bmusic - Product News and Reviews

Back from the Frankston International Guitar Festival held last weekend on the coast outside of Melbourne and managed to get a few pics even despite leaving behind a memory card for the camera and working most of the weekend on the Schecter guitars and Framus amps stand for our hosts, the importers of Schecter and Framus, amongst other products, Dominant Music. A big thank you to Dominant for flying myself and my pal, fellow guitar enthusiast Mark, over for the occasion and putting us up, both of us very much appreciated the trip and had a great time.
We arrived around 1pm on the Saturday after missing a bus booked for us at the airport in the morning, something that invariably occurs when you put two guys together who travel very haphazardly and generally have someone else along who takes care of such detail. We are the two guys who are the last people you'd trust with your travel planning! After arriving we wander into our hotel that had been organised for us and the "Pool" sign on the entrance attracted our attention immediately. However, when we wandered past the pool (see pic below) we saw a fine advertisement for all the other amenities the place had to offer. Not to worry, as it turned out we wouldn't see much of the hotel that weekend.
Made our way to the venue and were greeted by some great playing in the marquee just inside the entrance where Melbourne funksters Bitchy Boy were greeting punters. The main building was where I was destined to spend most of my working weekend, the venue for most of the exhibitors. Adjacent to the expo room was an auditorium which saw performances by John Farnham band member and ESP endorsee Brett Garsed, Michael Jackson's former axe wielder Jennifer Batten, Godin endorsee and Aussie classical whiz Slava Grigoryan, cult US artist John McCutcheon, and Spectrum, amongst others.
Across the road Australia acoustic instrument makers were on shows. Makers such as Liddy Instruments from South Australia, Kim Lissarrague Guitars from New South Wales, Jack Spira from Victoria, Hollingworth from Queensland, Ellis Guitars from Western Australia, Donmo Resonators from SA, and many more. My traveling companion Mark made a beeline for the latter, Donmo, as he owns one of his resos and took with him a picture of the guitar to get some more information on it as the ones he's seen more recently feature a serial number he can't locate on his. Good news for Mark is that it turns out his Donmo is one of his first 10 instruments built as after that he began to serialise them distinctly on the body.

Also encompassed by this part of the festival was the National Fingerpicking Competition. We don't know the winner as yet but I'm told there were some ripping pickers playing over there. Behind the building housing the acoustic expo was another stage where the Weekend Warriors program was being showcased with former Skyhook Bob Spencer presiding.
Back over the road to the main expo building which also housed a couple of smaller rooms where workshops and performances were taking place. Performers included Ned Evett of the USA who plays a glass fingerboard fretless guitar, the man termed as Hendrix reincarnated, Phil Para, and a couple of rockin' blues and bluegrass bands. These venues also housed the Young Guitarist Of The Year Award play-offs.
Where I was working many national distributors were showcasing their gear for all to play and admire. Not only was their international gear on show but in the entrance was a stall from small Victorian maker Richards. Mark had a crowd gathered a couple of times when he sat down to churn out a few rockabilly licks on a guitar of Richards he fell in love with. it was a Gretsch 6120 knock-off made, unbelievably, of miranti pine back and sides and cupboard backing ply top! It was a prototype so anyone considering a Richards please don't be put off by those less than overwhelming specs. But the guitar, complete with Bigsby and fluro green dice control knobs, sounded fantastic.
Another small scale local electric maker there was O'Donnell Custom Guitars with some fine looking flame top instruments on display.
Of the internationals, besides the Schecter guitars and Framus amps I was helping to showcase, the Dynamic Music Australia crew were there displaying Godin, Seagull and Simon & Patrick guitars, GHS strings, Traynor amps and Zoom and Rocktron effects. It was with these fellas that we hit the town of Frankston with later that evening as they were staying in the same luxurious resort as us just down the road. Jacksons Rare Guitars from Sydney had a stall with their imported lines of Collings guitars, National Resophonic guitars and Matchless amps as well as a few vintage numbers. Australis Music had Ibanez and Ashton on show. The "like them or hate them" Burns guitars were on display as were the new and intriguing Floyd Rose guitars. Other brands on show included Maton, Cort, BC Rich, Yamaha, and Crafter. The Gibson stand was very popular but there was nothing there that really floated my boat. Bad Cat amps were on show, as were accessories from Planet Waves and Line 6 effects.
Directly across from our Schecter/Framus booth was a small importer from New Zealand who'd come over to showcase a couple of brands he's importing to Australasia. Some stunning guitars were on show from German maker Duesenberg, a brand I wasn't too familiar with and was good to see in person. He had the signature model from Rolling Stone Ron Wood that was something very eye catching and wonderful to play. The importer, Mojo Sound, also had the English Sheldon handwired valve amps on show which, in my opinion, obliterated the more widely known Bad Cat and Matchless amps there for tone. Still, for the hefty price tag they'd want to be something special. The Mojo Sound fella there, who's card I have lost, was a really nice bloke and if you want to know more about the guitars and amps he's doing check out his web site HERE.
So that's about it for the distributors, I've likely missed some but I couldn't get to all seeing as I was working the show. Same goes for pictures, not a lot to show but there are a few of note. The double stack of Framus Cobra amps had everyone stopping to stare and a few brave souls even had the kahunas to plug up to the bad boys. I won't get in to the Saturday evening festivities but there were a few sore heads come Sunday. Happy to report mine was not one of those, but not from lack of trying! Just lucky I guess.
Sunday meant more work for me and more guitar fancying for Mark before we left for the airport around 3:30pm. We two hopeless travellers waited for our bus back to the airport and when it was late we really started to think we were doomed. But all was well, it showed and we preceded to listen to some sheila rave on and on and on the entire one and a half hour trip to the airport. She didn't shut up the entire way in the otherwise quiet bus and the woman she was rabbiting on to maybe said three words in response. Got to the plane with a few seconds to spare and homeward bound we were.
Trip over, a good time and some great eye candy. If you get a chance to go and haven't been before I strongly suggest you get along to check it out. If you do go look me up because I'm sure I'll be back. Click on any image to enlarge in a new window

Dominant Music Stand Our generous hosts	Dominant featured Framus amps & Schecter	Framus Ruby Riot and Santana Amps	Le Schecter Girls with a couple Dominant boys	Some dude on our Schecter C-1 E/A
Schecter C Series including new C-1 Exotic	Schecter BlackJack Series	Framus Cobra Stacks - The HIT of the show	Schecter Aviations and our rare twin neck	Seymour Duncan had a diverse range in display
A mind boggling mix of Seymour tones	Dynamic Music Stand with Seagull Acoustics	"Hippy" from Dynamic with Rocktron and GHS	The 'underwhelming' ESP/LTD display	Framus guitars from Germany
Australian maker Cole Clark	Punters ogling the Gibson stand	Hard to get a clean shot of the Gibsons	New Ibanez on show at their stand	Cort and Laney were on show
Duesenburg guitars & Sheldon amps	My pal falling in love with a Richards guitar	Washburn and DigiTech on show	Yours truly - my ugly mug now on show	The hotel's facilities were, umm...