Any Pittsburgh area fans familiar with Pianos N Stuff on Freeport Road in Pitt?

Any other Steelers fans here who are musicians and live in Pitt? If so, are you familiar with a music store called Pianos N Stuff on Freeport?

I found their website through a youtube review of an Ibanez guitar I'm going to add to my collection. I've talked to a couple of the employees on the phone and they seem to be an excellent store (it may have helped that I mentioned that I'm a Steelers fan )

Anyway, just wondering if anyone shops there and has info on the store.

 

Well, my guitar is on the way. These guys were really great. They had the best price by far for the guitar I wanted ($80 less than the next lowest), and they did a free setup (which other places either don't do or charge around $75 for), and sent it overnight with free shipping. I'm extremely impressed. When I finally get a chance to come to Pittsburgh for a game, I'll have to check this place out in person.

 

Hey I play too. I'm a Strat man. I have an American Standard with Texas Specials and I use a TS9 and a Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere MK2 and a Boss DD-6 with a Vox Wah. I also have a Wampler Sovereign that I've had for a year but it was defective and I've never been able to get it fixed. It's a sweet pedal though. Right now I'm using a little Marshall Class 5 since I don't play out anymore. I really want a Dr. Z or a Soldano Hot Rod though. Those are my 2 dream amps. I've thought about selling the Rotosphere but I just don't know if I could do it or not.

 

I don't play but my kids do. Daughter takes lessons and my son is teaching himself by strumming on his own. I bought their stuff at Guitar Center. Im not familiar with Piano's n Stuff (If the kids keep playing I probably will someday), but Guitar Gallery is about 90 seconds from my house. I know Vic and he's a pretty good guy. Check them out if you need anything in the future.

http://www.guitargallery.tv/index.html

 

Cool, sounds like some nice stuff.

Here is my new Ibanez S570dxqm:


I love it, but it's still not as comfy to me as my Charvel Jackson yet, so I'm still getting used to it. It's my first guitar with a middle pickup and I keep hitting it with the pick during certain solos. I love the guitar, though.

And here are all 3 of my guitars together:


The others are a Yamaha acoustic and a Charvel Jackson Model 2 that I bought back around 1988. I play through a Peavy Vypyr VIP 2, which I bought in July to replace a Crate G-120 that I had for many years. It was repaired a couple of times and the last time it died, I just decided to go with a new amp. The Vypyr doesn't have a line out like my Crate did, so I mic it at church, but I'm thinking about getting a Line 6 POD HD to use with the church band.

 

For some reason, I've never been a big fan of Guitar Center. At least around here, the locally owned stores seem to have better techs and luthiers, whereas Guitar Center just has "guys that work on stuff" but don't have the same kind of training that a pro luthier does. Not sure how other Guitar Centers around the country are, though.

I checked out the link. Seems like a cool store. If I'm ever in Pitt, I'll check that one out, too.

 

Oh, BFT, I meant to ask if you have pics of your gear. I'd love to see it.

 

If you give me your email I can send you some that I take on my phone. Also as far as Peavy goes I only have one thing to say "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" LOL! My first amp when I was like 14 was a Peavy Renown and man I hated that thing. My first electric was a Gibson Explorer. My dad plays a little bit so he was willing to get me something really cool because he saw how dedicated I was to playing. I wound up getting a scholarship to play music in college but I didn't really like being told what to do too much and wanted to do my own thing. Then when I got called to preach I basically gave up on playing music and dedicate myself to that full time. I still love to play for fun though but I don't really "study" it like I used to. I'm a tube guy all the way and I prefer only analog pedals and nothing digital. My heroes in guitar are Jimi, SRV, Buddy Guy, Clapton, and the blues guys like that. I also love good jazz players and old country players like Roy Nichols and Redd Volkaert and Brad Paisley and Vince Gill are all really good too. I take it from your guitars that you might be a fan of 80s metal or shredders? You like Joe Bonamossa?

 

PM sent.

Yeah, I was/am a big fan of Van Halen, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai. Those have been my major guitar influences. I've seen Satch, Vai, and Eric Johnson together on the G3 tour, and it was amazing. That's where I first saw Adrianne Legg, who is now a favorite as well, although a totally different type of guitar music. More of a Cajan/folky player, but amazing.

I'm also a big Floyd fan (love Gilmour's style and tone) and a Beatles fan and I like Harrison stuff, and of course his buddy Clapton. I'm particularly fond of Mark Knopfler's tone in Dire Straits and in his solo stuff.

To be honest, I'm not very familiar with Bonamossa, but I'll look him up on YouTube.

 

Joe B is like Eric Johnson and Hendrix and Paul Kosoff had a baby. It's basically guitar virtuoso stuff. You'll think this is funny but my wife and I grew up together and me and her brother were always really good friends but I never saw her in "that way" ya know? She felt the same. Well she came to see my band play over 10 years ago and we always did Comfortably Numb and when she said when she saw me play the solo her mind was instantly changed. LOL. Gilmour is awesome for sure. You like John Petrucci? If you've never seen his parody videos on Youtube I HIIIIIIIGHLY recommend that you watch them ASAP! They are HILARIOUS!!! Of all the 80s shredders Randy is my fave.

