I have no interests in making this a political blog (God knows there’s enough already!). I also have no desire to tell you who to vote for on November 4th.

I do, however, want to take this opportunity to ask you to register to vote. Today is the deadline to register here in Colorado. I know that the deadline for a few states has already passed, and it’s coming up in the next week for many others.

This is without question the most important election of my lifetime (having spent 31 years on this planet). I suspect that for anyone alive today, it also ranks toward the top. Whichever way you lean, we can all agree that change needs to come to Washington DC. The best way you can affect this change is to vote on November 4th, and you can only do that if you’re registered.

Again, I’m not getting on a soapbox to tell you who to vote for, but I want to point you toward the resources to get registered. There is really no excuse. With the way this system is set up, you can register and vote from the comfort of your home. Register online, request a mail-in ballot, send it in. Do it all without losing out on your valuable practice time!

• Register at Barack Obama’s Vote for Change website
• Register to vote at John McCain’s website
• Register to vote and find your state’s registration deadline at Rock the Vote
• Overseas or in the military? You can still register here

I’m sure I’m very convincing, but just in case I’m not, please watch this video:

Just in case you’re not into a bunch of Hollywood elitists telling you to vote, here’s something to well some patriotism up inside you. I guaran-f-ing-tee that Lee Greenwood is going to vote.

I was pretty shocked earlier today when I saw the headline on Harmony Central that 60,000 Orange Amplifiers had been stolen from Orange headquarters in Borehamwood, England.

After reading the article, I realized that thieves did not make off with 60,000 amps (which would have been quite a feat!), but rather 141 Orange Tiny Terror combo amps worth £62,000. These amps were part of the first shipment of the new amp into the UK.

According to the press release, the amps were “stolen from a temperature controlled, sealed forty foot container. The robbers couldn’t break the locks so they attempted to use an acetylene welder and then angle grinders to cut through the quarter inch locking steel plates.”

Of course, the authorities and Orange are trying to find more information about this crime. Orange Amplifiers are putting up a reward of 5000 (not sure if it’s dollars or pounds) for information that will lead to a successful conviction and recovery of these amplifiers. If you have any information please contact the local Police force on 0845-3300222, quoting Crime Number J1/08/3588. The company has the serial numbers of all the products stolen which is available on it’s website.

As you can see by checking out the sidebar of this page, you have many subscription options, depending on which content you’re most interested in. I realized the other day that, while the regular RSS/email feed is working great, the individual category feeds (for guitar, drums, etc.) have been broken.

This morning I updated to a new version of the software I use to create this site and, unexpectedly, it also fixed the feed issues. So, if you do subscribe to one of those feeds, you were probably overloaded with old posts. Think of it as a refresher on the past few months! Sorry about that…

If you do not yet subscribe to GearPipe, please do. It’s much easier than coming to the site each day to check out what’s new.

The Deal: I’m excited to welcome Woodwind and Brasswind to the GearPipe family of musical instrument retailers. I’ve featured a handful of their deals in the past, but will now be checking their website more often, bringing more of their promotions to you.

If you’re not familiar with this store, it’s a midwest institution. In fact, when I first starting playing the drums, I ended up on their Drums in the Wind catalog mailing list. No kidding…I used to stay up and read that catalog under my covers like it was a porno mag!

Stay tuned for more, but if you want to check out some Woodwind and Brasswind highlights, visit their Steals of the Week and Outlet Store.

Get It: Please visit the Woodwind & Brasswind homepage

The Deal: If you’re a musician, you should care about the dire condition the music programs in our nations schools are in. Not that the math and reading programs are much better, but the arts are in serious trouble.

Most of you are probably familiar with VH1’s Save the Music Foundation. Since 1997, Save the Music has provided nearly $40 million worth of new musical instruments to 1,500 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of over 1 million public school children.

If you do regularly give to charities, this is a great one to channel some funds through. If you don’t feel like you’re in a financial position to donate to charity, you should check out this promotion just released by Save the Music, JCPenny, and Levi’s.

Starting today, buy two pairs of Levi’s jeans at participating JCPenney stores or at jcp.com and Levi’s will donate $5 on your behalf to VH1 Save the Music. In return, you’ll receive a $10 JCPenney gift card. Just think, you’ll get your back-to-school shopping done early and get a little extra money in your pocket… all while helping contribute to a worthy cause.

Expires: August 2, 2008
Get It: Click Here For More About This Deal

In an attempt to improve the quality of this site, I really want to get to know all of you better. Since people all over the country (actually the world) visit this site, the promotions I list are typically available to everyone, regardless of their location.

However, I am also a huge supporter of local music stores. I started working at a local shop when I was 17 and have always tried to support them. Now…I’m not that old (31), but old enough that buying online wasn’t an option when I started playing.

I’m very interested in where you shop. Do you always support your local retailers? Do you like the convenience of shopping online. Do you shop both, depending what you’re looking for?

I’ve set up a survey in the right sidebar and would appreciate it if you’d take a second to respond. Since the survey is very cut and dry, if you have more opinions on the matter, please leave a comment on this post.

Thanks!

I spend much of my not-so-free time working for BurstMarketing, a Denver marketing agency specializing in podcast production.

Earlier this month, I attended BookExpo America, the country’s largest trade-show for the publishing industry (it’s no NAMM, but pretty cool). Over the course of the weekend, we recorded about 75 interviews with authors about their new books.

