Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Info about upcoming gearfests etc

Moderator: Capt. Black

Wellington gearfest April 11

Saturday 2 April
0
No votes
Sunday 3 April
1
6%
Saturday 9 April
7
44%
Sunday 10 April
5
31%
Saturday 16 April
1
6%
Sunday 17 April
2
13%
 
Total votes: 16

hamo
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by hamo »

I'm gonna be late, probably about 1.30.
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by tubeswell »

Good to see a few familiar faces today. Interesting collection of geetars there Lawrence. Alan's new plexi build sounds good.

(If anyone was remotely interested in the little SE amp, it is here until Monday evening: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 894645.htm )
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by Vince »

Frey wrote:I've never sounded so much like a whale.
:lol:
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by mr_sooty »

Another great Gearfest. Thanks so much to Lawrence for the venue, it was perfect. I got there a bit late, so don't know what I missed (Bbrunskill was leaving as I got there, so he can do the first half commentar), but here's a rundown from my perpective.

Great to see some familiar faces and some not so familiar ones. It's been so long since I saw Jenesis that I didn't recognise him, which was a little embarrasing. Ironbirds ever growing pedalboard of doom reamains the most interesting looking pedal board I've seen. It looks like half the pedals were made by Weta Workshop. I was surprisingly impressed by his Metal Muff, real ballsy tone, and his HOG seems to be able to do just about anything. I think the 'Small Stone' is mislabelled though. Not a particularly small pedal!

Really liked the crunch tone from the Orange Rockerverb 30, sorry, can't remember your name, but lovely Les Paul traditional too.

Lawrence had a very interesting array of guitars, some I've seen before, some I haven't. Loved those P90's with the extra switchable coil, great range of tones from those. Also really impressed with the Radian Tele. First Ash built guitar I've played (the man, not the wood), that was a solid chunk of ash on that baby (the wood, not the man). Really great tone from those Rio Grande P90's too. Loved that guitar a lot, even if it does need a slight set-up adjustment.

I was totally blown away by Frey's playing. So smooth and melodic and interesting to listen to. Frey and Vince had a jam which really opened my eyes up to what Vince has been doing on bass. I must confess I never really got my head around Vince's approach to the bass, but he and Frey made a great little combo that kept us entertained for the last part of the day.

I found myself craving Frey's amazing tone, but the problem is, I already own all the gear he was using. He really made my Reverend and my Maz sound amazing. Proof that it's all in the fingers I guess. Not that it's not amazing sounding equipment, just that it doesn't sound quite as amazing when I use it as it does when he uses it! What a great player!

Glad I brought my ear plugs today, they were worth the investment.

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by mr_sooty »

Oh, totally forgot about Tubewells little EF86/6L6 combo. Now that's a great little amp! If I had $650 to spare I'd grab it off Trade Me immediately. The Mojo knob really does add something special (that being an EF86 tube I believe). I really really liked the tone of that one. Well done Pete!

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by alanp »

Good fun, got to dime the JCM800 with Ironbird. Not sure anyone would have noticed with all the other noisy people hehe

I'll see if any of the photos I took turned out decent tomorrow after work.
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by alanp »

I lied. And I'm awful with names.

Image

IB protecting his baby from bucklerash

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Tubeswell showing us the proper way to treat classic Fender circuitry and geetars

Image

Starscream "protecting" Lawrence's custom gats. Counted them afterwards, did you Lawrence? ;)

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"Try it dude, it tastes like the colours of the rainbow."
"I don't know, is it okay to use with the Turps if I'm on Warfarin?"

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Mah stack (and much merriment was made over the spacers.) People seemed to regard the 5E3 as much more approachable than the 2204.

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Captain Sparrow, pillaging the eardrums of all around him ;)

Image

See the case for IB's Ironbird there? A ESP RR-V turned up which even blew IB's hardcase away in terms of real estate.

There was a photo of a PRS Santana SE, but if I posted that you'd demand I photoshop in a Santana hat to go with it.
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by rickenbackerkid »

I had sort of a flying visit (in between gigs!), so I miss lots but was there for the first hour or so.


Stuff I liked:
alanp's jcm800. Instantly brilliant tone. Warm, not too bright, rich overdrive. Wonderful. Good job Alan :D makes me want a Marshall . . .

