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Kempton Park Guitar Show Report


Rabs

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Hello.....

 

As most of you know this was my first show...

 

And I will say right now I didn't sell any... BUT, from what I gather from the other Luthiers around me they didn't really expect to sell, they go to get interest.. One guy said people come to buy a pack or strings or a stand or something but don't buy that many guitars...

 

But that was the only real negative.. I loved it... I got some great feedback and some interest in maybe doing a custom build and loads of people took my business cards... So it was good...

 

Let me set the scene...

 

Me getting up at 6am (which is unheard of for me) to pack this lot in the car pitch black outside.. it JUST about all fit... 9 guitars and an amp plus stands and other bits.

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This is the Horse Race Course where its held.. It was foggy this morning

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And this is the hall... Under one of the main stands

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Heres my stand

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And this is what it was like 5 mins after doors open

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Then 10 mins or so after that

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And some players on my stand

 

JDGM

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Farns

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And some other bloke

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I am now totally knackered and my throat hurts from shouting over all the stairway being played :) but all in all, a really good day and well worth it.. Countless people took pics and pointed at my Half and Half and that last guy in the pictures came back three times to play the Blue Maple DC.. He kept going on about how the sustain was going on and on :) He has my details as do many other people now.. So heres hoping [thumbup]

 

Ohh and last but not least.. Heres a couple of short clips of JDGM playing a couple of mine (not that you can hear much over that din in going on)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgIzus_3ZFk

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Your booth looks great and it looks like you got tons of exposure! Hope you get some good business out of it

 

Not sure if it's just my browser but I had to delete the "s" from "https" to get the video to play

Yeah lets hope so...

 

As we all know.. Guitarists don't like taking chances with their gear.. So I really just need to get a couple out there in players hands.. I still have a few more tricks yet.. Im not giving up after coming this far and if anything the show helped renew faith that what im doing is working as such :) (at least from my building skills point of view)

 

And the video wasn't embedding properly when I posted this.. Ive fixed it now :)

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a hearty, Aussie 'Good on ya mate!!' to you Rabs for getting amongst the action, and great that you had an enjoyable day.

 

Nice work too to JDGM and Farnsbarns for supporting you. [thumbup]

Thank you sir :)

 

And yes I was very happy to see both Farns and JDGM... In fact two guys who I was talking too about my guitars and maybe the possibility of a custom build told me one of the things that got them really interested was that they had heard JDGM playing and thought that it sounded amazing... So really THANK YOU John, you really helped on that one [thumbup] (lets see what actually comes of it though)

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Obviously there were many more visitors than exhibitors, and this isn't bad at all for a fair. [thumbup]

 

Your booth looks great! [love] No wonder that among the guitars you made the Half and Half got most attention. They all are visual appetizers, but this particular one is something very special.

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Obviously there were many more visitors than exhibitors, and this isn't bad at all for a fair. [thumbup]

 

Your booth looks great! [love] No wonder that among the guitars you made the Half and Half got most attention. They all are visual appetizers, but this particular one is something very special.

Well check this...

 

Ben Crow was there (from Crimson Guitars)... Ive watched many of his vids so I invited him over to have a look and tell me honestly what he thought.. And the first thing he did was point out the half and half (mini fist pump :))... Even he said hed never seen one like that... (actually he said the only other one he has seen similar was a 70s acoustic guitar)

 

Im fairly sure now I can make guitars that appeal to players.... I just need them to take the next step....

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Well let's hope something comes of it; TBH I couldn't really hear myself playing over the general cacophony...I haven't been to one of these since the early 90s. Not attended just by old men but a good cross-section of all ages, it was on 2 floors and there was plenty to view and drool over. Special color Fender Jazz Bass, think it was late 60s or early 70s - £9995....J Page LP (the 1st one with the 4 push-pulls), near-mint for £4k....Fender D'Aquisto with the 2HBs for £1650, plenty of Gibsons and 60s-70s Fender some of which were overpriced IMO, but everyone trading/exhibiting was open to offers. One stall was selling "Schaller Doppelganger" straplocks for £3; cheap copies packaged with a photocopied Schaller logo!! Tsk! Here are some of my snaps....

