facebook to get details on winning the $100 Shopping Spree here at Custom Sound Instruments.

Facebook

We're getting all our Social Media ducks in order. The blog is back up and posts are scheduled. Also, if you haven't checked our Facebook page for general updates about the shop, go see what's going on over there. It's all starting to come together. Now that damn website.

Guitar Surgery Reports

I also wanted to let you know I have a huge backlog of repair articles and reports on some really intensive repairs from this past year. Here's a quick look at one of the recent restorations from the CSI guitar hospital. You can see more pics from the GICU here on our Facebook.

I'm Back Baby!

Ha!

Hey. Ryan here, owner of Custom Sound Instruments. I'm back and I plan on staying back. I haven't gone anywhere... just haven't been here at the blog in quite some time. I've been doing the facebook thing,a bit lately; but you know what, for some reason I'd rather ramble on a blog then make short little mini posts all the time on FB... I don't know why, it just feels more natural. I kinda hate FB, but don't tell anyone. I'm learning to embrace it.

So, I plan on truly keeping up this time. This blog is meant for repair articles and write-ups about tech related stuff. But I'll also be posting current information related to the general goings on at the store.

-R

Bad Blogger

OK. I'm gonna get this over with as quickly as possible. I haven't posted in almost a year. I think it's been almost 10 months, or something like that. Anyway, apologies all around. I hope I can regain some interest from all of you in the near future (and perhaps, eventually some renewed blog-trust.) There are many reasons why I haven't posted in such a long time. I may share those reasons with you... if you want to know the mild saga.



Anyway, I have lots of material for this forum. I will be sharing many stories from the guitar shop in the coming months. Things have been crazy.

Cheers.

-Ryan Elewaut
Owner

Non-FlagView

Last weekend was the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim California. NAMM is one of the largest trade shows in the world, and is exclusive to all people involved in the music products industry. This was the sixth year in a row that I've attended and, quite frankly, it's getting a bit old. This year I decided to make a vacation out of it. I haven't had a true, relaxing vacation in over 5 years... so I thought it was over due. I only attended the show on Thursday and Friday, the pic from the beach should be all you need to figure out why I didn't go to the trade show on Saturday or Sunday. Here are some shots from the show... and the beach. Don't hate me.

Hey Baby Jude

I just had to share this with y'all.

Spastic Cartoon

The band playing here is called Spastic Ink. Apparently a lot of their music is composed around animated video, Disney or otherwise.

Listen to how the music follows the video... even down to the rhythms and pitches of the dialogue.

Humidity Discussion

What happens to a guitar when it's dried out?

Here's one example.

The critical geometry is completely affected. Setting up the guitar is difficult. In addition to this, the entire structure of the instrument is under abnormal tension. There are many different pieces of wood glued together inside a guitar, different types of wood, with grain lines pointing in all different directions; when these various components of the instrument dry out, they contract in different directions and to varying degrees of subtlety. This creates undo tension throughout the structure of the instrument and it therefore doesn't play the same, and it doesn't sound the same either.

It's true that not all guitars or like instruments need the be humidified to prevent cracks or "visible" damage. However, when someone brings me a guitar that is dried out, even if they are happy enough with it's playability, the damage is visible to me.

I've also seen many older instrument that have been dry for a long time. Some say the guitar has been "acclimated." Rarely is a guitar properly "acclimated," and some guitars refuse to "acclimate." Some of the older instruments don't show much extreme trauma, but none are in pristine condition. Most have had crack repairs and other work done to remedy the effects of being turned into guitar-jerky.

Keep in mind, a guitar with the correct geometry, kept at the right humidity, plays and sounds the best. Too much humidity makes the guitar play and sound horrible as well. However, too little humidity is generally more detrimental to the structural integrity of the instrument. And besides, you will never have a problem with excessive humidity if you live in northern Arizona. So get a humidifier already!

My next post will discuss how to properly humidify your instrument.

