GrillSgt's Firepit

Who Says Country Stars Can’t Rock or Play Guitar

Keith Urban on stage with Neil Young playing “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Sonrise – New Song Added

I went ahead and uploaded what I have done on my song “Sonrise.” It’s just rhythm guitars and drums. I still need to add bass, lead guitar and vocals, but that’s going to happen sometime later. I got some new recording software with some of the gear I purchased a couple of months ago and I may have to re-record what I already have. I don’t know if what I have will be compatible with the new software. Plus, I have some old lyrics that I need to set to new music and get recorded in the next couple of months.

Anyway, take a listen to Sonrise on the Demos page or right here.

 Sonrise - Instrumental: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Guitar Amplifier Troubles

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, then you know some of this.

On December 27, 2008, I ordered a Bugera 333XL-212 guitar amplifier from Abe’s of Maine. I did research on the amp and priced it out. Abe’s of Maine had the best price. Although I hadn’t heard of Abe’s of Maine before this, they have a brick and mortar store in New Jersey, so I knew I wasn’t dealing with some fly by night or some dude on ebay who could be trying to rip people off. Anyway, I got free 7-10 day shipping with my order. Upon submitting my order, I received the obligatory order confirmation email and all seemed right with the world.

On January 8, 2009, I still hadn’t received my amp, which was 10 business days accounting for the holidays. Checking the Abe’s of Maine website, my order said it was *PROCESSING*. That didn’t tell me jack squat. So I replied to my confirmation email, requesting an update on my order status. And I waited for a reply. And waited…

After waiting for a week and receiving no reply, I jumped on the Abe’s of Maine website and checked my order status again. Still said *PROCESSING*. WTF! I’m starting to get a little peeved. I find their customer service number and give them a call. After several minutes, which seemed longer than that because of the crappy music, of waiting in the queue, the call is suddenly disconnected. Aaargh! I call back. Now I get a message telling me to call back during customer service business hours, which are 10 AM – 6 PM EST. It was only 4:45 PM EST. It took me three or four call backs to finally connect again. Again waiting in the queue and listening to crappy music for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, a customer service representative took my call. I explained that I wanted an update on my order status and gave him the order number. He put me on *IGNORE* to talk with the buyer. After a couple of minutes, he came back and told me that the buyer had gone home for the day, but he’d call me back tomorrow. Tomorrow never came.

A week later, I called them back. At least this time I didn’t get the “call back during business hours” problem. After, again waiting in queue and listening to crappy music, I got a customer service representative and explained that I wanted an update to my status order. After giving him my order number, he put me on *IGNORE* to contact the buyer. When he came back I was informed again that they buyer wasn’t in, but he did know that they hadn’t received my amp from the manufacturer and that he’d call or email me tomorrow with an update. At this point I’m getting pretty steamed and I gave the guy an earful. Mind you, I’m not upset because I hadn’t received my merchandise…I’m upset that Abe’s of Maine is not proactive with their customer service, like so many other places, like Amazon and Musician’s Friend. Much to my unsurprise, tomorrow never came.

A week or two later, I called back a third time, earlier in the day than the last two times. At least this time I didn’t spend so much time in queue listening to crappy music. Once again I request an update to my order status and give the guy my order number. He puts me on *IGNORE* and talks to the buyer…FINALLY! When he comes back on the phone with me, he informs me that my merchandise is on backorder and they don’t know when it’ll come in. I gave this guy an earful and then canceled my order…not because it was on backorder, but because their customer service completes sucks and I was tired of f*#$ing with them and their incompetence. It’s really too bad because originally they were $50 cheaper than the competition and now they are $100 cheaper…but I will not reorder from Abe’s of Maine nor will I ever order anything from them again. F*#% me once, shame on you, f*$# twice, shame on me.

It seems that these Bugera 333XL-212 combo tube amps are in high demand and Behringer (the manufacturer) can’t keep up with that demand. They are a new line of amps so that could explain the demand. Yesterday I called about 10 music shops in Richmond, Charlottesville, Warrenton and Fredericksburg looking for a store that had them in stock with no luck. Not even Sam Ash had one in stock. So I resorted to ordering online again. I checked American Musical Supply and zZounds…both reported out of stock until mid-March. Musician’s Friend/Guitar Center don’t carry them, at least not yet. Sam Ash’s web site said they have them in stock so I went with them. Stay tuned…

Death of a Pioneer

Bo Diddley, pioneer of modern rock and blues and guitar maestro, died yesterday, June 2, 2008, of heart failure. He was 79. He influenced countless musicians and guitarists from Buddy Holly to U2. The full story can be read at Reuters. He will live on in his records, music and the countless musicians whom he has influenced.

Here’s a video report.

Here’s a music video of Bo Diddley performing “Who Do You Love.”

GrillSgt’s Song Demos