London's 'Guitar Weekend' show was everything we'd hoped it would be - complete with several thousand visitors, who turned up to see what must have been the greatest display of craftsman-built guitars ever gathered under one roof in the U.K. Just about every notable British guitar maker was there, along with some of the best overseas manufacturers. IN TUNE was there too, indulging in 'fret frenzy'. Read on to see the shape of guitars to come!

It might not have worked (previous British Guitar Weekend Shows having been poorly attended), but this year it did - and with a real vengeance! Under the direction of UKG's Peter Cropley and Barry Cheesman, the 1985 Guitar Weekend, held at London's Barbican Centre, drew not only the best assembly of guitar makers Britain's ever seen, but literally thousands of visitors, all eager to view the huge variety of instruments on show. At times, looking from our vantage point on the IN TUNE stand on the upper floor, the queues of players waiting to get into the acoustic guitar room alone stretched back over 70 feet! The (downstairs) electric guitar room was just as packed, and although attendance figures for this free entry event weren't recorded, the commonly agreed estimate of visitors attending the show numbered around 3,000 - in just two days and a few hours!

It was tempting to rush our report and print it in last month's IT, but we decided instead to give the Guitar Weekend the coverage we felt it deserved, which meant holding off till this issue, when enough space was available. Who was there and what were they showing? Read on!

THE EVENTS

Not only was this a collection of the finest in contemporary handmade guitars, but some of the events staged at the Guitar Weekend were highly impressive too.

MARTIN brought over DAVID BECKER, who enthralled with his distinctive improvised electro-acoustic playing, and there were demos from several other stylists too, including impressive displays from John James (Ragtime), Marcos (Flamenco) and Philip Watson (Classical).

Needless to say, the good ol' Rock and Roll element was provided by the fabulous GEOFF WHITEHORN, who demonstrated the new FENDER System 3 advanced tremolo system, at two jam-packed performances organised by IN TUNE and Fender. Geoff, a superlative player by any standards, showed his mastery of Rock guitar and gave a great account of the new Fender trem, (which we reviewed in Issue 6) to packed audiences on the Saturday and Sunday. Thanks, Geoff, for a great gig, and for helping so many IT readers! Thanks too, to PAUL SAMSON and Motorhead's WURZEL and JONNY who turned up, gave us a great time and also spent a lot of time talking to fellow IT guitar addicts!

ELECTRIC CITY

City? Well, more the Black Hole of Calcutta, really! No-one could have foreseen the vast turnout of guitarists desperate to clap eyes on such a fine collection of guitars, and the Level 3 Electric room was horribly overcrowded as a result. Next year, organisers UKG promise much more space for the electrics; but in the meantime, having elbowed our way through the crowds, here's a run-down of what we saw.

You couldn't avoid stopping at SCOTT-COOPER's vast stand as you walked through the door. Here was probably the cream of current guitar fashion, with instruments from DOBRO, HAMER, GUILD, JAYDEE, KINKADE, KRAMER and STACCATO all on the one stand! It's impossible to single out any one instrument from such a range - especially as each of these makers had new models! Nonetheless, the Staccato (see Issue 4) has now evolved into an astounding magnesium alloy fixed-neck bass, and the good news is that it will be selling at a highly attractive price. The new Staccato factory - housed in a converted Norfolk schoolhouse - is now ready, and supplies should be flowing soon. Price of the remarkable bass will be around £850 (including case), and a review sample has been promised to us for the very near future.

KRAMER, meanwhile, now have some superb lower-cost models, all featuring the brilliant FLOYD ROSE trem system (which Scott-Cooper also distribute). These comprise the Japanese licence-built Focus models and the surprisingly fine Korean-made Strikers. We've recently been trying a twin humbuckered Striker, the 400ST, which has a full RRP of just £276 and is a monster! This is the most expensive Kramer Striker, the series starting with 100ST at RRP £240. They look like extraordinary value for such hot guitars.

GUILD, meanwhile, are broadening their range like nobody's business. Their Brian May model is now in the best shops and proved to be one of the most played guitars at the show. Even at RRP £1,155 it looks like proving very popular. Other Guilds to cause ripples were their renowned Jazz models, which included the very last C100 to be made. Their acoustics, too, drew much attention, especially as they are now selling far below the prices of other premium 'name' U.S. types. With a D16 at RRP £529, a D25 for £601-659 (depending on colour) and a D35 for £668 it's not surprising they're proving popular once again! But Guild are also after the H.M. market with numerous futuristically shaped models, some produced in the U.S., others (known as the 'Burnsides') being made for Guild in Japan. In the U.S., Guild is one of the hottest lines among H.M. players, and it's only a matter of time before they happen over here, we feel.

