The Guitar Show 2024 - 2nd & 3rd March

Lebarque

Tuffset said:

stickyfiddle said:

It's days like this that make me wish I was still in the UK! 

Did anyone get a good look at the @Tuffset bridge? 

Hey! I hope we get some posts soon - Sergeant Brown (our demo guitar) was in use for the majority of the time at the show, and many folks mentioned they'd first heard about us on here!

Reception was overwhelmingly positive with everyone who played it - and one group we hadn't thought much about were the many guitar techs who struggle with these guitars on a weekly or daily basis.

It was a truly special experience as the bridge's designer to enjoy players' first moments with the bridge, seeing the look in their eyes and hearing the disbelief in their voices that they just couldn't get this thing out of tune!

Had some fantastic and memorable chats with people at the show, particularly towards closing on Sunday; Karl of Karl Longbottom Guitars came by and we all had a really interesting and friendly chat - and then later on sent one of his show reps Thom over, and it was really a special moment for me as a Brian May fan because Thom seems to have practically the whole Queen back catalogue under his fingers! Karl is in the process of making him a guitar that was planned to have a Kahler locking/roller bridge mounted to it, but as soon as he played Sergeant Brown, he scrapped the idea and wants to put a Tuffset on it!

I also popped by the Fretboard booth, was very impressed with the 3D-printed pedal board (if in doubt, order with confidence!) and had a lovely long chat with the three chaps there, showed them the bridge and packaging, and demonstrated how to adjust the bridge. Also got some great contact info! I invited them to come and play the demo guitar, but they were swamped the whole weekend - probably as a result of the innovative pedalboard concept!

If you're on the Tuffset mailing list, expect an email tomorrow with a pre-order coupon for £40 off and a link to the pre-order page on the new website. Cheers!

Dan

I loved that bit of wood with the bridge, tuners etc. mounted on it, Dan.

Tuffset

Cheers!! Yeah that was just to approximate tension / downward pressure, so people could demo / trial the adjustment system for themselves in a representative (but easy to manoeuvre) way. It definitely attracted some attention, too! Max was playing it like a lapsteel in the car on the way to the show, haha!

midiman1962

RevMatt said:

midiman1962 said:

Went on Saturday- did 4 of the live events. 

Saw the 15 year old young lad (Will I think?) playing some bluesy stuff sponsored by Parker Fly, sound was ok and a decent version of “Bridge of Sighs” the Robin Trower track.

@midiman1962 - Will Griff, playing a Patrick James Eggle 96, not a Parker Fly in sight  

Great show, good to visit tFB stand and looking forward to building my pedalboard 

Yes my mistake but at least I got it beginning with’p’ !

prowla

Graingerguitars said:

timmypix said:

Graingerguitars said:

timmypix said:

Graingerguitars said:

timmypix said:

Went on Saturday for a couple of hours and really enjoyed doing a few laps, looking at various bits.

Show stealers for me were Grainger guitars. I was drawn to the stand by the wild designs but then was absolutely blown away by the quality and details of the builds. Expertly crafted, intricate carving, various woods inlaid in other woods and resins and generally the kind of stuff you don't really see done well outside of the ESP Custom Shop and costing tens of thousands - I think anyone could have happily paid £4-5k for the quality of workmanship and attention to detail on the guitars they had with them if they had the brand power.

I was extremely tempted when they told me the show prices: they're trying to build their brand a bit so they were only £1800! 

Their designs won't be to everyone's tastes - hell, they're not really to mine - but a small company hand-building guitars to that level for that money is insane.

Hi @timmypix, thanks for those amazing comments.  we're fortunate that we don't earn our living by making the guitars so can keep the prices far keener which in turn aid's us making more, :-)

Thanks again for visiting our stand and taking the time to feed back your thoughts on to the forum

Oh brill, didn't know you guys were on here! I'm still thinking about that Hades, but I have to be honest with myself - I'm not gigging atm (new puppy!) and it'd be wasted on me. But perhaps if/when I am gigging again....

Keep up the stunning work, I honestly couldn't believe the intricacy and quality on show.

Thanks Tim, did you give the Hade's a play?  - I'm guess it was the brown burst one?

Yep - not plugged in, but it was so comfortable! You've done a brilliant job of making an extreme shape comfortable for the player. and the way the wood is inlaid around the scarf joint and the side dots, the finish change from the back of the headstock to the neck... OOFT.

Thanks, we've done 16 Hades builds now, one was a seven string with floating trem, two fan fret versions, a 6 string with floating trem, and the rest were hardtails.... and three bass versions on top of that.......most end up in the USA

It's certainly a statement piece!............have a look at our instagram page there's loads of pictures on there

It's a hell of a guitar!

mrkb

Lebarque said:

Tuffset said:

stickyfiddle said:

It's days like this that make me wish I was still in the UK! 

Did anyone get a good look at the @Tuffset bridge? 

Hey! I hope we get some posts soon - Sergeant Brown (our demo guitar) was in use for the majority of the time at the show, and many folks mentioned they'd first heard about us on here!

Reception was overwhelmingly positive with everyone who played it - and one group we hadn't thought much about were the many guitar techs who struggle with these guitars on a weekly or daily basis.

It was a truly special experience as the bridge's designer to enjoy players' first moments with the bridge, seeing the look in their eyes and hearing the disbelief in their voices that they just couldn't get this thing out of tune!

I loved that bit of wood with the bridge, tuners etc. mounted on it, Dan.

When I saw that I initially thought it was a lap steel mandolin for rockers ! lol.

Revolutions

Kalimna said:

1991 sound-like-PearJam pedals.

