Wassup Nerds!? Second Show Highlights from the BIMM Institute in Bristol
So we were back in Bristol once more for the superb Wassup Nerds!? 2 Show - much expanded and in new BIMM Institute Venue in the Stokes Croft area of that city. Said area, is a little way out of the centre of the city, and consists mostly of take-away restaurants seemingly, a few pubs, and is heavily saturated with Vegan and Vegetarian options - so will likely suit the more fussy eaters!
Unusually for me, I hadn’t done any research on that area in advance - where for my lunch break - I struggled to find a proper sandwich bar in the area, and ended up at Pieminister - which turned out to be great - note that said area is mostly independent outlets - so some research is definitely needed. Not quite as convenient as last year’s Rough Trade Bristol venue, but a much better space really, albeit with a lesser footfall - as it’s tucked away a little from the Main Street.
I actually really loved the new spacious venue - while the canteen was short on savoury options - unlike say for the Brighton Guitar Show. The BIMM Institute had really immaculate toilet facilities too - which is always a bonus! And of course the whole event was beautifully organised by Unity Street Audio’s Mel Pereira once more - a whole lot of work goes into these kinds of shows - and Mel does all of the setup and breakdown - which takes a lot of energy. I was pretty much wiped out at the end of the day - while Mel had to fold down all those modular tables. One sometimes assumes that the venue takes care of most of those matters, while largely it’s the organisers that have to do all the heavy lifting - literally and figuratively!
As is often the case - a few brands didn’t make it on account of some last-minute snafu - usually involving illness or accident. I was supposed to be picking up my Horrothia Lutz Fuzz at this event, but alas Tom could not make it (illness), along with Chris from Audio Surplus FX, Michael from Emmergy FX, Will from Orgeldream, and Kerry from The Zero Fret - those were all unable to attend on the day - for one reason or another. There were replacement brands for most / all of those though - so the numbers evened out in the end, and we had just under 20 stands in all.
My cover stars on this occasion are the combined might of Chase Bliss’s European Operations - or The Chase Bliss European Ambassadors as I like to call them - featuring here for the first time Liz and Tyler from the Amsterdam-based Chase Bliss EU Hub, alongside good friend Doug - of course the UK Chase Bliss Ambassador. I’ve seen Tyler in so many Chase Bliss Team photos - that he seemed eerily familiar to me - it was a genuine delight and a privilege meeting Liz and Tyler for the first time.
As mentioned I talked to much on the day, and was quite wiped out by the end - and didn’t have the energy or inclination to do any more then - so I didn’t quite make it to all the stands - my apologies for that - I ill prioritise those next time!
It still takes me the best part of day to write all of this up - Enjoy!
I spent way too much time chatting with everyone, and didn't get around all the stands for a variety of reasons - while for those that I did - the experience was really informative. Great meeting all the new exhibitors - Chase Bliss's Liz and Tyler as mentioned, Angus from ABL Pedals, and Jon from Lateral Sound. And wonderful catching up with my 'second family' again - these events are all mini reunions for me.
Wonderful friendly atmosphere and really positive vibes - just like for last year's inaugural event - but in a much more spacious venue with much better lighting - last year's space was quite dark, dingy and constrained in comparison - while it had a really decent bar, and was only 5 minutes walk from the nearest Pret A Manger!
In any case a marvellous time was had by all - not a big selling event though, and most of the footfall occurred early afternoon. This is fast becoming one of the best events on the circuit - I much prefer these noiseless headphone events - and for me the London Synth & Pedal Expo, The Brighton Guitar Show, and this Wassup Nerds show are the Blue Ribbon events of the year. Birmingham is the big one - but that one is noisy, chaotic and congested - I much preferred the more laid back atmosphere of these slightly more intimate venues!
I did so many circuits of the venue - and I can't recall the exact order of which I landed signifcnalty on each of those stands - so I'm defaulting to an alphabetical order again here. Apologies to those whose stands I didn't make it around to on this occasion - I will endeavour to do better next time!
