Hampshire Guitar Club

The Hampshire  guitar club is a new organisation being organised by Martin Dearlove. The first meeting was held on the 20^th January 2012. They are planning to meet once a month in Eastleigh (the venue to be confirmed)

If you want to become involved email hampshire-guitar-club@googlegroups.com

This is for guitarists of all ages , abilities and styles who share a passion for the instrument. Jam with others look at gear and generally socialise with like minded people.

Crafter Guitar
Specialist

Visit the shop and you are confronted with a wall of Crafter
guitars.

Fret Music are now the biggest independent retailer of
Crafter. This is not without good reason having invested much of our time and
resources in promoting this superb range of acoustic and electro acoustic
guitars.

They are a highly prestigious name in the guitar industry.
Made in Korea
they also manufacture for some of the other major guitar names, some of who
might come as a surprise.

The quality of craftsmanship and choice of materials is
second to none.

The Crafter range is made up from the following series:

Lite Series

Features solid spruce tops and mahogany back and sides. The
electros are fitted with Crafter preamps that include a tuner. The range comes
in two different finish options. Lite, a satin natural or Hilite a gloss
vintage sunburst.  This a good choice of
guitar at a target price of sub £300.

6 Series

Features a solid sitka
spruce top, mahogany back and sides and binding on the neck and body. This has
an upgraded preamp. Includes a free gig bag. Sitka has improved definition for
fingerpickers.

7 Series

Feature a cedar top with mahogany back and sides. Cedar
creates a warm sound ideal for strumming. Fitted with an LR Baggs preamp
system. A gig bag is included free of charge.

15 Series

Features a cedar top with Dao back and sides. Gives the
warmth of mahogany and the projection of rosewood. Fitted with deluxe tuners
with wood rosette and fingerboard inlay. Great strumming guitar. Includes a
free gig bag.

D.V. Series

This is an all solid acoustic guitar featuring an engleman
spruce top and mahogany back and sides. This is a superb finger picking guitar.
Comes with a free gig bag.

T.V. Series

This is an all solid electro acoustic guitar featuring an
engleman spruce top and mahogany back and sides. This is a superb finger
picking guitar. Complete with an L.R Baggs preamp. Comes with a free gig bag.

Silver Series

Recommended where the budget is a at a sub £200 price. It
features a spruce top and a mahogany body.

FX Series

Crafter’s answer to the Ovation style electro acoustic with
a lyracord plastic back. The guitar is very useful in live situations through a
sound system. Has a quieter acoustic sound property. A gig bag is included.

GLXE 3000 Series

This is the flagship model from Crafter. It’s a stunning
electro with a superb spec fitted with a solid englemann spruce top with either
Indonesian rosewood back and sides or Bubinga. It features wood binding on the
body and neck. The electronics are a top of the range L.R.Baggs preamp system
with nice touches like a high quality Switchcraft jack socket.  Sounds fantastic acoustically or through
amplification. Comes as an outfit with a top quality stitch bound case.

The long-running campaign is successful as Minister agrees to ‘set a match to all this nonsense’

The MIA and other music industry and music education bodies have long been campaigning for the deregulation of live music.

“The current bureaucracy has stifled and prevented live music and we greatly welcome this government announcement” said Paul McManus, Chief Executive of the Music Industries Association, the UK trade body for the musical instrument industry.

Culture Minister John Penrose today announced plans for a wholesale deregulation of entertainment licensing in the UK. Musicians putting on small scale entertainment will no longer need to apply for costly and burdensome licenses under proposals in a consultation by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Since the introduction of the Licensing Act in 2003, live music in small venues saw a decline as regulations, bureaucracy and cost put musicians and their venues off holding small scale events.

In his press release, Tourism Minister John Penrose said:

‘Current entertainment licensing rules are a mess. Pointless bureaucracy and licence fees imposed on community groups trying to put on simple amateur productions and fund-raising events, sap energy and deaden people’s desire to get involved. The Government’s Red Tape Challenge, is leading to deregulation across all sectors of the economy – and in this case it will make it easier for new talent to get started and help pubs to diversify into other activities to help weather the present tough economic climate.’

Call-out for local volunteers to join the UK’s biggest music festival

Oxfam are looking for local volunteers who want to help organise an outdoor music event this October as part of the Oxjam music festival.