Meanwhile, both JayDee and Kinkade have been reviewed in IT (the new Kinkade Montpelier last month, a JayDee Hooligan with a superb 'V' neck in this issue), so we'll pass these two makers and end the Scott-Cooper run-down with the superlative metal fronted Dobro range. Apparently the first two shipments of these into the U.K. are already sold out (thank you, Mark Knopfler!). Dobros are possibly the most unique guitars and mandolins around, and it's great to see them back again on sale in the U.K. Moving on, one of the next stands we visited belonged to relative newcomers FINGERBONE guitars. Fingerbone's Paul Richardson (who recently took over the workshop which the Mansons vacated in their move to sunny Devon) began, as most makers do, by taking other people's guitars to pieces and feeling that he could do better himself. Having been making guitars for the past five years, Paul's Fingerbones show every sign of becoming one of the next ones to watch. Already he has a 'fixed' range, including the fine-looking Fleetwood bass, available as fretless or fretted. Using the best woods (including a superb example of Birds Eye Maple as the front to a Mahogany body), Fingerbone don't use anything but Ebony for their luxurious fingerboards. These were among some of the nicest looking and best made guitars at this year's show and when we learned that you can get a Fingerbone basic Tele or Strat look-alike for around £600 we were even morel impressed! Using Schaller hardware and either Rainbow or EMG pickups, an original shaped Fingerbone starts at around £695, going up to a magnificent active bass for around £795.

Moving on to another of IT's favourites, we next ran into JERRY BIX who had a suitably Heavy Metal style painting on his stand, depicting a horse-riding masked warrior in the throes of being attacked by a combination of pterodactyls and a giant sea serpent ('so he's met our local VAT man too!', quipped IT's publisher!). Not by any means is Jerry's range limited to H.M. guitars (he does the finest Tele-like replica we've ever set eyes on!), but he was majoring on the H.M. aspect at the show, with the great-looking 'Ptera' and Kahler-equipped 'Sheer Ptera'! The basic Ptera sells for just £355, with the Kahler-tremmed Sheer Ptera version costing £455 - and neither price looks like anything other than fabulous value for money to us. Check 'em out!

Of course, not only guitars and basses were on show this year - there were some excellent accessories, too. Sharing a stand with the renowned ASHLEY PANGBORN, bass maker extraordinaire, was London's BASS CENTRE - one of the U.K.'s major specialist retailers. They were showing a really clever new device called the 'Hip-Shot D-Tuner'. This fits to the back of the E string tuner on a wide variety of basses and, with a simple flick action, drops the bottom string's tuning to the D below E. We predict a lot of interest in these, especially as so many bass players are currently having problems in keyboard-dominated bands - witness the recent introduction by OVER WATER of their new bass with its low B tuning, (see Issue 6). Overwater, meanwhile, were showing not only their great active bass but also a new version of their active guitar. This, by all accounts, has all the flexibility of tone you'd expect from an active, but is one of the very few active guitars which doesn't betray the presence of its battery power by having an unnatural, too electronic sound.

Back with Pangborn, there has been a major change in Ashley's highly regarded basses - a move from wood necks to the carbon graphite types which he's apparently been experimenting with for the past two years. Ashley claims that his new basses have all the advantages of the stability of graphite necks, but don't betray this material's inclusion by having an unnatural sound. We look forward to trying one soon.

MANSON, as expected, pulled out the stops for this show, with Hugh handling the electric side of their business and brother Andy looking after his acoustics in the 'Quiet Room' (see later). Manson were showing their electrics in conjunction with distributors MUSIMEX, who were also exhibiting several other lines including SESSION amps. Before getting on to this latter range, however, we really must draw your attention to Hugh Manson's show-stopper - a remarkable-looking new model which will probably be called the 'Condor'. Like all Manson guitars and basses, the price of this fabulous beast now includes full flight case. Strat-like in shape, but with some very individualistic features of its own, the new (Kahler-ed) Manson will sell for £775 and comes in a variety of exotic woods. Undoubtedly this was one of the best-looking guitars at the whole show.

Few amps were being demo'd this year, but an exception was the new Session Rockette, also on the Musimex stand. Only available via a limited number of retailers until around February, it offers all the major features of the Sessionette (including reverb) but has a 30 watt output and will sell for just £175. Usefully, it allows two players to use it simultaneously, one with a permanent distorted sound, the other with a switchable distorted/clean sound.

Also new from Session was a further development of the 250 watt stereo/mono head reviewed in Issue 6. This is now available in combo form with a Celestion speaker, and can drive low-cost extension cabs to give either 2x85 watt stereo format or a 170 watt mono stack - all for a total price of £595. This newcomer looks (and sounds) really good!

