Product Review: Marshall Headphones Minor

This product review is on a name most associated with legendary guitar amps, Marshall. Everyone in music knows the name and every guitar player has wanted an amp that was a Marshall. Nothing has more balls than a Marshall stack! This is not a stack I am reviewing, it is headphones. Headphones?????? I did a double take too when I saw them come in at Rock Bottom Music. I got a pair and have tried them out for 2 weeks now and I have to say I love them. They have uses that go past just a musicians use. They are good for the average person for alot of their uses. Lets get into what they are and what I discovered over these past two weeks.

There are two kinds of Marshall headphones. The first kind are kinda big like old school 70's headphones. They are called "Major". The next kind, the kind I had, are called the "Minor." The first thing you notice when you get the box they come in and open it , they are set in there and pop up like your are getting some expensive jewelry from Windsor jeweler or something. The box is sturdy as can be too and can be used for storage after removing the headphones for guitar slides or picks. The minors are more like the ear buds you see today. These ones look like amp knobs from a Marshall amp on the outside. They also have an "ear click" system that secures the in ear piece to your ear. These things click in your ear in the direct part above your sound hole are. These ear click thingys come in small, medium, large and extra large sizes to fit any size ear and provide maximum comfort. They come loaded with mediums right out the box and are easily changed by just pulling off and putting what ever size you want on. These things make the in ear system feel really good in your ears. Most in ear or ear buds make my ear raw and make my ear hurt. These don't. I can wear them for hours on end and have them feel awesome. The box also has this thing called neutral stereo plug adapter. You hook it to you headphone end when using the headphones on an older listening device that is not compatible with today's technology. Example: an old cassette walkman.
These things are very good to use with amps like the new marshall and fender's that have that headphone jack so that you can play and not disturb anyone. I used these headphones with the Fender Mustang and they sounded great! I actually experienced alot of the effects the amp has to offer better with the headphones. The delays and reverb sounded huge and you could hear the delay go on longer and better than with just the speaker. I also used the headphones on my cell phone to listen to music. I tried these out on every type of music. Marilyn Manson sounded mean and in your face. Dr Dre and Snoop Dog had the bass and hi hat boomin on "still d.r.e.". I listened to Korn and when that low end came in my head shook from the bass. I had never had an in ear system make my head feel like i could feel the bass (granted i had it cranked!!!!). Listening to some jazz, Joe Pass, every note was clear and articulate. These things make music sound great. Listening to Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon.....forget about it. That album was meant for headphones like these. Headphones where it sounds like the music surrounds you. Like you are inside the music player. Every effect that is super psychedelic shines. The lows , mids and highs, they all come through like you would want in a set of ear phones. What is cool about these is by the clip to attach the phones to you there is a "remote" thing. This thing lets you stop , play, fast forward or rewind the tracks you are listening too. While i was listening on a Black Berry Curve I could get the stop and play feature to work I could not get the rewind/fast forward to work. I am sure it will work on a Driod, Ipod, Iphone or any other listening device, Black berrys just suck. This headphone also lets you use it on your cell phone to take and make calls. I was happy with how it sounded making calls. Clear as a bell. Makes driving and talking on the phone safer too. It is also as clear as any blue tooth device I have used too. The button that let you play/stop/ff/rewind when listening to music lets you mute your sound receiver when talking. The person cant hear you but you can hear them. It also shows up on your phone with a "muted" sign so that you can see that it is muted. The last thing I used these head phones with, it is also what got the most use for, was listening to talk radio. I listen to Howard Stern hours and hours a day. It made listening awesome. Howard's voice, Robin's voice, they both sounded like they were right next to me. When Fred hit a sound effect it was like he was sitting right beside me. Killer.

These Marshall Minor Headphones have a ton of uses. If it's making a call on your cell phone, listening to your Ipod, jammin on your amp or listening to your favorite talk show these things rule. Marshall is a name made of quality and so is this product. I am sold on them now. While they cost around $59.99 they are worth every single penny. The sound quality is second to none and they are incredibly comfortable. They sound like a $300 set of headphones. They have that cool timeless always in style Marshall look too. Do your self a major favor and get yourself a set of Marshall Minor in ear phones.

