Fan's Choice Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Reunion Tours

We asked our fans "What is the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll reunion tour?"  You voted, see who made the list! Connect with us on MySpace and checkout the cool new mix feature. Our mix includes songs and photos from each band.

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You Voted! Fans Choice Top Replacement Vocalists

We asked our fans "Who is your top replacement vocalist?"  You voted, see who made the list! Connect with us on MySpace and checkout the cool new mix feature. Our mix includes songs and photos from each top replacement vocalist.  Click on each song to play! View list >

You Voted! Fans Choice Top 10 Sabian Drummers

We asked our fans "Who is your top Sabian drummer?"  You voted, see who made the list! Connect with us on MySpace and checkout the cool new mix feature. Our mix includes  songs and photos from each top 10 Sabian artist. Click on each song to play! View list >

You Voted! Fans Choice Top 10 80's Rock Guitarists

We asked our fans "Who is your top 80's Rock Guitarist?"  You voted, see who made the list! Connect with us on MySpace and checkout the cool new mix feature. Our mix includes songs and photos from each top 10 80's guitarist. Click on each song to play!  View list >

Vintage Vibe for the Modern Player

     We will be embarking on a journey back into history through space and time to bring you all the wonderful guitars of the past ...Silvertone 1303 & 1478.

    As I discovered music and was learning everything I could about the usual suspects that are now called classic rock, I knew I had to play guitar. To this day one of my favorite guitars I have ever owned was a Silvertone. I don’t even know its model; it was just some plain Jane black Silvertone, but it was a real trooper. That poor thing was my workhorse and it went through beating after beating and kept right on playing. Silvertone guitars have such an original sound, and through a great amp there’s just nothing quite like them.

    That was what I learned my first bar chords on; I remember how difficult it seemed to be to move from one position to another. My father used to take me to my lessons on Saturday mornings and give some guy he worked with a six pack of beer a week for my half hour lesson. He had the coolest Silvertone guitar with an amp built into the case! More about that in future blogs…

    The philosophy behind the Silvertone Classic line is to respect the original vintage designs, while improving on previous manufacturing limitations through modern engineering, parts, craftsmanship and most importantly, the opinions of modern guitar players. Cool vintage vibe for today’s player!

Silvertone Classic 1478 RSB

    These new and improved Classic Silvertone 1478 and 1303 models have been revamped for the modern player in mind. With both guitars featuring mahogany bodies and the 1478 with an original Bigsby tremolo these are truly guitars to get exited about!

Silvertone Classic 1303-U2

    Just like the original back in 1958, the 1303/U2 & 1478 circa 1963, these Silvertones offer a unique sound and playing experience. The new Classic Silvertone models will inspire you to express yourself the same way as the rock icons that played the originals did.

Written by Joe B.

Do Vocal Warm-Ups Matter?

           

             I am a lead singer in an Awesome Hard Rock Band.  With that being said, I do a lot of screaming, growling and belting for three hours or around 35 songs for every gig we play.  I have a passion for it, I love it and I am completely fearless in performances and song choices.  The one thing that will keep me up at night, however, is the idea of losing my voice or the full range of it throughout my performance.  If my voice is gone by the end of a show, no problem.  That just means it was a good gig.  But thinking of losing it halfway through the second set is like dreaming of doing a speech in your underwear.   Losing the full range and power of my voice has happened during a few gigs, and I ‘ve always made it through.  But how can I exercise my instrument to ensure success every single gig, or at least get close to it?  How the hell does Chino Moreno from The Deftones manage to scream for an hour and a half four to six shows a week and still smoke two packs of Newports a day?  Is it good screaming genetics or am I simply a vocal sissy?  Asking these questions led me to do some research on what some notable vocal coaches suggest to prep yourself for a show, rehearsal or recording.

            Mark Baxter, vocal therapist for Scott Weiland, Richard Patrick and Steven Tyler, talks about his R.T.S. technique.  R.T.S. stands for Ready To Sing, which means you have to get yourself to a place when warming up where your body and mind are all Ready To Sing.  He suggests starting with getting your heart rate up.  Jog in place, move your body, roll your shoulders to loosen your tension.  You then must make sure to rub your face, neck, jaw…. basically all over your face to get that nice and loose as well. Then make sure to shake it all out, vibrate your entire body.  He makes a great point that if you feel uncomfortable doing all of this and feel a little foolish or self conscious, you may not be prepared to be at your full potential on stage.   Mark gives more tips in his article, “Warming Up,” on his website Voicelesson.com :

