US: Midwest April 15th, 2018 Chicago Spring GTG!

[BostonJazz72]

Awesome and well organized Chicago TB GTG today! Plenty of drool worthy gear! Great to meet all of you today. Wish I could have hung around longer. Here are the pics I was able to get. Really great TB members up here in Chicago! Thanks @Eilif for putting this event together!

Plenty of great bassss as today’s GTG!

A great pair of killer Alembics!

More great instruments!

A beautiful Sadowsky NYC!

Mike Arnopol brought a plentiful array of 8” speaker cabs. Bodai 38, 28 and a pair of 18. These cabs slayed it!

Mike Arnopol explaining how his cabs are designed!

Sorry that I did not get any videos posted. Hopefully, next year!

 

[theduke1]

Really sad that we couldn’t be there
Duke

 

[oren]

Some pics from the day. What a fun time!

Jake Serik giving a talk on short scale basses.

Mike Arnopol playing my Sire fretless through his amazing 1x8 cab.

Pizza! Lou Malnati’s deep dish, of course.

Our most excellent organizer, @Eilif! Many thanks for a great afternoon!

 

[theduke1]

What was the final head count?
We are planning a gtg in the fall up this way and any and all are welcome.
We will keep you in the loop thinking of the third weekend in September in the Milwaukee area
Duke

 

[oldNewbie]

Hi Folks -
Thanks to @Eilif Here are my photos from the ~25 who attended. Nice chatting with the lot of you , now back to the woodshed. I brought an Irig and noise-cancelling 'phones to test instruments, which helped with 3-5 playing nearby sometimes! Didn't sound as good as Mike's boxes, or the Aguilars, or the fEarfuls though...
Great event, I got to compare fretlesses - Thanks Eli!

 

[MrBEAR]

Too Cool.

&

Too Sad that Mother Nature dumped on the Wisconsin contingents.

Photo is From earlier today looking southwest.

 

[FunkSheep08]

Picspam! Round 1 - learned last year there's a max per post.

 

[FunkSheep08]

Picspam round 2.

 

[FunkSheep08]

Thank you to @Eilif for putting this together again, had a blast! Great talk by @Serek_Basses on all the details he puts into his short scales - pickup windings, headstock angles, you name it, it got covered. Was great to see the familiar faces and awesome to meet the new ones. Fantastic array of gear, plenty of different things to try. @Mike Arnopol - those 8" cabs are formidable little beasts. Had my innards quaking when you first fired that pair up!

Can't wait for next year!!

 

[BostonJazz72]

Some pics from the day. What a fun time!

View attachment 2985420 View attachment 2985422
Jake Serik giving a talk on short scale basses.

View attachment 2985423
Mike Arnopol playing my Sire fretless through his amazing 1x8 cab.

View attachment 2985424
Pizza! Lou Malnati’s deep dish, of course.

View attachment 2985425 View attachment 2985426 View attachment 2985427
Our most excellent organizer, @Eilif! Many thanks for a great afternoon!

That Sire sounded pretty sweet through those MAS cabs!

 

[BostonJazz72]

Really sad that we couldn’t be there
Duke

Sorry that you couldn’t make it. Weird weather this weekend.

 

[Gearhead17]

Fantastic event! Thanks to everyone for letting me play your gear and thanks to all that played my gear. The feedback was excellent and made me appreciate my gear even more. It was amazing to talk to everyone about bass gear in general - I really needed it. Lots of different perspectives and new things for me to think about. I was impressed by the amount of basses that made it out!

To the gentleman that brought the small PA and electronic drums, I apologize that I did not come down and introduce myself and at least jam with you a short time. I was a bit preoccupied with the massive amount of basses hanging around. Plus, I had band practice the evening before.

Perhaps next time we will move some of the cabinet demos to the gym? Space it out a little bit more.

 

[Eilif]

Well, that went swimmingly!
Thanks to all the folks who came out today. Final count was between 24 and 26 attendees which an increase over last year and pretty impressive considering that quite a few folks were sidelined last minute by sickness and weather.

