London International Music Show

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I wasn't going to do the LIMS this year due to having to cut down on outgoings, however I just found out that tickets can be bought using £4 of tesco clubcard vouchers. I have plenty of those saved up so thats two tickets ordered. When the kids get back from school there'll probably be a massive disagreement about who gets the other ticket.

Who else is likely to be going?

[crez5150]

Fender aren't apparently....

[dudewheresmybass]

neither are dean / bill lewington.
apparently there are quite a few companies boycoting the event over their charges, and the whole retail thing.

if i can blag myself a freebie, then i'll be going, otherwise i'm not going to pay £14 for the day

[ezbass]

It would be rude not too.

As for the retail thing, I believe that there is going to be a "supermarket" so that you can actually but guitars and amps and take them away this year. Fender (and others) will be making a grave error if thet aren't represented, the NEC last year was not good IMO and the Fender stand was a reflection of that. I think that LIMS is taking over from Music Live as [i]the[/i] UK music show and the major players need to be there or miss out, recession or no recession.

[Rich]

Just checked the A-Z of exhibitors.
Nothing to make it worth the train fare IMHO. It'd be a 3+hour trip for me anyway.

[Golchen]

Weird ....... I posted in this thread today and my post has disappeared!


Oh well, here we go again. I'm going, mainly because I'm a big fan of the Guitar idol competition. Not everyone's thing (around here!) but it was a blast last year with some excellent guitar playing on show.

[WalMan]

Probably going up on Sunday with a couple of drummers - hope we don't get too lost

Tickets are £10 on the door with an MU card apparently.

Probably give the Steve Vai masterclass a miss at £180/ticket!!! mind they are nearly all sold out anyway
[quote]neither are dean / bill lewington[/quote] - they appear to be on the list now

[BassNut]

As this is one of the few events that will have double basses there, I will be going. I'm going to check out the Sandarac stand as they have a range of basses and apparently are going to be displaying some DuPont guitars. Maybe I'll treat myself!

Bassnut

[Davemarks]

I'll be handling the bass duties at the Guitar Idol show on Saturday morning. Some scary players on this year and some wicked tunes. You can see me getting a full on roasting.. 12 different guys, 12 different tunes... full on.

[peted]

I'm going on Sunday. Warwick are exhibiting so I'll be a very happy chappy.

[dudewheresmybass]

well, i managed to blag a freebie, and went today
notable brands on display were markbass, but alas only the DI box and booster pedal on display, some pleasant looking warwicks on display (particularly a very nice vampyre NT in red - only about £5,250!), the new fender/ boss pedal from roland, and the pitchfactor from eventide that really stick in my mind.

unfortunately, no fender, Dean, rosetti, spector, Ashdown, GB guitars / ebs, gibson (except in the trade area - such that it was).

oh, and far too many people on a bass that think it's cool to make all kinds of wackety-clackety-nails-in-a-drum-type sounds.

to be honest, i wouldn't of paid to go. quite disappointing really.

[WalMan]

Ah well. My Sunday is confirmed with at least two drummers possibly a couple of guitards & a keyboard player so we'll be the ones going for the heavy remake of FAME..........not!

I shall have a short(ish) shopping list with me

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I just got back from my trek there with Mrs JLP & two kids.

Sat in on a very interesting introduction to GarageBand. I only went in for a sit down and I had already discovered all the stuff the chap was demoing as I use GarageBand a lot since I got a MacBook, but it was new to wifey & kids. The Mrs was very impressed and although she has always ignored my wittering on about how much I like my MacBook & GarageBand she was impressed with the demo and now wants her own Mac.

Roland were doing an introduction to their new v-drum set. I sat at a kit with little JLP (7) at another one along with a class of other people & a chap instructing at the front. We were all led through how to do play a rhythm & fill and use the kit. It was great fun and if I had half a mind to become a drummer (apparently thats all you need) and a spare £750, I'd have bought one of the kits on the spot. Little JLP bought a pair of drum sticks later. Not sure what he's planning to drum on though.

Also tried a vintage distressed strat & jaco-alike jazz fretless on the JHS stand which were both very nice. Then I had a chat with Trev Wilkinson & mentioned that the guitarist in o5b had recently fitted a wilkinson compensated bridge to his MIJ tele & was very chuffed with it a our gig last week.

There was a very nice blonde laminated double bass on the stentor stand, The string height was set nice & low but it was a 4/4 and seemed to have the same crappy stock stentor strings that came with my stentor 1950 bass. I'd love to try a 3/4 version with decent strings. Stentor also had a lovely Les Paul style uke.

I saw Steve Vai as he walked past with about half a dozen minders. I said hi Steve to him and he smiled back. I only know him from Zappa - particularly the song about groupie antics: 'Stevie's spanking', so its probably just as well that there was no opportunity for a conversation.

Miss JLP (11) got a recorder & High School Musical song book. Anything that encourages her to make music I s'pose. Mrs JLP was very taken with some of the Saxes. Who knows maybe she'll get around to take lessons and learn to play the Yamaha Alto I bought her a few years ago. She also quite liked a Farina parlour guitar and actually had a go - I had to put her fingers on the fretboard to make an E chord though, but that's more interest than she shows at home.