ABL Pedals - Angus
It was wonderful catching up with Angus at last, I was supposed to be at his Glasgow Stompbox Social - but it didn't quite happen. I brought a bottle of original Irn-Bru as a peace offering - which was graciously accepted. And I actually got on really quite marvellously with Angus, and even minded his stand for a moment while he took a wee break.
On his website he currently just has one of his own pedal designs listed - a very unique Szczur take on the Rat Distortion, with modern OP07 OmpAmp, but most immortally unique clipping - derived from a hybrid Asymmetrical Diodes Array, consisting of both Germanium and Silicon Diodes. He's also refined the curve of the filter sweep for more even-handed control of that - for a really superb sounding rat pedal - which will likely be my 45th of that kind.
He also had his unique take of the OpAmap Muff a - the Toor, with 4th Mids knob, and again some unique internals centred around a TL074 Quad Opamp. Angus very much does his own enhanced signature takes on those classic pedals - which delivery a little more flavour and verve than the originals. He's just waiting on some Orange, skirted silver-top Boss-style knobs for the Toor - and then that's read to roll also. It's another one I would be interested in acquiring - we shall see how that collaboration evolves.
Finally, Angus also had two further prototypes - which will takes their names from famous Scottish inventors - you can probably guess which ones - but I will leave that up in the air until they're formally announced. One of them is a 4-knob overdrive with clean blend - which sits somewhere between a Klon and Zendrive, and the other is a clean boost - but which has a 'Grit' diodes toggle-switch - to make it a dirty boost too.
I really like the use of accent knobs colours here, and fully tone-on-tone LED colour choices, with superb artwork done by the Finnish - Kalle Koskivirta.
These are really simple and elegant, but properly full flavour pedals - somewhat reminiscent of the JAM Pedals approach. I've encouraged Angus to evolve a graphic ident that he can place in the bottom right corner of the pedal facia - to more easily identify those pedals as ABL varieties! The 'icon' needs to convey Angus's brand personalisty, and evoke the relevant value associations, which I don't feel the current antropomorhic pedal ident does.
In any case, Angus is definitely on a strong path here. My good friend Phil from Pedal Experiments, highly rates Angus's Szczur, and hopefully I can add my voice to that soon. Angus's Polish wife recommended the 'Szczur' moniker - where it was named that - quite a bit before the Tone Charm version of the same name,
Audiostorm - Lydia-Sean
It's always fantastic catching up with Lydia-Sean - who is so prolific - both not the pedal innovation front, and in perfecting their automated pick-and-place line, which has mostly been re-engineered and enhanced now with 3D-printed parts.
Hot on the heels on the phenomenal Grand Classic Distortion, Lydia has decided to forego the usual Kickstarter path for the next couple of releases.
The new Tone Lord 2 is complete now, and Lydia had 4 early build prototypes of that at the show, with the rough draft graphics in outline format - most of those got sold on the day. The Tone Lord 2 is a really smart EQ / Tone Enhancer, with some serious extra features - including range extension, and soft saturation. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on a final version of that - everything is read for that now - the circuit has already been perfected, Lydia just needs to refine the artwork a little further and get those enclosure printed in full-colour - which should be happening fairly soon.
The other forthcoming pedal is also pretty much ready now on the circuit-side - the Quad Screamer 2, that one is just missing a final artwork, and I believe the new PCB's still need to be printed out.
In any case we should be getting the Tone Lord 2 within the next month or so, while the Quad Screamer 2 will likely be an early 2025 release! Exciting times ahead for Audiostorm.
Lydia was properly doing the rounds of the show floor - trying to get a consensus on hot well builders were pre-disposed to outsourcing the main build process. I will get the full feedback on that survey when we next meet up - which is likely be the Kempton Park London International Guitar Show at the end of this month!
