Guitar Summit 2024

- a refreshing take on a guitar show

The Guitar Summit 2024 in Mannheim, Germany was a very positive experience for me in many ways. The main one being that it was my first international show since Winter NAMM 2020 and I found that I have missed going to shows, not only to see and try new gear but also to interact with the many industry friends I have been fortunate to have since my first Music Messe i Frakfurt back in 1981. This was also my first time at the Guitar Summit and I must admit to being surprised at the size of the show as this was only the fourth year of the show. As you will see in this report there were a lot of European luthiers that never attend the NAMM show and it was really cool to see and try their stuff.

I really want to extend my sincere thanks to the organizers of the show for an excellent show for a number of reasons. The staff who handled tickets and ackreditations were efficient and administration was quick and effortless. The show was silent! I could actually have a real conversation with other people at the show floors. Even in groups. Most booths had a number of headphone solutions if you wanted to try a guitar/bass or an amp. I would encourage NAMM to take this to heart and implement a similar philosophy. While the show was primarily about showing products there were no shortage of enjoying music or partaking in different workshops where the educational aspect was often prominent.

Also worthy of note for interested readers is the fact that the Guitar Summit is open to the general public whereas NAMM is a trade show not open to the enthusiastic guitar/bass player having music as a hobby. So if you are interested in all things guitar, I can really recommend an early fall vacation to Mannheim next year. It is really easy to get to Mannheim. Fly to Frankfurt and take the train to Mannheim. Guitar Summit collaborated with Deutche Bahn and had a link which took me directly to the booking pages for the trip to/from Mannheim and I could book with local public transport included so I got all the way to my hotel without worry. Guitar Summit also offered a package where you got a 3-day entrance ticket, two hotel nights at a good hotel and vouchers for the food trucks. We've all heard about German efficiency and everything about the Guitar Summit confirmed this.

I would like to apologize to a few exhibitors for not including them as the report would be too large if I covered every product. My camera also didn't work well in certain lightning conditions so there's that.

This personal report should be seen as my very own point of view and does not reflect the view and/or opinions of any other person or company of which I may be associated either through my work or in these pictures. If you find any faulty information in this report please e-mail me at mats.n[at]nermark.com.

I have placed the products in alphabetical order for your convenience. I also have divided the report into 5 sections. Otherwise the load times would be problematic.

Please also accept my apology for any language errors as English is not my native language.

Adam Hall

Adam Hall is a big corporation who owns a lot of other brands which I will cover under their own headlines.

I've long been looking for a good cable with the Neutrik silent connector and now it seem like I found one at a not ridiculous price.

This gentleman is Richard Morgan who is working with media and market comunications for Adam Hall and I owe him big as he was the one who convinced me to attend the Guitar Summit 2024 and also answered all my questions regarding the show during the planning stage to go.

Alhambra

Alhambra has enjoyed a top reputation here in Sweden as a brand where you get a lot for the money.

Alhambra calls this guitar a crossover as it's aimed at letting electric guitarist have an acoustic that has a neck that feels more like an electric than the traditional neck profiled used for acoustics. The cutaway and preinstalled michrophone system is also testament to their aim.

Here's another crossover modern flamenco guitar. Please note the thinner body.

Amp Room

Amp Room is not a brand but a room at the show where amp makers could put their amps and let visitors play them at full blast. If you're in the market for a quality amp, you obviosly want to hear it in its full glory and not just through a power soak and some headphones and there's the reason for this room.

As you can see the room was populated with a lot of high end amps and there was no shortage of players who wanted to try out a few amps of their dreams.

If you're a cable guy, there were lots of cables so you could hear how they affect your tone. The room was very isolated and the loedness in the room never affected the rest of the show. And I can can assure you, it was very loud in there at times.

Aria Pro II

Aria Pro was one of the first Asian guitar brands I was made aware of back in the late 70's. Here they popped up again with some variations on classic themes.

Audiolithe

A new brand to me, but they sounded good and seems very sturdy.

Aviator Guitars

I can't remember how many builders at the show displayed alternate shapes for classic wood/pickup configurations but I kind of like where Aviator is taking their ideas.

Bacci Guitars

Bacci baritone goodness! If it's good enough for Mark Lettieri, it's good enough for me.

Bad Cat

To me, Bad Cat makes the best alternative to the Vox amps. I grew up with a 1963 Vox AC30 and some of the Bad Cat models embodies the best of that amp.

Baron Elektro-Gitarren

Baron was one of quite a few makers who had models with Charlie Christian type pickups. I tried the guitar to the right and it was a joy to play.

Baum Guitars

Baum Guitars from Denmark showed their instruments for the very first time. Maybe I'm partial being a Scandinavian, but I truly like these designs.

The Wingman ticks a lot of boxes for me.

The ever present question that pops up in my mind every show I attend is "do we need yet another take on a Strat"? Playing the Celestor, the answer is "YES"! The Celestor brings enough new thinking to validate its existence among its peers.

Bernasconi Guitars

New ideas and new designs from Switzerland. Marco Bernasconi seems to like angles of all kind and I think he has succeeded in the difficult art of combining new ideas with the traditional art of guitars.

The split pickups are hum canceling and I like the artful lines their slanted position creates.

This is a cool headstock design but you would be excused for thinking string changes could be somewhat difficult.

But you can easily remove the front of the headstock.

Blackforest Guitars

I'm amazed at the amount of luthiers who continously and constantly try to improve on the American vintage recepies and succeed. Balckforest Guitars looks good and plays well with modern solutions to avoid some of the problems with vintage instruments.