I didn't buy anything, but got a nice freebie steinberg lanyard to keep my cubase dongle on. Plus a load of stickers, pleckies, music mags & catalogues.

Poor old Jim Marshall was in a wheelchair and didn't look very well. I couldn't be arsed to queue up for an autographed poster this year.

A lot of companies I would have liked to have seen were conspicuous by their absence: Fender/Squier/Gibson/Epiphone/Ashdown/Simms/NI/Line6/Status/Daisy Rock and the retail village was three traders with nothing to tempt me. Overall the show seemed to be less than half the size of last years, but still an enjoyable day for all of us. Not sure I'd have wanted to have paid full price though - two tickets were from a tesco clubcard points deal and the other two I won in an Arts Council competition.

[Golchen]

[quote name='Davemarks' post='511507' date='Jun 11 2009, 06:27 PM']I'll be handling the bass duties at the Guitar Idol show on Saturday morning. Some scary players on this year and some wicked tunes. You can see me getting a full on roasting.. 12 different guys, 12 different tunes... full on.[/quote]


You guys did a brilliant job backing again Dave! I really love the guitar idol competition. I'd be interested who you liked playing with best. There was some great stuff going down. Personally I really like the rock n roll vibe of the brazillian guy with the white strat who was in the final last year as well, he just owns the stage like no one else! My favourite overall was Daniele Gottardo, but I don't know who won yet as I couldn't stay till 4.15.

I hung around for 5 hours and could have stayed longer, but I was irked by the excessive parking fees. For bass playing only I guess the show isn't so great, but as a multi-instrumentalist it was heaven!

Got to meet and chat with one of my biggest guitar heroes again - Guthrie Govan. Also I really liked Nick d'virgilio's drum session on the main stage.

All in all a great day out!

[escholl]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='512990' date='Jun 13 2009, 08:56 PM']Roland were doing an introduction to their new v-drum set. I sat at a kit with little JLP (7) at another one along with a class of other people & a chap instructing at the front. We were all led through how to do play a rhythm & fill and use the kit.[/quote]

that part was very surreal, watching a field of people all drumming the same thing -- silently. very strange to watch, i found ^_^

also, i felt really bad for Jim Marshall, the poor guy kept signing the desk!



in other news, i thought it was going to be a lot better, and larger, than it was -- and with a lot of companies not there, and a not insignificant entry fee, I can't say it was really all that great. I don't see myself going again.

[Davemarks]

[quote name='Golchen' post='513000' date='Jun 13 2009, 09:17 PM']You guys did a brilliant job backing again Dave! I really love the guitar idol competition. I'd be interested who you liked playing with best. There was some great stuff going down. Personally I really like the rock n roll vibe of the brazillian guy with the white strat who was in the final last year as well, he just owns the stage like no one else! My favourite overall was Daniele Gottardo, but I don't know who won yet as I couldn't stay till 4.15.

I hung around for 5 hours and could have stayed longer, but I was irked by the excessive parking fees. For bass playing only I guess the show isn't so great, but as a multi-instrumentalist it was heaven!

Got to meet and chat with one of my biggest guitar heroes again - Guthrie Govan. Also I really liked Nick d'virgilio's drum session on the main stage.

All in all a great day out![/quote]

Nice one dude - we had an absolute blast, although it's a bit early in the morning to be doing stuff like that.

My favourite to play with was definitely Gustavo du padua! That guy's vibe is like a mile wide!

Jack Tharramat from Thailand won - admittedly, he was awesome, so it was good work. I'll post ablog on my website soon that has more info....

d

[simon1964]

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' post='512552' date='Jun 13 2009, 12:43 AM']well, i managed to blag a freebie, and went today
notable brands on display were markbass, but alas only the DI box and booster pedal on display, some pleasant looking warwicks on display (particularly a very nice vampyre NT in red - only about £5,250!), the new fender/ boss pedal from roland, and the pitchfactor from eventide that really stick in my mind.

unfortunately, no fender, Dean, rosetti, spector, Ashdown, GB guitars / ebs, gibson (except in the trade area - such that it was).

oh, and far too many people on a bass that think it's cool to make all kinds of wackety-clackety-nails-in-a-drum-type sounds.

to be honest, i wouldn't of paid to go. quite disappointing really.[/quote]

+1 - pretty much sums up my take on it. Enjoyed Guthrie govan, and some nice demos on some stands. But with the exception of the Musicman and Warwick stands, I thought the gear on display was disappointing. Compared with previous years, the absence of Fender,Rossetti, Dean, Ashdown etc made it pretty limited.

And the retail area was very poor.

[WalMan]

^^^^Oh dear, that doesn't sound good as I'm up there with a shopping list of assorted bits.

Still it's a day out with mates so I really must get to bed now ready for the phone call in 4 hours for the pick up

[ezbass]

Wishing I hadn't read this as I'm going today, sounds like it might be disappointing. No Fender or Gibson? What's up with these guys? They both had crap stands at the NEC last year too. Exhibiting is part of the business of selling their wares recession or no. Oh well as WalMan says it's a day out with my friends.

