As recently announced on our Products Page, Bill Nash of NASH Guitars is now accepting new and used Gibson (must be Gibson) Les Paul's from his dealers to perform his magic relic treatment on. As a result, we are now in the market to purchase some select pieces. If you have a Gibson Les Paul Standard, Classic or Traditional that you are not playing and would like to sell, please email us to let us know. We may be interested in buying from you for cash or an equivalent trade. Email us here to get the conversation rolling.

As promised, Godin product continues to arrive in our store. Most recently, more of the super value Godin Session's in some of their solid color offerings. The blue and the red are great. We must say, the pictured red is not nearly as nice as the real thing. Not being a huge fan of red guitars in general, I wasn't really looking forward to it but I have to say this slightly darker tone red is pretty nice, for red that is. Anyhow, these as well as the trans black and many of the other colors are all in stock for you to see. Drop in.. For more information about the Sessions, click here.

Tags: Godin, session, strat

Ever since it's inception, the KAOS website has been handled pretty much exclusively by me, Bill. This single person approach has worked well for us for a number of reasons. One, we're a small company and we don't have a ton of money available to hire a big firm to produce a website for us. Two, given our small number of people, we only have so much time in a day to serve customers, buy product, receive it etc etc etc leaving us very little time to be creative. Bottom line, having me take care of it on my own was a good working solution and to be honest, I really enjoy learning how to do it as I go. Also, it gave me a chance to work more from home which is a perfect fit for me right now as I have two young children who love having me around. I'm told that doesn't last forever so I'm trying to take advantage.

The down side of having only one person work on a website is that it gets difficult to continually come up with new content. As any regular visitor to our site would know, we have been continually moving towards a model of more product content. Our videos are a prime example and our product page, while still pretty basic is improving all of the time. Also, our Gbase.com presence is a move to improve our online product offerings. The KAOS blog is well read but my area of expertise is business not music as much so I only have so much to offer beyond announcements. Point is, I find it difficult to come up with what I think is interesting content for our customers to read week after week.

So, with that said, I am happy to announce that starting very soon both Jay and Lou will begin contributing to their very own KAOS Blogs. Lou's blog will concentrate on amps and guitars. He'll talk about new stuff, old stuff, how stuff is made, how it ought to be made, basically anything related to guitars and amps. Jay will concentrate more on effects, recording, software and hardware devices. He'll talk about things to do with making you sound better and how to record it.

Adding Lou and Jay is an exciting move for us. As a good friend of KAOS recently pointed out to me, Lou and Jay are two of the industries best kept secrets. What he meant was that both of these guys have almost 20 years of experience each and are both seasoned experts in their fields. The problem is that most people don't know about them. Those who do, visit the store and benefit regularly from their knowledge. We're hoping that these new blogs will serve to expose their knowledge to a far bigger audience, hence improving the appeal of our website. Watch for these new blogs soon under "The KAOS Blog" menu on our website.

We've been waiting eagerly for the Performing Artist Martin's to arrive. Yesterday the DCPA-1 finally arrived ahead of schedule thanks to the prolonged warm spell in the weather. Martin has a strict policy about shipping their Standard Series guitars when the temperature is below what they feel is a safe temperature to transport a guitar without damaging it. Not surprisingly to us, the dreadnaught member of this family did not disappoint. Awesome Martin tone, the magic of the Aura pick up system combined with the beauty of its contemporary design make this guitar the most exciting piece that we've received in some time. For anyone in the market for a top end guitar with one of the best performance pick up system available, this guitar is one strong contender. Stop by to have look and strum a few bars. For more information from Martin click here.

Being one of the industries most progressive companies can't be easy. Godin, the mother company of Godin, Seagull, Art & Lutherie and La Patrie seems to be up to the challenge. Most recently, Norman announced a number of new improvements to their existing models. Among some more minor design changes was the announcement that their very popular ST40 model was about to become an all solid wood guitar. With its new design the ST40 is now an all solid wood guitar for less the $500. Combined with Norman's legendary quality this new all solid specification makes the already popular ST40 just that much more of a great value, not to mention just that much better sounding. The all solid ST40 is now in stock for you to check out in our store.

