Our "real" Christmas tree!

In the "old" shop we simply has no room for a Christmas tree, so when I expanded the shop 2 years ago my wife asked me asked me if that meant I was going to have have a Christmas.  I said, "Yes, in fact I think we still have a really nice fake one in the store room from a few years ago".  Being from Europe, she was shocked... there was no way Concept Music was going to have a fake, plastic Christmas tree no matter how "real" I assured her it looked!  So... off to Wilburys in the Swan Valley we went... where you have to wander through the paddock & choose your own & then cut it down yourself. Last year we seemed to run out of time but this year the guys were keen to have the real one again so we it is... before & after!

Eskimo Joe in the House!

Our good friends from Eskimo Joe where back in the store today on their way to to Nova 937 to do a private show... all good except their gear did not not make it Perth in time so they were sans-guitars!  Stu & Joel are both now playing Maton acoustic guitars so we offered to lend them a couple of our guitars for the occasion... and as Concept Music has the biggest (and best!) selection of Maton guitars Perth we certainly gave them plenty to choose from! Graham & Lee were on hand to help.

Congratulations Fiona on winning a brand new Maton Diesel guitar from Concept Music!

When Fiona Wedenig of Gidgegannup received an email saying “Congratulations you are a Winner!” she thought it was just another one of those annoying hoax emails. In fact Fiona said first impulse was just to just delete it! Fortunately she didn't and a few days later when she checked the email more carefully she could not believe her luck.

Fiona, who is actually a clarinettist & owns a beautiful Buffet Festival series Bb clarinet, registered for our eNewsletter last year after she came across our website while looking for a Christmas Present for her guitarist partner Han. She saw that Tommy Emmanuel was doing a Master Class for Concept Music and, knowing Han owned already a Maton M325, thought it would make a great gift. Coincidentally Fiona & Han were already familiar with the Maton Mini Series guitars and had already been considering buying one as a travel guitar to take with them when visiting friends and family at “home” in Switzerland & Holland & were hoping to find somehting small enough to go nito an overhead locker... something you can sometimes get away if you put the Mini Maton in a bag instead of a case.

Interestingly, Fiona first came to Perth from Switzerland some 7 years ago while she touring the world circuit as a Professional Kite-Surfer.  “Yes, really!” Fiona says “I had a great job that meant I got paid to go to the beach every day!”.  While Competing and Training in Perth she met her partner Han... and the rest, as they say, is history!

Fiona has since hung up her Kite and is now working as a Project Manager in the Aviation & Mining industry in Perth. Unluckily for Han, it looks like he won’t get to play the Maton Mini guitar very much as, just one day after receiving her new guitar, Fiona emailed Concept Music to say: “I’ve already learnt my first two chords and played until I got sore fingers... it is such a beautifully sounding instrument, I can’t tell you how excited I am!”.

Congratulations Fiona... we are excited for you too and can’t wait to hear your first song!

Hank Marvin chooses AER for his Gypsy Jazz Guitars

Guitar legend Hank Marvin has been a regular at Concept Music since moving to Perth about 25 years ago and he often drops in for a chat and to check out the latest gear. In a previous interview with Hank we asked him why he decided to move to Western Australia and his acute sense of humour was quickly apparent when he immediately quipped “Actually Graham, when I got on the plane I thought I was going to Peru... but somehow we ended up landing in Perth!”
 
Hank was in again recently looking for amplification for his Gypsy Jazz guitars on which he prefers to use clip on microphones.  After talking to Tommy Emmanuel, he decided to try the AER acoustic amps instead of an electric amplifier and the Alpha 40 turned out to be extremely well suited.  Hank said: “it was difficult to get enough volume before feedback with traditional electric guitar amps. The AER allows me to achieve just the correct mix of stage volume and tone with my clip on mic on the gypsy jazz guitar in a live environment” before smiling & adding “and Tommy Emmanuel recommended it and I thought that was good enough for me!”

Tony Del Roio also chatted to Hank while we was here picking up his amp and asked him why, of all the places in the world he travels, he chooses to shop at Concept Music. Hank responded generously saying: “Concept has friendly service and staff... and a great ambience in the store when I visit. All the guys here have a genuine interest in music and musical gear... and it shows”.

