Cincy/SW Ohio Fall 2013 GTG

[jamesczar]

Might I suggest avoiding Sat Sept 28... Midpoint Music Fest.

Many who would come might be playing/attending.

 

[Loud and Clear]

Glad to here you guys are still open. I work at metro behind you. Last time I stoped in the woman at the desk didnt know if the music store was still operating or not. I would love to do a gtg there! But I still like everyone to be able to bring there gear!!

Yeah, the retail music store idea never really got much traction . The plug got pulled last fall. We still have some remnants, a couple of guitars, a drum kit or two, sticks, strings, etc. One of these days I’ll put it all on eBay and CL…

Of course we do have a 44K sq. ft. warehouse full of earning inventory that we use on productions and for rental, gear that could be retailed - provided we could find a retail end user that is in the market for well maintained, road cased 400lb 40+ channel analog mixing consoles, five and six figure digital consoles, or amplifier and lighting rigs that would flame a 20A 120VAC breaker as soon as you hit the switch.
Ironically, where the store was is now used mainly as the area where I wholesale our used gear to brokers and purchase new gear for our production, rental and install departments.
In fact I am currently reconfiguring most of the old counter area into a multi-surfaced work station, and adding a small “lounge” for visiting customers/vendors to negotiate (and drink coffee, BS etc.…) in casual, non-confrontational comfort.

The retail store idea is always tempting as we have dealer and distribution agreements with about 60 manufacturers and it seems to be a shame not taking advantage of that fact beyond wholesale B2B. However if/when we do, it won’t be a retail store like GC or the local Mom and Pops, it will be commercial grade “pro” gear.
If we make a serious retail push again I think we should stick with what we’ve known for 30+ years, high end pro gear rather than price leader consumer gear. Even possibly just an online presence since our corporate facility hours are 9-5 M-F and not real conducive to a retail facility.

As far as bringing and or selling personal gear; I don’t give a rat’s pitoot if it turns into an all-out gear swap meet, in fact that actually sounds pretty cool!

Might I suggest avoiding Sat Sept 28... Midpoint Music Fest.

Many who would come might be playing/attending.

I was actually thinking the 28th would be a good date, but you make an excellent point.
How about the 21st? I won’t have an official yay or nay on the EBS/Laney gear until Thursday, so let’s tentatively say Saturday the 21st .

However, at the risk of sounding douche like, I need to reinforce my position on attendance.

I’d be happy to host this thing, get one of my suppliers to pony up for refreshments, maybe even give a mini tour of a working big league production company; we have a repair shop that can handle any equipment disaster that our touring crews encounter, we even have our own wood shop where we design and make all of our road cases and certain proprietary cabinet designs, things that would probably be pretty interesting to musical performance minded types.

BUT… I’m not willing to give up a Saturday and take the time to coordinate this thing for just a handful of folks.
I know that the early Cincy GTG’s that member nysbob secured the location for had pretty strong turnouts, but it seems that to later ones were a little dismal as far as attendance.
Again, not to be a prick, but I’ll be calling in favors, using the incentive of exposing the EBS, etc. gear to a group of qualified players in a fertile yet little prospected market to leverage the grub , and cutting into my already too little personal/family time to pull this off; which I don’t mind doing as long as we can get 20+ revelers to join me in the festivities.

As a sort of fail-safe I could advertise a “bass fest” to the general public to help make sure we have a crowd, but then I would have to be security conscious; arm the alarm in the other areas of our facilities and curtail any tours of the shop and warehouses.
So, a strong TB turnout would be the preferred win-win scenario.

 

[fuzzy beard]

Well count me in

 

[nysbob]

Once the date gets nailed down I'll make every attempt to be there. Sounds like a hell of a lot more entertaining than the little TB functions I hosted. FWIW I don't think Midpoint has much going on during the daylight hours.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

So any update on the date?

 

[Loud and Clear]

I'm leaning towards the 28th, and last I looked so is the poll.
Depending on show times for Midpoint it may actually work out better to have it during the festival, people planning to attend Midpoint will be headed downtown anyway, and you could practically walk to the festival are from here. If the shows are largely evening performances Midpointers could just go a couple of hours earlier and stop into our shindig for a while.

So far I can't find venue or showtime info on the Midpoint website.

I've only had a few PM's up to this point. I need to know how much grub, how much AC, etc. Of course we are over a month out at this point, but planning is what generally makes or breaks events at all levels, and we'll be 2 weeks into September before you know it.

I think it might be cool if we take some time for everyone to give a short presentation about their gear; what it is, why it is, etc.
I was at a Tonefest event (also end user driven like a GTG) in MI about a decade ago and found that part quite interesting, extremely educational, and everyone had fun with it.

At this point it's looking like we may have some factory reps hanging around with the Laney and EBS stuff, but that's still undecided. Might be kinda cool, if they get too mouthy we can always ask them about their endorsement policies...
That will probably tone them down a little!

 

[GrooveWarrior]

I love the idea of "introducing" your gear. I'm always really interested about what draws someone to their gear.

I can bring the following:
Warrior Signature 4 NT
2000 Standard Jazz (ash/maple with Bart quad-coil PU's)
MIM P Bass w/flats
Euphonic Audio iAmp 500
Ashdown Klystron Bass Magnifier 200 (one of the originals)
GK Neo 112 II
Midwest Audio Branded 410 cab (remember Rusty?)