Mark's (unsure of forum name) handmade solidstate channel switching monster.
I use little distortion on my tone for one reason - I love clarity, and I want to hear every single note of every chord cutting through the distortion.
But that amp had an AMAZING level of clarity, even with complex jazz-y chords and a medium level of distortion, there was no beating or mess, just clear a sweet. It had a very nice natural compression to it too. Great job Mark!

Lawrence's guitars were lovely - not quite my cup of tea but beautifully designed. He's also got a sweet pedalboard.

Scott (forum name unknown) had a stunning tobacco burst LP and the dirty channel of his Orange was SWEET!

Ironbird's guitar playing has come a super long way. Last time I heard him play was probably two years ago and he was (from memory) basically jamming power chords and the old metal riff. Now he's moving around the fretboard with ease and playing some very cool stuff.

I'm always impressed by people's chops at these things - Mark had great on-the-button timing and groove and Lawence seemed comfortable playing jazz/funk/rock and did things with a whammy bar that made me :shock:

There were a bunch of people who I didn't really get to see because I had to run, but the were promising piles of gear around, so I hope there's some photos.

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by mr_sooty »

Those photo's make it look like I did nothing. I did play a bit.

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by alanp »

Shame it wasn't on Saturday, then I'd have stayed a bit longer to hear this :( (getting up for work at 5am and 3 hour drive home is a nuisance.)
Capt. Black wrote:Call me if you're looking for the sound of a sows ear made from a silk purse with a side of hot bitches and alcohol

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by hamo »

Thanks guys for another awesome fest, I thouroughly enjoyed myself.

It was nice to be able to wind my amp up a bit since I don't often get the chance, but it made me realise that it just doesn't have the clean headroom that I thought it did. Here comes the GAS monster again... :mrgreen:

Thanks to Jenesis for giving me the chance to try a DLS with my amp, totally gave me a sound that I'm looking for. The Montevilian Echo was awesome too.
Aquila Rosso wrote:I don't a mind an iced tea rimjob one little bit :congrats:
Molly wrote:Trousers are no substitute for talent
druz wrote:I present to you, the whogivesafuckocaster

hamo
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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by hamo »

Oh, and apologies, particularly to Frey, for not being more conversational. Ironbird's Gunn kinda made it a bit tricky to hear anything... :oops:
Aquila Rosso wrote:I don't a mind an iced tea rimjob one little bit :congrats:
Molly wrote:Trousers are no substitute for talent
druz wrote:I present to you, the whogivesafuckocaster

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by robnobcorncob »

Looks like fun! wish I could've been there but I had band practice unfortunately.

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by Vince »

Cam beat me to it on various things, such as thanking Lawrence for the super awesome venue.

And yes, Frey is quite the guitarist. I really like his tone and his sense of melody.

I was also very impressed with the way IronBird's playing has always improved. Mind you, I'd only heard him that one time several gearfests ago, so perhaps he was just having a bad day and he's always been that good. He can really pull out an amazing range of sounds, many surprising, most awesome.

It was great to see everybody again, thank you so much Alanp for thinking of bringing a bass and thanks to Jenesis for making the effort to come down. It's always a pleasure to see you. And Cam who, IIRC, thought he wasn't going to make it.

That Poletti amp was quite interesting, too. Wish I knew enough about amps to discuss it properly.
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"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

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Re: Wellington gearfest: Sunday 10 April

Post by markp »

bbrunskill wrote:I had sort of a flying visit (in between gigs!), so I miss lots but was there for the first hour or so.


"Mark's (unsure of forum name) handmade solidstate channel switching monster.
I use little distortion on my tone for one reason - I love clarity, and I want to hear every single note of every chord cutting through the distortion.
But that amp had an AMAZING level of clarity, even with complex jazz-y chords and a medium level of distortion, there was no beating or mess, just clear a sweet. It had a very nice natural compression to it too. Great job Mark! "

Thanks for the comments! My forum name is markp and I actually know my password now...

Amps I liked - The Maz 18 and tubeswell's class A amp.
And the EHX hog is an impressive item ...
The other thing was some of the nice chorus and echo units - I've got an RP155 but I'm thinking about looking at something a little more specialised now.

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