Electro-Voice is boosting the fundraising success of its “Musicians for Minneapolis: 57 Songs for the I-35W Bridge Disaster Relief Effort” CD release with a celebrity guitar auction on Ebay, running April 29th – May 9th. Guitars from legendary artists including Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, and Dick Dale are available.

This auction is being held to raise money for the families of those who were either wounded or lost their lives on the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 1st, 2007. Listing details below. All proceeds from the sale of these instruments will be donated to Minnesota Helps: Bridge Disaster Fund™.




ABOUT THE PROJECT

Shortly after 6 p.m. on August 1st, 2007—during the height of rush hour—the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. Media coverage was almost instantaneous and Minneapolis became the nation’s focus.

Help was immediate and came in many forms: the selflessness of victims helping victims; the courageous police, fire, and rescue teams; emergency blood donors; and funds from private citizens and corporations around the world.

Like countless others, Electro-Voice also wanted to help in hands-on way. As a Minnesota-based professional audio equipment manufacturer with a large global parent company (Bosch) that has made social responsibility one of its core values for over 120 years, EV sought to help its neighbors by doing more than just writing a check.

The very next morning EV began receiving e-mails and phone calls from various partners and friends in the music industry. They wanted to know how they could help. A benefit album, a celebrity memorabilia auction, and a benefit concert were planned, whereby all proceeds would be donated to Minnesota Helps: Bridge Disaster Fund™. Autographed guitars began showing up at EV’s door from the likes of Megadeth, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Dick Dale, and others. Likewise, some of the most recognized names in the music industry began sending songs for use on the benefit album. Fast forward two months and EV had amassed enough material to fill 3 CDs—a total of 57 songs—nearly 4 hours of music!

Sales of the CD continue to grow, and now the celebrity guitar auction—including instruments from artists on the benefit CD—is set to add more valuable funds to this worthy cause. Please check out the Ebay auctions and good luck bidding!

AUCTION ITEMS

Click here to go to auction site.

(2) Autographed Les Paul guitars from Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society guitar phenom ZAKK WYLDE

(1) Dean bass signed by all members of MEGADETH

(1) Custom Minarik DICK DALE flame guitar, autographed by the Guitar Legend himself, serial #45

(1) Ibanez RE350DX guitar signed by guitar virtuoso STEVE VAI

(1) Schecter guitar signed by the members of MINISTRY

(1) Les Paul guitar autographed by the members of Twisted Sister

(1) Washburn guitar signed by Nick Catanese of Black Label Society/SPEED X

(1) EV Raven microphone autographed by the members of FISHBONE

(1) EV N/D967 microphone autographed by the members of STATIC-X

(1) EV N/D767a microphone autographed by the members of STATIC-X

(1) EV N/D767a microphone autographed by Herman Li of DRAGONFORCE

For information go to www.electrovoice.com/musiciansforminneapolis .

Greensboro is celebrating it's bicentennial with a summers long series of events and CareySound is to play a pivotal role providing audio for it's biggest events. The opening ceremonies started last friday with a kick-off event at the home of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, NewBridge Bank Ball Park. John was on hand with CareySound's new digital Cobra system.

Please join CareySound as we continue the celebration at the kick-off the Heritage Day Festival festivities on April 11th at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center with "Dance Thought he Decades" and then again in downtown Greensboro on the 12th and 13th on Stage One in Center City Park and Stage Six at the corner of Bellemeade & Elm Streets. For a complete listing of all of the official 200 Greensboro events and times click here.

April first and its time to celebrate. Not only is CareySound officially 30 years old this next week but both Tommy and Ken have wedding anniversaries to celebrated. So Ken and his beautiful wife are headed to Disney Word and Tommy and his beautiful wife are headed to Los Vegas this next week. Although the sales department will be shut down next week John, David, and Mike will be holding down the fort at CareySound.

In case you haven't noticed CareySound is not named after nor is it located in Cary, NC. It's from our proud Irish heritage as part of the Carey clan. And it just wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day for CareySound without participating in Greensboro's largest Saint Patty's Day Party downtown at M'Coul's Public House with our good friend and proprietor Simone. We snapped a few pictures of the event that we thought you might enjoy. Click on an image for a bigger picture.




Our event production division debuted the new RSS Digital V-System and an upgraded version of their famous Dynacord Cobra System as well. Stay tuned for more details on both of these new additions. Nobody can touch the performance of our gear and the speed that it sets up in.