Though I will forget most your names by next year (the perils of ADD) it was great to meet you all and to have time get to know some of you a bit better. I know that technically I was the organizer, but this was truely you-all's event. From providing snacks, pop and supplies to paying for the space (thanks anonymous donors) to bringing gear, to setup and teardown you folks made this the good time that it was.

Special thanks to Jake for letting us pick his brain during the discussion time and Jason for managing the venue and watching over our gear.

While I'm thinking of it here is things a few things I can do differently next year from my observations and comments I've collected.
-Make sure everyone brings stands for their instruments
-Make sure we have extension cords
-Arange the furniture a bit better: Move the tables and more chairs without arms.
-Use the Gym space better: I think that "commercial" guys like Serek and Arnopol will go in there right from the getgo which should give them more room to work with and also draw more folks toward the drum/jam space.

If folks have more suggstions for improvement please post them. I'd love to make the 2019 event even better.

I'm going to take a bit of a break from GTGing, but in a month or so I'll start a discussion about a smaller, more curated event I plan to host in 6 months. When I do that I'll post a notice about that planning here so anyone subscribed to this thread will get notice. In the meantime feel free to carry on posting pics and discussing here.

Thanks again for making the 2018 Chicago GTG a great success!

 

[Skaswan]

Looks like you guys had a great time. As the Duke said, we will organize something up here to make it up for not being there.

 

[TomB]

Well, that went swimmingly!
Thanks to all the folks who came out today. Final count was between 24 and 26 attendees which an increase over last year and pretty impressive considering that quite a few folks were sidelined last minute by sickness and weather.

Though I will forget most your names by next year (the perils of ADD) it was great to meet you all and to have time get to know some of you a bit better. I know that technically I was the organizer, but this was truely you-all's event. From providing snacks, pop and supplies to paying for the space (thanks anonymous donors) to bringing gear, to setup and teardown you folks made this the good time that it was.

Special thanks to Jake for letting us pick his brain during the discussion time and Jason for managing the venue and watching over our gear.

While I'm thinking of it here is things a few things I can do differently next year from my observations and comments I've collected.
-Make sure everyone brings stands for their instruments
-Make sure we have extension cords
-Arange the furniture a bit better: Move the tables and more chairs without arms.
-Use the Gym space better: I think that "commercial" guys like Serek and Arnopol will go in there right from the getgo which should give them more room to work with and also draw more folks toward the drum/jam space.

If folks have more suggstions for improvement please post them. I'd love to make the 2019 event even better.

I'm going to take a bit of a break from GTGing, but in a month or so I'll start a discussion about a smaller, more curated event I plan to host in 6 months. When I do that I'll post a notice about that planning here so anyone subscribed to this thread will get notice. In the meantime feel free to carry on posting pics and discussing here.

Thanks again for making the 2018 Chicago GTG a great success!

E, Thanks for all the effort, creativity and good cheer you brought to organizing this. Your positive energy was contagious. It was great meeting y’all - lots of great bass action in the old home town! See you again. Tom

 

[Serek_Basses]

Thanks again for having me and to @Eilif for organizing. Had a great time meeting you all and thanks for listening to my spiel!

 

[oren]

That Sire sounded pretty sweet through those MAS cabs!

It sure did! Something else to fire my GAS! Many thanks to Mike for bringing his cabs out for us to try!

 

[Rikster]

Had a great time yesterday I did not realize how much everyone seemed to know about what makes a bass work and sound the way it does. We a very fortunate to have such a knowledgeable and organized group in the Chicago area. Thanks Karl {Eli}. I give it ***** a thump and a slap

 

[basspraiser]

Looks like a great time!
Great variety of TBers...basses and amps!

Looking forward to next year... Hopefully will be able to make it then!

Peace
Doug

 

[eli]

It was a candy store... with a bunch of kids in it! Never saw so many people all smiling at the same time.