Daddy’s Blog

I’ve been getting a bunch of inquiries lately into portable PA systems, so I thought I would take a minute just to go over a couple options that are currently available at your local Daddy’s Junky Music store or Daddy’s Online. Portable PA systems have become more popular lately, and with the increase in demand, we get an increase in good quality products from the different manufacturers. One of the portable systems that we sell at Daddy’s Junky Music is the Yamaha Stagepas line of portable PA’s. This is our most popular seller, the Stagepas 300. The Stagepas 300 is a 8 Channel, (4 mono 2 stereo) 300 watt compact PA system with built in reverb. The mixer portion of this package snaps into the back of one of the speakers and the other speaker has a compartment used for storing your cables and mics. One of the things I really like about this system for the size is that it packs a pretty good punch. The speakers have a nice low response to them so unlike some of the other portable PA systems I’ve heard, this one really sounds nice and full. For $549.99 it’s pretty hard to beat.

If you prefer to carry something with one hand instead of two, then another great option is the Fender Passport Pro 300. Similar in specification, the biggest difference in my opinion is that this system is a little more compact and because it all snaps together it makes transporting it a little easier.This units speakers snap onto either side of the system and then you can carry it around by the handle located conveniently on the top of the mixer portion. This systems sells for $699.99. Of course there are many other option in this product category, but here are two of the best. If you have any questions about this or anything else gear related, get in touch with us by visiting your local Daddy’s store, calling 800-373-8393 X100, or by visiting www.daddys.com!

I was having a conversation on the phone this morning with a customer about the difference between powered and passive speakers. He asked me what made one better than the other and what he should consider when making a purchase. I figured with all the new powered speaker technology out there right now it would be a good topic to cover quickly for those who have questions. To determine whether or not you should go with powered or passive speakers, the first part of the decision should be easy. If you have an outside gig and you have limited power then, a passive system might be a better option because you can plug all of the components in at the same place. Powered speakers would require you to have outlets near the speakers, or to run long extension cords, which could possibly degrade the sound quality. Deciding what works best for your application is the number one concern. When it comes to pricing, it’s relative. The cost of a good quality power amp and set of speakers will likely cost you as much as going with a pair of powered enclosures. The one major way that powered speakers stand out over passive speakers is in the quality of sound and ease of use. Obviously it’s easier to plug a couple of cords into the back of a powered speaker. More importantly though, the powered speakers components are matched and tested to work perfectly with one another at the factory before shipping. With the powered speaker there is very little guess work about ohmage, wattage, crossover’s etc, because it’s all built to work correctly together. In my opinion, the powered speaker is the smarter buy. Of course if you have a stack of good power amps and you just need an excuse to lug them around again, stick with what works. Don’t forget it’s QSC month at Daddy’s Junky Music stores so you can get 12 month interest free financing on all the QSC powered enclosures. Just in case you have some passive speakers kicking around that you want to use instead, QSC sells power amps too! Stop into your local Daddy’s Junky Music or visit www.daddys.com for more info!

For those of you who check in and read the blog, you’ll remember just a few posts ago we talked about the QSC K Series of powered speaker enclosures. Well, not content to rest on their laurels, and to be honest, they could have, QSC has come out with yet another phenomenal product and Daddy’s Junky Music is going to be one of the very first places to get it! Introducing the new KW Series of powered speaker enclosures.

The KW’s are similar to the K series in that they have the same input panel options and power as their little brother. The major difference between the K and the KW series is that the KW series is made from high performance, light weight birch. QSC decided on this material because it has the best combination of weight and sound quality. Typically a wooden enclosure is more traditional when you’re talking about speaker enclosures. Within the last several years molded plastic enclosures became more popular because of how much easier they were to transport and set up. The only minor drawback is a loss of sound quality. Granted, if you put a modern generation molded plastic enclosure like a QSC K12 on a stand and listened to it, the quality is so good, you wouldn’t know what you’re missing. If you then took that and put it next to a KW, then you would hear the difference that the wood makes. You’re basically going to get a tighter punchier response, with more low frequency. The KW series also added a more traditional 18″ powered sub-woofer to the line-up. Daddy’s is also offering 12 month interest free financing on all QSC products during the month of July, so there is no better time to come in and take a look. Remember, Daddy’s rents, repairs, buys, and loves to trade! Thanks again for choosing Daddy’s!

