After several years away, luthiers and enthusiasts gathered across the country in 2022. Here’s how it went down.
After two years of being locked up in our shops, guitar makers everywhere were eager to be reunited in 2022, when many beloved industry events returned. These guitar shows allow qualifying luthiers to showcase their work and connect with players and buyers. More importantly, they’re a wonderful opportunity for the guitar-building community to come together, and I couldn’t wait to see what my friends had been gluing up.
If you’re a guitar lover, attending any of these events is like walking into a dream world. The air is filled with the same passion, love, and excitement that went into building the instruments on display. It’s a contagious energy that hits you the moment you walk into the room. For us builders, these weekends are filled with life-validating moments as we get to hear our creations come to life in the hands of so many players and admirers. After investing hundreds of hours into each guitar, I can assure you there is no better feeling on the planet than watching someone fall in love with their next musical companion. This symbiotic inspiration becomes the pulse of these events, and a poignant reminder for both builders and players to keep following these crazy dreams.
Here’s a glimpse into some of the most inspirational guitar shows of 2022: the Artisan Guitar Show, Fretboard Summit, and Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival.
After investing hundreds of hours into each guitar, I can assure you there is no better feeling on the planet than watching someone fall in love with their next musical companion.
The first reunion was in April at the Artisan Guitar Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The AGS takes place in a large and elegant conference room of a very nice hotel, and perfectly walks the line of being a classy yet comfortable show. With 50-plus guitar makers displaying, this show does an excellent job of representing different styles and variations of the guitar. The result was one of the most dynamic and balanced showcases of handmade guitars that I’ve ever seen, and the quality of work was top shelf all across the show. It had everything: archtops, flattops, semi-hollow electrics, solidbodies, and beyond. It was a true guitar lovers show. The variety of guitars and music I get to experience inspires me more than anything, which is why this show is one of my all-time favorites.
All summer long, everyone was buzzing about the return of the Fretboard Summit, which took place at the legendary Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois. It was a jam-packed weekend with lectures, workshops, and performances from the very best, such as luthier TJ Thompson and mandolinist Sierra Hull. This time, they decided to throw a handmade guitar show into the mix. So, after the Molly Tuttle workshop, you could wander over to the luthier’s display, and actually get your hands on some Preston Thompson Guitars. There was even a competition held in front of a live audience and a panel of judges, where luthiers Creston Lea and Duncan Price raced to assemble an electric guitar kit in one hour. It was the perfect combination of genius and madness, and something that would only go down at the Fretboard Summit.
The grand finale was September’s Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival hosted by Henriksen Amplifiers in Arvada, Colorado. For one weekend in September, some of the best archtop builders and players in the world assembled to celebrate this enigmatic instrument. More than 30 builders had archtops on display, and the archtop goodness literally spilled out of the showroom and into the lobby of a very lovely and accommodating Hilton. It was there you would find guitar legends Jimmy Bruno and Frank Vignola casually leading some of the most face-melting jam sessions you’ve ever witnessed. The energy at the show reached an all-time high as the Chinery Blue Guitar Collection—22 instruments built by some of the most prominent luthiers in the archtop world, curated by collector Scott Chinery—was revealed in a stunningly powerful display. To be in the presence of so much great history and beauty was emotional and inspiring for everyone at the archtop party. But it didn’t stop there. This infectious energy spread throughout all of Arvada. That evening, the town’s water tower lit up with blue lights in honor of this iconic collection and the magical weekend surrounding it. It was pure bliss. It was pure archtop.
That’s a wrap on 2022! From coast to coast, it was an epic reunion for guitar lovers and builders everywhere with the most successful show circuit I’ve experienced in over a decade. Filled with music, inspiration, and some pretty great memories, guitar builders are now tucked back into their workshops with their wood and glue, preparing for next year’s season of guitar shows. I invite you to come check out what my friends and I have been gluing together at any one of these exceptional events in 2023!
Keep the giveaways rolling! Enter Stompboxtober Day 22 for your chance to win a pedal from Walrus Audio!
Walrus Audio Lore Reverse Soundscape Generator
Create the soundtrack to your storybook adventure with the Lore Reverse Soundscape Generator. Made up of five different programs, the Lore is an ambient creation machine built around reverse delay and reverbs. Featuring two DSP chips running in series, each with their own analog feedback path, the Lore takes you on an adventurous journey rich with themes of reversing, time-stretching, pitch-shifting, and vast ambiance.
Your 100 Guitarists hosts are too young to have experienced SRV live. We’ve spent decades with the records, live bootlegs, and videos, but we’ll never know quite how it felt to be in the room with SRV’s guitar sound.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a force of nature. With his “Number One” Strat, he drove a veritable trove of amps—including vintage Fenders, a rotating Vibratone cab, and a Dumble—to create one of the most compelling tones of all, capable of buttery warmth, percussive pick articulation, and cathartic, screaming excess. As he drew upon an endless well of deeply informed blues guitar vocabulary, his creativity on the instrument seemingly knew no bounds.
Your 100 Guitarists hosts are too young to have experienced SRV live. We’ve spent decades with the records, live bootlegs, and videos, but we’ll never know quite how it felt to be in the room with SRV’s guitar sound. So, we’d like to spend some time imagining: How did it feel when it hit you? How did he command his band, Double Trouble? The audience?
SRV was mythical. His heavy-gauge strings tore up his fingers and made a generation of blues guitarists work a lot harder. And his wall of amps seems finely curated to push as much air in all directions as possible. How far did he take it? Was he fine-tuning his amps to extreme degrees? Or could he get his sound out of anything he plugged into?