 

Farnsbarns and Rabs (the bloke behind Farns photobombed about 8 of my pics [cursing] )

 

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Rabswoods

 

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The half and half

 

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And some of the competition - double cuts were much in evidence

 

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One here for Searcy;

 

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Dig this!

 

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Arggh! No! (The logo on the headstock flashed on and off too)

 

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Fancy a multi gtr rack? Price should be £335 with that shape! No Varitone, see?

 

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2 more for Searcy;

 

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Joyo pedals - really small, in fact too small for me;

 

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This guy got a lot of attention - Stone guitars, he was doing an interview as I took pic

 

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SuperStrats;

 

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Another take on aluminium;

 

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Had to have a pic of this;

 

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Um.....someone else obviously made a guitar out of a door.

 

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Also, I was not aware of Lace Alumitone pickups which were shown me by the affable and aimiable Mr Dave Hines, the English distributor - no coils and noiseless, these things amazed me!

 

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A very enjoyable day and sooner or later I will meet Farns and whoever else is thirsty for a beer or 2......

 

Many thanks to Rabs, once again.

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Another take on aluminium;

 

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Um.....

 

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Thanks for the pics JDGM - actually... guitars done in anodised (?) aluminium, like those old 'beaker' cups we all had for camping as kids, could be kind of cool. I'd need to see it in real life though.

 

...and man, I just love the Tele on the top of that display for shonkys!! That looks like something the Reverend Billy F would go for!

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Ahh no.. thank you :) I was going anyway...

 

And to add to more of the guitars... I had a wander too at some point and took some pics

 

These were the stands directly opposite me

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And some others

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this had to be the weirdest thing I saw all day

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:unsure:

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...and man, I just love the Tele on the top of that display for shonkys!! That looks like something the Reverend Billy F would go for!

 

Well the guy must have a sense of humour as he provides COAs as you can see...[laugh] [laugh]

Check Rabs pic of the one which is a cigar box with wings added!

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Guest Farnsbarns

It was a really good show. Good to see Rabs and JDGM. Some really good stalls and some hilariously bad ones. A guy selling looms with bumble-bee-alikes and Orange-drop-alikes. Asked him about them and they were foil caps. Didn't see the point.

 

Loads of cigar box guitars with the underside of the top glued to the neck. Absolutely no acoustic sound at all.

 

Stone guitars who Rabs mentioned above were really jnteresting. Lovely chap too. A couple of small amp makers who caught my attention.

 

A good day out.

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Thank you one and all for the nice comments (as always)....

 

Heres hoping... Theres not a hell of a lot more I can do now... I have few more things to try but we will see in the next month or so what comes of this... Fingers and toes crossed :)

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The pictures of your stand look really good and the guitars were available without too much clutter so I guess you were getting the best possible exposure. Having done many trade shows myself over the years I know that they are difficult to evaluate as most prospective customers do not commit themselves on the day but it is easy to fall into the after show blues so best to keep going rather than waiting for the phone to ring..

 

To generate more interest it might be an idea to get a guitar or two in a shop on a sale or return basis, after all they are getting looked at by guitarists each day rather than at home with you in their cases. Give Winjo in Denmark Street a go, I know they do that. Another idea might be to contact one of the trade magazine like Guitar and Bass and see if they will do an article on you. Just some ideas Rabs, best of luck.

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To generate more interest it might be an idea to get a guitar or two in a shop on a sale or return basis, after all they are getting looked at by guitarists each day rather than at home with you in their cases. Give Winjo in Denmark Street a go, I know they do that. Another idea might be to contact one of the trade magazine like Guitar and Bass and see if they will do an article on you. Just some ideas Rabs, best of luck.

Thanks for that man I appreciate the input..

 

Actually my dad ran his own business for many years and also mentioned about trying to maybe get an article printed in a trade magazine or something so I may give that a go...

 

And yeah, I think shops are my last resort.... I will try that if all else fails though...

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