The Guitar Summit 2024 - part 5

Soultool

Soultool from Switzerland has been in the business for quite some time and it's always a pleasure seeing them and their fine guitars.

Springer Guitars

I first met Mikael Springer at the first Holy Grail Guitars Show and was blown away by the quality of his work and I've been following him since then with great interest.

This is the Seraph model.

Lately he's been getting into the Firebird style design.

Stadler Guitars

While I don't play much acoustic guitar, I still love the instrument and this was one of my favourite acoustics at the summit. Christoph Stadler's design caught my eye and he was kind enough to let me play it.

To me, this is such a cool design and it played really well. Before trying it I was a bit dubious about playability due to the fan frets but when I started playing it was totally a non-issue. It played so easily and sounded excellent when both fingerpicking and when strumming with a pick.

The positioning of the soundholes made me really enjoy the fabulous dynamics of the guitar.

Mr Stadler also makes electrics that shows some forward/unusual thinking.

Steely Jam Guitars

Aluminum guitars made in Belgium. Aluminum in guitars has been around for a long time and it's very interesting to see how that material in guitars will develop. Not the least due to traditional tone woods becoming increasingly scarce.

All models have aluminum bodies but are available with an aluminum neck or a wooden neck if you prefer a more traditional feel.

Strandberg Guitars

While Strandberg is a Swedish company, this was the first opportunity I've had to really try one and it was a very interesting experience. Strandberg doesn't seem to go in for half measures in their design philosophy but go all in with their ideas. The bodies and the neck shape are indeed their own and it took some time getting used to playing it. Interesting fact is that you can get them with traditional straight frets, fan frets or the True Temperament frets.

Suhr Guitars

Suhr didn't have a booth of their own but were represented by their distributor. Lots to enjoy in this booth.

Synergy Amps

Synergy continues their modular approach with great success. As there are more and more modules coming out, I think having a Synergy would be a great addition to any studio.

Tandler Guitars

Jörg Tandler is another one of the luthiers I've heard much good things about but never seen in real life. After have tried the "Junior" to the right, I fully understand the good reputation Handler guitars enjoyes.

Tausch Guitars

Rainer Tausch is also a luthier I first met at the Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin many years ago. This awesome La Grange was a new model to me and it certainly looks the business.

Rainer is probably most known for his 665 model which has the longer scale length of 26 3/16 inches which is just 665 mm, hence the model name.

The trem block is made out of wood and the idea behind this design decision is that the Telecaster and a few other electrics run the strings through the wooden body of the guitar and that is part of the character of those instruments.

Ted Guitars

Aluminum guitars from Ted in more or less traditional shapes.

Not very usual at all but quite eye catching are the blue lights. This would be a great stage guitar.

Tom Vintage Straps

Sangles Vintage Hippie are guitar straps made in France, the way they used to.

Tone King

I absolutely love the retro futuristic design of the Tone King amps. And I have yet to play a Tone King amp I didn't like. If you haven't tried a Tone King, you should!

TonFuchs Guitars

Black with tortoise pickguard was the theme at TonFuchs Guitars this time. Personally I think this is a very classy design and I would be happy to hang any of these guitars on my wall. Even better, I would be happy to own and play any of them as well.

These guitars really covers the sonic landscape I inhabit.

Touch Guitars

This gentleman is Markus Reuter, inventor and player of the Touch Guitar, which in my mind represents the evolution of the Chapman Stick. Markus played the Touch Guitar with such skill that I just stayed to hear him play. When I came back later, he had me try it and was patient enough to try to teach me how it worked. This was such an occasion when you think something is sort of easy because someone else makes it look effortless, but when you try it yourself, you realize it is NOT that easy. :-)

Here are a few different models of the Touch Guitar.

Tremoline

I've never been comfortable playing a Floyd Rose as it gets in the way of my picking hand. So when I saw the flat design of the Tremoline, I had to stop and check it out. The inventor himself, Teodor Maslarov, kindly took the time to tell me all about it, and to me, this is an obvious alternative to a Floyd Rose if you need a guitar for dive bombing duties.

It has noiseless strings and lacks the magnetic interference noise you may have with other trem systems.

Tube Workshop

You need something weird wired. According to the slogan at Tube Workshop, you should get one of their amps. They had a wide variety of amplification options.

