Last month we told you about the hastily-arranged Guitar Weekend, held at the Royal Festival Hall from Sept 30th to Oct 2nd. There was some doubt as to whether the public had been given sufficient advance notice, but happily attendance was high — and the guitars on show possibly among the best ever assembled in one British venue. Two features of Guitar Weekend stole the show for us — the seminar given by Hotlicks Tapes guitar teacher Arlen Roth, and the instruments from custom makers, who had come from all over the country to participate.

Roth's playing sparkled, and his question and answer session to a packed audience showed just why those tapes are so useful. Bottleneck, Rock Country, Arlen demonstrated each style and showed how to do it. And the sound he got out of his '53 Tele was like nothing on Earth! An interview with the man follows in a future issue.

Instruments on show included the revolutionary digital memory electronic Nautilus guitar and bass from Vigier (a review is coming soon!), 5 and 8 string basses plus acoustics, electrics of every kind and an electro-acoustic with no soundhole from Manson, Brynn Hiscox's beautiful acoustics, more acoustics (including mandolins) from Chris Eccleshall, production (but still luxury) models from Lowden, Gordon Smith's complete range, Ashley Pangborn's Alembic-eating basses, Overwater's actives (one of which is reviewed this month), Schecter guitars and parts, plus the fabulous Kahler tremelo, from Chandler Guitars, Dobros from Brighton's Warwick Downes, Kincade's acoustic guitars and bass, plus 150th anniversary models from C.F. Martin. There were more makers too, but space doesn't permit a complete list.

Instruments were also on show from some of the big names like Gibson Ovation, Ibanez, Westone, Kawai, Hondo — bet you wish you were there! Fear not, sobbing readers, we snapped these pics and spent the whole weekend on the cadge for review samples! As always, MUSIC U.K. will be bringing you the most interesting models first over the next few months. In the meantime, here are some shots to drool over!