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Comments
It was busy and bloody noisy. Not much that you wouldn't have seen or tested at a decent guitar shop.
Complete sausage fest too
- seeing some crimson guitars - fabulous instruments
- Atkin acoustics - again lovely stuff
- Thorpy pedals looked cool - good to see the stand was busy, but that also meant I didn't really get a chance to get up close.
- Guitarwrist were nice to meet, their charitable work sounded pretty good
Was thinking of going tomorrow. But now my war chest is earmarked for other projects... probably... and the write up isn’t mega inspiring.
Tell me: did they have stickers?
contactemea@fender.com
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Did pick up a nice 25ft cable which had about a tenner of the street price. And some key ring/bottle opener merch shaped like a guitar.
Plus I got to play on an amazing Turnstone guitar, and there were some great displays from Reiver guitars and others. There were some beautiful guitars from a builder from Germany all though I don't recall the name.
PROS:
- Cream Experience was excellent, with strong playing (astonishing bass), and passionate vocals
- proper gig level volume, and generally good sound in the main auditorium (but see other comments below)
- the Rory Gallagher collection was moving and informative
- the workshops seemed appreciated by most
- good to have a London-based show for all us of in Dixie
- the Gretsch G6228 seems as good as its reviews! Definitely a guitar to own alongside your Gibson Les Paul R types
CONS:
- very little gear actually exhibited; only low end Fender and Marshall, for example; no Gibson, no Martin; no bass gear (except DV Mark)
- where were the amps? These are at least as important (if not more so) than our guitars
- and is it too much to expect that attendees might want to buy things? Time was when equipment would be piled high, and sold (relatively) cheap; this gave the atmosphere a buzz
- the 7 Decades band need to allow their vocalist to sing; she was excellent (soulful, although with no histrionics), but criminally under-used to make way for the frontman's soloing
- the website didn't credit the side persons in the bands; why?
- Olympia is a bleak venue; who could have known that grey was available in so many different shades (no, not those Shades...)?
- we were worried that the expectation of this being a really big show might have had people travelling real distance to get to it; as you could easily walk round the displays in an hour, you then had to check that your vision hadn't failed, and there really was so very little there. Reminded me of the Hammersmith Novotel shows...
- with the exception of the ever-affable Adrian Thorpe, there were no high profile makers there. I can recall the days of Paul Reed Smith, Jim Marshall, and Hank Marvin (I appreciate he's not a maker) signing autographs
- ...and no high profile US artists to show us the way. When the Hellecasters could be seen in the middle of the day (for no additional ticket charged) at past shows - and on the same bill as UK genius Albert Lee - you know you were at a real event
- ...and there was a health and safety apparatchik going round with a decibel meter! Come on; guitars these days are electric...I was asked to turn down, when I couldn't even hear myself (and not because it was NAMM levels of loud)
- the show just didn't feel crowded; it made the whole event seem flat and somehow reverential
- and where is the innovation? The next forward move in the whole guitar thing? Even if it this was more vintage reissues...or more low wattage recording and gig friendly amps...or more of the Fractal/Helix/Kemper profiling/multi-effects axis
To conclude; this was quite a weird day out, and there needs to be real consideration paid to the scale and content of any future events, especially the retail side of things (GuitarGuitar in Camden definitely have more gear - to echo a previous comment). Give us some atmosphere, because this didn't have much...
Maybe I’ll bring him to the Northampton show next weekend
I really miss miss the old huge shows at the Excel etc
The shows continuance will be measured by what happens next - It is not the cheapest venue to hire so stand space is not cheap - If suppliers, builders, dealers etc don't think a viable return was achieved they will think twice about any pending show for 2019 - Without this backing then no show
Equally it has been a challenge for many years now to find a suitable/affordable venue in London itself - Looks like it is not possible - Maybe a pity but that is just the way it is - @Jason will tell you more about this as he has looked at London options many times
Are the other shows in the UK much better (as in worth both the entry and the time and money to travel)?