Investing in a keyboard can be a daunting process. Especially if you’re a beginner. You want to get an 88 note weighted keyboard that feels and sounds as close to a piano as possible, but you want to be able to do it without spending a thousand dollars. It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to get that type of keyboard product, you either coughed up that much dough, or you didn’t get 88 keys. There have been some major breakthroughs in technology in the last several years that are finally making it possible to get good quality 88 note weighted keyboard products without having to break the bank. No manufacturer in my opinion has done a better job of providing these products to us than Yamaha. For the rest of this month, Daddy’s is offering 12 month interest free financing on all Yamaha gear in the store or online with the Daddy’s Musicians Express Card. Check out one of the latest products available:This is the Yamaha P95. It’s one of the newest entries in the Yamaha lineup. The P95 has fully weighted graded hammer action so it feels just like an acoustic piano. Yamaha has also upped the sample quality for even more realistic sounds. This unit has newly improved built in speakers, but you can still hook it up to an external amp of mixer if you so choose. They also added a Jazz Organ and improved Choir sample to round out the impressive list of features. All this and it’s still priced at $599.99. If you’re looking for a good 88 note weighted board with a ton of features and a great price, look no further than your local Daddy’s Junky Music store or online at Daddy’s.com, and test drive the Yamaha P95 today!

Every band is constantly searching for a system with the best combination of sound quality, ease of use, and ease of transport. With all of the advances in powered speaker technology in the recent past, it’s no surprise that a large number of gigging musicians have all switched over from their traditional live rigs to a powered setup. Most of what will be said in this blog does apply in theory to any manufacturer’s powered speaker enclosures, but for the sake of conversation, we’re going to focus on the QSC brand. There’s a reason more and more people have been going with QSC K series product for their bands than anything else. In my opinion, they are hands down the best sounding powered speaker enclosure for band use that I’ve ever heard. Ok, so here is what makes a powered speaker in general such a good choice for a gigging musician. First and foremost is sound quality. The reason this type of speaker sounds so good is that the components are matched perfectly at the factory. In other words, the perfect combination of amplifier, speaker, and crossover are all designed to work perfectly with one another and then put into the enclosure. This takes all of the guesswork out of buying an amp, separate speakers, and a crossover. When the manufacturer takes all their expertise and experience and matches up components to work perfectly with one another, you get exactly what you would expect. A perfectly engineered enclosure that has far more R&D behind it than any of us could ever put into setting up a system ourselves. Another major reason is that they are light weight. I have a friend of mine who packs an entire QSC system, complete with subs, monitors, drums, and all the other band’s instruments into the back of his tiny hatchback. In the past, if you had a complete PA system capable of playing medium to larger size clubs, and all the instruments, you would at the very least need a van or trailer or something like that. Now, that is no longer the case. It’s technology at work. Lastly, it’s so easy to set up even your drummer could do it.  Instead of having to go from a mixer to a crossover, then a compressor, power amplifier, and speakers, now all you do is go directly from the mixer to the speakers. Not only does it save a lot of hassle and guesswork, but it’s about 20% of the cabling, which means you save time setting up and you save money when you have to purchase cables. Daddy’s has the entire QSC K series speaker line in stock all the time either at www.daddys.com or in your local store. Give me a call at 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com if I can answer any questions. If you haven’t had a chance to take a listen to these yet, you should head down to your nearest Daddy’s Junky Music and check them out. You’ll be glad you did.

Hey everyone. So it’s finally starting to get hot outside. When it gets hot, it’s the perfect time to crank up the AC, buy a new instrument, and stay inside. I can’t think of a better month to do it. We’ve got some really cool new products from Fender this month for you to take a look at. This is the new Fender American Special series:

This is probably my favorite color combination out of the bunch, but all your standard offerings are available, in both rosewood and maple fretboards. This is an American made guitar and it only sells for $799.99. One of my favorite features is that it has  Fender “Texas Special” pickups in the middle and neck position. I personally prefer the sound of the “Texas Special” to the sound of the pickups that come in the more expensive American Standard Stratocaster. They have more bite that your typical single coil Fender pickup. The model pictured is the HSS or fat configuration with the Fender Atomic Humbucker in the bridge position. We’re also offering 12 months interest free financing with the Daddy’s Junky Music Musicians Express card this month on all new Fender gear. We have tons of these guitars in stock at your local Daddy’s Junky Music store, so head on in and check one out. You’ll be glad you did. Don’t forget that Daddy’s want’s your trades, so dig into your closets and jam spaces and bring us your gear. We want all your gear, working or not, it doesn’t matter. We’ll give you store credit for just about any piece of gear you can bring us! Thanks for choosing Daddy’s!

Hey everyone. Check out these two cool new Synth’s that we just got in from Roland! These are the newest additions to Roland’s extensive arsenal of music production synth’s and samplers. First off we have the new SH-01 Gaia.