Bleak District Electric - Phil
Always great catching up with Phil, another really prolific builder who never seems to rest up. Hot on the heels of his fantastic Terra Overdrive, we now have the Joy Doomy Fuzzstortion - which is both incredibly grinding in the best way, and has killer sustain. It is operate by just a single Master Volume control knob, where the left footswitch is the Bypass, and the right one ramps up the gain by around x 100! It's a fantastically textured doomy saturator with incredible sustain.
Phil is still deciding if to make these a permanent feature of his range - I hope he decides to keep it in circulation. It's not in my favourite enclosure type - in that Zvex format - here I personally much prefer the Vertical editions. While I may need to make an exception with this - as I did for his Antistatic - both are amazing.
Alas there is no YouTube demo out yet, but there is an Instagram demo - which Safari no long permits - while you can access it on this URL - www.instagram.com/reel/DAZC1srvPWe/
Those look to be sold out at the moment - fingers crossed that they become a permanent part of the range!
Buzzing Bugs - Dan (pictured with David and Joe!)
Dan was hot off the success of his recent Los Campesinos! Signature Lo-Fi Overdrive / Filter / Tape-Saturator Mortal Joy pedal. He had a one-off golden yellow limited edition of that pedal at the show - which was snapped up pretty much instantly!
I personally much prefer the Red and Yellow versions of that pedal than the current raw enclosure version. For me the coloured versions better match the graphics - where in my visual I made a flamed background - so Red, Orange and Yellow for me would be the optimal colour editions for that pedal.
I belive I was the first to get an article out in support of this pedal - and I'm delighted that it's' going well. Dan will likely do a cut-down version of that pedal in single enclosure - probably just coveting the Tape Saturator, and Lo-Fil Filter! I look forward to seeing that materialising in a month or few!
Always great catching up with Dan - I meant to grab a picture of him at his stand - but we ended up in the middle of that room - with David from Great Eastern, and Joe of Guitar Nerds fame. All good friends of mine now!
I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Dan comes up with next!
Chase Bliss - Doug, Liz, and Tyler
What a privilege to get to meet the Chase Bliss EU Hub power couple for the first time - who uprooted their lives and move to Amsterdam a couple of years ago to head up the Chase Bliss EU operation. I feel like I've known Tyler for a very long time - but that's mostly because I've seen so many Chase Bliss Team Photos - featuring the great man - he's been with the company for such long time. And I got along swimmingly with his Minnesotan partner Liz - where we obviously knew each other in a former life!
Doug + Liz + Tyler are for sure a European Super Group - and it's great to experience how warm and personable they are first hand. Liz helped me with the Kill-Dry issue on my Onward - where I just wasn't getting any output - an easy fix in the end, but she responded really quickly and precisely at the time.
The duties that Liz and Tyler are tasked to handle is really quite an undertaking - as they not only supply and deliver throughout the EU and UK, they also trouble-shoot and fix Chase Bliss devices, and do all the customer support for that territory. They're obviously brave and bold - several times over - and how well the European operation is going it testament to their professionalism.
Obviously we're still in the wake of the fabulous Onward Dynamic Sampling Device, while I had hoped we Europeans might have gotten our hands on the Billy Strings Evenelope Follower Edition of the Wombtone Phaser - and Tyler told me that was the original intention. But then the whole RoHS issue with the Vactrols / LDR's (Light Dependent Resistors) blew up - where those are hard-banned in Europe now on account of them containing Cadmium Sulphide - which is a carcinogen.
I still live in hope of getting my hands on one of those at some stage, and in some format or iteration - as I'm a huge fan of the Wombtone - and this is a much improved version of that!
Fantastic to catch up Liz and Tyler in any case, and always a pleasure to catch up with Doug - we Europeans are very fortunate to have that trio as our A-Team!
Flattley Guitar Pedals - Paul & Jan
No one gets around more than Flattley Guitar Pedals - look to any significant Guitar Show anywhere in Europe - and you will find them there. As a result Paul and Jan are two of the most familiar faces on the circuit - and really good friends of mine.
