We wish you Merry (real!) Christmas!

My partner Anke was aghast when I said I was going to pull out my old plastic Christmas tree from the storeage shed this year... "You cant have a FAKE Christmas tree!" she quoth!  I did explain that is a very NICE plastic Christmas tree but that was simply unacceptable (in Germany at least!) I was told. 

And so it came to be that there we were at 9am last Sunday morning, saw in hand, wandering around the Christmas Tree Farm in the Swan Valley to choose a perfect "real" live Christmas tree for the very first Christmas for Concpet in our new shop!  And of course, having a traditional Christmas tree meant that we had to have traditional decorations as well!  When you come in you'll be amazed... it's SO beautiful (and yes, I admit, so much nicer than the old plastic one from the shed!) with real chillies, real slices of lemon, real walnuts.... a REAL tree! Lot's of Ho Ho Ho there!  Danke Anke! :-)  

"All the world's a Stage!"

Well that's what they say... and it must certainly be true of the Music Industry! I had a small stage in my old shop in Murray St & loved having it there to do displays as well as hold clinics & demonstrations so it was a concept (excuse the pun!) I was keen to re introduce into the "new" shop here now that we have more space.  So on Sunday my good freind Sebastian & my son Tim came in to help me tick that box of my all too extensive "To Do" list before my target finish date of December 1st!  And we made it.... just!  Just a coat of paint to go!

Getting closer!

Well, we've now got nearly all the old guitars back up on the wall which has really started to make it feel like "home" again.  We've got all the strings back up as well... so we ARE getting there (Graham repeats to himself over & over again).  The new Stage STILL isn't finished but we DO now have the timber for it...  oh well. Slowly but surely...

Acoustic guitars finally up on the wall....

The deadline I've given myself to get everything finished is December 1st so that means I only have 1 week to go to get all teh sections of the shop happening... a week to biuld a new stage, repaint the old showcases, finish off the lighting, hang all my old guitars.... connect up a new computer terminal...

Hmm... I think I'd better & go & get stuck back in!  Today I've pretty much got the acoustic section finished & just have some touching up & edge strips to put in... slowly slowly.

Ukelele's are us!

Apart from not wanting to get into an argument over "What IS the correct spelling of Ukulele?"  (The Americans seem to use ukulele & the Brits ukelele... but even makers & dictionaries seem vary on this one!) the one thing I CAN say is... BOY, do we have ukeleles!  And instead of being hidden away above the front door now they're taking pride of place next to stairs right near the new counter.  Uke's start at $25 for a brightly coloured Mahalo (the only "cheapie" we've found that will actually tune up & play!) but they go right up to $500 & $600 for some stunning top end models by Kala & Ohana as wel;l as Martin (yes, Martin make ukes' as well!).

Drums... we have drums!

Since moving here from Wembley 8 years ago we have never had enough space to display drums... we have always hgad a few kits in stock but they've always ended up jammed in between the keyboards & guitar packs somewhere... but NOW!!!! Our first shipment of Yamaha Stage Custom & Tour Custom  kits arrived last week & we finally got to unpack them... awesome! Some of their electric kits arrive next week too.

Anyone for a $10 slightly used guitar stand?!

I had to buy nearly 100 guitar stands so we had somewhere to put all our guitars while the shop was being painted & carpeted but now that most of them are back on the walls & have been rehung, we've got stands coming out of our ears!  So if you're looking for a "pracically brand new, only used once on a Sunday, pre-assembled & slightly dusty guitar stand" for 10 bucks... we got 'em... in fact we got dozens & dozens of 'em!!  If you want to grab one I'm selling them off at around half price so $10 of $19.95.