sponsored Gillett Guitars

[Dood]

56 minutes ago, Gillett Guitars said:

MET OFFICE ALERT -  SEVERE WEATHER HITS GILLETT STAND A0!!

So, what am I doing at home posting this when I should be on the M4 heading for London Olympia?  No prizes for answering that one!  Having enjoyed the best winter weather of just about anywhere in the country, we've been bitten on the bum by the heavy snow that's hit Somerset over the last 24 hours.  The van with our stand is snowed in - as am I, Michael G and our Product Engineer Simon Austen at our respective homes.  So, this morning has been an exercise in damage limitation   The good news is that the show management have been able to build us a plain shell-scheme stand to replace our own wonderful (and expensive) creation and we're planning/hoping to travel tomorrow morning and be on the stand before lunch-time.  In the meantime, we have to get close enough to the stranded van by car to enable the driver to load the stuff we need for the show (e.g. some basses!) on to his kids' sledges and meet us - I kid you not!!

Luckily our friendly bass pro Freddie Draper (he lives in London) will be on our stand around opening time with his own bass and hopefully the couple of combos we're borrowing from Ashdown.  He'll be holding the fort until we arrive so, if you're passing, be sure to say hi to him - and give him a pat on the back!

Scrumpymike

I randomly had a missed FaceTime call from Michael at 5am. I must drop him a line!

[SpondonBassed]

May I suggest you do a video montage of the difficult bits of the trip so that it can be used as promotional material down the line?  That sort of commitment ought to be recorded for posterity.

[Gillett Guitars]

GILLETT/LBGS UPDATE

Michael G has managed to retrieve all our stuff from the stricken van and will be heading up the M5 first thing in the morning!

Scrumpymike

[Gillett Guitars]

7 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

May I suggest you do a video montage of the difficult bits of the trip so that it can be used as promotional material down the line?  That sort of commitment ought to be recorded for posterity.

Thanks for that - the most notable (regrettably unrecorded) event will hopefully be the 1 1/2 hours I spent digging the car out of the snow this afternoon.

[ped]

45 minutes ago, Gillett Guitars said:

Thanks for that - the most notable (regrettably unrecorded) event will hopefully be the 1 1/2 hours I spent digging the car out of the snow this afternoon.

You could always film a reconstruction in B+W slow-mo like they used to do on ‘999’ (remember that programmme?!)

See you tomorrow, if my train isn’t cancelled!!!

[Gillett Guitars]

Quite a lot has happened in the world of Gillett since I last posted, and it’s a bit remiss of me not to have posted for a while.  (I’m going to do this in easy instalments, as the forum seems to struggle with long posts made up of imported stuff.)

So, where were we?  Ah yes, fighting our way through the snow in a desperate bid to reach the London Bass Guitar Show.  As many of you will know either from being there or seeing Silvia Bluejay’s excellent coverage on this forum (also in Bass Guitar Magazine), we DID make it – albeit a couple of hours after the show opened, and without all our customised stand-wall panels printed with colourful (and expensive) graphics for the show.  This is how it should have looked…

http://

…but what we actually got was a plain white shell-scheme hastily cobbled together by the show organisers (for which we were most grateful).

No matter, the fact that we made it to the show at all was a great relief and anything over-and-above that was a bonus.

So, how was it for us?  BRILLIANT!  We had a steady stream of interested visitors and, thanks to the fact that we had ace keyboard-player Paul Quinn (a mate of Michael G’s) on hand, our stand was notable as the one from which some very nice music was being made much of the time.  The way we worked it was that we had a couple of ‘playing stations’ – one in the main body of the stand and another tucked round the side out of the way.  When a visitor started playing in the ‘hot seat’, the versatile Mr. Q would just kind of join in with whatever they were doing.  If it appeared to be working, it just took off; if not, then Paul didn’t push it.  This plan turned out to be inspired and certainly made life a whole lot more enjoyable for stand personnel and passers-by, who generally stopped for a listen, a look, and usually a go on one of our basses.

We had deliberately chosen a pitch just off the main exhibition area at the end of the concourse leading to the Olympia auditoriums (and the loos).  In this area, there was not much noise (apart from what we were making), a constant trickle (no pun intended) of people heading for the toilets and, thanks to the packed programme of on-stage events, queues of people in front of our stand waiting for the doors to open swelled by the stream of people coming out of the previous show.  One casual passer-by was Yolanda Charles on her way to her headline gig on Sunday afternoon.  Like pretty much everybody who sees our Contour basses for the first time, she was struck by the sculpted look and promised to come and have a play after her performance had finished.  And, true to her word, that’s exactly what she did, accompanied by a couple of her friends (another bassist and a keyboard player).  The resultant half-hour jam session was an absolute joy and Yolanda made it clear that she was very impressed with our basses.

http://

[Gillett Guitars]

