Blog

How to trust your mover with your gear

Posted by Metal Piggy on Dec 10, 2015 in Blog | 0 comments

Recently I moved and had to hand over my gear to a moving company. They were the first things I checked when we delievered our stuff, luckily there was no damage whatsoever. But how do you trust your moving company when you give the gear you love, not only valuable but also precious?

The short answer: You don’t. You just have to make sure you pack it really well. I don’t believe they really care about the “Fragile” warning and I have seen so many of our boxes upside down. The TOP sign doesn’t mean anything, at least it didn’t mean to our movers.

The hardest one to pack was my amp and cab. They are bulky and heavy. I contacted a couple of music stores hoping they would have an empty box, it would have been perfect to find the amp’s own box, but I couldn’t find any. And it is hard to keep around such big boxes when you don’t have much storage.

So I decided to make a box of my own. A trip to the hardware store and a trip to the shipping supplies store was all I needed.

What I did was mainly wrapping the can with bubble wrap first, just for the sake of preventing the speakers to be in contact with styrofoam. Then putting styrofoam around. As tape does not really stick to styrofoam, I used stretch tape all around the cab. After all this multiple layers wrapping, the cab cover fit tight. It was good enough.

With the head I was a little bit more careful. It is not easy to find the right size box, so I went with the closest one possible and modified it. The lucky box was a lamp box from Public Storage. I had to cut it so there isn’t much space around the head.

As for the guitars, I didn’t take any pictures of it, but UHaul has a “Sporting Equipment Box”. Which works perfect for 2/3 guitars with soft cases. Of course, you have to put A LOT of padding. Those boxes came upside down, and I am so happy to see that the necks of the guitars were still intact. I useds a lot of pillows and blankets. They sure had a comfy trip

I cannot guarantee that this type of packing will work, but it did work for my case. They travelled 5000 kms, switching trucks on the way, stored in a couple of different storages, and came home safe and sound. My biggest concern about the move, handled without any issues! \m/

Interview: Nikki Stringfield

Posted by MetalMarysia on Nov 13, 2013 in Interview | 0 comments

Nikki Stringfield is a metal guitarist in the Los Angeles area, whose original band Before The Mourning is crushing eardrums statewide and beyond. I interview Nikki on this and her other gig as “Mega Murray” in the all-female tribute band The Iron Maidens, and more.

QueensOfMetal.com: I’ve heard that Nirvana was one of the bands that inspired you to pick up guitar. What did you love about them, and what other bands inspired you early on?

Nikki Stringfield: Nirvana, or Kurt Cobain I guess you could say, definitely inspired me to start learning guitar. I’m not sure why I fell in love with that band so much.. I guess the raw emotions just really struck me. I know it’s an odd band to inspire guitar playing since Kurt wasn’t exactly a shredder, but I picked up their tab book and learned every single song in it. After that I started listening to Avenged Sevenfold and they inspired me to start getting into more intricate soloing and structure, along with Pantera, Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, and other bands that I grew up with.

QueensOfMetal.com: Your singer in B4TM Adam grew up with parents who listened to country music, which made him go the “anything but country” route in terms of musical taste and writing. But you grew up with metal-loving parents, and you’ve stuck with metal. From your own experience, what do you think makes some people love their parents’ music and some hate it? …or is metal just objectively better than country?

Nikki Stringfield: Well, luckily I didn’t grow up listening to country like Adam did haha. I honestly can’t stand listening to it because it usually makes me depressed due the lyrical content, etc. Weird, I know, because I’m from Texas. When I was young I listened to what my parents did, and I had a great relationship with both of them. I think maybe that might have something to do with it. Some kids rebel against their parents and think its uncool to be like them or listen to the same things as them; when you’re forced to do something, you usually don’t want to do it. I was lucky that I could go to rock concerts with my mom, and I’m extremely lucky to have both of my parents traveling out to see my shows. But in the end, metal is just better than country! 😉
There is more! Please click here…

Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power

Posted by Metal Piggy on Aug 21, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

I was in Seattle for a weekend and of course I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to visit, EMP Museum(Experience Music Project). I didn’t know what to expect and I was quite pleased to see a section dedicated for women only: “WOMEN WHO ROCK: VISION, PASSION, POWER”

Regardless the term “rock” in the title, this exhibition covers all genres and all instruments. So having only part of the floor for all of course wasn’t enough, there were a lot of great names missing. As soon as I stepped in, I wanted to take pictures to post here, of course mainly of guitar players. There were some names that I would sure I would see and I did see some of them: Nancy Wilson of Heart, Joan Jett of The Runaways and Chrissie Hynde of Pretenders, with their old guitars displayed behind the glass. I was quite surprised not to see Lita Ford though. I see her as one of the pioneers of female guitarists in rock and metal. And Doro Pesch! Still one of my favorite female singers of all time.

As I said, it is not easy to cover all the bases when the space is limited. That did not stop me from emailing them and sending them a suggestion though! Maybe next time you visit there, you may actually see more female metalheads, who knows?

Interview: Laura Christine of Warface and Meldrum

Posted by QueensOfMetal.com on Aug 2, 2013 in Interview | 0 comments

We don’t know if it is the sunny weather or something else, but California is the host to so many great female shredders. When we got a hold of Laura Christine who is located in San Diego, we wanted to use this opportunity to get to know her and her musical style better! Until we have a chance to meet her in person, here is a little bit of what she has to say. We sure hope to hear more from her:

QueensOfMetal.com: How did you start playing music? Was guitar your first instrument?
Laura Christine: I started playing music in the 3rd grade, when I was required to play the recorder, of all things, for music class. That was my intro to reading and playing music. The following year, I went on to the flute in my elementary school band. When I turned 16, I discovered guitar and developed an immediate fascination. Coincidently, a guy at my high school was selling his acoustic guitar for 25 bucks which I bought with some X-mas cash. He threw in a Mel Bay Guitar Instruction Chord book free and I began teaching myself. I was hooked.

QueensOfMetal.com: For how long have you been listening to metal? What are your influences, both in terms of music and guitar style?
Laura Christine: I’ve been listening to metal for over 20 years. My early influences were bands like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Pantera, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, etc. My favorite style is technical metal and death metal. But I love a ton of different styles, everything from classical to blues.
There is more! Please click here…