£39.99

Our mate Christian is head of dept at Neath College’s creative industries faculty and he’s brought many a big name musician to this area when putting on masterclasses and clinics for his students. This time it’s an outfit called ‘Figment of Funk‘ (careful!), featuring Simon Goulding, David Bebbington, Ian Mathews and John Wheatcroft.  After the clinic, there’s a gig at the Nidum Arts Centre, starting at 7:00pm, admission £5-00. Get along and see some top practitioners tearing it up.

We see that Buffalo Summer are back from their latest European jaunt, and have a slot at this year’s Download festival; great news for a great band!

£24.99

We have some used bargains in – a Peavey Rage 158; awesome practice amp at £39.99 – NOW SOLD!

and this classic  Zoom 606 multi-effect pedal at £24.99 complete with power supply.

Please note. Quoted carriage charge of £7.99 is to mainland UK ONLY. Shipping to other areas will vary.

FA1AN Ex -Demo £189.

The Freshman FA1AN is probably our best-selling electric/acoustic guitar at £249; solid spruce top with a Fishman pickup and built-in tuner. We have ONE ONLY at an ex-demo price of £189 – come and get it! There’s also a Westfield SG Bass (EB3) copy which is in mint condition, up at £129.

We also have our lovely Yamaha BB415 back. It sold on-line but the guy apparently didn’t realise it was a 5-string – there’s a clue in the name, and anyway, you could just count them! With a vintage-look finish and a metal pickup surround it looks amazing  - and it plays great. The action’s probably too low but it’s really fast so we don’t care. It’s on eBay here, but come and see it for yourself.

Fender DG60. £99

We have a used Fender DG60 acoustic on the pre-loved wall. We’ve set it up with Rotosound Super Bronze 10s and it’s got a mega-low action, stupidly low to be honest; we’re thinking of fitting a Floyd-Rose and spraying it yellow. It’s in excellent condition with no major marks or scratches. It’s up at £99 and on eBay here. Pop in and save yourself the carriage costs – one only! We also have a lovely Buffett 228 flute for sale at £149. It’s been serviced by our man in Newport and is in excellent condition. Don’t forget – we buy used instruments for cash.

As far as the teaching studio goes, we now teach guitar and bass on Wednesdays and Thursday, and from Monday the 6th of May, we’ll be teaching piano and singing – although Monday the 6th is a bank holiday so we won’t be teaching anything, we’ll be in the garden with a glass of cider. Call us (01639 631337) or email us to book lessons.

Busker at Neath Music

So we got a call last week from a nice lady called Helen who works at the BBC. They were making an ‘X-Ray‘ program which – and we don’t want to give too much away – closely involved music. The Beeb needed to conduct some interviews and wanted to do it in a rock and roll environment; they wondered if we could help. Of course, we obliged. They turned up on Tuesday, with a production team and current affairs presenter Lucy Owen. We pulled out all the stops; re-arranged the shop with the appropriate guitars on the appropriate walls, put the kettle on, bought some cakes, and we even enlisted a shamelessly fame-hungry ‘busker’ – who you may recognise – to play outside the shop. Of course, any music shop has it’s fair share of bizarre characters through the door so filming didn’t always go smoothly. It was a great day though and the team, as always with the BBC, were the nicest, friendliest people you could choose to work with. We’ll let you know when the programme goes out.

We’ve just taken in a shiny red Dean superstrat. A full-on rock guitar with a locking trem system. Re-strung and fully set up; it’s yours for only £160. We noticed on Saturday that canadian rock band Rush has finally been inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Now Rush are a 3-piece band who’ve been touring and recording, with the same line up, for almost 40 years. They helped define progressive rock and inspired countless giants of the industry including the Foo Fighters, Metallica, Raga against the machine and Dream Theatre.

Rickenbacker 4003

The Foo Fighters dressed up like Rush from the ’70s and played the 2112 overture in celebration, check it out here…and the acceptance speeches were hilarious. We had a ‘Rush’ day at the shop on Saturday, set up a classic Geddy Lee Rickenbacker 4003 and inited anyone who called to be shown how to play a Geddy Lee bass Riff. Ade knows them all because he’s from the past. Not for the faint hearted – but some folks had a go.

Lessons start this week in the teaching room – and please sign up for the Saturday morning session on re-stringing a guitar properly; you’ve got to learn some time so get in touch.

