Dallas Guitar Show

rockindoc · #1 04-10-2005, 02:26 PM

A guitar player entering Dallas Market Hall on Saturday may have thought he'd died and gone to Heaven, but my first thought was "Why did they clutter this place up with all these six-stringed instruments?"

Pete Skjold's booth was a 5-string oasis. Pete's a great host, and his basses are everything they're cracked up to be. All the superlatives that have been reported are true. Just seeing one of his white wenge fingerboards made the trip to Dallas worthwhile.

Finding Jon Kammerer's booth was a nice surprise. His unique 4-string basses are worth a look, and a 5-string version is in the works. If you like custom inlays, these instruments will light you up.

And by the way, my T.B. T-shirt ("We don't want any treble") drew some curious glances and a few smiles of approval.

Fletch · #2 04-10-2005, 03:01 PM

I was at a guitar show recently up in the Chicago area and got a chance to check some of Jon Kammerer stuff out. Definatly very nice!!! He seems to do alot of semi-hollow stuff, is your 5 gonna go that route? Of course pix and comments are required when you get it

I was gonnig to post a link to his website but it doesn't seem to be up.

I do love going to these shows though the gas is pretty unbearable. The next one in the Chicago area is May 21-22, I can't wait

Juneau · #3 04-10-2005, 03:10 PM

Hey, glad ya liked Pete's stuff, its deffinantly much easier to preach the greatness of these with help

rockindoc · #4 04-10-2005, 08:34 PM

Oops!

Fletch, I didn't mean to imply that I've ordered a Kammerer, though I would definitely consider it. All of his basses on display were 4 string, so I asked about fivers. From what I gathered, he hasn't yet produced any, but he currently has a five string version in the design phase.

luknfur · #5 04-10-2005, 11:48 PM

FWIW:

I used to live in the Oklahoma City area and had a used music store of primarily American 6 strings, with some vintage stuff (more or less as a hobbie). Played guitar and drums at the time and I had probably 50 guitars in the store with the typical strats, LPs, etc. but only kept a couple basses on hand at a time - usually a Ric 4001 and PV T-40 which were the popular rock and country basses at the time.

Those figures are probably proportionately representative of what you saw at the Dallas show. I went to the Dallas show a few times. Seems fall's the big one - before xmass.

Not only is there a lot more interest in 6 strings cause there's a lot more people that play them, there's a lot more money in it - which is really what those "shows" are all about.

NAMM is the place for bass, or some of the speciality bass shops.

**embellisher** · #6 04-10-2005, 11:53 PM

Wish I could have made it. But I have a good excuse. I had gigs both days.

Off to Miscellaneous.

Juneau · #7 04-11-2005, 07:27 AM

Did anyone happen to see the 3 1955 P-bass's that guitar center had in their booth? All 3 were brand new and never played, but were original 1955's from what I could tell. At least with a 5000+ price tag I sure hope they were original. Deffinantly neat to see at any rate. I think there was a pink, green, and blue one or something.

saxofunk · #8 06-04-2007, 12:10 PM

Bump - Kammerer is making the guitar show rounds again this year. I just saw him in Tulsa, he does have a 5 available now. I didn't fondle the 5 but I spent some time with a 4 and it was quite tasty. I could be swayed if there was a need or well-funded GAS attack.

luknfur · #9 06-04-2007, 01:44 PM

Out of curiosity, since I don't play guitar and don't pay attention, anybody know what equivalent strats are going for these days?

When I had the store in the late 80's the Japanese were buying such strats and White Falcons for 15-25K. Gas was what about a buck a gallon then. There was a computer programmer named Biggs or Briggs (whatever) in Tulsa that created a computer network with pond shops just to locate the stuff and did quite well at it.