They've hot-footed it back from the Guitar Summit - where one customer bought up every single Bass Guitar Pedal Flattley offfer - very much the whole board of 7 or 8 I believe. Flattley are also hot off the success of their recent Valkyrie Vintage Chorus pedal launch - where in the picture Paul is holding a custom guitar exactly based on the Valkyrie's paint-job.
Further great news is that at the Guitar Summit - Andertons announced that they would be stocking Flattley pedals for the first time! The good news just keeps coming. Congratulation to Paul and Jan on all the success - it's so well deserved - Paul is one of the hardest working builders in this industry, and as mentioned - no one gets around anywhere as close to all the locations Paul pops up in - that deserves credit alone!
Fredric Effects - Tim
Another one that has hot footed it back from Guitar Summit - is my good friend Tim - who I'm due to do an onsite visit with - as soon as completes his new luthiery studio!
And pictured is Tim doing his very best signature 'Blue Steel' look!
In the meantime there are 3 killer new releases, which will be made fully official in a few weeks - Tim needs to build up stock for a proper launch - supported by Guitar Pedal X. The 3 pedals are the Silicon Harmonic Percolator - with a viewport into those transistors, the Standard Fuzz Machine, and Deeply Unpleasant Companion MKII - where nearly the whole range, bar a few - have been ported across to the new sleek wedge enclosures.
The fact that there were no Standard Fuzz Machines in stock for the Wassup Nerds show - kind of exemplifies that Tim needs to build quite a few more before those pedals are officially promoted!
I'm thinking my onsite visit is probably pushed back to next year now! While I look forward to getting stuck into those 3 new pedals very soon!
I couldn't fine any particularly recent videos - so I'm referencing one from the Birmingham Guitar Show earlier this year!
Great Eastern FX Co. - David
David certainly knows how to set up his stall for maximum impact - where he held down a commanding position at the main entrance to the show room hall. This XO Variable Crossover pedal is still going really well - with its infinite variable scenarios. It's such a clever thought out and well-engineered device that it really deserves its success.
While David has become so well known for his all-black colour-way that the new colourway editions of the Design-A-Drive are taking some time to take off - I feel David has selected some wonderful complementary colours there, I'm sure the massed will come around to a dash of colour eventually!
The big news is that David is working on a Deluxe / +Octave version of his Focus Fuzz - where as before, the first version will be a Germanium affair, likely then followed up by the silicon variant - once those rare NOS Germanium Components start to run out.
Happy days ahead!
Holy Island Audio - Gwion & Partner
It looked like Gwion had a really strong show - as his stand was pretty much occupied the whole day - I just about managed to get some time towards the end of the day for a quick catchup.
New on the stand were two cool compact pedals - the Cannibal Pride DIY Drone Machine, and the Spectral Fire BluesBreaker x Traynor TS50B Mashup. One of which is more typically Holy Island, and the other which is something of a tangent, but still with enough quirks about it to make it interesting.
Gwion describes the Cannibal Pride as - "3 CV syncable oscillators with a smother control that can warp and distort the drones from full filthy hellscapes down to sputtering geiger counter style bleeps and bloops".
Where "The Spectral Fire was born out of a desire to attain pushed, clangy drive tones with sharp articulation and touch sensitivity alongside the capability to slip over into less conventional, noise rock inspired saturation."
Drone synths aren't really my think - while I could be persuaded on the Spectral Fire - as that has quite a distinct output, and while Gwion describes it mostly as a Mid-Gain Overdrive - it can get nasty too though if you crank everything to the max!
Intensive Care Audio - Patrick
I'm overdue on a proper meet-up with Patrick - meaning heading up to Stoke Newington for a Franco Manca pizza or similar. Patrick has had a very busy summer working on his next generation of DSP infused pedals!
In the meantime the Spanky British Classic Pop-sounding Life Support Overdrive + Boost is still going well - while my favourite Intensive Care pedal is still the Vena Cava Filter + Oscillation + Ring Mod + Distortion. One of my all-time favourite pedals. In fact just recently picked up on by Joe Branton - who picked one up at the show. He should really have read my review from November of last year!