Humidity Warning

I've removed the blog-hydrometer for now because the humidity in your home is nowhere near the humidity outside. Your indoor humidity is much, much lower than outside. Any and all heaters (some more than others) dry out the air in your house. At the store we've had to get out extra humidifiers to keep the humidity in the acoustic room at a high enough level.

So, check those humidifiers. Think about supplementing your case humidifier with a room humidifier. Remember, we live in one of the most arid climates in the US. The effects of this environment on wooden instruments should not be underestimated.

Next week I'll write more about the specifics of what happens to instruments and the adverse effects of extremely low humidity levels like we have here in norther Arizona. If you need more info about keeping your instrument properly humidified, contact me at the store or by email.

FlagView of the Day

Flagstaff, not too long ago... before the snow.


FlagView is back. I've decided, however, not to attempt a FlagView post (almost) every day as I once hoped to do. This will help with maintaining my sanity as I attempt to try, once again, maintaining a (somewhat) consistent blog.

eBay Offerings

We've been offering a lot of bargains and special items on eBay recently. I want to have at least a couple items up for auction every week. These bargains can be bought at the store for the Buy-It-Now price, or you may enter a bid at the store if you like.

Click here to view our eBay page. Click on Items for Sale on the left, under our logo, to view current auctions.

Announcement!

We have some big plans for the beginning of 2009. There will be many events, concerts, workshops, seminars and other activities offered by the store. We are getting more organized with our email newsletters and I hope to incorporate that into the blog somehow. Stay on the lookout for new things around the corner at Custom Sound Instruments.

If you'd like to be on our email list for the e-letters, send an email to csiflag@gmail.com with "add me to your list" in the subject field.

I realize most people looking at this blog will be more interested in posts about repair and interesting instrument related stuff. So I'll keep the announcement postings to a minimum. But while I re-habituate myself to posting on this blog, I'm gonna make it easy on myself with some basic info on what's been going on at the store and what's coming up next.

I Missed You Too

OK. I know. I haven't posted since the summer time and now it's the middle of winter! Bad blogger, bad!

I wouldn't blame you if you never checked this blog again. I got sidetracked and gave up on the blog to give more energy to some other pressing issues at the store. But don't give up on this blog just yet.

I'm back! And I'm dedicating myself to spending at least one hour a week to post on the blog. I'm now able to schedule my posts, so that will help me make the posting more consistent... Talk to you soon.

Thanks.

Free Concert

Hey. Still haven't had much time to post lately. I have some new repairs that will go up soon. Right now I want to let you know about the Rock Camp Concert that will take place on Saturday July 26th. The show will start around 7pm. We have three bands playing that night. The first two acts will feature our students from Rock Camp. They are awesome... you'll be surprised at how tight they sound. The band Mokshya will play a full set after the kids to headline the night.

FlagView of the Day

The Orpheum theater, downtown Flagstaff. Many good shows come through this venue.

Long Time No Post

Yea, I know it's been awhile. Things have been busy and hectic at the store. We closed on the fourth of July... unfortunately we weren't really celebrating the holiday; we were doing inventory and finalizing our new computer system to manage the store better. Time to get completely organized. All the extra work and seemingly less time to get anything done has added to our backlog of repairs and orders. So, I hereby officially apologize to all you repair customers and the like who have been waiting so patiently. I know we're droppin' a ball or two. Just bear with us for now. We're trying to finish picking up the pieces from the expansion and remodel.



Rock Camp starts this week. Wednesday at 5pm is the first session. There are still a couple spots available! Call the store if you're interested.





















Apparently our street is going to be closed Monday and Tuesday for construction. If you are coming to visit us, park on a side street and walk on over.






Repair seminars will be postponed by a couple of weeks. Look for the schedule to be announced later this month.








New Instruments & Featured Items at the store:
-Schecter 8-string octave bass.
-Norman 12-string acoustic.
-4 New Seagull Acoustics
-USA Fender strat, used
-SWR 4x10 Goliath Cab


-- Ryan Elewaut