Musicians Friend.com

Finally I get a chance to review one of my favorite vendors of all time – Musicians Friend. From about 1990 until the present I have ordered from the Musicians Friend catalog (back when it was only 30 pages and in black and white) and later their great website filled with professional musician and beginner musician gear. You’ll have to forgive me for my bias but being a guitar player I mostly bought guitars, guitar gear, amplifiers and recording equipment. Though in playing professionally and recording in bands for over 8 years I had enough experience with the PA and drum areas too to be of some help as well. Their selection is amazing and continually updating as the technology keeps progressing. That is one thing you never have to worry about. With Musician’s Friend they ALWAYS have the new equipment before your local music store and it’s always offered for less. And, once the product is out a while and everyone else is finally competing – surprise! – they drop the price below all of the competition. I love Musician’s Friend !

Musician’s Friend carries all of the best guitars played by everyone from Kerry King, Dimebag Darrel (RIP) to BB King and Eric Clapton. You can be assured you’ll pay less at Musicians Friend on guitars from Dean, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and my personal favorites B.C. Rich (Warlock, Beast, Kerry King Model, BC Rich NJ Warlock, Virgin) and Epiphone. Musician’s Friend also carries a great selection of 12 string guitars by Rickenbaker, Epiphone, , Left Handed guitar models by Epiphone, Gibson and Schecter, Low Tuned 7 string models by Schecter, ESP, Gibson, Epiphone, and the company that started it all with the band Korn – Ibanez. I wish they had these when I was performing professionally and down tuning my BC Rich each night! Great stuff and the guitar pricing is pretty on par with 6 string guitar models. Their acoustic selection is so diverse too. Everyone from Martin, Takamine to Epiphone and Dean. There have a wide assortment of student and professional guitars to fit your budget. I particularly like the selection of acoustic/electric models at Musician’s Friend .

The Musician’s Friend bass guitar selection is equally impressive carrying guitars from Rickinbaker (used by Lemmy Kilmiester), Rogue, Musicman, Squier, Lakeland (great classy selection of these models), Conklin 7 string models, Fender Jazz Basses, Ibanez electric and acoustic basses.

The key to a great performance and recording in a studio is a brand name amplifier head and speaker cabinet. You can't cheap-out here ladies and gents. For years I played on sub-par equipment until I picked up my Ampeg Head, my Fender Tube Head, my Fender Celestion Speaker Cabinet and later my Marshall Cabinet. These are the most important tools next to your guitar people. Believe me, I know what a budget is but Musician’s Friend can help you get more than you think. Musician’s Friend 's pricing is consistently 30% to 50% off retail prices on amplifiers. That's how I got mine and I didn't have much to spend. You'll notice a world of difference playing or recording on the amp of your dreams. Musician’s Friend has plenty of great amps by Behringer, Crate (played 3 different models for 12 years and they're great solid state amps), Fender (played a tube amp from these guys for years), Ibanez, Marshall (the Mercedes of Amplifiers - enough said), Randall, Peavy (great bass amps - my bassist loved them), Soldano, Tech 21, THD, VHT, Vox, Yamaha, Hughes & Kettner and so many more. Great brand name amplifiers at discount prices at Musician’s Friend . My recommendation - get a wall of Marshall Amps and Marshall Cabinets. Your neighbors will love you. Mine couldn't stand me.
So much has happened since the days of using a Fostex 4 track analog recorder to record our first demo in 1989. By the time I left the professional circuit I invested in my own mini disc recorder by Sony in 1997 for the same price as the 4 track and what an amazing difference in sound. Around that time companies like Tascam were venturing into harddrive recording and eventually flash media cards and computer software with preamps to get the job done. It is amazing that today you can bring the studio home with you. I've spent thousands over the years in professional studios paying well over $70 an hour to record music. Today you don't have to. Musician’s Friend has your digital recording studio equipment for less. Musician’s Friend has brands like Tascam, Fostex, Korg, Boss and more. Musician’s Friend has a huge selection of 4 track cassette recorders, 4 to 12 track digital workstation recorders, 16 to 24 track digital workstation recorders, stand alone multi-track recorders, 2-track mastering systems, Pro Mini disc, Pro CD Players, Internal CD burners, Stand Alone CD burners and CD Duplicators. When we were recording in the mid 90s the studios would charge $30 for a burned CD! Today you can make your own demo or full length release at home, mix it, master it and burn CDs at home and release your album to your wanting fans. And you can do it all for less by buying from Musician’s Friend .

Musician’s Friend has all the drums, electronic drums, cymbals and drumsticks you need for less. They have drum sets from C&C Drums, Gretsch Drums, Ludwid, Mapex, Pacific Drums by DW, Peavey, Pusle, Sonor, Yamaha, Tama (my one drummer used a black Tama 10 piece and loved it), and my main drummer's favorite drum company Pearl. Musician’s Friend has tons of add ons like snare drums, expansion packs, shell packs, extra single toms, bass drums and assorted drumset percussion and accessories. Musician’s Friend also has a huge selection of steel drums, hand drums, timbales, cow bells, effect percussion, tambourines and more if you want to add that world music sound to your kit. For those who like to experiment with techno and industrial sounds they have great electronic percussion too. Musician’s Friend has tons of drum machines, electronic drumsets, single pads to add to your acoustic drums, acoustic triggers, controllers and modules and expansion cards. Musician's Friend ~ musiciansfriend.com has great cymbal selections by Paiste, Sabian, Meini, Wuhan, and my drummer's favorite Zildjian at fantastic prices. Musician’s Friend has all the crash cymbals, splash symbals, rides, crash/ride cymbals, effect and high hat cymbals you need to keep your kit at peak perfection. To top it off Musician’s Friend has great deals on drumsticks, drum heads, drum gig bags so you don't ding up your drumset like my two drummers did, sound shields, isolation headphones, click track, practice tools, drum keys, drum microphones, parts, pedals, thrones, extra stands, racks, clamps and accessories.