Oxjam is Oxfam’s month long music festival. It runs all through October with hundreds of events around the UK. It’s all organised by people who know and love their local music scene, and who want to put on brilliant events which raise money for Oxfam. Last year, more than 700 volunteer-led events happened around the country, and more people attended an Oxjam event than bought tickets for Glastonbury.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH: TECHNICAL PRODUCTION, PR & MARKETING, EVENT MANAGEMENT, SECURITY, FOOD & DRINK, FIRST-AID, AND STEWARDING.

It doesn’t matter how much experience you have, you just need a passion for music. Oxjam is a great way to gain music or events experience.

“You’re promoting local music; you’re promoting local venues and businesses; and you’re doing it for the best cause possible. So it’s win, win, win basically” said Tony Foster, who organised Oxjam events in Bournemouth last year.

Simon Pipola, a volunteer from London said “You come out of it feeling that, after you’ve done an Oxjam event, you can do anything, and it opens up so many opportunities to you”.

Since 2006, more than 40,000 musicians have played to an audience of over 800,000 people at 3,000 Oxjam events, raising in excess of £1.5 million to fight poverty around the world.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Daisy or Kelly at

OXJAM EASTLEIGH

oxjam.eastleigh@gmail.com

This evening was to mark the launch of the Drop In Rock Club. This will take place on the last Monday of the month with the aim to encourage musicians to form bands and other musical partnerships or just to have a sociable evening. Which certainly was the case on the 22nd November 2010.

We then had a real treat with two bands made up from the band mentored by the Fret Academy teachers. The first set featured Dom, Jonathan, Michael and Ollie playing a blend of Reggae and rock. The 2nd band played a nice R£s;B type arrangement featuring Storm, Ollie, Nathan, Alex and our drum teacher Rob Crisp. The bands both went down a storm. It’s just great to see young kids playing. It’s what it’s all about and definitely the way forward for the Fret Academy.

The evening concluded with a draw with 3 lucky winners and a final number from the band. Many thanks to the guys from Firebird. As is the case with all good nights it ended on a high note at the Jewel In The Crown curry house!

The first Drop In Rock Club night 6.30-9.30pm will take place on 31st January. The cost of attendance will be a £5. All are welcome. We don’t go for ageism. There is no need to bring amps or drums. You are welcome to bring your own instruments however guitars are available if required.

Yet again Fret Music hosted another successful evening at the shop. Orange amps, Marshall Amps, Peavey, Ibanez, Crafter, Tama Drums, Mapex Drums. Ashdown, Music Man Guitars and The Ranch Recording Studios were all in attendance. The evening kicked off at 6.30pm and commenced with the registration of all arrivals for the draw.
Early in the evening Tom Allen from Peavey demonstrated the incredible Peavey Amp Kit. If you are a guitar player with an iphone and a spare £29 buy one!

Young musicians were then taken to the rehearsal rooms, to be taken through band mentoring by the resident teachers. If your band could do with a few pointers you could do no better than engage the services of the Fret Academy teachers.

We then had a real treat with a nice 3 piece rock band consisting of Bill Steer (Firebird and Carcass) on guitar, Greyum May (Firebird) on bass from Frets and their good friend Allan French on drums.

Chris from Marshall Amps then did a demo of the new Marshall Slash head. We are talking serious gain here! Both Tom and Chris were incredible guitar players and many thanks to them for their sets.

Fret Music now boast big stocks of the Fender brand amps and guitars and have become a main stockist for Squier. As traditionally stockists of the more conventional types of guitar it had become apparent that we were very remiss in our stock profile especially with Fender. This we have now put right. However be aware that most US guitars are still on a long lead time back order due to the paint supplier going bust and Fender having to relocate a new supplier!

Come in and try one. Dont forget Take It Away finance. Government sponsored dosh at 0% interest!!

Fret Music is now the only local stockist in Southampton of the Orange Thunder 30 Head and Combo. Orange is red hot at a time when most things have gone stone cold, what with the recession and all.  We cannot get enough of these amps. Delivers the goods with two channels offering super clean (with balls), British rock crunch and sonic valve overdrive. If you have not done so pop down to your local emporium , hopefully ours try one and buy one. Just check out the forums for an unbiassed opinion.

Remember Fret Music is the number One choice retailer in the Southampton , South Hants area for some very good reasons. Fret and Orange go back a long way, our prices are right and we give a good honest back up service.

So come round and give one a go!

Here at Fret Music we are interested in finding out your experiences of buying instruments and equipment with us. We would like to hear what you have bought, how you have got along with it and any stories/tales from the times spent playing your instruments.

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