What Cha Doing? With Will Setzke

This is a new on going section of the blog called "What Cha Doing?" It will focus on a student, past or present, and show off some of their skills or just what they have been up to. This first piece is on long time student, former student spotlight and Davidson Fine Arts student Alex Cooke, A.K.A. Will Stezke. He has been a song writing machine for a while now and if you remember back to the first article I wrote for the new year I challenged students to set a goal for themselves in the new year to push themselves and get better. Alex or Will Setzke, got a challenge from me to write a song a week for a month. He upped it to a song a week for a year. This has been done by a few people i know and have read about. Most notably former local musician Will McCranie. I challenged Alex/Will Setzke after he came into lessons last week with two songs he blew me away with. I really liked the 2 new songs so much I wanted to hear more. So here he is . Mr. Will Setzke. Here is what he has been doing....................

here is a link to see mr will setzke in action. make sure you watch the video. he kills it!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05C9WbabxXg&feature=youtu.be

Student Spotlight: Taylor Temples

This "Student Spotlight" is another one of the amazing jammers coming from North Augusta Middle School. He is 13 year old 8th grader Taylor Temples. He started playing guitar around 4 years ago, quit for 3 years and started back up. He started his lessons with me 9 months ago. He has been hooked and a daily guitar player ever since! Taylor wanted to play guitar because of his love for rock music and he thought it would be cool to hear a song and go " I can play that!" He doesn't come from too much of a musical family. He has a cousin and an uncle who have dabbled in guitar and a little cousin who has started singing. Taylor's favorite guitar player is Jimi Hendrix. The reason why? He told me " Really????? It's Hendrix. Do you really need a reason why he is awesome? Come On." I laughed my butt off when he said that and could do nothing but agree with him! If he could play guitar in any band in history it would be a tough choice between two bands, Motley Crue or Guns and Roses. I asked Taylor if he could play anywhere in the world, where would it be? He said at the top of the Empire State Building. He would take speaker cabinets and line all the outside walls with them with the speakers pointing out and just sit there on the top of it jammin. Very, Very cool. Taylor would like to possibly go to school for music when he graduates high school. Where does he see himself in 5 years musically? He hopes that the band him and Carter Kight have started is out there playing gigs around the CSRA just getting their names out there and playing their butts off. He hopes to someday be ina band that makes a living playing but at the same time never sold out. His dream guitar is a U.S.A. sunburst Fender Stratocaster. Taylor has 3 big pointers for someone who is just starting out playing. #1- Practice. #2- Practice. And #3- PRACTICE!!!!!!!! What is the thing he feels has been the most important that he has got from lesson so far? Doing finger exercises. He says they have gave him the ability to get down everything that he needs to get down. What song is getting the most play on his IPod right now? All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. Taylor is a student that has caught the musical bug hard. He plays everyday and really works hard on his playing. he takes it serious and has showed a huge improvement and love for music. I have been very proud of the player he has become and am really looking forward to the player he is gonna turn into. He is to you Taylor Temples........Keep Rockin'........Keep Playing.........and Keep Having fun!!!!!!!!

New Year= New Goals

It is the first post of 2012. I am starting out the year with some words of encouragement. Get a new goal set for your self and kick it in the butt! I think every student ( and reader ) should pick a new thing and go for it. I have set a challenge to my student Alex Cooke to write a new song every week for a month. He came into his last lesson with two of the best songs I have ever heard him write. Some goals you can set for your self would be to learn a second instrument, learn a song or two from a style of music you don't normally play, get a band started or even play your first open mic or gig. Make sure once you set your goal think about what you have to do to achieve it. Example- Say your goal is to learn the song "One" by MetallicA. You know that the song is played at a speed that is out of your range of playing at the moment. What you will have to do is buckle down, get a metronome and do exercises until you get faster. It won't happen over night. You will have to do exercises everyday to get there. Another example- You want to start a band. With a band you are going to have to spend time finding people to play with, time for practice. You will also have to find the time to learn the songs you are going to play together. It takes discipline to get what you want out of your goal. When something takes skill to do it takes time to master it. It does not happen overnight. Everyone who has been playing for any time knows this, has accepted it and has worked for what they want. I urge all of you to think of a goal and let me know what it is this week at your lesson. We will get to working on it. Hope you set your goal and make 2012 your break out year for playing!