Every year at this time Ibanez gives us an opportunity to purchase guitars in a fairly large quantity in return for some favorable terms. As a result, we usually stock up on popular models as well as take the opportunity to expand our Ibanez product offerings. This year we have focused in on the Artcore hollow body guitars. Aside from their stylish good looks the Artcore series is famous for being among the best quality, mid priced hollow body guitars available today. This series comes in a big variety of body sizes, pick up configurations as well as bridge options. We have already started to receive our inventory and expect to receive the entire order in the coming weeks. Drop in to check them out. In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the Ibanez website click here.

March always signifies the corner where we say goodbye to winter and hello to spring. Moods change, people venture out a lot more and the days are longer just to mention a few of the dramatic changes at this time of the year. As far as music goes, patios open, backyard parties start to happen and music starts to be heard again in the places where people gather. It's not that I would even dream of complaining about this past winter but it is always nice for us here at the store to be able to open the door up and let some fresh air in, literally and figuratively. For us, our year goes like this. August/September are very busy months, selling products and getting our school up and running, a big task given its size. October/November, continue to be busy with the school and we spend lots of time ordering and receiving extra product for the Christmas season. December is a giant blur as we all work a fair bit harder and longer to sell all of the Christmas product. January is a bit of a hangover month for us but by about half way through we are pretty much back to normal. Mid January we get to travel to LA for the Namm show which is always a nice break. January/February are usually pretty busy with sales and a bit of a second wave in student registration. So... By the time we get to March we are totally ready to relax a bit and dig back into what we like best which is promoting and selling gear. September til now this year has pretty much followed that pattern with the exception of the consistency of other years. About 60% of the time we have improved our business over last years recession and the other 40% of the time we have been the same or actually a bit down. All in all we are improving slightly but nonetheless, the inconsistency is driving us a bit nuts to be honest. However, we are improving and that is something that we are truly grateful for. Now, looking forward we are excited about our expanding video library and all of the new products slated to arrive in the next while. We are continuing to explore new ideas to expand and improve our business which if nothing else is fun for a nerdy entrepreneur like me. In our world like many others, March signifies the beginning of many more sunny days ahead. We're looking forward to a great spring and evening greater summer. We hope to see you soon.

Here at KAOS we are always looking for new ways to expand our business. An idea that we are currently working on is a new, guitar centric website that would cater to guitarists of all levels. The site would potentially offer product reviews, a user forum for people to discuss product and music in general, a section of instructional playing videos, a free classified section for people to buy and sell gear as well as shop for band mates and possibly a store that would offer hard to get guitar related products like play a long books, accessories and guitar swag. Before diving in head first, something we often do, we thought we would ask your opinion. If you'd like to contribute to this idea we'd love to hear from you about what you would find useful in a site dedicated to the guitar enthusiast. If you do send us your ideas, we'll enter you to win a $100 KAOS Music Gift card to be drawn next week. Click here to email us your ideas.

Hot off the press, the February edition of our KAOS Monthly newsletter is up on our website and ready for you to read. A few announcements, a request for customer input and a number of product reviews. Click here to view it online and if you haven't already joined our email list, click here to be notified about our newsletter, special sales and other cool things.

Another great Gear Review from Bill & Jay. In this review they take a look at the Godin 5th Ave Kingpin. Undoubtably one of the most interesting and popular guitars of the past year.