WILKES GUITARS, another of our homebrewed favourites, have also joined the move towards advanced materials, now using phenolic resin fingerboards on their redoubtable Savoy bass. On show was a new version of this well contoured luxury model, complete with the percussive touch plates which have proved so useful on Wilkes's fretless basses to achieve the 'click' sound on slap bass styles; a sound which you can't normally get from a fretless. Not all Wilkes models will be using phenolic fretboards in the future, but it's another sign that this fine maker is keeping well up to date.

The Guitar weekend was definitely a British show, not just an English one, and Scotland's honours were carried by EGYPT Guitars, who are perhaps better known North of Hadrian's Wall than they are down South. Egypt make production runs of guitars and basses, at present in two models, the 'Isis' and reverse-bodied 'Osiris' models. With native Scots canniness, these sell at quite a bit below the average for handmade guitars, starting at as low as £300 for a basic matt finish model - even including a case at this low price! Egypt's guitars and basses all feature glued 2-octave necks and either Schaller (on the lower cost) or Rainbow pickups.

With a wide variety of finishes and such good prices, it's to be hoped that Egypt find themselves a distributor soon, as they look like offering particularly attractive value for money.

Another Celtic visitor was CHRIS LARKIN from Ireland. Chris's guitars and basses really did look special and, once again, seem destined to sell at very favourable prices for such superlative craftsmanship. Chris, too, is looking for a distributor for the U.K. market, and if we were in the guitar distributing business we'd take him on like a shot! Each of the Chris Larkin guitars on show used a solid mahogany base, with tops added from a variety of exotic woods. Only Ebony is used on fretboards, and the guitars feature Rainbow pickups. Quite why we were so impressed with these guitars and basses is hard to say - especially when we were surrounded by so many other fine makes - but there was something about Chris's instruments that really stood out. Apparently Chris has it in mind to begin using native Irish hardwoods soon, and demonstrated the attractiveness of this with a photo of a glorious double necked model he'd made some time back and which sported a Walnut top. Apparently he cut down a Walnut tree back in 1980 and this wood is now nicely ready for use in a range of forthcoming instruments. Talk about 'au naturel' - Chris is even making nuts out of the bones of a dead cow he came across a few years back! At just under £600 for a really luxurious looking and playing 'standard' model, we wish Chris all the best in his hunt for British distribution.

WAL (of course!) was present, with his new 5-string bass which, at long last, will soon be available. 5-string basses are currently all the rage in the U.S.A. (especially with players working in keyboard bands), and the new WAL, with all the usual Electric Wood attention to detail, looks like proving another winner among pro players in both its fretted and fretless formats.

Finally on the electric front, CAPELLE had their usual display of fine VIGIER basses and guitars, but their display was stolen for us by the new French-made EUROPA 'Black Moon' guitar and bass. These feature carbon graphite necks fitted to wooden bodies, and look very sexy indeed! The guitar model sells for just £395, which we reckon is a very low asking price for such a nice looking guitar. Our bet would be that H.M. players will go a bomb on this one!

Also new from Capelle is a range of replacement carbon graphite necks, at exceptional prices, which you can bolt straight on to either Fender or Japanese copy models. Watch out, too, for the amazing Europa programmable effects systems. Again, we hope to be reviewing one of these in the near future.

And so to the 'Quiet Room'!

THE QUIET ROOM

Starting with any one luthier seems like favouritism, but as we've got to start somewhere, we'll kick off with NIGEL THORNBORY, whose superb Jazz guitar we reviewed recently in IT). Nigel's range is considerably greater than we'd previously thought, including fibreglass backed acoustics, conventional all-wood models and a very tasty marked fretless bass. Nigel was sharing his stand with Cornwall's Al Jones of ASHWORTH TRANSDUCERS. In addition to having the prototype of an astounding new bass instrument and his renowned acoustic guitar transducers (see our review in Issue 4), Al also showed the prototype of a newly developed acoustic guitar combo which he's been working on for some while. Dubbed the DK100, it isn't going to be cheap, but the sound was extraordinarily good, even when used with a bass. Al had pinned a note to it saying 'Fresh This Week', showing how new it was. Acoustic-electric guitar players looking for what could turn out to be the ultimate amp should get in touch with him for details, as no shop distribution that we know of has yet been fixed.

The MANSON brothers were well represented on the acoustic front, Andy Manson proudly busy showing his world-class models, including a beautiful Sandpiper 12-string which was whipped away after the show closed to be featured in IVOR MAIRANTZ, who will be stocking this model (as they do all the other Manson acoustics). Also from Manson were Sandpiper models with cutaways and a larger, Dreadnought-sized model.

