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(02/29/2020)
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Art, Culture:
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Colleagues:
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Enid Farber Fotography
http://www.farberfoto.com
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One of the premier photographers on today's New York music scene. She was the sole female of four names mentioned in the New York Times in May 1997 as one of the young generation of talented photographers documenting the current jazz scene. Farber was nominated four times in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 by the Jazz Journalist's Association for "Excellence in Jazz Photography", winning in 2002 as well as for "Best Photo of the Year". Some of Farber's classic jazz images were selected for noted filmmaker Ken Burns' historic 20 hour documentary on jazz aired on PBS in January 2001 and companion book. I'm proud to feature her photos of me here on my website.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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Amptone
www.amptone.com/
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Amazing compendium of info and opinions on getting great sound from amps and related electric guitar gear. Beware: it is definitely not a shoptalk-free zone.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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Elderly Instruments
www.elderly.com/
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Comprehensive mail-/ phone-/ Web-order retailer for new and used acoustic and electric guitars, basses, mandolins, fiddles, banjos, steel guitars
also amps, picks, strings, accessories
also books, videos
and CDs and cassettes. Speedy service, helpful salespersons on the phone.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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Guild of American Luthiers
www.luth.org/
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Trade organization of stringed-instrument builders (mainly acoustic plucked-stringed, but also covers bowed and amplified instruments); publishers of the informative quarterly American Lutherie, featuring articles by, and interviews with, builders. If you want to learn more about what goes into these things we play, you could do a lot worse than subscribing.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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Harmony Central
www.harmony-central.com/
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Features reviewsby usersof guitars, basses, amps, pickups, effects, etc.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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International Association of Schools of Jazz
www.iasj.com/
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An organization, co-founded by soprano sax virtuoso Dave Liebman, devoted to embracing and supporting the presence of jazz as a trans-national world music. A counterbalance and complement to the somewhat America-centric jazz education establishment.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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Mandolin Brothers, Ltd.
www.mandoweb.com/
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A large relaxed store, full of new and vintage acoustic and electric guitars, and other plucked stringed instruments. Its out-of-the-way location (in the New York borough of Staten Island) helps keep riff-raff away; browsers are welcome to try out anything in the place. Mail and phone sales are accepted; excellent repair department, too.
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Music:
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Organizations, sources:
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New England Conservatory Of Music
www.newenglandconservatory.edu
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This world-renowned institution (and my second "alma mater") has an excellent "jazz and contemporary improvisation" degree program.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Godin Guitars
www.godinguitars.com/
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Canadian manufacturer of distinctive electrics and acoustic-electrics.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Hamer Guitars
www.hamerguitars.com
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Quality electric guitars and basses from a small factory.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Hamer Fan Club
www.hamerfanclub.com
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Klein Acoustic Guitars
www.kleinguitars.com/
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Remarkable innovative designs from a California builder; co-designer of my acoustic bass guitar.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Martin Guitars
www.mguitar.com/
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The classic American steel-string flattop acoustic (company founded in 1833).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Nickerson Guitars
www.nickersonguitars.com
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Maker of exquisite, practical archtops (I bought one) and flattops; one of the Chinery Blue Guitar Collection builders. Formerly based in western Massachusetts; now working in Asheville, North Carolina.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Steinberger: creative and functional design in basses, guitars, and other stringed instruments.
www.nedsteinberger.com
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Steinberger: Basses and Guitars
www.gibson.com/products/steinberger/
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Current maker of the Steinberger line.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Steinberger World
http://www.steinbergerworld.com
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An excellent site with information on the past, present and future of the notorious headstockless guitars and basses. Not sponsored by the current owners of the products, but in contact with them. You can also join an informative e-mail group (based at Yahoo) through this web site.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Taylor Guitars
www.taylorguitars.com/
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Classic-type acoustics with fresh ideas in design and production techniques from this California company; they made the acoustic bass guitar I play.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Jerome Harris Featured on Taylor Site
www.taylorguitars.com/artists/awp/indies/harris.html
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One of the artists in Taylor's "Discover The Indies" section.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Aguilar Amplification
www.aguilaramp.com/
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Handmade, prime quality tube amps and other gear for bass.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Alessandro High-End Products
www.alessandro-products.com/main.html
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"Boutique" tube amps and cables with audiophile design values.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Eden
www.eden-electronics.com/
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Premium solid-state and hybrid (tube/transistor) bass gear.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Evans Custom Amps
www.evansamps.com/index.html
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Designed by a pedal-steel player; big power in a small, versatile, quirky package.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Mesa/Boogie
www.mesaboogie.com/
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Classic quality and character in a wide range of serious tube amps. Besides their famed guitar amps (I use their Nomad 55 12" combo), their WalkAbout Scout bass combo (comes in 1 x 12" and 1 x 15" models, both with tweeter and passive radiator; tube preamp section with parametric EQ; MOS-FET power section with 300W into 4 ohms) is truly shake-yer-booty-licious! I'm buying one.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Tech 21
www.tech21nyc.com/
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Great tone from their preamps (they're the makers of the "SansAmp"), pedals and solid-state amps (their "Trademark 60" is a surprisingly good item).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Walter Woods Amps
www.bgra.net/reviews/walter-woods-ultra-high-power--mono-2-channel-1-rvw.html
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[NOTE: the link is a user review.] The ultimate fly-weight, high-power, clean-toned solid-state amp; Ive loved mine (particularly with bass and acoustic guitar) for twenty years. Handbuilt; sold direct only. Not cheap, but worth every penny, IMHO. No company web site; for info, contact: Walter Woods, WW Amps, 82054 Solano Avenue, Indio CA 92201 USA; tel: (760) 772-7952.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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L.R. Baggs
www.lrbaggs.com/
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If youre looking into piezos, check them out; their Ribbon Transducer and Para Acoustic D.I. are very highly regarded. I have their "X-Bridge" in one of my solid-body guitars; it's the first piezo Strat-replacement bridge I've liked.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Bartolini Pickups & Electronics
www.bartolini.net
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It seems that most bass guitars with tone I like have Bartolinis...hmm...