Two Notes

To some player there's nothing that can replace the interaction between an electric guitar and a tube amp. But as you often have to play att levels that are not optimal for driving a tube amp properly you need a power attenuator of some kind. This is where Two Notes have been the rescue solution for many years. They have solutions both for power attenuation and speaker simulation. You decide if you need either or or both.

You can use the Torpedo products for low, medium gain, high gain and immense gain.

Founder/inventor Dr. Guillaume Pille and a happy Torpedo user. As I didn't have a Two Notes t-shirt I got to hold the sticker.

Underdog

Underdog is a complete guitar amp/fx solution with an analog tube preamp section called Chuck (for reasons unknown), a digital fx engine, a power amp and speaker simulation. In case you do want to connect something else to the Underdog, there's a loop (serial or parallell), MIDI and a 9V outlet for powering up external pedals.

Vidar Guitars

In the group of luthiers belonging to "Luthiers I didn't know of but am now glad I do", you'll find Vidar Guitars. Handcrafted guitars made for your playing pleasure.

Vintage Amp

Vintage Amps had a few interesting models.

I like amps that look like they were designed in the 50's and 60's but are modern inside. Just like I know I would love a Volvo P1800 with a modern Ferrari interior and engine.

Vinteck Pedalboard Systems

Connecting and powering your pedalboard is often problematic (or at least messy) if you don't have the right stuff to work with. Guido Michetti of Vinteck aims to help you with that and has a lot of practical products that you may consider. Here are two junction boxes.

And here are pedals, switchers, loop boxes and lots of other useful units.

Walrus Audio

As a relapsed pedal junkie I was very happy to see and to be able to try all of the pedals on this Walrus board. I hope I didn't overstay my welcome.

I was especially interested in trying the new updated ACS1 amp simulator as I record everything in my studio direct using headphones. This compact device sounds really good and should be of interest to anyone who wants/needs the option of recording silently or having to play on a silent stage.

Wende Stromgitarren

If you want a guitar that looks decidedly different from the vintage looking guitars that everybody else has, then Wende Stromgitarren is a luthier to turn to. I don't know how Werner Wende thinks but I must say I just love the results.

After 40+ years in the musical instruments industry, very little really surprises me. These guitars definitely did and they put a huge smile on my face.

Whatever you think of them, you must admit that they are different from most other guitars.

Are these guitars as art or art as guitars?

Yamaha

I wasn't at all surprised to note that Yamaha had one of the bigger booths at the summit.

It was very nice to see that they had prepared for ample possibilities to try their present product line and, of course, there were a lot of Line 6 Helix producs to play them through.

I have always maintained that Yamaha's Pacifica guitars are probably the most underrated guitars ever. I have an old Pacifica 604W that is an excellent guitar and for the money, there's simply no argument in my honest opinion. The new Pacifica Professional and Standard both have Rupert Neve designed pickups and are top notch guitars that hit way above their respective price points.

The Revstar series guitars are not new to the market but this was the first time I had the chance to try them so I did. Then I came back every day at least once to play some more. Of all the guitars I tried at the summit, the gold top Revstar Professional above to the right was the one that really spoke to me. If I can motivate the price difference from the Standard, then that goes to the top of my wish list, and if I can't then the Revstar Standard above left was really good enough to to be played with joy.

All of a sudden when I look up, I find Matteo Mancuso sitting next to me playing this unsusual guitars. I will make a point of finding out what that is.

The good folks at Yamaha had Chris Buck do a lecture/seminar/mini concert and it was a joy to hear him play and listen to his thoughts about playing and writing music.

The end

If you're still with me after all the 200+ pictures and personal rambling, I would like to thank you for taking your valuable time to share the Guitar Summit 2024 with me.

The Guitar Summit was a qualified success and I'm already looking forward to the Guitar Summit 2025. The show format combined the best of the small consumer oriented shows (like the FUZZ Guitar Show) with the best of the traditional trade shows like NAMM and the Frankfurt Musik Messe. The silent show is a superb idea as I could actually have a conversation with people, which is far too often not possible at NAMM.

Once again my thanks go to all the individuals who made me feel welcome and who gave generously of their time and knowledge.

So with the hope of seeing some of you at the Guitar Summit 2025, I will sign off dreaming of a lot of stuff and winning the lottery.

And as always, until next time, I wish you all peace, love and creative freedom!

Cheers,

Mats N