         "What you sing to warm-up is not as important as how. I recommend the simplest sounds. Your      attention should be on physical freedoms rather than quality of sound. Release your breath with several long, low volume hisses. Then, loosen your face and neck while humming with a wandering, siren-like, motion. Don’t allow your face to change to reach for pitches. Alternate the hums with an extended zzz sound and gradually change this to an EE vowel and then an AH. Keep your melodies sweeping. I don’t recommend singing songs quietly because there are usually tensions programmed into them. As you loosen up, turn up your volume -- but not before. As you get louder, stay with an EE or AH. The point is to wait until the body gives you permission to increase the load. The length of a warm-up should be in reverse proportion to the need. Long gig -- short warm up, but if you’re doing a single song on The Letterman Show, you should warm up and then sing for an hour for that, trusted, middle-of-the-set feeling."

            Jeannie Deva, Vocal coach for Aimee Mann, J. Geils Band and Foghat, stresses the absolute importance of a warm-up.  With a lot of people believing that a pre-show warm-up will wreck your voice she suggests doing it right before performance to save your voice and create career longevity.  As she states in her article, “Warm Up Guide for Rock Singers,” “If you decided to run a marathon without any preparatory conditioning, how long would you last?”  I often feel that I should be doing my best to speak as little as possible before a show, and I certainly want to stay away from singing anything so as to preserve every last piece of my voice.   But Jeannie makes perfect sense.  If I went to run 26 miles without stretching or get my blood flowing, I’d be fine the first mile and then suck wind the other 25.  Here are her warm up exercises from the same article found on Performermag.com :

"1) Open your mouth and take a breath. The tip of your tongue should stay touching the back of your bottom teeth. Use a basic speaking volume and sustain a comfortable mid-range pitch, through an “NG” tongue position. To help you find it, say the word “Sing” and maintain the position of the “NG.” The back of your tongue will lightly close with your soft palate. Feel the sound vibration shimmer along the roof of your mouth.

2) Try to maintain the same resonance from consonant to vowel, using the list below. Smoothly go back and forth between the “NG” and the vowel several times on one breath. Repeat on a new breath, and then go on to the next vowel in the sequence.

The sequence goes as follows:

NG-AH (Wand)

NG-EE (Seem)

NG-A (Same)

NG-AA (Apple)

NG-Eh (When)

NG-Uh (The)

NG-I (Him)

During the last two vowels, do not shape your lips for the sound. It can be achieved by thinking the vowel sound and letting it naturally resonate in your mouth.

NG-Oh (Home)

NG-Ooo (Soon)"

    Warming up has always been an enormous pain in the a** to me.  It’s one of those things that you know that you should be doing, but can never find the time or are able to come up with a myriad of other interesting excuses in ordered to avoid it.  But like many things that are a pain, the consequences of not doing it are far worse.  Just like the dream of having to do a speech in your underwear, not being able to perform to your full potential when standing in front of a packed venue can be an absolute nightmare.  My awesome rock band is going to be playing next week, so I am going to make sure to finally give one of these warm-ups a shot.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

           

Written By Kevin O

New Hagstrom Tremar Super Swede P-90S

  

    The Hagstrom Tremar Super Swede P-90 was created to combine the familiar tones of a well-recognized early single coil equipped double cutaway guitar, with the deeper and richer tones that only a single cutaway guitar can offer.

    This machine is a perfect compliment for those searching for the “best of both worlds”, as the Tremar Super Swede P-90 is a hybrid of both. It has a Mahogany body with carved maple top, set mahogany neck, 25.5" scale length, Graph Tech Black Tusq XL 43mm nut, Bigsby style vibrato with Roller Bridge.  While the pickups are specially designed to provide a “beefed up” boutique, single coil sound, the controls have been rearranged to provide a familiarity for double cutaway players with a single master volume, and three separate tone controls for each pickup.

 

    What was added to enable the player to achieve a variety of tones is the 6-way rotary switch. With the addition of the Tremar system and the guitars 25.5” scale length, double cutaway players will feel right at home with this single cutaway guitar, bringing them their favorite tones on tap, but providing  a much deeper and detailed tone with much more sustain.

    It is an awesome guitar.  The sounds are a sort of hybrid between the older Gibson LP sound, but with a twangy edge you get from a Gretsch  hollowbody. You also get the endless Gibsonesque sustain, but without the compressed sound when playing a modern LP clean. 

    That vibrato is not a Bigsby knockoff, it is the Bigsby 2.0, enhanced in every way. The pickup selector switch is a well thought out solution for getting 6 pickup configurations without resorting to a Fender style toggle switch.

    This guitar is unique in sound and looks. GO OUT AND PLAY IT!

Written By Joe B