A Downtown development board put a hold on new incentives in the Pinch District of Memphis on Wednesday of this week and granted $57,000 to help St. Blues Guitar Workshop open a retail shop at 645 Marshall.
Keystone’s low profile, thru-hole PC Battery Clip for Lithium-Ion size cells, from 17-19mm diameters, accommodates higher energy, lower weight, and rechargeable batteries. Engineered to withstand rigorous use associated with recharging cycles, in addition to shock and vibration, the clip features a three-legged, THM design for extra strength and stability plus low profile placement into dense [...]
Mapes Piano String Company got its start in 1912 when the Schaff family bought the name from Steven Mapes, a prominent piano string manufacture in New York City. Recently, MMR sat down with Andy Wilson, the head of piano strings at Mapes to talk about the evolution of the company. “We’ve been here almost 100 years. Our reputation of being able to produce good musical strings is out into the market and that helps us greatly,” says Wilson. “You can buy your musical instruments from anywhere in the world, but I think American made products are still number one. The Schaff family has really been very good here at Mapes to keep their company in the location that it is, and employ local people.”
A trip to remote Meductic, in New Brunswick, Canada affords an opportunity to visit local landmarks (The world’s longest covered bridge. It’s actually in neighboring Somerville, but still) and get close to nature – sighted on MMR’s recent jaunt: two large deer (alive), one huge moose (quite dead, in the back of a truck), and lots of scenic… um… scenery.
When learning the guitar, beginning players are invariably challenged by how much repetition is involved in the memorization of scales and chords. Ultimately, many are put off by the time required in order to become competent. While still a student in college, Rusty Shaffer was also thinking about these barriers to learning guitar and began to devise a method that would be easier than the age-old approach of flipping through countless books and translating the written page to the fretboard. The innovative concept and design of his Fretlight guitars has vastly simplified and sped up the learning process. In a recent conversation with MMR, Rusty Shaffer shared with us the past, present, and future of the Fretlight teaching system.