Where do I find me one of these??? 

Jason

sweepy said:

That’s the busiest show I’ve ever attended, well done everyone, Stellar  job

Cheers, it was pretty busy ;-)

Jason

sweepy said:

Maybe more coffee facilities next year ? 

Already talked to the venue about it - the increase in attendance took us all a bit by surprise

Jason

mudslide73 said:

I saw KDH, Dave Simpson and Chappers but not Dave Hill

Had a chat with Roland and digitalscream as well as Jason. Great show as always. If I could fit it in I'd go back tomorrow for sure. 

I brought my co-guitarist to his first ever guitar show and he was blown away at how civilised everything was. 

Civilised...?

It was good, virtually everyone behaved themselves

I missed Dave Hill too, I was supposed to be introduced to him :-(

Jason

ArchtopDave said:

Jason said:

chor808 said:

Sorry to check again but arriving after 10am should still find a parking space correct?

Enjoyed my visit on Saturday.
Haven't been for a few years…the last time it was pre Covid in the previous venue. Got there just after 10 am, and easily parked across the road in the (?)Academy car park.

I went to the Live Stage to see the Neural DSP guy. His playing was decent enough, but he said very little about his usage of the Quad Cortex, which was disappointing. On the other hand, the Sound Engineer in the Room saw that I was interested in his rather fine Allen & Heath, and invited me to have a closer look, and demonstrated how it all worked. This bit of generosity really made the day for me.

Rather amusingly, I could not find the simplest of things for sale. I decided after one of our recent rare gigs, that I'd like a more substantial guitar stand (currently use a Cooperstand). Couldn't find a decent Hercules Stand for sale, though I got info off one of the exhibitors.

I've shown this to Lez (Sound Eng), he is a top fella, I've been working with him for 20 years

Jason

4string said:

Nice to meet @digitalscream and @TTony again, and I'm looking forward to making up my pedalboard kit. It was a lot busier than either @OilCityPickups or I could recall from previous years. Yesterday was even busier according to @homeoftonejames (nice to chat BTW), so it must have been rammed. Hearty congratulations to @Jason for putting on a fantastic show.  

Thank you

guitars4you

Jason said:

mudslide73 said:

I saw KDH, Dave Simpson and Chappers but not Dave Hill

Had a chat with Roland and digitalscream as well as Jason. Great show as always. If I could fit it in I'd go back tomorrow for sure. 

I brought my co-guitarist to his first ever guitar show and he was blown away at how civilised everything was. 

Civilised...?

It was good, virtually everyone behaved themselves

I missed Dave Hill too, I was supposed to be introduced to him :-(

I would not have minded a 2 min chat + pic with Dave - The reason I played guitar was that 73/74 era and influenced by Dave, Noddy and Marc Bolan 

Jason

chor808 said:

Had a great day with the two teenage shedders. Really good show Jason. Managed to catch a couple of live acts which were great.

I think we spent over six hours there, really good they let the teenagers play everything including a 5k esp! They had a great time one picked up a used evh guitar.

I got a jet guitar in gold...

Good day out.

Thanks :-)

Jason

DarrenClewes said:

Really enjoyed it yesterday.

I thought the quality of the show has improved year on year. The main thing I noticed was the quality of the 'silent' options. A lot more thought has been put in to the user experience from most of the stands. I noticed a lot of two notes audio powered headphones, which made the thing so much better. 

I always find it funny when you're encouraged to try out a 3k guitar through a sh*tty headphone amp!

One thing that I thought was weird was the lack of a company selling quality cases / gig bags?

The general opinion from retailers is that they take up a lot of space, have very little margin, and don't sell as well as you would think

Tuffset

Jason said:

sweepy said:

That’s the busiest show I’ve ever attended, well done everyone, Stellar  job

Cheers, it was pretty busy ;-)

Massive thanks to you Jason, for making us feel so welcome at our first show! And to everyone we met, there were moments I'll remember always

Jason

Thank you to everyone who came along.

Definitely the busiest show I've run since my NEC days.

Already filling up for 2025, which is a bit mad

Cheers all, I'm going to bed :-)

Kalimna

Revolutions said:

Kalimna said:

1991 sound-like-PearJam pedals.

Where do I find me one of these??? 

Here ya go  

https://funnylittleboxes.co.uk/pages/1991-information-and-faqs

Crazed_Fandango

A good show, but the `come back the following day' was a pain, as it was a `name on the list' thing rather than a flyer.  The list was on the opposite desk and we ended up holding the queue up whilst waiting for the other desk to communicate with the main one.

timhulio

I'mma guess that was a system to prevent people from cheating the 'come back tomorrow' scheme. And the queue can be attributed to the larger than expected turnout, just like queue for the coffee (please can there be a fast-track coffee queue for exhibitors next time?)

It was an excellent show, thanks Jason. Really busy on the Saturday, so apologies if not everyone got to try some Fredric Effects pedals. I'm considering another demo station next year so people aren't kept waiting. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat.

Jason

timhulio said:

I'mma guess that was a system to prevent people from cheating the 'come back tomorrow' scheme. And the queue can be attributed to the larger than expected turnout, just like queue for the coffee (please can there be a fast-track coffee queue for exhibitors next time?)

It was an excellent show, thanks Jason. Really busy on the Saturday, so apologies if not everyone got to try some Fredric Effects pedals. I'm considering another demo station next year so people aren't kept waiting. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat.

Nope. The team on the desk just couldn’t find them. Not the end of the world just a mistake. 

Already sorted the coffee issue. 

Cheers Tim