Hot off the press!

Well, I had a fabulous Guitar Show this year, best one yet for me personally! I picked up 5 pedals at the show, as well as bumping into Chris Buck, KDH (Kelan Hughes), and my very good friends Markus and Izzy Reeves, also - I had lunch with Jonny Brelliott over at Brew 23!

One of the big highlights for me was meeting the full GigRig Crew - and getting a team photo with all of them. I’m not one for selfies typically - but Dan was very strongly persuasive on this occasion. I...

So I attended a GuitarGuitar Camden 20th Anniversary EarthQuaker Devices Showcase Event last Tuesday the 24th! The guests of honour obviously being Pedal Power Couple - Husband and Wife team Jamie Stillman and Julie Robbins. This was actually only their second visit to the UK - the first being another whistle-stop tour in 2018 or thereabouts. This time around they were being chaperoned around by good friend of ours Tom Bodfish from Northern Europe EQD Distributor - Audio Distribution Group.

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Where the Birmingham Show was a little sprawling and chaotic for me, I very much felt more at home at the Studio 9294 venue for this year’s London Synth and Pedal Expo. As Media Partner for the show, the second year in a row, I was of course in for the entirety of both the day, and actually in very early in particular on the Sunday.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two days -I love having the #90 Bar & Kitchen next door - for some very decent lunches - superb burger on the first day, and Sunday...

Wow, The Guitar Show was certainly a rollercoaster of an event with the busiest crowd I’ve witnessed to-date. At times it was quite a struggle to make your way through the packed waves of attendees, which did though start to peter out just a little after 3 o’c. For me it was fast and furious from the start - and I found it a little awkward navigating around the hall - as the stand layout seemed to have all kinds of little nooks and crannies - which made some booths incredibly easy to overlook ...

I’d like to start by saying that I’m truly proud to have been a Media Partner for this Inaugural Synth and Pedal Expo. It was a superb event - really well attended, and paves the way for an even bigger follow-up - likely taking place over two days next time.

This is the first time I’ve met Stompbox Exhibit Organiser and Delicious Audio Auteur Paolo De Gregorio face-to-face. We’ve had a long-term friendly correspondence and association and greeted each other as long-lost friends. Paolo has ...

The Top visual (above) this time is my favourite stand from the show - the super elegant and lifestyle-oriented Kernom stand - with really smart use of furniture - but with a somewhat eyesore tangle of cables! - overall it looked really striking and elegant compared to everything else at the show!

So another show is over - where I attended all day Saturday. Entrance was the same as before @ £15, while travel was slightly more expensive. I had an open-return train ticket @ £61, plus 2 tube ...

For me, this turned out to be the best The Guitar Show yet - where I pretty much managed to round off all my pre-show goals - in terms of seeing what and whom I wanted to / needed - as per the following highlights. I caught 2 great lunchtime showcases - first by Mikey Demus of Skindred / Redbeard Effects fame and then Rabea Massaad of Andertons, Chapman, Dorje, Toska, etc. fame - and D’Addario as it turned out - albeit people were really just there to see Bea play.

I must have circled the ...

Birmingham’s The Guitar Show is the UK’s main guitar / gear show, and this year features the largest selection of pedal brands yet as far as I’m aware. Obviously there are several large distributors here representing a number of brands - like Audio Distribution Group which covers Cioks Power Supplies, Darkglass Electronics, Death by Audio, EarthQuaker Devices, Emma Electronic, Fulltone, JRAD / J Rockett, JPTR FX, KMA Audio Machines, Meris, Neunaber, Maxon, Nobels, Old Blood ...

The Birmingham Guitar Show this year was so much a better affair than the London / UK Guitar Show I attended at Olympia in September - particularly from an organisational and pedal perspective. But I’m kind of sad to report that it was a very pale shadow of the NAMM show that took place almost exactly one month ago. If I tally up all the best new pedals from the NAMM show - only the tiniest fraction of those were on display at the Birmingham Show.

It means that the Beetronics Swarm ...