The Continuum

Today is the day after February 28th. Normally, we would be welcoming the lion's roar of March's early days. And yet... no March.

Similarly, there is a rather large hole in the wall of The Laboratory.

Where there was once March, now there is more February. Where there was a wall... now there is more Laboratory.

I have some concern as to the whereabouts of March, but I am certain that it has something to do with bigger Laboratorys needing bigger months.

I have attached some low quality camera phone shots of the progress. It is no accident that the gorgeously dynamic Orange Rockerverb 100 is front and center in the photos. You should consider coming by to give it a test-rock. Just watch out for wormholes in the space-time continuum. That's what we'll be doing.

The intrepid Larry toils at his craft

The dust shield down, you can now see the existing showroom from the new expanded territory

Stock's Vox Box of Rocks Knocks Socks

If I haven't said it before here, I am a gadgeteer. I love little gizmos that promise to do cool things. When I was in middle school in the eighties for example, I was able to successfully ward of any interest from the opposite sex with my Casio calculator watch which also stored up to 100 contacts and integrated a calendar with schedule alarms.

So it is that often my favorite new products that come through our door are the little ones packed with cool features. Which is why I'm surprised that it took me a few days to crank up the little Vox DA5 guitar amp. I guess I wasn't getting exactly what I beheld: I saw "battery powered mini amp with strap" instead of "variable wattage portable digital modeling amp with effects and a good speaker."

I plugged in a Hamer Echotone to get things going, and set the volume at a middle of the road setting. I then started marching through its eleven amp models (yes, it goes to 11). Each one was fairly distinct, and produced a tone I could easily imagine miking up for a cool array of layers in my pathetic little project studio. The common characteristic was a tight chunk of low end from the well engineered enclosure.

Also numbered eleven are its digital effects, which each have controllable rate and depth. These were as I expected: clean and useful. I'm glad digital technology has been refined to its current state; most of what I hear out there now is reasonably good and functional.

The amp has variable wattage, and I liked the sound at each setting. They put a tough enough speaker in it to handle full throttle volume on any setting (it actually gets kinda loud - but you're not going to hear it over a drummer).

One of our customers who is a partner at an area recording and rehearsal studio stopped in during my test drive, so I handed the wheel to him. He was so enthused that he presented us with one of his wife's gourmet cakes. Now that's an endorsement I can sink my teeth into!

So in conclusion, if you like gadgets, tones, and cake (who doesn't like cake?), the Vox DA5 is for you! (Do you like how I repeated the link, so you can click onto our site and maybe buy one? All the kids are doing it.)

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your next cake.

www.laboratorymusic.com

The Laboratory Journal 1

This is no ordinary blog post! In fact, it is the text from an email we sent out. That's right! We at the laboratory have created a blog post from an email! Conservation of mass and energy being a key factor in this transformation, we have kept careful watch of the energy spent in creating that additional e-matter. Now on with the Paste Function:

Valentine's Day: Cupid Aims for our Price Tags
Valentine's Day is tomorrow. So The Laboratory is doing a little something for our sweethearts, the terrific customers who have made us what we are. We were going to give out little boxes of candy hearts, but we couldn't agree on the little phrases to be inscribed on those sugary tomes. Instead, we decided to offer a 10% discount off the marked price for anything we sell. This is good through tomorrow, the 14th. Nothing says "Kiss me" like a new harmonica. Or an Audio Technica PRO 24 stereo condenser mic, for the truly sentimental. XOXO!

The Guitar Medic Goes Bonkers
Joe the Guitar Medic has fallen on his head or something, and says he wants to do twice as much work. So we're offering a special on guitar set ups. Now brace yourselves - especially you hollow bodies out there: Get one guitar setup, get another half price. It doesn't even matter if it's your bassist's axe and yours. If you bring us two guitars to be set up, you get half off the second. We asked Joe how he thinks he can do this, and using an Aldis lamp he replied "Volume! Volume!"

The Great Lesson Enrollment Offer Thingamajig
One thing we love during February is lesson sign-ups. So, we're offering new sign ups one free lesson. Here's how it works: Sign up a new student for a month of lessons, and we'll pay for the first one for you. We're so sure that our excellent teachers will charm you with their outgoing personalities and outstanding grasp of their craft, that we want to make it easier to get hooked on learning how to play an instrument. There are still open time slots available, so call us or stop by to get enrolled.

New Stuff at The Laboratory
Oh, right. New stuff. I'm always like "they know we're always getting new stuff," but the others said I don't get a lunch break today if I don't mention the rock solid Orange amp we just got in. It has two things: Warm, creamy, lush, all tube tone...., and Orangeness.

Hmmm, let's see.... I want to make this totally thorough, because this is a comfy chair I'm sitting on.... Hmmmm.....

Oh yeah. We've got a bargain bin. It had to happen sooner or later, right? We've eyed up our shelves for stuff that's been passed over. And out the door they must go! There is too little space to waste some on stuff people aren't grabbing up. So at the front of the store is a bin full of perfectly good, new stuff. It's been marked down - in many cases below our cost - to make room for the zillions of other things we want to try putting out there for musicians to try. So come by and see if there's any overlooked gold in there - maybe this is your moment to replace that rusty multiclamp holding up your splash, or something even more thematically exciting!

So that's the story so far. That and the usual dedication to an expansive array of enticing musical whatnots from our inventory, and state of the art expertise and suaveness from our staff.

www.laboratorymusic.com