The word alternative has been slightly misused in the context of this year's gathering opposite Olympia. It is in fact the 'All-The-People-We-Couldn't-Fit-In-The-BMF-Exhibition' but that does not mean that is all the 'orrible stuff that no-one wanted to see anyway. In fact quite the opposite, with some of the most prestigious names in the guitar world displaying their wares for the appraisal of Joe Public and hopefully to flog some gear.

For a start there was the little seen but much talked about Staccato basses (you remember those, the ones that you can take to bits) with a selection of their radical instruments but there were no collapsable models on show as they only build them to order. However they did have Lemmy's custom built bass there and contrary to popular belief he doesn't have strings like telephone cables and the neck does not feel like a tree trunk but it has got extended horns à la Rickenbacker and a very pretty Motorhead mascot/deathshead painted on it. How sweet.

Jaydee also had a selection of their very fine guitars and basses including the Hooligan series of rock guitars. Apart from that little seemed to be new in the way of models.

Kramer, one of the worlds leading heavy rock guitar builders, had a selection of their guitars there including the Beretta, Eddie Van Halen's model, and the Liberty which has an airbrushed picture of the Statue of Liberty's head with fireworks going off in the background on it as a standard finish! Still if your tastes (or bank account) run to something a little more sedate they do them in most of the standard colours though they aren't at beginners' type prices anyway.

If you're in the market for something a little more traditional then there are a number of Guild guitars though even they have abandoned tradition with their Blade Runner model which seems to have more holes than body. Basically its a sort of an explorer mutation with as much of the body as possible within its frame cut away. Very strange and fairly expensive.

When it comes to expense though it takes quite a lot to beat Schecter's line of rather beautiful instruments. Even so, when they are as good as these the price is hardly a consideration. As well as their standard, if you can call anything that Schecter do standard, there is also their custom service where they will build your very own custom Schecter but be warned, it's not cheap!

Again a little steep but also one of the best are Martin Acoustics. Only a few on show but I'm informed by their dealer Dreadnought Guitar Co. that there are others available. And if Martin doesn't appeal to you could go for a handmade Kinkade from, surprise, surprise, the Kinkade Brothers. Kinkade are well known for their guitars and they also do a repair service which has helped establish them as one of Britain's foremost acoustic guitar builders. Not only do they do acoustic guitars but also an acoustic bass with cut away which I'm informed by a reliable source is also excellent. On the same stall there are Kentucky flatback mandolins which aren't really made in Kentucky but in Japan.

Hamer had several guitars dotted around including those retina burning black and fluorescent jobs and a selection of super strats and the like.

On the effects front there were a host of products from Floyd-Rose, Dive Bomber, Dixies Cases, Dr. Song, Morely, Pig Nose and about anything else you care to name is there in one form or another.

Gallien Kruger the HM favourites, staged their first U.K. display of their truly wonderful amplifiers which are well worth a look at with HM fiends from all over the place fighting to get their grubby mits on them.

Dobro, the guitar that Dire Straights shoved down millions of unsuspecting Muzak lovers' throats, showed a couple of models but had nothing new on the stand. Still you can't have everything and to be honest there isn't a lot you can do to improve them anyway.

On the whole it was a very good exhibition with top quality equipment from some great manufacturers, though some serious searching around was needed to find the appropriate stands as the area was compact and there was a hell of a lot to see. Things like Floyd-Rose trem's were stuck in not instantly accessible corners and were a little difficult to glance over. Hopefully it wasn't completely overshadowed by the BMF as it is really an extension of it rather than an alternative and it would be great if next year they could get them both under the same roof.