The Gaia is a new virtual analog monster with 64 notes of polyphony, D-beam controller, arpeggiator, and phrase recorder. It also has a slew of high quality built in effects, 37 keys, and it’s super lightweight. You can also run the Gaia on battery power alone! Roland has always done a great job with their virtual analog gear and this is no exception. They use three voices on one patch to create what they call triple-stacked voices, and it sounds amazing.

The other new keyboard product that they just released is called the AX-09 Lucina.

This board is similar to the Gaia in that it has 37 keys, is very lightweight, has high quality sounds, and can run off 8 AA batteries. What set’s this apart obviously is the design. You can use this board as a traditional table top model if you choose, but as you can see you can also throw a strap on it and go. If you combined this with a wireless midi setup from M-audio, you’d be totally completely free from the constraints of your normal keyboard setup. Both of these fine keyboard are available at your local Daddy’s Junky Music Store or for purchase through Daddy’s Online by calling 800-373-8393 X100.

Hey everyone! Those of us here at Daddy’s Junky Music work hard to provide our customers with not only the best prices and selection on new and used gear, but also only the highest level of customer service. My goal when writing the gear blog is to give everyone up to date information on all the coolest gear, as well as tutorials for operating your gear, and help with troubleshooting. I hope that when everyone is reading the blog they are able to get something useful from it.  It’s hard for me to know what the most relevant topics are for everyone out there, so I wanted to take this opportunity to invite everyone to call or email me with your suggestions. Is there a particular piece of gear that you’ve heard about that you are interested in and would like to know more? Do you have a piece of equipment that you’re having a hard time operating and could use some pointers? Are you in the market for some music gear and need help narrowing down your choices to find the perfect product to suit your needs? We would love to hear from as many of you as possible, so give me a call at 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com with your comments, suggestions, and questions. Remember, Daddy’s doesn’t only sell gear, but we also rent, buy, and love to trade! Thanks again for choosing Daddy’s!

If you get your marching orders, and…you need to march to the beat of a different drummer, and…you don’t have a proper marching drum, the DRUM BUDDY may be just the thing you need. What is the DRUM BUDDY you may ask( I did)? It’s a high impact plastic, lightweight, adjustable, comfortable carrier that allows you to march with your normal drum set or concert snare drum. There will be no more frantic searches for an affordable marching snare complete with leg and shoulder attachment that you’ll use sparingly over the years. Your days of trying to hook up a guitar strap to your snare drum systematically in a way that the drum is not only comfortable, but also sits at a good angle for playing AND doesn’t periodically slam into sensitive areas of your body leaving bruises, welts and worse while marching, are over. Good for kids who like to march after seeing a marching band in action, or grown-ups bringing it to the streets to champion a particular cause. Who knows how many cool useful things that there are left to be invented in the drum world. After all how many different styles of drum keys do we really need, and how many tambourines do you really have to own? Do we really need another bass drum pedal that you need instructions to operate? Anyhow , I digress, march right over to Daddy’s Boston to check out the DRUM BUDDY.
www.thedrumbuddy.com
Michael Tocker-drums

Daddy’s Junky Music  is proud to announce the addition of Blackstar amplifiers to our current selection of new guitar combo amps, heads, and cabinets. Blackstar amplification offers a wide variety of different combo amps, guitar head and cabinet combination’s, plus effects pedals for every application and budget. Point your browser here to check out the Blackstar Website. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to demo a couple of their amplifiers prior to Blackstar shipping us our first order and one of the amps that I was really impressed with was the HT Club 40 112. The HT40 is a 2 channel, all tube, 40 watt combo with 4 operating modes. Other features include a 12″ Celestion speaker and Blackstar’s patented ISF or infinite shape feature that will allow you to customize your tone exactly the way you like it.

One of the things I really liked about this amp was the ability to get a nice wide range of tone out of it. From a nice clean channel to heavy distortion and everything in between, I can see what all the buzz is about. These amps sound amazing and are very versatile. The HT Club 40 sells for $699.99 and is available at your local Daddy’s Junky Music store. You can also purchase this amplifier online by calling 800-373-8393 X100 or emailing bfoley@daddys.com.  Don’t forget that Daddy’s wants your trade ins. If you have something at home that’s kicking around not being used, there’s no better time to bring it down to your local Daddy’s and trade it in towards that new piece of music gear you’ve had your eye on. Let’s face it, I know you’ve had your eye on at least a few! You can also get a free online quote if you don’t have time to make it into a store by submitting a trade request here. Right now we have HT Club 40’s, and HT5’s in stock, with more Blackstar amps coming in very soon. Don’t hesitate to give me a call or send an email if you have any questions about this or any other piece of music gear. Thank’s for choosing Daddy’s!