Not all the Quiet Room's displays were acoustics, however, as was demonstrated on the ROYAL GUITARS stand. Royal's Kevin Chilcott has recently opened a new shop in Exeter, where his range of electrics and acoustics will be on permanent display. Notable on his stand was a tasty 12-string acoustic which utilises his own design of internal bracing to give an exceptionally loud sound with good response and projection. Royal's acoustic 12s start from around £800, and are exceedingly nice guitars.

Having said that not only acoustics were on display, we were particularly impressed by up-and-coming maker ROBIN GREENWOOD, who had a remarkably beautiful all-Rosewood bass with Ebony fretboard on his stand. Fitted with premium grade hardware (including a BadAss bridge, Schaller M4 machines and active Eq on Kent Armstrong's Rainbow pickups), the bass looked well worth over a grand and yet will sell for just £850. Robin is probably better known for his equally fine acoustics which are available in both 6 and 12 string versions, with and without cutaways. The word has it that Robin is very much on the way to becoming a major U.K. maker and, judging from the quality instruments he had on show, this wouldn't surprise us at all.

Of course, once having bought yourself a fine guitar you really need a good case to put it in, and BRYNN HISCOX (maker of the all-wood round-backed acoustics which we reckon are possibly among the finest acoustics we've played) has recently launched his own range of relatively low cost, ultra-high quality fibreglass cases. Brynn demos his cases by having a hefty gent stand on one (!) and their newly patented composite construction offers this standard of protection to any acoustic. The new Hiscox case weighs under 10 lbs. We'll be reviewing one of these in a future IN TUNE, but suffice it to say that they impressed us greatly - especially as they have a full retail price of just £58.75 inc. VAT!

In addition to acoustic guitar makers, KENT ARMSTRONG was showing visitors how he winds his renowned RAINBOW pickups. As well as making pickups for just about every guitar maker in the U.K. (not to mention West Germany!), Kent also offers a range of services for the individual guitar player, including re-winds of existing pickups to give them the sound desired. Kent also has a new range of do-it-yourself wire-in active power kits which will fit inside any standard guitar or bass. We've swiped one of these and hope to be trying it soon.

Another practical exhibitor was ROBBIE GLADWELL, whose ANGEL GUITARS is among the top two or three professional setting-up and repair outfits in the U.K. Robbie's presence attracted several top names to the show, and his 'live' repair clinic not only demonstrated his renowned skill, it also provided a useful facility to visitors owning sick guitars and basses. Robbie also played host to the organiser's own display! Due to the pressure of space, UKG PICKUPS selflessly sacrificed their own stand and were perched alongside Robbie, showing some of their own specialist pickups. We've written about UKG's pickups before (see Issue 3) and have come to regard their advanced design principles and ideas very highly indeed. Readers looking for new pickups should definitely get in touch with UKG, just to see for themselves the enormous variety of types they offer.

Also from the Quiet Room, how could we ignore DREADNOUGHT GUITARS, distributor of the legendary C.F. MARTIN range? Martin had gone to a lot of trouble over this show, not only sending over Chris Martin in person (IT will be running an interview with him soon) but also noted American player David Becker, who astounded audiences during his demonstrations throughout the show by using a Martin linked through twin digital delays and an amplifier, producing the most amazing improvised playing as a result. David showed with a vengeance that Martins aren't only for Bluegrass, Country and Folk players!

Staying with Martins, a brand new model (designed by Chris Martin personally) was on show; the J-40M, which he hopes might become 'the Dreadnought of the 1980s'. More about this model will follow in a future IT! Meanwhile, the new, lower priced Shenandoahs stole the show for many. A genuine Martin at around £600 has got to be good news, and early reports suggest that it is doing extremely well in both the U.K. and the States.

Finally to CHRIS ECCLESHALL. Chris has recently been working with Staccato's Pat Townsend, and the result is a fine looking wood bodied bass with a phenolic resin fingerboard and carbon fibre neck. The bass uses Pat's fine tuning bridge system, with a nut clamp up top for string retaining. Apparently, Chris also has a guitar version on the way. Also worth spotting on Chris's stand was a lovely Firebird replica, a model which we didn't know he made. It looked really good to us!

With so many exhibitors to cover, it's not surprising that we've missed out a few names here. All we can do is apologise for that and hope that our photos make up for anyone who's missing in words! In the meantime, suffice it to say that the Guitar Weekend was a huge success for all concerned and that it proved (as if anybody needed proof!) that the British guitar makers are now firmly established as the equals of any of their overseas counterparts. The only problem they pose is, how to choose which one to buy? IT plans to review as many British guitars as we can during the year - so keep up with us, to see how we reckon they fare one against another.

CONTACTS

IT readers can, of course, simply fill in the names of manufacturers and distributors they require info from, using the free info request form in this month's issue. Alternatively, the following list gives contacts for everyone mentioned above.