 

[christw]

I want to come and bring some funky stuff. Maybe my 18FH500 based Thunderchild 18 will be done in time.

 

[Loud and Clear]

I love the idea of "introducing" your gear. I'm always really interested about what draws someone to their gear.

It gives you a new perspective. I've been to literally hundreds of sound gear related trade shows, consumer shows, industry only shows, guitar shows, etc. over the decades.
But this boutique guitar gear show in MI had us yakking the whole way back to Cincy.
It was way cool to hear these folks tell about their gear choices and the motivations behind them, and have a guitar in hand to illustrate live tones, attack, technique, etc. that we formally have had to use our imaginations, or at best a recorded clip, to translate from written descriptions.

Midwest Audio Branded 410 cab (remember Rusty?)

Certainly, great dude. I'm pretty sure he's still on Montgomery Rd in Norwood, just a little further south, closer to Dana.
At least he was the last time I was up that way a couple of years ago.

 

[aproud1]

I'm down for whatever date we decide on as long a we pick more than a week in advance.



The introduce your gear thing is very interesting too. I'd be willing to contribute something in the way of food and drink as well.



Looking forward to seeing everyone. I need to pm some local tbers who don't got on here much, on vacation at the moment and the tapatalk app isn't so great.

 

[StreetScenes]

I'm game for anything as well.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

This is looking better and better. I like the Idea of a gear presentation as well and free food is always cool!

 

[nysbob]

It's very cool of L & C to put this together.

I'm afraid everyone has seen my stuff - exhaustively. Can't afford the latest and greatest. I'll bring it if anyone's interested.

 

[Loud and Clear]

It's very cool of L & C to put this together.

I'm afraid everyone has seen my stuff - exhaustively. Can't afford the latest and greatest. I'll bring it if anyone's interested.

Thanks for the kind words Bob!
I've heard (and felt) your "Voice of God" rig first hand many times over the years from the audience perspective. If you want to bring it, by all means do. If not, I can totally empathize with that also.
I need to do some thinking about the ingress-egress thing for rigs. We are good to go for loading dock type shipments, not nearly so user friendly for “bass rig in car” type load ins-load outs. I’ll figure it out though.

It's looking like the 28th is the day, should have a list of what I’ll have here gear wise before the week is over, and will definitely lock on a date by then.

 

[fuzzy beard]

Any ideal on time?

 

[Loud and Clear]

Any ideal on time?

I think it will all depend on how many folks want to introduce their gear. Probably 5 minutes per rig give or take for intro and Q&A; doesn't seem like much time but 5 minutes can seem like an eternity when you are standing in front of a bunch of people, all eyes on you and you are the only one talking!

The reps will probably want to give a pitch, and since they do it for a living they can stay entertaining for a lot longer than those not accustomed to giving presentations, and if EBS brings a bunch of pedals THAT could really suck up some time.

I still don't know how many folks to expect. Of course it's over a month out, but I've only heard from 5 so far...

Off the top of my head I'd say gear in by 11ish, an hour or so to chit chat and set up, chow and then the presentation part and out.
Gear for sale should probably be marked as such, much more effective than sitting around hoping someone asks you if your stuff is for sale. I have some hang tags and sharpies folks can use.
The "for sale" thing can add some time to the event overall also.

Most likely out before dinnertime because it's entirely possible that I'll have to spring for dinner downtown or at the Levee for the helpers.

 

[fuzzychaos]

I will make sure I block out the weekends in September, I have to make it to one of these.

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

So any new info?

 

[Loud and Clear]

So any new info?

Well, my manufacturers reps are getting a little squirrelly about committing to a weekend in Cincy.
Like myself these are generally 9-5 M-F types, and would rather be back home on the east coast with their peeps than in the mid west with the great unwashed masses on a Saturday.
I want them here (with their company credit cards) personally.

Never fear, I'm up to the challenge.

At this point EBS will only commit to leaving a full pedalboard, a Reidmar amp and a couple of cabs, a 110 and a 112. The EBS demo stuff needs to move on to the distributor's next demo stop that weekend. The good news is that the EBS stuff will probably be for sale as it's wholesale inventory rather than demonstration gear.
Laney doesn't want to tell me "no" but also has not yet said "yes"....

Honestly I can't figure out why these distributors in particular wouldn't be falling all over themselves to expose their gear to a a bunch of dedicated bass players in a market that has virtually no exposure for them at this point.
It's a no brainer from a marketing perspective in my book, I just need them to see things from my the same angle as I do!



It seems that most of our large venue line array "A" rigs are on the road that weekend also, dropping our warehouse's OMG! factor substantially but on the plus side making load in and load out for the GTG much easier and earning the company a stupid amount of revenue for that late in the year.


Meanwhile, all of this is just cake icing. The attendee's gear is the "headliner", the other stuff is just the opening act.
And... truthfully it's looking like a moot point because Up to now I only have the same few people committed to attending as I did 10 days ago.

 

[jamesczar]

If I can make it (so far it still looks good), here's what I'll be bringing for folks to play with:

Genz Benz Shuttlemax 9.2
Fearless F112
Fearless F115
and my new Carvin LB75 custom