Click here to watch this video

Tags: Godin, Gear Review, Kingpin, 5th Ave

Despite going head to head with game one of the men's Olympic hockey, the KAOS Jam enjoyed a decent turn out and some great performances. Ryan and the house band entertained the crowd with a new assortment of tunes including an awesome version of The Ocean featuring who else but Lou on guitar. Performances ranged from some KAOS Jam regulars to a few new people who got up the nerve to plug in and perform for their friends and families. As alway, lots of fun had by all. We haven't scheduled the next jam but it should be sometime in May. To view video from last nights Jam, click here.

In the next few weeks, a new section will be completed on our website. The VIDEO section will consolidate a number of different types of videos for our customers. The first two series of videos will be: Phil X in a series of highly entertaining videos that he has shot for California based vintage guitar company Frettedamericana. In these videos, Phil shows the guitars off, explains why they're cool and does some amazing playing and singing. Phil is a Toronto Native and great friend of ours here at KAOS. These videos are awesome. The other series will be a new series of product demos by our very own staff. These videos will feature our guys giving you a quick 'live' look at the products that we sell. Both series will start to appear in about two weeks when the site update is complete. Other valuable and entertaining videos will be added as we discover them. We're pretty sure that you will find this new section of our site fun and helpful. Click here to view the Phil X Videos.

Bill and Jay take a look at the newest, low priced, high quality guitar from Martin. In fact, it's not really a new series rather a reissue from a previous series. Either way, the guys walk you through the reasons that we like this series so much.

To watch this video click here.

Tags: martin, acoustic, guitar

Having just been in Los Angeles for our industries "New Product" show there is a long list of new products slated to be released over the next 6 months. We'll endeavor to keep you up to date about these new products and when they are slated to arrive in our store. Keep an eye on this blog, our newsletters and your email in-box for details as they become available. We just posted some information on the new Martin Performing Artist Series of guitars and some big improvements to the already famous AC series of amps from Vox in our product section. Check them out.

Tags: new products

Bill and Lou take an in depth look at the Vox AC 4 combo guitar amplifier. Click here to view this video.

Tags: vox, amp, ac4, ac

Hi everyone, I just got back from the NAMM show in Anaheim, California and I have tons to report. This years show was not only fun it was very educational for business guys like me. There were lots of new and interesting products. By the end of this week I will have the January Newsletter ready which will be full of pictures and information about my trip. Watch for it and make sure you are signed up for our emails so you receive the notification. Click here to read about it.

This past Sunday, we hosted the first 'Music in the Kingsway' concert in partnership with Yamaha Canada and our friends at The Kingsway Conservatory. All of the performances were simply outstanding but our headliner, Heather Bambrick stole the show with her unique sense of humor and absolutely stellar vocals. As a special treat, Heather had Dave Restevo with her. Dave is undoubtable one of Canada's greatest Jazz pianist. All of the performances were carried out on the Yamaha Avand Grand Hybrid digital grand which performed brilliantly. With almost 200 people in attendance, the show was a full out success. We'd like to thank all in attendance and everyone involved with this production. We certainly hope to do more of these concerts in the future. Read more about this concert.

In the past year or so, lots of modeling guitar amps have been introduced. Despite lots of fancy features and a barrage of marketing, Roland's Cube series amps have continued to be perhaps the best sounding and most reliable. Bill and Lou take a closer look at the newest incarnation, The Cube 80x. Enjoy another edition of the KAOS Gear Review. Click here to view video.

Tags: roland, gear review, cube, amp, guitar

Yup, another year has gone by. As with every year since I became a responsible adult with actual responsibilities, it flew by in what seemed like a month or two. Looking back I'd have to say that all in all it was a wonderful year. Despite a world wide recession, our store was able to maintain our school business and only experience a slight decline in our instrument business. Everyone here at KAOS was healthy, happy and relatively prosperous as far as I know. From September 09 until now we have returned to our post recession sales numbers and our school is as healthy as ever. For all of this we are extremely thankful and happy. Coming up for us we have a couple of cool things happening. Firstly, this Sunday January 10th we will be holding our first ever 'Music in the Kingsway' concert which should not only be entertaining but also educational as it features the new Yamaha Avant Grand hybrid digital grand piano. Also, the following week I (Bill) will be traveling to sunny LA to take in the annual NAMM show which highlights all of the new instruments that are slated to be released in the upcoming year. When I get back I will get straight to work on a post NAMM trip newsletter to let everyone in on what I saw and got to experience.