BluGuitar

One of the most anticipated product releases for some time is the BluGuitar AmpX. This is the brainchild of master guitar player and technical wizard Thomas Blug and is an analog amp and preamp but still programmable in many configurations to mimic all kinds of amps and it also has digital fx.

Here's Thomas playing the AmpX plugged into a small speaker and it sounds just great. Of course, Mr Blug's wonderful playing has a lot to do with it too.

Bond Guitars

When I first read that Bond was going to exhibit my mind started traveling backwards to 1984 when I first encountered the Bond Electraglide at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. Thankfully the present Bond company does not produce an Electraglide but have an interesting mix of old and new in their models.

This especially caought my eye as I love the Kaoss pad and having one built in can only be a sonic adventure that would be very enjoyable.

Carrozza Guitars

Carrozza Guitars are located in Brazil and displayed a number of fine guitars made from tonewoods typical from that part of the world. They use old reclaimed wood from old houses and bridges, etc. An interesting fact is that they also use a kind of Brazilian rosewood that is not endangered and is not under CITES control. According to the guys at Carrozza it has the same sound qualities as traditional Brazilian rosewood but looks more like Indian rosewood.

I like these fretmarkers.

Chicken Picks

Mr and Mrs Franken holding court, selling their fabulous picks. A was a Dunlop guy for 30 plus years and at every trade show I attended (lots of them!), there were pick makers giving me samples, wanting me to try them. I did, but stayed with my purple Dunlops. Then at Winter NAMM in 2015, I met a guy named Eppo who gave me a sample of his picks. When I got home, I tried all the picks I had been given and was prepared to just add them to my huge collection of picks. But when I tried the Chicken Pick, I heard something I liked. It sounded fuller and reminded me somewhat of how the guitar sounded when I played with my fingers. The bevel of the pick also made it easier to pick a bit faster. So since that day I have played Chicken Picks exclusively. They are not the cheapest picks but they are definitely worth it!

Cole Clark

I have tried a few Cole Clark acoustics and I've always considered them to be good guitars and I was looking forward to seeing their booth, but I was totally unprepared for this model. An acoustic HSS.

Concerts

During the Guitar Summit 2024 there were a lot of opportunities to listen to good music. Even my hotel had a band in the bar the night before the show opened and that band was headed by none less than Aynsley Lister who entertained us with good songs and excellent guitar playing. When the German guitarist Martell sat in we were treated to a guitar collaboration of excellence. Never have I experienced two guitarist who played so well together as a result from really listening to each other and respecting each other's musical space. To me, this wasone of the the two best musical experiences in Mannheim during the Guitar Summit.

There are few guitar players today that get as much coverage as Matteo Mancuso and listening to the trio that performed at the show it's easy to understand why. His technique is truly mind boggling.

The self proclaimed one man band of Tommy Emmanuel was the other of the two performances I enjoyed the most at the summit. His timing/swing is just wonderful and his stunningly beautiful version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow brought tears to my eyes.

The most surprising performace of the show was maybe also the most fun one. At least if you take into account to enthusiasm of the audience. The band HeavySaurus, performed during the Sunday as that was sort of the Family Day at the show. Children were seen running around having a great time in the venue prior to the show. An excellent way of promoting music for children and generating future guitar/bass players, also knows as customers.

Cornerstone

Cornerstone of Gladio fame was present at the show and they brought their full line of pedals and they do sound good.

New for the show was the Nucleo Reverb. This is a reverb based on the space inside a nuclear power plant that was never used. Very cool pedal!

Crazy Tube Circuits

Here are too many good pedals compared to my budgetary means. I don't know how many on this pedalboard I'd like to bring home? The easy answer is "too many"!

Cream-T Guitars

This was one of my favourite booths at the show and I retured many times to get more answers and to get to try more guitars and pickups.

The main reason being the fact that you can change pickups in the guitars. The pickups are held in place magnetically and you don't have to solder or even remove your strings. In fact, you can even keep your guitar plugged in.

The guitar above was designed together with Billy Gibbons. His design brief was that he wanted a guitar with the bottom of a Tele, the shoulders of a Les Paul and the headstock from a Martin. The observant reader may have noted the lack of a pickup selector switch. As Billy Gibbons only uses the bridge pickup, he specified this to be without. But fear not, there's a model looking like this called the Aurora Custom that has the selector switch. There was a give-away at the show of such an Aurora and I'm hoping against all odds that I shall win it!

This is the Cream-T Astra model. It has two separate selector circuits. One is the original Esquire circuit that uses only the bridge pickup for those who want those old-school tone options. The other circuit is the usual Tele selector for two pickups for more modern sounds. For those that really, truly want the Esquire sounds may say that this guitar can not sound as an Esquire as there will be magnetic pull from the neck humbucker. Keep reading for the solution to this issue.

To avoid the magnetic pull from the humbucker, just turn the guitar over and exchange the humbucker for the Dumbucker, which is just an empty pickup cover. Very smart!

D'Angelico

There are few names (if any) as iconic as D'Angelico when it come to arch top jazz guitars. To me these are just so beautiful.

The kind folks in the booth invited me to play and then offered me a seated photo op with a beauty of my choice. I just couldn't resist.

de Gier Guitars & Basses

Sander de Gier is mostly known for his excellent basses but he has a deep love for guitars as well as is made evident in this new model.

While the source of inspiration is very ovious, he's made a few very worthwhile changes. I presonally like the angeled pickups selector switch as well as the neck pickup mounted in the body.

The fingerboard is routed for the frets which provides a very smooth feeling neck and according to Sander, it also improves the stability of the neck.