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The GuitarAttack crew traveled to Duiven, The
Netherlands for a great guitar show on Sunday, April 16, 2000. Billed as the
"Dutch Guitar and Amps Master-Builders Exhibition", this display was very nice
and tastefully done. I've included some photos of the exhibition and hope you enjoy
them.
The show featured a large number of guitar builders, and an equally large number of amp builders. The CGOC building in Duiven was pretty full for the show, but it was well laid-out and pretty comfortable. I didn't personally buy anything but I made a number of contacts. As I've said before I am really enjoying the European guitar scene. I've met some great luthiers and players over here. |
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"Hey dude...what do those EMGs sound
like?" Well, with a rig like this you can find out. What you have here
is a Mexican Strat with the lower edge of the body routed out. The pickguards in the
little rack to the right contain a dizzying array of pickups. You can slip one of
the pickguards into the Strat without changing the strings. Note the jack on the
pickguard -- very ingenious. This is a great idea for selling pickups and allowing local guitar slingers to test the waters prior to buying. We know that sound is not merely a function of pickups, but this is clearly better than keeping your pickups in a case and referring to a review in Guitar Player to determine how pickups sound! |
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From Charlee Guitars is a huge array of Thinline Teles. Matthew found this herd while looking for a Coke machine. | |
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These are Rose Guitars, and they a really
beautiful. It is interesting that the rig in the middle has a Wilkinson tremolo and
locking keys, while the other two have a traditional Les Paul setup. The workmanship on these guitars is just great, and they look stunning. By the way -- how much flame maple is there on earth? |
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From Ert comes these CWL amps. I was
particularly impressed by massive tubes and transformers in the rig below. These
are hand-built, and sound very AC30/Twin like. These are really loud amps and built like tanks. They assured me they would have a web site up soon. Keep checking back.
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A couple of really nice archtops. Note the wood chips to the right. The grand European luthiery traditional is alive and well, and these guitars sounded fantastic. | |
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This is Jasper Boerma from Arnhem, NL. A veritable ad for Stewart-MacDonald,
Jasper was impressed that I was familiar with the Stew-Mac neck jig. This guy is a luthier, and he said he would teach me how to French Polish. Check out his site at www.aspeguitars.topfind.com |
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One of the more cryptic, bizarre things seen at this show was a pickup winder built from an old cassette deck. The builder wouldn't allow me to take a photo of it, but this is a representation drawn from memory. He claimed it worked "great" and allowed him to rewind pickups "expertly" for customers. Mr. Lollar, take note.... |
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Matthew in front of a cool sculpture in
Duiven. I originally thought it was the headstock of an old Veleno, but
Matthew set me straight. Duiven is a beautiful town southeast of Arnhem. The drive back to Germany was just beautiful. If you get a chance, visit The Netherlands. |
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The McDonalds in Nijmegen, The
Netherlands. The town is pronounced "Ny Megen", and you may remember it
from your World War II history lessons as the site of Operation Market Garden in
1944. The reason I added this photo is because this is the cleanest, most orderly
McDonalds I've ever visited, and I am a long-term McDonalds junkie. To sum it
up: Great customer service, great food, and a courteous staff -- what a concept. As an American I am used to rude counter personnel and poor service. When I get good service I am shocked! Every "service industry professional" in the United States could learn a lesson from visiting this restaurant. Is your shop optimized for customer service? Do people sense quality when they walk through the door? |
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