A really big (for us) breakthrough is the development of a guitar version of the Contour bass.  It retains the all-important 'look' and main features of the bass, namely ergonomic sculpting front and back, combination of conventional pick-ups (2) plus bridge transducer, and thru-body stringing for enhanced sustain. We got the prototype finished just before the S-W Bass Bash and took it along to give the guitar-playing bassists among us a sneak preview (thankfully they loved it).  This included 'Scrumpette' Mandy's bro' Steve (pictured below), who actually is a guitarist and came down from Brum especially to try the new guitar.

http://

Its first showing to the general public will be at next weekend's Bristol Guitar Show on Sunday 29th April at the Ashton Gate Stadium (City ground).  Needless to say, we'll have our basses there too and would love to welcome any Basschat members on to our stand.

You can see Reverb's review of last year's show along with some video footage on the organiser's website link:

http://www.guitarshowsuk.co.uk/

Scrumpymike

 

Edited April 25, 2018 by Gillett Guitars

[xgsjx]

They look fantastic.  I'm about to be in the market for a fretless 5, but these are that wee bit out my reach (like £600).

[Gillett Guitars]

8 hours ago, xgsjx said:

They look fantastic.  I'm about to be in the market for a fretless 5, but these are that wee bit out my reach (like £600).

Cheap they're not - but if you see and play one you'll know why

[Dood]

1 hour ago, Gillett Guitars said:

Cheap they're not - but if you see and play one you'll know why

A fretless 5 you say? *looks hopeful*  

[xgsjx]

1 hour ago, Gillett Guitars said:

Cheap they're not - but if you see and play one you'll know why

Yolanda's face agrees.  
I'm restricted to £2k  

But it's 2 months away...  Things might change.

[Gillett Guitars]

10 hours ago, xgsjx said:

Yolanda's face agrees.  
I'm restricted to £2k  

But it's 2 months away...  Things might change.

PM sent

[Gillett Guitars]

Well, the Bristol Guitar Show has been and gone (last Sunday), so here's some feedback:

We haven't exhibited at a 'regional' event before but we decided to take a punt on this one on the grounds that a) it's just up the road and b) the cost is modest (about a tenth of what we spent on the London Olympia show in March).  I can now report that we were well impressed!  I'd already had a look at the video of last year's show compiled by the organisers to show-case the event.  That looked good but, as we all know, (PR) pictures don't always give a true reflection of reality.

As soon as we arrived at Ashton Gate Stadium (Bristol City's home ground) on Saturday evening, though, it was obvious that this was going to be a good gig!  I was especially encouraged to see that Hofner had taken a stand close to ours, on which there were some lovely guitars and basses - including a couple of delightful Macca 'Violins' (the stuff of my adolescent dreams).  I got chatting to the two Hofner guys and invited them to come over and look at our instruments, which they did half an hour later.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that they were blown away by 'Gillett Guitars' (one of them actually said "You've re-invented the electro-acoustic guitar!")  Obviously, that's not something I would put out on mainstream media (they wouldn't thank me for it ) but hopefully I'm safe sharing it here.  I took it as a real compliment for Michael G's work (he wasn't there at this time) and felt proud by association.

So, Sunday morning dawned (we were at the venue soon after ) and it wasn't long after the 10am kick-off (pun intended) before the hall was very busy indeed.  This included our stand and the separate demo room we had taken to show our prototype six-string guitar.  As at Olympia, Paul 'Keys' Quinn was tickling the ivories (not real ones Officer) to good effect.  Again, like the London show, our private room was next to the live stage - which was really effective in terms of maximising our audience.  The feedback on the new guitar was all positive and there were some useful suggestions for tweaks we can do before we finalise the design for its formal launch (there are one or two pic's in the pipeline, which I'll post here in due course).

These regional shows seem to be the way to go - not just for the visitors, who get to see and try masses of kit under one 'local' roof - but also for us manufacturers (low-cost, user-friendly events) and even the retailers.  I spoke to one guy who is closing his retail shop in favour of selling via shows like these and on-line.  He reckons it would have taken him a month to sell through the shop what he sold last Sunday!  Of course, it's a bit different for us with a new brand of premium-priced guitars.  Suffice to say that we sold our most expensive £2650 bass off the stand.  Which reminds me, the couple of 'H' guys referred to above couldn't believe that we could offer the quality we achieve at our asking prices.  "We don't have your overheads" was my reply!

Scrumpymike

[BCH]

Well done Mike...looking fwd to the pic's..let me know about the final design...thx....B

[Gillett Guitars]

3 minutes ago, BCH said:

Well done Mike...looking fwd to the pic's..let me know about the final design...thx....B

Thanks Bernard, and well spotted - was going to e-mail latest stuff to you anyway.