On Sunday January 10th, we are pleased to be offering our community a FREE concert to celebrate some of our communities unique talent, a brand new and very innovative hybrid digital grand piano by Yamaha and most importantly our appreciation for many years of support by the good people of our neighborhood. The concert will be approx. 60 minutes in length and feature three separate performances. A chamber group, a solo piano performance and a jazz vocal performance will round out the entertainment. Attendees will be welcome to stick around after the performance to take a closer look at the piano and speak with representatives from Yamaha Canada. We are very excited about this event and hope to host more like it in the future. For more information and to request tickets, click here.

Tags: Yamaha, Avant Grand, Tyson Kerr, Sharon Burlacoff, Liza McLennan, Elyssa Lefurgey-Smith, Heather Bambrick

As you have already noticed, our website has been completely revamped. There were a few different goals that we hoped to achieve with this overhaul. Firstly, we wanted to make our site look better, more consistent and more professional. Secondly, we wanted to make it even easier to navigate then the previous version and lastly, I (Bill) wanted to make it easier to maintain. The previous site was based on the iWeb platform that while extremely easy to use, had some serious limitations that was making the upkeep of the site very tedious.

This new site combines the Blog and the Podcast of the previous site into this single Blog. Here you will find all of our blog entries and our Gear Review Podcasts. As well, our used and new product pages have been significantly improved with better photos and categories to make finding stuff easier. More improvements will come as we go after we finish porting all of the content from the old site into this one.

Hopefully, you will enjoy this newly improved site and will continue to visit. Thank you as always for all of your support. Feel free to contact me directly at any time with your questions or comments, billkaos@rogers.com.

Tags: Bill, Welcome, new site

There has been a lot of hype and buzz about this new guitar by Godin. The progression represents Godin’s first relatively inexpensive, production guitar in a strat type format. You’ll see from this podcast that we are pretty excited about it and for good reason, it’s pretty awesome. www.godinguitars.com

Click here to view the Podcast

On this episode of the Gear Review, Kaos veterans Bill and Lou look at the G & L Asat Classic Blues Boy Semi Hollow. This is by far one of the most popular guitars that we sell. Lou details why this guitar is such a nice instrument to play.

Click here to watch this podcast.

Tags: G & L, fender, strat, blues boy

One of the coolest products that we sell. The JamVox is so much more then a amp modeling computer interface. Kaos expert Jay Stradiotto walks you through why this little and very inexpensive box is so useful to almost any guitar player, young, old, new or experienced. Check out a more detailed video about the Jam Vox - click here

To watch this podcast click here.

Tags: vox, jam vox, effect processor, computer music

No doubt one of the most checked out and purchased amps of 2009, the Vox Night Train is awesome. Bill and Lou walk you through its features and explain why it’s so cool. For more information about this amp, check out the Vox website at www.voxamps.com

Click here to view the podcast

Tags: vox, amp, night train

One of our favorite guitars lines is the Nash Relic series. This Gear Review looks at one of our most popular models, the T52 based on a 1950’s Telecaster. Kaos product guys Bill and Jay take a closer look at this model. For more detailed information about Nash guitars, visit their website at www.nashguitars.com

Click here to watch this podcast

Tags: nash, tele, relic, electric, guitar

One of Martin’s least expensive guitars it still outperforms and sounds superior to most. The DX1R is one of our most favorite acoustics for sound and feel. Truly outstanding Martin quality at a very affordable price. Jay and Bill walk you through this wonderful value. For more information please - click here.

To watch this podcast - Click here.

Tags: martin, acoustic, guitar