Our friends over at Harrison Audio in Chapel Hill host the web site goodbuyguys.com and have posted the wonderful blog entry that follows:

These Guys Really Get It

One of the unexpected benefits of running a web based business is the ability to find out a lot about your customers in a hurry. Most of our customers have web sites and we always take a look at how they present their businesses on the web as part of processing their orders.

A large number of our customers are entertainment production and audiovisual presentation companies. I rarely see anything of real interest at these sites and I remain surprised that industries with such a high level of technical knowledge miss the opportunity to put their best foot forward. These sites are usually “black box” pictures-pictures of the equipment the company owns- and lists of technical specifications that may impress their competition but rarely mean anything to a potential customer.

That brings me to the point of this posting. When we were in the “hands on” sound and lighting business one of our good friends and competitors was Carey Sound in Greensboro, NC. I have been friends with the company owner, Ken Carey, for over 25 years and he generously sub-contracted shows to us more than once. I guess the term “competitor” doesn’t really fit here.

The web site he has put together for his company is breathtaking in its depth and quality. Any production company seeking to create a real presence on the web would be hard pressed to put together anything better than what Ken has created.

The type of information he so carefully presents is a lesson in how to use the web to gain new customers and hang onto the ones you already have. His “how to” videos are great information and a powerful sales tool. No doubt, they have deflected lots of last minute panic calls from his rental customers.

Ken’s extensive News section is well laid out and makes for lots of good reading if you are in the sound business.

Carey’s Rental section answers lots of the questions that a potential rental customer might have in a good humored and honest manner that lets the renter know exactly what to expect.

The photography is beautiful (lots of smiling faces), the layout is logical and easy to navigate, and details regarding the services and equipment Carey offers are presented with the clients point of view considered on every page.

I’ve spent a well over an hour browsing this site in the last week, and still have not seen it all.
If you are ready to move your company’s web presence into the big leagues, don’t miss this site.

p.s. Congrats to Carey Sound on their new building and their 30 year anniversary.

I'll let you all in on a not so secret, secret.

If you have bought tape or batteries from use in the last twenty years it's come form Jeff at Harrison Brothers. His web site GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service. Sure, we will still will have it on hand for you if you get in a pinch but don't hesitate to buy from them directly.
    

   

We have ben keeping you up-to-date with the latest news in wireless microphone usage and here is a another discussion courtesy of Sound & Communications on the "white Space" topic that impacts al wireless microphone users. We first broached this subject last year in our news item titled "Industry News Flash" that can be found by clicking here.



Current Broadcast is on “White Spaces” Issues - Part 1, March 13, 2008

Mark E. Fritz, C-EST, systems engineer with ESCO Communications, Inc., interacts with Microphone Industry Coalition spokesman Christopher P. Lyons, of Shure Inc. The guests define the “White Spaces” issue and address how it might affect integrators’ businesses. They also examine short- and long-term consequences of the issue and related technologies.

"Ok - So enough about the move already. We get it . You've moved" This is my last last update on our move to Pomona Drive. Although the dust hasn't settled yet and we are still finding a place for everything, we are now functional in our new building. We are cleaning out the last remnants of our stay on Church street the rest of this week. All business, sales and rentals are happening in the new location. You can find an interactive map to the new location by clicking here.

In the FINAL day of the Sale we have made our final markdowns. One Item is marked down so low it's FREE. Check out the final list by clicking here.

We are in the final 14 days of our biggest end of year SALE ever and we have marked down most of the items to an amazing 50% off of the already low prices we started with. You can see all of the latest price slashes by clicking here. When we move to the new store it is al over so act TODAY.

Just a little taste of what 1,500 dancing party goers experienced at the hottest new nightspot in Greensboro at Rumba DCache. CareySounds own John Carey was the guest SoundMan for the evenings festivities driving the clubs 20,000 watt EV Manifold system.

I have just posted the latest updated price list that you can find by clicking here. There isn't much time left to take advantage of the largest sale of used equipment in CareySounds history. Everything listed has been reduced even further and we have found some new items after digging through the rest of the building. Don't wait - come by today.

We have been running an experiment with a new FAX system that automatically distributes all faxes through our email system and it has working great. Effective immediately our new incoming fax number is:

(336) 232-1337