[Tait]

i thought it was poor. none of the stands seemed to like you playing their stuff, barely anyone had guitars plugged into a little box with headphones so you can just pick up and play, i really noticed the absence of fender - there were only about 3 jazzes in the whole show, which would normally be a good thing but i'm after a jazz atm. all in all, definatly one of the worst guitar shows i've been to.

still, it was better than a day in on my ps3 or revising for exams.

[ezbass]

OK I'm just back from a long day at LIMS and thought I'd add my 0.02p. It was definitely smaller than last year and there was no Fender or Gibson, which is just plain wrong. However, I found the smallness made look a little harder and the layout often had me finding something I hadn't seen before. Headline had a nice range of Lakland Skylines with a particularly nice natural Daryl Jones which was snapped up quickly by some lucky punter. Yamaha had far more of their top line exotica with a £3k TRB 6 string, Nathan East and Billy Sheehan signature models too. To be fair I actually preferred the cheaper Billy basses for feel, but it was nice that the real deal was available for a change. There was, as ever, far more for guitarists, but as I play that at home for fun it was another diversion and actually found myself playing a very nice nylon strung electro with cutaway which was a bit random and revelation too. Proel not having the full range of Mark Bass pedals was a huge disappointment, but hey ho. Got a good deal on a mic and stand and some strings very cheaply at close of play. The bands were good, but awfully mixed, some of these so called soundmen couldn't mix a batter pudding! Will I go back next year? Yeah probably, but I may give the NEC a miss this year (I say that now!).

[EBS_freak]

Sounds like these UK shows are becoming a bit of a joke. Its prohibitively expensive to exhibit there and as a consequence its only the major retailers who get seen. Well done to Fender for boycotting - hopefully that will get the message through.

[peted]

I went yesterday and found it very disappointing compared to last year. It was about 50% of the size and missing a slew of manufacturers that were there last year (Ashdown, EBS, Overwater, Fender to name just a few). Though I still enjoyed myself none-the-less. They must have relaxed the sound limit as it was very noisy which made the experience fatiguing very quickly (imaging 1000s of musicians all widdling at volume simultaneously!). The only way to rest the ears was to go to the loo or leave the venue entirely as even the promenade outside the exhibition hall featured a college band stage.

Gear I got to play on:

* Warwick Thumb 4 custom through a Hellborg stack - VERY tasty, but then it really should be at the ££££ price. My buddy couldn't believe that there wasn't a single valve in there and the sound was to die for. I can see what Jonas was saying about getting that valve poweramp sound using an output transformer on a solid-state power block.

* Peavey Cirrus 4 custom (Trace Elliott green finish) through a Trace Elliot 7 band head and 8x10 - Only popped onto this stand because I saw the 8x10 wasn't being used and ended up staying there for quite a while. The Trace amp sounded great and I was very impressed. If I could get the same sound in a light-weight solution I'd have been sold on the spot.

* Flea Bass 4 through a Gallien-Krueger MB2-500 and GK 2x10" - I hate the look of the Flea Bass and think it looks really cheap and tacky, but was surprised to hear that it actually handles itself quite well. The MB2-500 wins the smallest, lightest amp award as it is *tiny*. Don't know if it was the cab they had hooked up but the low end seemed quite loose and lacked the definition that I'd have liked. I think the head would make a cracking backup amp.

* MTD 4 through the MoMark demo rack and MarkBass 4x10" - The MoMark rack broke soon after it was turned on for me to demo and I couldn't flip between the different modules. The guy had to 'reboot' the whole thing and got it working. They EQ, VPF and VLE are quite effective, but I couldn't get away from the wooliness of the sound. I'm guessing that this was due to the cab rather than the amp, but the technical problem at the start didn't endear me to the brand.

Got to listen to a demo of the TC Electronics Rebelhead and associated cabs and was very impressed. The bass was a Warwick Thumb 6 and the mids were nice and burpey, tight lows (not trouser-flapping, but very present in the band mix) and musical highs. I've had my eye on this amp to replace my existing Hartke 3500 and hearing it in person has re-affirmed this decision. I'll be looking to make the purchase next year once I've finished paying for my custom bass and my band should be getting paid gigs.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='peted' post='513825' date='Jun 15 2009, 08:07 AM']...the promenade outside the exhibition hall featured a college band stage.[/quote]
That was set up at the same end as and very close to the main stage and there there were no doors between. We went to get the kids some lunch and sat at one of the tables. An acoustic band was setting up and after a while the girl singer introduced herself & band and they started playing a nice quiet song. Four seconds later the band on the main stage started up much louder on the main stage effectively drowning them out and resulting in a total cacophony. Had to feel sorry for them - it probably sounded OK through their stage monitors and they carried on regardless.

[Golchen]

Anyone see the older guy with fair hair slapping a bass very effectively (on the Rotosound stand?) He's always at these shows, and always gets a crowd to hear his 'noodling'. I had a chat to try and get some pointers, but since getting home I just can't get the really cool fretting hand dampening that he makes look so easy.

For what it's worth, I rather like the cacophony of sound that you get at music shows, it's all part of the atmosphere!