GoodBuyGuys Blog

No, that’s not a misprint. I really did mean “mil“.

I recently came across an online ad for duct tape that listed this information under “roll length”.

60 Yds.-180 Ft.-55 Meters

Yes, a standard roll of duct tape or gaffers tape is 60 yards, or 180 feet, but that is not the same as 55 meters. 55 meters is longer than 60yds. Just a little longer, but nonetheless, it helps me make a point.

Tape manufacturers seem to constantly mix standard and metric measurements at will, usually to serve their own purposes.

The width of a roll of gaffers tape was two inches for decades. Simple, easy to remember, and true. About ten years ago, all the major manufacturers of this and other cloth tapes changed to a metric standard for width, and reduced the width of a roll of tape to 48 millimeters. The change was hardly noticable on a single roll of tape but when you spread that size reduction over literally millions of rolls made by a major manufacturer in a single year, the difference was huge. It adds up to almost a full roll of actual tape in a case of 24 rolls.

By using the metric standard for width they reduced the roll size by 4%, but by not adopting the metric measure of 55 meters for length, they didn’t have to increase the roll length.

To confuse things further, the thickness of tape is measured in “mils” with “mil” meaning a thousandth of an inch. Here the mix standard (inches) and metric (thousandths).

If you’ve got any good ideas on how to standardize this system, let me know.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’re your first choice for “Satisfaction Guaranteed” tape products.

I don’t watch much television, and if I do, its usually “late night”. I’m always surprised to see how prominently musical equipment manufacturers logos are displayed when you see bands on programs like Late Night With David Letterman or The Tonight Show. While its true that some of these players have endorsement deals with the equipment makers, others don’t. More importantly, in most cases companies like Yamaha and Tama aren’t paying the networks directly for this tremendous exposure. Meanwhile companies like Ford and GM are paying millions for advertising on the same shows that might be nearly as effective.

Its a lot easier to get video exposure for your band than it was a few years ago. You Tube, cable and satellite TV, and other online channels mean that performers using musical equipment have tons of opportunities to be seen. If you are interested in the possibility of getting some sort of endorsement deal, try using a little well placed gaffers tape to cover up the logos of any equipment that might appear in your video.

You can be sure that if someone from Marshall or Fender sees you using their equipment with the logo obscured they will realize that they are missing an opportunity to put their name in front of lots of eyeballs. With a popular YouTube video getting millions of views, this type of exposure can rival that of a 3 minute performance by a popular artist on a network program.

Equipment manufacturers pay lots of money to popular performers to use and be seen with their gear. There’s no reason that you should miss out.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’ve got gaffers tape in 13 colors!

I was adding some components to our office alarm system yesterday and had to plug in a new outboard power supply (wall wart) to power it. While there was a spare outlet (two, actually) available, the two power supplies already plugged into two of the four available outlets rendered the last two useless.

Whether you are dealing with duplex (two outlets) or quad (four outlets) the spacing of your wall outlets has not changed for decades. The space above or below (as well as side-to-side for quads) is still spaced like it was when houses and offices were built in the 1950’s. There are lots of devices designed to get around the problem, but they require additional components, complication and expense.

Since no single connector would ever plug into multiple outlets at the same time, there is absolutely no reason to continue to adhere to this standard. Why don’t wall outlets built into new buildings reflect the need to plug power supplies directly into the wall without covering adjacent outlets? It wouldn’t prevent any devices currently in use from being plugged in, but would accomodate all the devices we now use that require wall warts.

This is a great opportunity for those who market residential and commercial installed wiring devices to solve a problem, create added convenience for the end user, make a safer environment (fewer overload and trip hazards) and maybe even make a little more money themselves.

Let me know what you think.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your power distribution needs.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a huge spike in microphone stand sales at buymicstand.com and our ebay store “buy mic stand“. We had no idea why. I should have asked my kids!

It seems the must-have item for this year’s Christmas is an XBox 360 game called Rock Band. Growing on the popularity of Guitar Hero, Harmonix has released a game that includes not only a guitar, but a drum set and a microphone as well. What it doesn’t include is a microphone stand.

Suddenly, every gadget and gift giving blog I come across talks about Rock Band and about the accessories you’ll need to play the game correctly. A mic stand is one of the accessories that the game maker doesn’t offer.

I hadn’t checked our Google search ratings lately, but currently we are number 1 for the search term “microphone stand” and number 2 for the term “mic stand“.

Maybe we’ll sell enough stands for me to be able to put Rock Band under our Christmas Tree.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your mic stand needs.