This episode is sponsored by Divided by 13.
Learn more: https://dividedby13.com
By now, we’re all familiar with the many options out there for amp modeling. Mic modelers are another reliable asset to digital recording tech, and can rapidly grow your inventory with just a few clicks.
As guitarists, we’re very aware of amp-modeling and profiling technologies, such as the Line 6 Helix, Fractal Axe-Fx, Neural DSP Quad Cortex, and Kemper Profiler. While our bases are covered for these (with modelers available for every “holy grail” amp under the sun), we are still missing another vital area of the recording process—microphones—for the acoustic instruments and vocals we might want to capture.
What if we could record them using holy-grail-modeled microphones? This month, let’s evaluate microphone modeling to help you make better-sounding recordings. Tighten up, the Dojo is now open.
The Sincerest Form of Flattery
Microphone modeling is an intriguing advancement in recording technology, offering great flexibility and possibilities for musicians, producers, and engineers. Makers like Slate Digital, Antelope, and Antares make many offerings, from hardware to software.
Universal Audio’s Sphere DLX ($1299 Street), LX ($799), and their six new Standard Mic series have impeccably modeled classic mics, and when coupled with their classic mic pre and compressor plugins, you can enjoy the same highly coveted mic chains appreciated the world over.
How It Works
The technology behind microphone-modeling systems relies heavily on convolution and impulse response techniques. These techniques involve capturing the unique sonic fingerprint of a microphone by recording its response to a wide range of frequencies and sound pressure levels. The immediate benefit is that this means you can grow your mic locker exponentially and gain access to a wide range of legendary microphone tones and textures all from a single mic! Most modeling microphones are usually either small- or large-diaphragm, multi-pattern, condenser microphones that are capable of capturing a wide frequency range and dynamic response. By adding other modeling mics, you can record in stereo or surround, and/or record multiple instruments at a fraction of the cost of owning multiples of the modeled mics themselves.
A Wealth of Options
One significant advantage of mic-modeling systems is their ability to offer a vast array of microphone options within a single session instead of having the time-consuming duty of swapping them out to achieve different sounds. With a modeling system, you can switch between different mic models instantly and audition various mics to find the perfect tone for the recording.
“The same vintage microphone can sound different on different days depending on temperature, humidity, and the voltage from the wall.”
Another lovely bonus is that microphone-modeling systems also offer the ability to swap microphone characteristics after the recording has been made! Want to swap your AKG C12 for a Neumann U 47 long after the recording session is over? No problem! This is especially useful when the initial microphone choice may not have been ideal or when the production requires a different tonal character than originally intended.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
Some audio purists argue digital emulation can’t truly replicate the sound of a physical microphone, especially when it comes to vintage models that have unique characteristics developed over decades of use. The subtleties of these microphones and their aging components shape the way they interact with different preamps and compressors.
After making over a hundred records at Blackbird over the last eight years, I’ve grown quite familiar with a good portion of our 1,800-plus vintage mics, like Telefunken 251s, AKG C12s, Neumann U 47s and KM 84s, Shure SM7s and SM57s, RCA 44s and 77s, and Royer R-121s. These are the very same mic models that most modeling mics are trying to capture. But experience has taught me that not all microphones sound identical even if they are the same make and model (and year). Also, the same vintage microphone can sound different on different days depending on temperature, humidity, and the voltage from the wall (that’s why Blackbird has its own regulated power and all the studios strive for consistent temperature and humidity year-round).
For home studios and smaller production environments, microphone-modeling systems can be a game changer. You’ll get a wide range of high-end microphone sounds without the need for a large microphone collection, and the ability to change microphone models after the fact gives budding producers and engineers greater confidence and flexibility in their work.
In reality, most users find that the convenience, cost savings, and versatility offered by modeling systems far outweigh any potential shortcomings. Finally, keep in mind that even though the mic “profile” you choose (U 47, U 67, SM7, etc.) will be consistent day in and day out, the modeling mic itself is also still a mic and will require you to be mindful of these same issues I mentioned above in order for your mic “profile” to be as accurate as possible.
Until next time, namaste.
With simple controls, models from the award-winning HX family, and the option for battery power, this compact unit is designed to be perfect for Metal guitarists seeking versatile tone options.
Simple controls make it easy to use, while models derived from the award-winning HX family of processors ensure exceptional hard-driving sound quality and authentic feel.
This new unit gives players seven amps, seven cabs, and 17 distortion, modulation, reverb, and delay effects—including a looper—and it may be powered by three AA batteries (included) or an optional 9-volt power supply.
Guitarists can also download the free POD Express Edit app for their computers or mobile devices to quickly and easily access a world of deeper tone editing, preset management, and global settings.
“For a wide variety of Metal guitarists, the POD Express Black is a great all-in-one modeler that gives them a unique selection of high-gain tones, plus essential effects,” says Rick Gagliano, Line 6 Director of Product Management. “It’s compact, fun and easy to use, affordable, and—most importantly—it features tones derived from the Helix family of products.”
Additional features include stereo outputs, tap tempo, a tuner, a noise gate, a headphone output, and a USB-C audio interface with re-amping capabilities. Add an optional expression pedal for volume control, or up to two footswitches to select presets or turn effects on and off.
The POD Express family, which also includes the previously released POD Express Guitar and POD Express Bass, represents the latest evolution of a line that began in 1998 with the groundbreaking red "kidney-bean" POD—the portable processor that pioneered the amp modeling revolution.
POD Express Black is $179.99
For more information, please visit line6.com.