Patrick looked to have a pretty decent show - while it wasn't quite as successful as last year's attendance - where he broke his show sales record.
Wassup Nerds 2 wasn't particularly a selling show - rather more a brand building exercise. Last year's location had more off-the-street footfall - as that was in a slightly busier space. While this year's event definitely had that same sweet ambience as before - just less in the way of sales!
Lateral Sound - Jon
This is actually my first encounter with Jon and his Lateral Sound brand - he's evidently been quite stealthy for the best part of 10 years now, and is just now starting to attend these kinds of shows.
Jon gave me an expert overview and insight into his current range of pedals - where a couple of those designs - the Clive and Spore have been ported over to equivalent Eurorack Modules.
There's approximately 10 pedals in the range - all leaning more into the experimental side of things, but some really clever effects combinations there - significantly within Fuzz and Bitcrusher genres.
His latest pedal is the Francine - which extracts the main circuit out of the Fuse Analogue Modulated Downsampler, and ads a Drive option to it. I definitely liked the look of that new unit!
While I was most taken by the trio of effects which all featured a really smart OpAmp + Germanium and Silicon Transistor Fuzz 'Spore' Core, with 3 gain stages - and across 3 variations essentially. The most basic of those is the original and simplest Spore - which though in some way generates the most interesting extreme and self-oscillating fuzz textures. You then have the Linda - which adds 3 Band EQ and the 2-knob, Dead Blow Hybrid Fuzz/Overdrive into the mix, and finally you have the Spawn - which adds a further 4-knob Oscillator - so you have more control over the oscillation part - and which lends itself towards Trem-Fuzz territory.
For the Core Spore Circuit - the 3 gain stages are identified by the Push (Input Gain), Spray (Germanium Gain Stage), and Pull (Silicon Gain Stage) controls.
I'm also intrigued by the extreme noise-core Thermite Aggressive Distortion/Fuzz Noise Pedal - whose acid etched tarnished surface kind of indicates its destructive tendencies - one for the noise warriors for sure - which is familiar territory for me.
I'm still figuring out which of the Spore / Linda / Spawn variants is most suited for my preferences and sensibilities, where I would also consider picking up the Francine, and Thermite at some stage.
A tricky challenge here to pick out the most suitable video - so I went with the Linda in the end - as the most obvious all-rounder here!
I'm hoping to collaborate with Jon at some stage - he certainly has his own distinctive voice in this industry and is worthy of consideration. I look forward to getting stuck into some of his pedals in good time - obviously if he's open to collaborating with me.
Life is Unfair - Grindle
Always great catching up with Grindle - for whom two devices are their current focus. The Stylophone Theremin which they helped engineer - is now out on full release at a very reasonable £110. And it's still full steam ahead for the core Bad Machine BM13 FYI Fuzz/Distortion Boston Manor collaboration.
That was out in a red and black colourway edition originally - which is inspired by Boston Manor's colours, while a new variant that was being teased at the show has a baby blue and pink colourway - which is much more closely associated with Life Is Unfair's own enclosure colourway choices.
I was long due to get one of these in, while the last time I met up with Grindle - they said there were new colourway variants coming out in the near future - which I might rather prefer to wait for - which I guess is exactly the case.
The new variant launches on Thursday - and I'm determined to get one in for the occasion! I should be organising that with Grindle later on during the day this article goes live!
Origin Effects - Jacob
Always cool catching up with fellow Talking Heads fan Jacob - where we mostly talked about the evolution of that company since he came onboard, and how much things have changed and evolved in how they do things. Becoming an ever slicker and more finely honed organisation.
The rollout of the Adaptive Compact Series, and new compact Cali76 FET Compressors kind of underlines how polished that operation has become. While I do need no note that I only got the press release 20 minutes before the Halcyon Blue release - so not sure what's going on there? Either it was a relatively last minute decision - or I'm low on their list of priorities.