"The johnny's"

I have decided by my own accord, to recognize some musicians, bands and people in our scene. I have tons of praise for the jammers in our area. Here are my own categories and who I have chosen. No order or anything.

Coolest CD cover: This one goes to Artemia. I believe their singer Blaine is the one who painted it. It's very cool and original. They also win for coolest fliers too. Look at the one picture from them on Artemia's Spotlight Lick. Pure awesomeness.

Musician to look out for in 2012: This is a tie for me. Both people I have choose are brilliant at several instruments. One is Evan Miller. I met him a while ago. I heard him playing drums and was FLOORED. Heard him play bass, my jaw dropped. Heard him play guitar and was FLOORED again. I was so impressed I hooked him up with Rob Boggs to work with us at Quest Sound. The second person is Greg Warnier. The same goes for him as went for evan. Amazing drummer, bassist and guitar player. The kid has the chops and the passion. Expect great things from these two in 2012.

Band your going to have the most fun seeing: This band is False Flag. You will always have fun going to see them. They gave me the pleasure of sitting in with them once. They released a cool cd this year too.

Coolest "New" Band: She and She. If you have been in the scene you have known Brandy Dougless from her solo work. This is what she is doing now. Greg Warnier on drums, a Kate Anderson on bass and the biggest singing secret in Augusta, Drea Suarez. The band plays with a love for what they do, have great harmonies and have a great sound.

Best Sounding CD: Aretmia. Bar none Eric Rinker has the best ear for recording in our area. If you like their music or not there is NO DENYING how well that cd sounds. He has a gift. He would corner the market for a studio in our area if he wanted too. I have listened to a bunch of tracks coming from our area. There are some good things coming from other people, Eric just takes it to a new level.

Band Whos Time Has Come: Radar Cinema. I have watched these guys for years work their asses off to get a solid line up and sound. They achieved that in 2011. They released a killer and ambitious cd , Bird meets Worm, and really hit their stride this year. Congrats guys. Your hard work paid off.

Band who I am glad did a re-union: JJ Maj. Although I missed it due to being sick, they are a local band that did a re-union that actually should have did one. One of the best local bands ever.

Favorite Place to Play and Hear a Band: The Cork and Bull in Aiken SC. Check it out and you will see why. People pack the place out and LOVE live music.

Best promoter of local music or their own band: Michael "Dork" Dinkins. He promotes, promotes , promotes and does it without over hyping or annoying the hell out of you. He puts his money where his mouth is too. He will go to shows just as much as he asks you to go to his. his bands always kick ass too. he never makes a false promise about "how badass his show is gonna be" or load up your facebook with crap. He does promotion well and actually makes you want to come out to a show.

Best Writers of Augusta Music: Tie between Stoney Cannon and Brian "stak" Allen. Stoney knows the local scene better than anyone and just plain writes good. he keeps you interested in his piece, even if you dont know about local bands. Brian writes well too. His best writing quality to me is his honesty. Most local music writers write only good things about local bands ( i can see why, its a small town and everyone is friends or wants to be) but Brian is honest. If he tells you something it's because he is really thinking it. He doesnt go out of his way to write crap on someone just to fling it. Good or bad he tells you his opinion. I like that. Not everything is good.


Band i Like to See: Electric Voodoo. Riley williams is a great guitar player and his band plays some killer tunes. Big props to them. Go see them. Do it. I tell you, Do It NOW!


