FUZZ Guitar Show 2019 - part 4

Peter Naglitsch Luthier Custom Made Guitars

Peter Naglitsch always come to the show with more varied designs than anyone else. And he seems to take his influences from almost everywhere but still somehow manages to put it all together as his own designs. To me, that's very impressive. The cone equipped red guitar with the lipstick is a unique sounding guitar and a lot of fun to play.

PRS Guitars

A nice selection of PRS to be tried at your pleasure. This was the first time I got to really try the Silver Sky, so intensly debated when it was introduced. It felt nice and sounded good so I don't what the noise was all about. I've heard Paul Reed Smith talk about how good the the neck is with the 7.25" finger board radius and that it shouldn't make a difference to the player as it's so well set up, but I still prefer 9.5.

Raato Custom Guitars

There are a surprising number of interesting Finnish luthiers making intriguing instruments. Raato has an assymetrical neck profile on some of their guitars that at first felt odd but soon became familiar. It would be interesting to spend some time with one to see how it would impact my playing.

Ruokangas Guitars

Master luthier supreme Juha Ruokangas made the bold move of only displaying guitars with his new Valvebucker. I saw it at NAMM but this was the first time I've sat down with one and had an opportunity to play one. This may be me being melodramatic, but to me Juha has made history with this design. This is the first time since the humbucker that I've heard a truly new guitar sound. The Valvabucker picks up a previously unheard of frequency range. At first it was kind of off-putting as it was so unfamiliar but after realizing that I neither could or should treat this guitar as "just another guitar", I started expolring it on its own merits.

I don't really know how to describe the experience in mere words but the closest I can come up with is like a full frequency acoustic feel with the dynamics from the very best electric. Just sitting playing it for a few minutes made me find things to play that I don't think I would have played on a traditional electric. And it will be so interesting to see what you can do with effects as the full range of frequencies are available for your experientation. When you get the chance to try it, you should throw away your old preconceptions what an electric guitar should be.

Juha's wife and creative companion, Emma, took a picture of Juha and myself.

Sandberg

Sandberg is arguably one of the most popular brands in Sweden when it comes to electric basses. Here's a selection on the wall at Swedish distributor Fitzpatrick Import Group.

Sire

Sire took the market by storm when they designed a bass together with Marcus Miller a few years ago.The result is sound quality, playability and hardware way above what the price indicates. The 18v active three band eq with sweepable mid is very effective. Sire has now released a 2nd generation better pickups and rolled fingerboard edges. Available in different wood combinations.

The P/J combination is new and is very tempting .