And even though they are seen as quite pricey compared to some, that's largely because of the nature and quality of their parts - where the enclosures are still made of robust gauge steel, and everything is engineered to the finest tolerances. Hence the use of floating-point LED strips on the new compressors - since they use up much less current than the bar-graph variants, and therefore result in far less tone-suck as such!.
The Cali76 compressors are still the mainstay of the operation - and the 'bread & butter' pedals within that range. While the Adaptive series and 2 RevivalDrives are doing really well too!
Jacob said that Origin were working on 2 imminent projects currently - with one of those I belive being a new preamp take, which is unerringly authentically close to the original source. The hope is that at least one of those makes it out before this side of the Christmas, while if there are any last minute snafus one or both of those projects might be delayed into the new year.
I decided to feature the Halcyon Blue Adative BluesBreaker below - as it's the most recent pedal. It also seems that margins are so tight these days - component prices keep going up, that there's seems very little chance of any further collaboration here for me - as the finances of the situation and prevailing will doesn't really seem conducive to that currently - certainly not for me.
I still feel it's a bit of a shame that this is the only major UK brand that I still don't properly collaborate with - while I guess I have plenty on my plate already ... I still hope for better days ahead of course!
SBC Guitar & Bass - Stuart
This brand has been at previous guitar shows - I just haven't properly encountered these guitars before - at least not so as it registered. I see that Stuart exhibited at last year's Kempton Park show - but In the main guitar and amps room I only really got around to the Flattley, Hamstead, and Goliath FX stands last year.
For Wassup Nerds I was kind of worn out by the end of the day, and simply did not have the energy for one more introduction and interrogation! I promise to track down Stuart as a priority next time - he certainly has a fascinating back-story.
I was still intrigued by what I saw - some very modern shapes there, and more modern colouring techniques across some highly stylised guitars. I'm not sure I like those skins headstocks, so my preferences would likely be for one of the headless variety - while the price of place went to the Thrace II guitar pictured top left. That's prices at the upper end of the SBC spectrum which most typically varies between circa £2,500 and £5,000.
So something I would definitely need to save up for. I found the rang slightly reminiscent of my friend Mike of Stone Wolf Guitars fame - where I really like his headstocks in particular. Both those brands have a very modern outlook, and mike often mixes in different woods and resins, while each of those brands have their own aesthetics.
I actually really like modern luthiery - and will add some more guitars into the collection eventually - while I still have a list of around 1,000 pedals or so that I need to get through first!
The really cool thing about SBC - is that all those guitar are hand-made onboard a 57 foot canal narrow-boat!
Zona Guitars - Wayne
And last and certainly not least is Zona Guitars - in fact Wayne was probably the one I talked to most on the day.
I really like his Asgard series of guitars - those are just gorgeous - where he had one in glorious Caribbean Blue on the stand - which definitely stole the show. I'm not a fan of relicking though, and I would really prefer one with a tremolo bridge - which is something Wayne is still working on.
We discussed how he might / should add some aluminium logo accent detail to the headstock - to echo those aluminium accents we see on the body. We also talked about making the input jacks more eye-catching and ornate - again in a similar style to what e see on the guitar's body.
Wayne is one of the co-founders and show-runners for the Alternative Guitar Shows - and was due to head up a show in Nottingham in November, while he's handed that over to Dan at Molyneaux Guitars now, while Wayne planning a more local chapter of that show to his location in Exeter - most likely at the Phoenix Arts-Centre.
Exeter is one of my old stomping grounds - I lived for quite a while in North Devon, and frequently made day-trips to Exeter, also in my Advertising Agency years I did a fair amount of work with PRS Reprographics in that city - so I've spent a long time in Exeter across 4 decades!
So like Wayne, I will probably skip the Nottingham Alternative Guitar Show, and rather turn up in Exeter instead - to support my now good friend! Hopefully he will have figured out his take on the Tremolo Bridge by then! That show is likely to be in late November / Early December!
