JENS & UWE KRUGER’S BANJO & GUITAR WORKSHOP – Lake Worth, Florida April 9-10th 2010
Time is fast approaching for what will be a wonderful banjo and guitar event in Southeast Florida. Jens and Uwe Kruger, in conjunction with Fretmentor.com are conducting there first of what may become an annual “Jens & Uwe Banjo & Guitar Workshop”.
David Jakubiak, an instructor, writer for Banjo Newsletter, and the founder of Fretmentor.com is coordinating this weekend event. You can see the details by going directly to his website and viewing the online form and registration process.
As if banjo and guitar instruction by Jens and Uwe were not enough, David has secured many exceptional sponsors who have donated items to be raffled. We at First Quality Music have donated a Sullivan Bluegrass Jam banjo. This will be the grand prize for one lucky attendee.
The Jens & Uwe Kruger Banjo & Guitar Workshop will be held on April 9-10 in Lake Worth, Florida. On Sunday April 11th, the Kruger Brothers will be performing a concert in Palm Beach. Fretmentor.com has reserved a block of tickets for those who desire to attend the Sunday concert. Tickets for the concert are only $10 each.
We look forward to seeing our friend and customers at this wonderful event. Good luck to the attendee who wins our grand prize.
Every now and then, we receive a “letter of endorsement” from a Sullivan owner that overwhelms our hearts with joy, and affirms the sense of pride and enjoyment we get in making our own line of high-quality banjos. We’d like to share this one from Mark, serving our Country in Kabul Afghanistan, with you.
Greetings from Kabul Afghanistan!
Just to let you know that Bluegrass is alive and well on the other side of the world – and in the midst of the Taliban! I am getting great service from my Sullivan banjo. It has been across the globe three times all in baggage compartments of foreign airlines. It went with me to Kuwait (2008)(in 140 degree heat!), crossed by air over the Persian gulf, over Iran and down to Kabul (10,000 feet). Then it survived the unload by Afghani handlers and its still going strong! In fact tonight we were just finishing a rehearsal and whooooooosh! BANG! “Hit the Bunkers!” We had a rocket attack. So you can say my Sullivan has been baptized by hostile fire.
I have enclosed some shots from performances we’ve done here in Kabul (church and on New Years) (note all the Mongol soldiers we had there celebrating with us). We (Four Horsemen) have been invited by the MWR department (Morale Welfare and Recreation) to provide two more performances in February here on post and across town. Note the hat I’m wearing in the shots.
Best wishes!
-Mark
Mark asked us to let everyone know that if they just happen to be in town, they are having an open jam every Monday night in downtown Kabul. In Mark’s own words: “Second floor Ciano’s building, Camp Eggers, downtown Kabul right across the street from Karzai’s house“.
Thanks for the note, Mark, and we’re glad you are enjoying your Sullivan Banjo!
Aaron Thomas was in the showroom this week from Washington, IN and was kind enough to try out one of the new Sullivan Historic Vintage-35 Banjo Prototypes. We debuted this Banjo at IBMA and will have more information on it in the coming weeks – for now, the sound speaks for itself! He’s a great picker and in the video below performs a wonderful and unique version of “What a friend we have in Jesus”. Thanks for stopping by, Aaron!
Today we had a few friends of ours stop by and, like many other days, a little impromptu jam broke out in the Banjo room. I was handy with a camera this time, and thought I’d share a little bit of what goes on at First Quality Music every day. Here we’ve got Malcolm Moger, an excellent Banjo player from Springfield, Virginia, and Shari Mabe from New Haven, Kentucky. Shari is a teacher at New Haven School where she tells us she’s formed a Guitar Club for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that’s been operating since 2006. We weren’t able to get the information of the other guitarist before she left, but we thank them all for dropping in and letting us record them! A group of great musicians, check them out in the video below!
Our friends and First Quality featured artist Balsam Range have topped the Bluegrass Unlimited single chart with Last Train to Kitty Hawk. Congratulations guys!!! You can hear a Sullivan banjo on this tune picked by our pal Marc Pruett. Be sure to catch a performance by the group at the upcoming IBMA fanfest, or visit their website for the latest news and tour date information.
We’re gearing up to launch the new sullivanbanjo.com ASAP, but we thought we should share a bit more banjo news with you in the meantime. Eric & Co. have been working on this tone ring for over three years, when we began by acquiring a pre-war flathead, and we’re nearing the ‘end’.
We’re preparing to send six of these instruments out to professional pickers to gather feedback before we begin offering the final version. Much like the prototype seen in the videos below, we’re building these banjos to extremely tight pre-war standards. Everything from the neck profile to the finish are as close to matching the pre-war style as possible.
We won’t be offering these until they are finished, and we’re generally not talking about them – we just thought we’d give you a sneak peak. Stay tuned here, and at the new Sullivan Banjo site when it launches, to learn more.
Hey folks! Just wanted to drop by with a quick update on several happenings here at First Quality Music. We’ve had a lot going on the past few days, some of it pretty significant!
1) Twitter!
First Quality Music is now on Twitter! Check us out at http://www.twitter.com/1stqualitymusic – we’ll post things that don’t quite merit a full blog post, but are interesting nonetheless! We’re also looking at other endeavors into Social Media – feel free to give me an email at travis@fqms.com if you have any comments or ideas. Stay tuned!
2) The Laser We’ve purchased a laser engraving system from Universal Laser Systems. As you can see, many of us are taking a little break to watch this thing in action. There are a ton of implications for us here, from engraving instrument parts (Truss Rod covers, Banjo name blocks, etc…) to creating wooden or glass plaques. From what we’ve seen today, we’ll be able to make a huge assortment of new, customized products for our customers. We’ll keep you posted on our progress as we learn how to use this thing, so stay posted!
3) Custom Color Matching
Also thought that we would share with you some of the custom work being done in our shop. Today when I went back to see what was going on, Tim was working on a fairly interesting banjo neck. A customer sent us an imported resonator and asked that we create a banjo around it. Check out what Tim has done so far, having matched the colors and the shade of the pearl inlay.
4) The Banjo Room Friends of First Quality Music know that we were originally founded as a banjo supply company, and create the Sullivan Banjo line here at our retail showroom. So, what happens when you combine First Quality Music with an empty room in our building? Something amazing. We’ve collected many amazing banjos and artifacts through the years(Such as our sizable collected of pre-war banjo necks), and have decided to create a haven for the many banjo players who visit us every day. Again, stay posted for more updates on this project!
5) And of course, the same ol’ thing.
So much more to mention, a pre-war tone ring project, our old-growth mandolin, the new Sullivan Banjo site… the list goes on! But, we’re keeping ourselves busy with our true passion: serving our customers. I managed to catch a spy shot of Murrell tuning a guitar while speaking with some customers today – stop by and see us!
We’ve been asked on many occasions to shoot some videos of our Sullivan Festival Banjo line, well Murrell and I finally got around to shoot some on the Festival Jam in both Mahogany and Maple, the Festival Deluxe, the Festival Custom and the Festival Pro. Hope you enjoy.
Pete Webb with the group Late for Supper stops by and visits us on a regular basis. He was checking out one of the new Sullivan Clawhammer Jam banjos and he picked us My Old Kentucky Home. Thanks Pete.
Daniel Martin stopped by for a little tune up on his Bill Sullivan Recording King model banjo. I got him to pick one for us before he left, burn it up son! You can check out the “Bill Sullivan Recording King” tribute banjo on firstqualitymusic.com.