 

I do like Petrucci. I used to be pretty heavy into Dream Theater, although I haven't listened to them in quite awhile.

I've come to appreciate Paul Gilbert quite a bit over the last year. I never listened to Racer X, but I did have the first Mr. Big album. I didn't know much specifically about Paul then, but I've found his YouTube videos to be very entertaining and insightful. He's got an incredibly great way of presenting info, and he's very funny, too. His newer videos on YouTube are really, really good, but I found this old one from many years ago that is pretty great:

[video=youtube;8wr62Dvd32k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wr62Dvd32k[/video]

 

LOL. I'll tell you what's funny since you mentioned Paul Gilbert. In a Petrucci parody he is showing off one of his Ernie Balls and he says that when the custom shop created it for him he walked in to check it out for the first time and Paul Gilbert was playing it and he said "don't ever play guitar again. ever." LOL! Here's a cool vid of Joe Bonamassa. Just be warned! Your face might ACTUALLY MELT!!! Watch at your own risk! I usually wear a heat shield welding mask when I watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJkxyh8-KVU

 

Just watched the vid. Pretty impressive. Sounds like he's got chops up there near Vai, which is pretty amazing to accomplish. Good stuff.

 

Yeah and in that song he uses a ton of restraint. I just love the fact that he can play that fast and clean. Were you ever in to like the prog rock of the 80s? Like Yes and Alan Holdsworth. I had a buddy that was a huge Holdsworth fan. I've seen some of his stuff and it is really progressive. Also I like Elliot Easton from the Cars a lot and think he is vastly underrated. You mentioned Mark Knopfler and he is also incredible. He uses Soldano too. He even did an album with Chet Atkins not long before Chet died. ANYone that can hang with Chet is definitely worthy of some props!

 

I wasn't much into prog rock. If Yes came on the radio, I'd listen to it, but I never bought any albums.

Another favorite guitarist of mine is Dave Mustain. Obviously more metal than the other stuff I've mentioned, but he writes and plays riffs and solos that are amazing. I had a couple of Megadeth's 90s albums when I was in college, but after hearing that he became a Christian, and hearing him talk about his faith in interviews, it renewed my interest.

 

Yeah Mustaine is a lot better than Kirk Hammett I think. I never was a HUGE megadeath fan but I like them ok. Mustaine is a great player but, as with most 80s people, his singing is a turn off for me. Symphony of Destruction and Hanger 18 are both awesome though. You like Chris DeGarmo from Queensryche? I like Jet City Woman pretty good and Empire. I definitely think Mustaine had a huge turn around too because he even thought of running for office in California. How would you like to have HIM for a Rep?! He could start every morning session with a blistering rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. LOL.

 

Never was much into Queensryche. I liked a couple of their songs, but didn't get into them much.

Mustaine does do some pretty crazy/funny stuff. A couple of weeks ago, Megadeth played live on Jimmy Kimmel. They did a spoof commercial for a Christmas album called Thrashing Through the Snow. It's online here:

[video=youtube;MO3AbBBtHwY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO3AbBBtHwY[/video]

 

LOL. That's pretty awesome. My buddy is a die hard Megadeth fan. Marty Friedman and Chris Poland are good players too. Marty went to Japan for a while and apparently over there he is some kind of mega celebrity and even had his own tv show. Isn't he back with the band now?

 

No, the other guitarist besides Dave is Chris Broderick. He's been with them for several years and at least 2 or 3 albums. He's pretty amazing, too.

 

Oh yeah I've heard of him too. Isn't Chris Poland in Transiberian Orchestra?

 

I just checked Wikipedia. The only Chris I saw in TSO playing guitar was Chris Caffery. I did see that Al Patreli tours with TSO, and he played on one Megadeth album.

 

you guys haven't mentioned

WingWing Malmsteen?

don't mean to butt in

just wanted to throw
Al Di Meola as one of my favorites

sry guys carry on

 

Al is a beast! Yngwie is really fast but I don't "feel" his playing. He's really over the top.

 

Hah, jump right in

I've kind of always had a respect for Yngwie, and I've admired his technique, but for some reason I've never listened to him much.

And I agree, Di Meola is incredible.

Another of my favorites is Nuno Bettencourt. Most people just think of More Than Words or Whole Hearted, but he's quite a guitar virtuoso. He has several solo albums and albums with other bands he's put together, and the guitar on all of them is amazing. Extreme actually got back together a few years ago an put out another album that is really good.

 

Yeah Nuno is good. If you've never heard of Shawn Lane you've never heard the fastest guitar player of all time. I mean it is like his hands can move faster than any human beings hands have ever been able to. He died a few years ago. He used to be in Mountain. He became morbidly and absurdly obese and it ultimately cost him his life. He was a PHENOMENAL player though. Look him up on youtube.