Most Original Sound: Sibling String. They are made up of guitar/vocals Jacob Beltz, Bass Deveron Roof, Guitar Mike Baidime, drums Dave Mercer and multi instrumentalist Henry Wynn. They play alot downtown and go see why. No other band plays the instruments that they do and make them cool. Killer band with some of the best players in our area.

These are what I think was the tops for 2011. At least at the moment I was writing this. There is SO MUCH good music in our area. These bands and people are just what tickled my fancy for the past year. I am excited to see what comes out in 2012. Cheers!

Happy Holidays!!!

Here is to another year of great musical happenings. There has been a ton of new students start with me this year and a ton of new readers to our little blog. We have more than doubled our reader ship from last year! The product reviews are, on occasion, getting picked up by the companies they are done on and used on their web sites. We have seen the addition of videos to go along with things this year and had a lot of very cool "Spotlight Licks" done by some very cool people. I would like to thank those people now: Al Moore, Artemia, L.I.E., Ken Gabriele,Michael Baideme, Dave Mercer and Bruce Pennigton. Thank you guys very much for the blazing licks, my students (and many others) have been playing the snot out of them. I had ALL of my students make great strides this year and are very proud of all of you! The student spotlights from 2011 are Christina Naomi, Carter Kight, Grace Dickins, Zeb Shepard, Brian Yonn, Oscar Ystenes, Shane Waldun and Chris Marks. I also had some students in the military that are proudly serving our country and had our lessons cut short due to deployment. Students like Shane Waldun, Rob Cornwell and Robert Wirth. I would like to say thank you to them and all the servicemen and woman i have worked with over the year. I also want to send a shout out to a longtime student named Danielle Parker who's family made the move to New Orleans last month. Keep rockin kid! Our website had some guest writers this year too that did a fine job. "The Bizz With the Buzz" by Stoney Cannon, "The Sound of Music" by Eric Rinker where incredible articles written by music lovers. We had Rockers like Brad Davis, Steven Adler and Chip 'Z Nuff be gracious enough to lend some time for interviews and inspiration. We have some more in store for 2012 too! I am looking forward to 2012. We are going to have some more great guest writers, new subjects to discuss, loads more licks and learnin' and lots more fun to be had. In 2012 I will have a little baby girl born and I am way excited to meet her. Thanks all for reading this year. Have a safe New Year and keep your eyes peeled for the new stuff coming!

Student Spotlight: Christina Naomi

This, the last Student Spotlight of 2011 goes to Miss Christina Naomi. She is a 13 year old Merriwether Middle School student. Christina got into guitar not too long ago when her Grandmother got her a guitar for Christmas. She got the guitar and figured "why not give it a try." Even though her Grandma got her the guitar, that doesn't mean she comes from a musical family. Christina says she can't think of anyone in her family who plays. That just makes it that much cooler that she is playing! A Day To Remember is Christina's favorite band. She cites how well the lyrics are written as one of the things that makes them her favorite band. If she could play guitar for any band in history it would be the Beatles just on the basic fact of how legendary they are. You can not argue with that! If she could play anywhere in the world it would be at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. She choose that because when it comes to playing at a venue nothing tops Madison Square Garden. I can agree with that too. Christina'a dream guitar would be either a Taylor or a Gibson acoustic. Where does she see herself musically in 5 years? Still jammin', being a better player than she is today and having a ton of fun! If Christina could create her "dream" concert line up it would include, in no certain order, A Day To Remember, All time Low, Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift. Her favorite guitar player is Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low. After Christina finishes high school she hopes to go to school in New York City for fashion. Anything to do with fashion is her passion. She is kicking butt in school right now and is a STRAIGHT A student!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!! The thing she feels is the most important thing she has learned in lessons? She says learning all the chords in a bunch of different voicings. With that she says she can learn and play just about any song she wants. She doesn't really have anything she is embarrassed by on her Ipod. I can dig that. Christina has a great personality and is smart as a whip. She is kickin butt and takin names! Here is to you Christina.......Keep Rockin.....Keep Jammin.....and Keep Havin Fun!!!