Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

London Bass Guitar Show 2011


urb
 Share

Recommended Posts

Came away with zero GAS, which is fine :)
Bit of banter with TM Stevens as he walked past me in the Cafe queue, which was fun.....his clinic was also great!

Really enjoyed the saturday, the volume/slap issues are well documented, but at least the show was a resounding success :)

Si

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a long couple of days working on the Bass gear stand with Phil, Keith &, on Saturday, Tom as well (all fellow BC'er's) but had a great time despite losing my voice pretty much completely and now sounding like Barry White (if only I had the energy to try out my new-found huskiness by crooning walrus of love songs to the wife!).

Didn't get to see any of the artists but met so many great people from BC and had a good old natter about all things bass which more than made up for this :)

Also met loads of other super friendly bass players on our stand as well - it never ceases to amaze me what a nice bunch of people most bass people are.

As ever I was blown away by the quality of playing by most of the people who took the time to try out some of our basses. The ones that always get me are the younger kids who sheepishly ask if they can try something out & when I say yes they immediately head for the Fodera Matt Garrison 6 string & promptly slay me with the quality of their playing :)

There were a couple who couldn't have been more than 14/15 who really had technical skills but also had a nice groove to their playing as well. One of them asked if he could try the Yin Yang and when I said 'of course' his jaw nearly hit the floor. He played some nice stuff for 5 minutes or so and then carefully put the bass back on its stand and, very formally, shook my hand and said thank you very much for letting him play (his dad quietly whispered that this would have made his day which was also really nice of him).

Just goes to show that there's plenty of young talented players coming up that aren't all snotty, arsey brats and makes me feel happier about the future of our chosen instrument.

Looking forward to next year (and more stands with those wonderful headphone set-ups!). . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='MythSte' post='1161103' date='Mar 13 2011, 09:51 PM']I had a wonderful time yesterday with Al and Matt (homer and machines!)

TM Stevens was fantastic, A real highlight for me. I also got a chance to play the Sterling Ray34CA, Its safe to say I'll have one of those shortly!

I didnt find the volume too bad but I really did appreciate going out for a breather every now and then just do re-pressurize my insides! Great to meet everyone I did meet and to those of you that didnt, I'm really sorry I missed you!

Oh, and thanks Machines for this photo;



Please note, I was entering my 36th hour of being awake so was feeling a little past my best come this point! :)[/quote]

Hey Ste' That's an awesome picture! - I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to catch up for a coffee and chat. - Ya know, from reception it took me nearly an house to actually get in to the main venue as I bumped in to loads of fine basschatters for a natter - and that's pretty much how the day panned out for me! ya know, I only picked up TWO basses all day! Sadly, with all the racket around me - I didn't even bother plugging in the £8k Fodera or the Brian May bass!! - Though gotta say, I would have the BM bass - that was cute! ha!

Just wanna say, it was great to meet so many basschatters and put faces to names! By far one of the best bits of the day for me was meeting y'al!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Bassmurf' post='1160356' date='Mar 13 2011, 12:04 PM']Oh and the Ampeg and GK stands as well, I understand your amps are loud but do ya have to turn them up that much?[/quote]

I was on the GK stand, I completely agree, everything (including us) was too loud, but there was some pillock right next to us that was playing slap solidly for both days with a cranked amp. We were trying to keep it down but people literally couldn't hear anything they were playing on our stand. It was either turn it up or lose interest from a potential customer because someone's ego was on the lose. I was making a point to play as little slap as possible whilst demonstrating, 95% of people will never play slap in a band, demonstrating (or testing as a customer) something that's hardly going to benefit anyone is pointless.

The Sunday was MUCH better, they actually enforced the 1/2 hour silences, so though it still was absurd, your ears got a rest and it kinda reset the volume (although there was always someone that decided when the noisy half hour started, it should start on 11).

I had a look around as much as I could, most of what was there seemed pretty standard stuff. It was nice to see the Tanglewaters (as someone dubbed them earlier), they seem nice instruments. I was tempted to pick one up but it just didn't quite feel right somehow. Although that's quite possibly because I tried out a "proper" overwater too and they were obviously much cheaper basses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1161252' date='Mar 14 2011, 01:00 AM']It was nice to see the Tanglewaters (as someone dubbed them earlier), they seem nice instruments. I was tempted to pick one up but it just didn't quite feel right somehow.[/quote]

It was Chris May himself that christened them "Tanglewaters".

That's what he called them when he brought them up to Moffat for the Feb Bass Bash.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='BassBunny' post='1161511' date='Mar 14 2011, 10:46 AM']It was Chris May himself that christened them "Tanglewaters".

That's what he called them when he brought them up to Moffat for the Feb Bass Bash.[/quote]

I suppose that's less risqué than walking onstage with "Overwood". :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went Sunday, had a great day. Many thanks and all the best to all who had a hand in putting it together!

High points - TM - Pascal Mulot - and having a nice long chat with my relative, Sheldon Dingwall!
Lows - Missing Stu Hamm - though people said it wasn't quite as bad as saturday, the racket!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got back last night after helping Mark @ Bass Direct out all weekend, and what a weekend it was!

Highs for me:

Meeting and hanging out with Sheldon Dingwall - who also gave me free upgraded pick ups for my Combustion! What a legend that guy is. Some good marriage advice too ;-) Well...sort of! :)

Watching the jam in The Albion after when Mark King got on the drums, then Garry Husband! Really once in a lifetime thing there.

All the guys who were around our stand too - John East especially, what a great guy. So bloody smart and not in a "I'm better than you" way either. Will be definitely checking out some of his pre-amps in the future. Also Dave Swift was a complete top guy who had all the time in the world for everyone there.

