Hey all! My name is Gavin Miele, and as of last month, I am the newest
employee at The Laboratory! Aaron thought it was a good idea that I
start some sort of blog recounting my experiences, learnings, and
of course, musings as a new hire at a music store. I am twenty years
old and live in Gloucester Township, NJ. I got my start at The
Laboratory by being a bored teenager and hanging around the store in
my free time (or maybe it was time that could've been better spent
doing work). I am a bassist, so I did have some excuse to be poking
around The Lab, but there were plenty of times I found myself
loitering, haha! Eventually, after hanging around the place enough, I
was offered a job, which I accepted in a heartbeat. Some of our other
staff always joked that I was making sales long before I was ever
considered for a new hire.
So far, The Lab has been quite the learning experience for me. I've
spent the last couple of years of my life completely enveloped in the
music world but, in just a couple of weeks at The Lab, I think I've
learned more about music gear than I ever did on my own. For example,
my band and I have been preparing for our first show, which will take
place on March 30th. During some of my shifts at The Lab, I've been
able to bounce gear and production questions off of our Owner, Mister
Aaron Barbarics. I was shopping for a reliable, rock-solid instrument
cable for the show. During my search, Aaron educated me that any
unbalanced cable over 18 feet long will experience signal loss and
interference. This signal loss most commonly presents itself in the
form of a duller high end. Personally, I really value the clarity and
totality of my tone! Given this newfound knowledge, I decided on a
15-foot D'Addario American Stage Cable.
After playing bass for a little over a year, I bought my first "nice"
bass guitar. I decided on a Sterling Stingray, which is actually for
sale at The Lab right now! Upon buying this bass, I decided to learn
how to set up a bass guitar. Ever since then, I always set up my own
basses. I always really enjoyed working on my own instruments, and I
wasn't too bad at it either. Although, I never really learned how to
set up an acoustic or electric guitar until I started at The Lab.
Aaron, our Guitar Tech Stefan, and Sam, our shipping master, all gave
me some great pointers and tips on setting up acoustic and electric
guitars. It's not all too different from setting up a bass, and I got
the hang of it pretty quickly! Working on customer setups has been an
absolute thrill and an awesome learning experience for me. I've always
loved working with my hands. One of my earliest experiences at The Lab
was consulting Aaron and Stefan if they had any thoughts on me going
to guitar repair school. I was interested in pursuing a career as a
guitar tech or builder/luthier. I ultimately decided against attending
school for guitar repair; alas, I've still found myself where I wanted
to be.
So far, working at The Laboratory has been one of the coolest and best
learning experiences of my life. I will, of course, keep all of you
readers up to date on my musings and whatnot. Thanks for reading, and
stay tuned for what's next!
-Gavin
