bmusic - Product News and Reviews

Last weekend saw me in Melbourne at the invitation of one of our key suppliers, Central Musical Instruments, to attend their annual Frontrunner Show for key dealers. Central Musical Instruments (CMI) are importers of many of the biggest brands in Australia at the moment including ESP Guitars and Basses, Washburn Guitars, Basses and Bluegrass Instruments, Monterey Guitars, Basses and Bluegrass Instruments, Lakland Bass Guitars, Parker Guitars and Basses, Randall Amplification, Hughes & Kettner Amplification, David Eden Bass Amplification, DigiTech® Guitars and Bass Effects, Mindprint Recording equipment, Wharfedale Pro PA, dB Technologies Wireless Technology and PA, HK Audio PA, Vinci Brass, Woodwind and Stringed Instruments, Italia Guitars and Basses, Jose Ortega Classical Guitars, Bill Lawrence Pickups, and more.

Frontrunner is about educating dealers on new product developments as well as on existing product lines and thiswas done better than ever before thanks to the visiting representatives from many of the leading companies supplying CMI. PA experts, American Lance Schmidt from Wharfedale Pro, Austrian Hans Radda from dB Technologies, and German Andreas Mayerl from HK Audio were outstanding and, for me personally, offered the most comprehensive information about, not only their products, but the art of sound reinforcement in general. Other visiting representatives included ESP Vice President Jose Ferro, with whom I spent some quality time going over some very interesting topics, DigiTech® Asia Pacific man Ian Wright, American John Paige from Parker Guitars was also excellent and extremely informative about Parker's history and the construction of these unique instruments, and Englishman Paul Airey from Hughes & Kettner and MindPrint recording. Paul was also very informative and great to have at the show to explain in great detail the intricacies and developments in Hughes & Kettner's guitar and bass amplification range and the amazing new MindPrint recording technology.
There were also two phenomenal players who came in for the event, the first being clinician for DigiTech®, Randall and Parker, Ralf Jung. Ralf, from Germany, had some fantastic things to demonstrate and actually surprised me with what some of the gear that we see all day long in the store is actually capable of. His presentations were not only full of great playing but great detail about the equipment he was using. Plus he was pretty funny for a German!
The main act was former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt who put on a show for the dealers on the Sunday evening with his band Population 1 who'd arrived just before the show to embark on their Australian tour. A very, very tight band with some killer songs that filled the set between some classic Extreme numbers.
The show was split into two lots of attendees, my fellow visitors catching the Nuno show, the following load of dealers had the pleasure of seeing ESP endorsee Brett Garsed and his backing band, which was basically John Farnham's backing band with Stuart Fraser on guitar and Angus Bertchel on drums. A band of virtuosos if there ever was one. I'm told their set for the dealers dinner was something special indeed.

Over the next few weeks and months we will be digesting the information garnered from the event, and new lines and products will trickle in over the ensuing months as a result. We will likely launch a more aggressive PA section in our store by expanding our downstairs area to make space for what can be a very bulky item to display! We have also placed some orders for some extremely exotic and rare ESPs that were at the show but they have to go back to Japan for further promotion of them before we take possession later this year. There's only one of each at this stage and we couldn't deny others around the world from seeing them up close and personal. They were actuallly packed and ready to be shipped to us this week before Japan stepped in and suggested that, er, they have to come back guys. They were only loaners!

below are a few shots from the display tent, didn't take the camera to the show with Nuno, I'm pretty hopeless at retaining such things at such events so I didn't fancy having takken all the shots below then losing the camera with them in that night. If you would like to know about any of the products represented by these brands drop us a line because it's still nice and fresh in the grey matter and there are also some great deals to be had as a result of the Frontrunner Show.

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dB Technologies PA	Wharedale Pro PA	HK Audio PA	DigiTech® Effects	DigiTech® Effects
ESP Guitars	ESP Guitars	ESP Guitars	ESP Guitars	ESP LTD Guitars
ESP LTD Guitars	ESP AX Model	ESP LTD Anniversary Models	ESP KH-2 30th Anniversary Model	ESP KH-2 30th with fingerprints!
ESP Eclipse 30th Anniversary	ESP Eclipse 30th Anniversary	ESP Eclipse 30th Anniversary	ESP & LTD Hetfield Trucksters	ESP LTD Hetfield Truckster
Washburn Guitars	Washburn Nuno Bettencourt Models	Washburn Acoustic Guitars	Washburn Nuno Bettencourt Models	Washburn Acoustic Guitars
Washburn Acoustic Instruments	Parker USA Guitars	Parker USA Guitars	Parker USA Guitars	Randall Guitar Amplification
David Eden Nemesis Bass Amps	David Eden Bass Amplification	Lakland Bass Guitars	Vinci Brass & woodwind	Vinci Stringed Instruments
Hughes & Kettner Guitar Amplification	Hughes & Kettner Guitar Amplification	Hughes & Kettner Alex Lifeson Signature	Monterey Guitars & Basses	Monterey Guitars & Basses
Monterey Guitars	Italia Guitars	Me with $40,000 worth of ESP!	Wonders from the ESP Custom Shop	Rarely seen - the BACK of $40,000