Just meeting and talking to people who are as passionate as myself about bass and just enjoying the friendliness of everyone. Don't think I met an idiot all weekend. Even the slappers ;-)

Low points - Stu Hamm...The only performance I wanted to watch but came away feeling like "Err what.." I can't put my finger on it but a friend also said the same :-S

All in all a fantastic weekend!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went on the saturday and had a ball....

Plus points:

The guy who shouted "bass w*nkers" Inbetweeners-style as we queued outside Olympia.
Dave Swift - great bloke
Stu Clayton - real friendly
John East
Dave on the Aguilar stand -I WILL be back for an AG500 and 2 SL112's!!
TM Stevens
Seeing my PJ on the Overwater stand

Minus:

Noise/slap- obviously

Had a great day overall, hope to see the show grow and be an annual event from now on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went on sunday and thought it was a great show.

Highs:
Seeing TM Stevens TEAR IT UP (anyone know what songs he was playing?)

Getting my fingers on an amazing Yamaha 6 string.. the neck was the same width as my 5 :)

Being able to play on the Fodera YinYang bass, what a fantastic piece of wood

Getting my scratchplate signed by Stu Hamm

...and being allowed to play my old fender jazz through all the fantastic amps there (EBS/MarkBass/Hartke/Trace Elliott and my new personal favourite, TC Electronic)

Lows:
Missing Janek's set thanks to the damn trains!!

Slap: wayyyy too much. At least they enforced that 30 minute silence today, couldn't even imagine what it was like yesterday!!
I'll admit I contributed to the slap noise for a bit but I only did it to test out the various amps and bass's versatility as I'm not actually that good and didn't want to disgust anyone with my poor thumb :)

Not being able to try out Ampeg stuff because of the Chops monster occupying the stall for the whole day. It's all well and good hearing someone else show you how good an amp is, but it could sound completely different when someone else plays it..

Seeing and hearing a guy bashing the hell out of a Fodera Imperial and getting worried whether it was on the verge of breaking.

Stu Hamm's set. Started off quite rusty but in all fairness he picked it up for the end so at least it ended well...and I learnt some new jokes!


Apart from the minuses it was an AMAZING show and I can't wait for next year! Might try and see if there's a way I could work at it... :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having endured the full 2 day Slapathon ( to be fair , Saturday was much worse than Sunday) I treated myself to the Geoff Gascoine Masterclass last thing on Sunday.

Very informative and helpful to me, although I was tickled when he asked if we all knew what a musical Bar was (!) I think he may have thought we were overspill from the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court down the road! (got myself a lovely gadget that slices tomatoes there...)

Met some fellow chatters whilst on Comp. Duty and drew a few blank looks from others when I asked "if they were a Chatter" before telling them to check this site out!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='jamesbass116' post='1161916' date='Mar 14 2011, 03:43 PM']Being able to play on the Fodera YinYang bass, what a fantastic piece of wood

Seeing and hearing a guy bashing the hell out of a Fodera Imperial and getting worried whether it was on the verge of breaking.[/quote]

I checked out the Foderas before they were packed away and they all survived without a scratch - which was lucky given the Yin Yang was my personal bass :)

I did have a couple of nervous moments though, lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='molan' post='1162219' date='Mar 14 2011, 07:39 PM']I checked out the Foderas before they were packed away and they all survived without a scratch - which was lucky given the Yin Yang was my personal bass :)

I did have a couple of nervous moments though, lol[/quote]

Ahh that was you!! I was the person you let play the bass through the little korg mini effects unit. I wanted to thank you personally but you were in the middle of helping someone else out so I'll thank you on here...Thank you SO much for letting me play on your fantastic bass! If I had the money I'd have bought it on the spot

I don't remember being too rough with it I hope :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an amazing time, can only thank BassGear for the free tix.

If any of you went past the Krampera stand on the sunday, I was there doing some demoing (unofficially - and at one point on a Vintage fretless).

The quality of the show was amazing, and for cheaper brands like Vintage, their basses have got AMAZING in comparison to only 7 months ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='jamesbass116' post='1162277' date='Mar 14 2011, 08:08 PM']Ahh that was you!! I was the person you let play the bass through the little korg mini effects unit. I wanted to thank you personally but you were in the middle of helping someone else out so I'll thank you on here...Thank you SO much for letting me play on your fantastic bass! If I had the money I'd have bought it on the spot

I don't remember being too rough with it I hope :)[/quote]

Ah, sorry about the Korg / headphones combo - it didn't really work very well. I'm afraid it was an afterthought after the din of the first day. That Korg is ok for playing around at home but it's a bit of a 'toy' and I think it masks the true tone of a bass.

Nice to meet you and sorry I didn't say a proper goodbye :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites



BASS VAN!!! I would say the contents were more expensive than the van itself!



The U-Bass and East stand. The U-Bass was the most fun bass I played all weekend!



Our booth! (Well, Marks!)



This was the after party in a small pub down the road. That is actually Mark King on drums! (Who is rather good too)



Barry, sales rep for Dingwall and EA Amps. A top guy and very cool.



Dave Swift pondering what steak to have...



ThomBassMonkey - he will kill me for this.



Me and the Grand Master of all Bass - Sheldon Dingwall. That is my bass too! I got a free pickup upgrade hence why I took it to the show.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='1162725' date='Mar 15 2011, 08:59 AM']Less talking people... more pics![/quote]

Yes definitely - I wanna see how many stands I missed by talking all day! ha!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...