Our New Teaching Studio

We’ve been – well, one of us has been – grafting away in the middle stock room for a couple of months; scraping, rubbing, filling, painting and carpet-fitting, to make the room nice enough to turn into a teaching studio. We’ve been planning this for a while now; since 1946 in fact, and finally, it’s become a reality. We’ve had lots of help from certain suppliers and now we plan on teaching guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, ukulele, as well as guitar re-stringing, maintenance and live sound techniques – hell, we may even do some cookery! Guitar and bass lessons are now up and running at £12 per half-hour and £22 per hour, so give us a call on 01639 631337 or email us to book. We’re going to do a saturday morning class on re-stringing too. Aimed at beginners, it’ll cost £5 per person and there’ll be a 30-minute class of no more than four people. Check out our new learning at Neath Music page. Here’s a video of the refurb with music from Dapper Werewolves.

GAXB150

This is an unusual shape for Ibanez and the colour is a limited edition so there aren’t many in circulation. It’s been cleaned, set up, neck shimmed, intonation set – all the usual refinements. It sounds fab and is a bit odd because there’s a three-position switch giving three different sounds, yet there’s only one pickup…this is clearly witchcraft so we want it out of the shop as soon as possible – £99. SOLD.

Yet another Squire Strat! Sunburst with three single coils and a white scratch plate. It’s amazing how

£89.00

Leo Fender got this shape so right, first time; even with advice from his astronaut friend. This example has beed re-strung, set up etc, and is mighty fine. £89.

We’ve been fitting carpet tiles in the teaching studio and the effect of breathing in carpet adhesive whilst working in an enclosed room has been magical – in fact we’ve written an album all about the creatures we’ve met and spoken to.

Yamaha BB415

We’ve taken in this used bass and it’s created a bit of an elephant in the room, because at least two of the staff really want to own it but nobody’s prepared to admit that to their colleagues. The signs are all there; it’s the cleanest guitar in the shop and not a moment goes by without somebody idly picking it up and having a quick plonk, muttering ‘nice that’. It looks vintage because of the finish, the metal pickup surrounds really set it off – and it plays like an animal; I mean, really fast. The action’s probably too low but we don’t care because we’re just ker-ay-zee! It’s on eBay here, but come and see it for yourself.

Oh, and apologies to the man called Sharon who rang us from Bangladesh to help us out with re-claiming PPI on all the loans that we’ve apparently been taking out over the years. The conversation was a joy but, Sharon, I regret to admit that we were actually having a bit of fun with you and there is no International Bank of Marshall, nor is there a Van Halen Finance corporation, so the hefty loans we told you that we had with these institutions don’t exist. Hope we brightened your day as much as you brightened ours.

Faith Saturn £249.

We took in an amazing Faith ‘Saturn’ acoustic this week. It’s been re-strung, set up. and it sounds great. One small blemish, as shown in the centre picture, but it’s no big deal. It has a padded bag with it and will go out of the door for £249. Come and get it! Too late; it’s SOLD! The blue Fender Srat has now sold, which was predictable, but we chanced upon a roving chord-smith before it went, who was in a mellow mood, and got him to film the latest episode in our ‘Local Stars with Reasonably-priced guitars‘ series of blockbusters. Jeff Rees is a great guitar player and a great guitar tutor. His knowledge of music is second to none and he’s the only surviving musician who actually knows the two guitar chords that don’t work in any song at all. You’ll find Jeff on our teachers page. Next, we’d like to find the biggest guitarist we can, to demonstrate our tiny Ibanez Mikro guitar; any takers?

For your little rocker.

Well, the bank holiday’s gone and so are all the easter eggs. We’ve been beavering away to finish the teaching studio at Neath Music, which will be up and running by the end of next week. We already have a fair bit of interest and we’ve managed to wangle some special gifts from our suppliers that we’ll give to the first of our students, so come on down! We’ll be teaching guitar, bass and piano initially but anything’s possible so leave a comment if you have any ideas; live sound, ukulele, bagpipes etc. Did we mention that we buy instruments and equipment for cash? Well we do, so if you have a pink left-handed fretless 12-string in the corner taking up space, pop it along. We’ve just taken in a great example of the Ibanez Mikro 3/4 rock guitar in electric blue. As always, it’s been re-strung and set up by our loving technicians and plays really well. One only at £109!