Welcome to Ben Witt of "The Chemist"

Little did we know that when we asked Ben Witt to do a guest spot at an event recentlyy that he would end up working here!  Ben is an incredible young local artist and when he told us he was looking for a few days a week we jumped at it. Ben studied contemporary music at WAPPA and has been busy as the songwriter, guitarist & vocalist of local band The Chemist who have received extensive airplay on triple J, toured nationally with acts such as Boy & Bear and Birds of Tokyo, and were runners up in the International Songwriting competition in the rock category last year. Ben has also been hired as a session guitarist for high profile acts including the Aria award winning Bob Evans & Megan Washington. You may see him playing a Fender Telecaster or a Godin 5th Avenue through a Fender Blues deluxe, and is known to indulge in the experimental possibilities his pedals can offer. We are pleased to have his enthusiasm & expertise on board... drop in & say "Hi" next time you're going past! 

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.