Quashing rumours that he & Graham are planning to do a Christmas album together featuring Graham on trombone, Hanks said he is currently completing a new album with his Gypsy Jazz Quartet. It has recently been mastered and will simply be called “Gypsy Jive” and is due for release very soon.

Excellent... MORE new Fender guitars!!

Working at Concept Music is great! Yes, I know... there is a lot of cleaning & restringing & unpacking boxes... BUT almost every day SOME of those boxes happen to contain brand new guitars & basses from Fender!  :-)  Yep, you get to love the sound of that delivery truck reversing up & then seeing all those plain brown cardboard boxes you start salivate... coz even though you KNOW what's coming next you never REALLY know (I mean...  they're all different, right?!).  Lee has already developed that Pavlovs dog drooling look about him when he sees brown cardboard...

So... what was in those brown boxes today?!  Well you'll have to come in & check them out but here's what was in one... a stunning '52 ReIssue Telecaster!  Bewdiful!  Come in & check them out before our crashing dollar pushes prices back up!

Visit to the Maton guitar factory

Earlier this week Graham was attending a trade show in Melbourne to check out some of the lastest gear and unexpectedly had a few spare hours before his plane left so he headed out to see the lads at Maton. The factory is in Box Hill and is fantastic place to visit if you're ever over that way. Graham went for a walk around the factory with Andy from the Maton Custom Shop who showed him a couple of the latest designs he is working on... in particular Maton Custom Shop "Traditional" which is little more old school in design & will suit all those fingerpickers out there very well.  It is about the same size as a Martin 000 (funny about that!).  :-)    Andy is holding one he is half way though making... and Graham just couldn't resist ordering it (no surprises there!). It looks like it's going to be a stunning guitar.

The guys in the "Mini" Maton section were also pleased to see Graham... especially as they told him Concept Music is one of the biggest "Mini" dealers in the country!  We have sold over 80 of them since they released them only 5 years ago!

Great work Maton... keep it up.

Kim Falcon Gretsch Calendar

The thoughtful people at Gretsch have just sent me this rather stunning calendar of gorgeous Gretsch gal Kim Falcon... and they had it personally autographed!  I'm not sure why they thought I'd be interested but it does certainly have some stunning guitars in it so I'm sure that must be it?   I have to admit that when I first saw a photo of Kim Falcon in a Gretsch catalogue I didn't realise she was real person... but she certainly is as you can see!  And don't worry, if she's ever in Perth for an "In Store" you can be assured we'll let you know! I'll put the individual months up on our Facebook page.

Where did our "little man" come from?!

One of my staff recently asked me "Where did the Concept Music ganster came from?".  He was assuming I think that it was a generic photshop image I'd found in "word" or from an Adobe disk or something.... but the reality is that our little guy has been around since well before personal computers came into being! 

I first saw him in a Japanese Music Trades magazine back in about 1975 (though exactly what he was promoting I'm not sure... the Japanese text next to him wasn't giving much away!). Nevertheless I liked him & tore the page out of the magazine & filed him in my "ideas" folder in my filing cabinet (I still have one of those!) & forgot about him. 

A few years later when I decided to open Concept Musical Instruments I pulled out that file trying to think of ways I could get people to promote my "new" store for me that would be fun.  Out came my little guy... "How could I use him?" It was about the time car stickers were appearing around the city saying "Mafia Staff Car" & so I had the idea of making him into a case sticker & adding the words "Keepa da hands off!" as way people might be able to (politely of course!) say "This is MY instrument... don't touch it!" and hence WANT to put it on their cases & get the Concept Music name out there in a subtle, friendly way.

31 years later, our little ganster is still there & the only change has been the recent addition of a splash of orange on his hat & platform shoes to macth our current logo. The sticker still appears on cases all over the world & he is also on our VW Caddy Van as well our free notepads &... as of last night, on the side wall of Concept Music espousing the message: "Lifes' Better When you Play!" courtesy of Drew from The Graphite Crew.  And yes, we still have the stickers & they are still free any time you want one... just drop in!