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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DiMarzio
www.dimarzio.com
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One of the best of the usual suspects when it comes to magnetic pickups.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Seymour Duncan
www.seymourduncan.com
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Harmonic Design
www.harmonicdesign.net/
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Their "Z-90" model has the best tone I've ever heard in a humbucker-sized pickup--clear and detailed, but round and fat, with wide frequency response; too bad it's a single-coil type (I detest hum!).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Bill Lawrence
www.billlawrence.com/
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Outstanding pickups, at great prices, direct from an independent industry legend (hes been a consultant on pickup and instrument design to many big firms) who knows his stuff cold.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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RMC Pickups
www.rmcpickup.com/
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Once I tried a chambered-body Klein Electric outfitted with these bridge-saddle piezo sensors; its acoustic-electric tone was thrilling. They can also drive synths, with the proper module installed (I believe Godin uses them in certain models).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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La Bella Strings
www.labella.com
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A comprehensive line of quality strings; makers of the nylon-tape-wound strings I use on my Taylor acoustic bass guitar.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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GHS Strings
www.ghsstrings.com/
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Another quality string maker Ive had good results with. They make some neat specialty items--check out their pure nickel-wrap semi-flat slide guitar strings for that ole timey Dobro / Hawaiian sound.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Elixir Strings
www.elixirstrings.com/
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Their strings have a thin microfiber coating on the wound strings that cuts down on finger-sliding squeaksuseful for recording, especially for acoustic guitar.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Calton Cases
www.caltoncases.ab.ca/
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A traditionally shaped case, with a fiberglass outer shell that's harder than the Mark Leaf case (but the Calton is heavier for equivalent size); my Nickerson archtop sleeps in one.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Mark Leaf Cases
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UPDATE: The Mark Leaf Case Company, run by Woody Metcalf in McPherson, Kansas, seems to have gone out of business in late 2002. That's a real shame; the excellent blend of light weight and strength in their flight cases doesn't seem to be available elsewhere as of this writing (March 2004). If any of you know of makers of lightweight flightworthy cases that can accomodate instruments of unusual size and shape, please let me know; until then, my Taylor bass will continue to fly in its Mark Leaf case.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Mooradian Cases
www.mooradian.com/
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A good gig-bag maker, with excellent service. Theyll do custom work at reasonable prices. Many upright players use their bags; so do I.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Reunion Blues
www.reunionblues.com/
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Attractive, artfully crafted gig bags, in leather and Cordura/leather; Klein Electric uses their bags.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Tuki Covers
www.tukicovers.com/
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By far, the best quality amp covers Ive seen; they make padded and non-padded versions, and have dimensions in-house for a ridiculously long list of amp models (and what they dont have theyll make, if you get them the proper measurements).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Under Cover Gig Bags
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Practical and effective design, moderate price--what's to not like? No company web site; for info, have your local music retailer call them at (303) 322-5155 (Im not sure they sell direct to users).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Sibelius
www.sibelius.com
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Excellent music notation software.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Steinberg
www.steinberg.net/
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The maker of Cubase MIDI sequencing / digital audio recording / notation software, and related products.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Adobe Swallows Syntrillium
http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/syntrillium.html
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Syntrillium Software Corp., the maker of the very excellent Cool Edit line of digital audio recording software, has been "absorbed" by Adobe Systems in an effort to beef up the audio functionality of their video editing software. I hope David Johnston (Cool Edit's creator) and Bob Ellison (who co-founded Syntrillium with Johnston) were amply compensated in the deal; I more strongly hope that they have a hand in the new incarnation of the program, now known as Adobe Audition. I've just installed Audition; we'll see if it's as good as its predecessor!
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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FMR Audio
www.fmraudio.com/
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They make the extremely over-achieving RNC1773 compressor, the RNP8380 two-channel mike preamp, and the RNLA7239 leveling amp.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Grace Design
www.gracedesign.com/
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Their model 101 transistor mike preamp is an elegant audio beauty.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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M Audio / Midiman
www.midiman.com/
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Makers of well-designed, well-executed gear for computer-based recording.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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NHT Pro
www.nhtpro.com/
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I like their powered monitor speaker systems (I use their model A-10).
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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Schoeps
www.schoeps.de/
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World-class small-diaphragm microphones from Germany.
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Music:
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Tools (gear):
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The Sound Room
www.oktava.com/
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U.S. importer / distributor of surprisingly high-value recording mikes from Russia (Oktava, Nevaton, Lomo, Elation, etc.). The Sound Room does quality control that other importers of these mikes--and even their manufacturers--dont. You can even visit their showroom (in Connecticut) and audition their products. For a "hot-rodded" version of these affordable mikes, see Michael Joly's Oktava Mod website.
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Tools:
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Tools (gear):
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Ribbecke Guitar Corporation
http://www.rgcguitars.com/
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Builders of master luthier Tom Ribbecke's innovative "Halfling" archtop and semi-archtop steel-string guitars and bass guitars, integrating the prime characteristics of traditional flattop responsiveness and archtop tonal clarity in insightful, delightful ways. Soulful craftmanship and design integrity in instruments made for players, not just collectors. I play a lovely Halfling five-string Bobby Vega model acoustic bass guitar.
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