[Gillett Guitars]

Just a heads-up for anybody who's going to the North-West Guitar Show at Haydock Park near Liverpool this Sunday 20th.  We've got a stand and a private demo room in Hall 3, on the 1st and 2nd floors respectively.  Our main aim is to demo our prototype Contour 6-string guitar but we'll have our full range of basses there too.

Don't be a stranger - come and say hi!

http://www.guitarshows.co.uk/ARPages/NorthWest.html

 

[Gillett Guitars]

A Day at the Races

Well, at a race-course anyway!  We're back after a successful show at Haydock Park and here's a few pic's from our stand, demo room - and a gig at the local pub afterwards.

An early shot before the visitors arrived - a very informal 'table top' set-up in the halls, but none the worse for that.

Our Contour basses and the new guitar we've just added to the range got a great reception and a lot of visitors went up to our private room to play in a more controlled environment.

The demo team: local guitarist Jim Milne from the '70s cult band Tractor with buddies Pete and Andy on bass and keyboard respectively.  A good selection from the long-serving membership of Liverpool's thriving live music community.

After the show, the Contour guitar and bass got a gallop in the local pub too!

All in all, a great musical weekend - and back to work making the first batch of new Contour guitars, most of which are already sold!!

Scrumpymike

[Daz39]

Nice result at the Bristol show. You and Chowny can take over the world from the safety of the West country!

So - 6 string, multiscale, headless with moveable pickups and detachable toasting grill next?

Seriously though - the wood looks amazing - the back of that instrument in the first pic of the last post is mesmerising.

[Gillett Guitars]

18 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Nice result at the Bristol show. You and Chowny can take over the world from the safety of the West country!

So - 6 string, multiscale, headless with moveable pickups and detachable toasting grill next?

Seriously though - the wood looks amazing - the back of that instrument in the first pic of the last post is mesmerising.

Cheers Daz - it's making the toasting grill quickly detachable that's giving us the biggest headaches.

[Daz39]

14 minutes ago, Gillett Guitars said:

Cheers Daz - it's making the toasting grill quickly detachable that's giving us the biggest headaches.

There's a joke there about the right bass for metal...

 You will hopefully find plenty of punters and interested parties at the regional shows - many people can't afford the time/cost of getting to that London. Although the downside is attracting famous muso's to venture out of London.

[Gillett Guitars]

2 hours ago, Daz39 said:

There's a joke there about the right bass for metal...

 You will hopefully find plenty of punters and interested parties at the regional shows - many people can't afford the time/cost of getting to that London. Although the downside is attracting famous muso's to venture out of London.

...and another one about changing our branding name to Burns.

You're right about the regional shows.  We did London Olympia (aka 'the London Marathon'), compared to which the Bristol and Liverpool shows were a walk in the park - and cheap too!  The most famous face I saw belonged to my mate Jim, but there won't have been many other visitors at the show who knew about Tractor.

[Gillett Guitars]

OK, so here's some video from the day showing my old mate Jim getting things started in our hospitality suite overlooking the course.  Oh, and there's a guest appearance from another of my mates - our very own AndyJr!

https://youtu.be/UP7Reri8Z9I

More to follow from Haydock and the evening pub gig!

Edited May 29, 2018 by Gillett Guitars

[Gillett Guitars]

Another video clip from Haydock Park:

https://youtu.be/Ru0Wt5QGf6I

Edited May 30, 2018 by Gillett Guitars

[Gillett Guitars]

And then there was the pub gig in the evening at the Cobden in Woolton village featuring local 6-piece covers band Paperjam, of which Jim, Pete and Andy are regular members. (5-part vocal harmonies? Yes please!)  For the 5 of us who had been on duty at Haydock Park, this felt like a bit of a post-show party.  The pub was full of music, laughter and applause, and the banter was top-notch.  It seems to me that the live music scene in Liverpool is better than anywhere else in the land and I'm sure that's down to the heritage of the 'Mersey Beat' bands.  Indeed, many of the long-serving musicians from the '60s and '70s are still in harness - including my mate Jim.  As I watched the gig, I almost found myself wishing I lived there!  It was also a real buzz for me that two of the three head-stocks on stage carried the Gillett logo - just like it was the most natural thing in the world!  Couldn't help imagining that must be how Leo once felt the first time he saw a Fender bass and guitar on the same stage

https://youtu.be/O_yJ2X-sRIc

 

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by Gillett Guitars

[Gillett Guitars]

Had a nice day out at Summerfield Studios yesterday, where Britain's Rare Guitars were making a video about Gillett Guitars for their online tv channel.  The format was an interview with Michael G talking about the company and its products followed by Becky Baldwin and Gareth Cirket playing our Contour ST and six-string prototype in a live band recording.

http://

The programme will be edited in the next few weeks and should be on YouTube at the end of August.  In the meantime, here's an idea of what they're about:

https://www.youtube.com/britainsrareguitars