One such author was Marc Canter, a childhood friend of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. Canter was that guy who has been hanging out with the band since their earliest days, saving ticket stubs, recording shows, and taking photos in situations no one else would have access to. Canter brought Slash to BEA with him to sign and promote his book Reckless Road: Guns N’ Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction.

After the signing, Canter and Slash stopped in our booth (The Authors Studio) and spent 10 minutes talking to us about the early days of GnR. It’s a pretty cool interview. The interviewer (not me…that is me setting up Slash’s mic in the photo) even tried to bait Slash a bit with an Axl Rose question, but Slash was very PC in his answer.

In case you’re wondering, Slash was super-cool. The show was closing for the day and he totally did not need to stay and talk to his. He was very nice and gracious, and was even cool to a lady who ambushed him with a free squirt gun she thought he had to have.

So…listen in! If you’re into books, we interviewed some other very interesting authors, as well, including Kevin Nealon, Chris Regan, Dennis Lehane, and Joshua Leeds, who wrote an interesting book about the effect of music on dogs.

Here’s some more info on the book:
Reckless Road is the definitive book documenting the beginning of the legendary band Guns N’ Roses and the creation of their groundbreaking rock album, Appetite for Destruction. With nearly one thousand never-before-seen photographs and over dozens of interviews, Reckless Road chronicles Guns N’ Roses’ rise to stardom by the original band members and the people who were closest to them. Authentic gig memorabilia including show flyers, ticket stubs, set lists, press clippings, and hand-written song lyrics round out this unique collection.

Check it out at Amazon.com

Listen to the podcast:

The Deal: Guitarist John 5, who has worked with such acts as Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson will embark on a week-long tour of Guitar Center stores in early June.

Sponsored by Fender, GHS Strings, and Hal Leonard, these clinics will be absolutely FREE. He’ll be performing songs from his instrumental albums, as well as two songs from his upcoming release Requiem. John will be answering questions, signing autographs and posing for photos. John 5 merchandise will be available at each location.

He’ll be at the following Guitar Center locations:

• Guitar Center Phoenix, AZ - June 2 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center La Mesa, CA - June 3 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center Las Vegas - June 4 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center Hollywood - June 5 @ 6:00 PM
• Guitar Center San Francisco - June 9 @ 6:00 PM

Get It: Click Here For More Information

Typically I like to post deals that most GearPipe readers can take advantage of. This deal is specifically for three of our readers (oh yes…I’m sure all three are reading my website).

If your name is Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, Jason over at Little Rock Jams has offered all three presidential candidates a free guitar lesson when they pass through Arkansas. I wonder which song each candidate would want to learn???

Read the post.

The GearPipe team has spent the past few weeks working on some behind-the-scenes upgrades and features, many of which will be rolling out soon.

As we’re finishing these up, I’m going to start daily posts again.

Thanks for your patience and sorry about the cobwebs!

As previously announced, due to popular demand, we’re going to be posting Best Sellers lists each day this week. I’ll post two per day but, of course, if other great promotions come through this week, I’ll let you know.

Check out previous Best Sellers Lists.

People really seem to be digging the Top 10 Best-Sellers lists that I’ve been running, so I’ve decided I want to do a week of nothing but these lists. I think I’ll release two per day, but I’d like you to choose the lists.

They can be very broad (Top 10 Best-Selling Acoustic Guitars), brand specific (Top 10 Best-Selling DW Snare Drums), or something totally obscure (Top 10 Best-Selling Alto Sax Reeds).

Leave your suggestions in the comments below, and I’ll put a list together for whatever catches my fancy!

Thanks to those of you who took part in our first ever readers poll.

As expected, the majority of GearPipe readers play guitar, so we’ll obviously keep pumping those guitar bargains your way.

I do believe we’ve been slacking on the bass guitar deals, and it appears that there are a lot of bass players stopping by, as well.

Finally, I’ll do my best to search out more recording discounts, since a lot of you have told me you’re also into home recording products.

Thanks again for participating!

A few months ago, Jason at Atomic Guitarist posted an idea for what he called the Guitar Blogs Discovery Project. The idea was that, since there are so many great guitar blogs out there, we should all be linking together so our readers can discover some new websites. I thought it was a great idea, but found that visiting all of these websites each day can be tough, and I ended up missing a lot of great info.

I’ve recently discovered Squidoo, which is a very cool site where anyone can create a lens (page) about any subject they’d like. I thought it would be cool to extend Jason’s original idea and create a lens focusing on guitar blogs, which I have dubbed The Guitar Blog Collective.

This lens pulls together content from over 25 blogs, which updates automatically. So, you can check out this single page, see who’s got a new post, then click thru to read the entire article.

Do me a favor and check it out. If you’re a member of Squidoo, please rank the lens or leave a comment.

If you run a blog that’s listed, please do what you can to promote this page, either by writing a post or adding a link/banner to your blog. If you run a guitar blog that’s not listed, please drop me a comment and I’ll add your site.

I recently reviewed the posts I’ve made since launching GearPipe (almost 150 since late November!), and realized that the majority have been guitar-related. The reason for this isn’t really that I’m prejudice (I’m actually a much better drummer than guitarist), but there just seems to be more deals, giveaways, and general coverage of guitar products.

This got me thinking, though, about who is actually coming to this site. If there are actually hundreds of oboe players visiting per day, I’d better find some sweet oboe and oboe-related deals!

So, I want to know…what do you play? I’ve set up a poll in the right sidebar, so please take 10 seconds and let me know. Or, if you’d like to elaborate, please leave a comment after this post.