NAMM Report - DAY 1

Doors opend yesterday for the first of four days at NAMM. It was a real moment for me, I've known abour NAMM since i was a kid. Players would always ask 'are you going to NAMM' which in Australia seemed a world away and was a really big deal. If you we're going to NAMM you were obviously somebody really important. Doing the trade shows in the UK is great but NAMM is truly something to behold. They do things BIG in the States and NAMM is no exception. Infact when i got off the plane i thought i had shrunk, everything is just that little bit bigger.
So we set up and the show starts and before you know it we're swammped. Joe and MAc from Two-Rock who most graciously lent me a Jet Sig combo for the show stopped in to say hi. One of our artsists Prashant Aswani who is playing at NAMM found us as well. I met Phil from Matchless who also lent us a Clubman. It's so funny but as soon as there seems to be a lull, i just strike up a couple of bars on those two amps and a crowd gathers, they sound just beautiful.
Scott from 'Axe and you shall recieve' came down to meet us. What a difference it makes when you meet your customers face to face. You can sometimes forget how inportant it is when most of your day is spent in front of a computer but it makes all the difference in the world.
So day 1 is done, the feet are killing and the Jet lag has me in a dream state, but what a fantastic day. I can report that the passion for great tone is alive and well. So if you're at NAMM we're in Hall E stand 1458, come and say hi.
More tomorrow.....

NAMM, here we come!!!

Going through the checklist now of stuff we're taking to NAMM, oh what fun. As long as we can get to the airport through the foot of snow outside our front door we'll be in LA on Monday night, rready for a week long gear-fest. Hoorah! should be a blast. I'll be keeping a bog diary of all the NAMM events so keep an eye out.
We are launching a few new products this year, We've been working solidly and i can finally give you a sneak preview of one (or 5) of the new products launching at NAMM.
Please note these are not on the website yet, just a quick sneak preview of what we've been up to, but more info will be available soon

TheGigRig finalist in British Engineering Excellence awards

Well this is very cool, and quite a suprise, but we are very proud to announce that the GigRig ltd was selected as a finalist in this year’s engineering excellence awards... who knew!

This is a quote from BEEA... 'The GigRig was selected for two main reasons... As a new company the GigRig ltd has demonstrated engineering excellence and innovation based precisely at customers needs... The other attribute that impressed the Judges, was the GigRigs attention to the environment, not just with Compliance to standards and re cycling, but with the patented invention of the Virtual battery'.. “The virtual battery will remove 100,000 PP3 Batteries from the environment every year”.. Said Kate Bellingham, former tomorrows world presenter and journalist, in her presentation of the final five companies.

Now i'm just waiting for the knighthood!!!

an encouraging word on your hunt for tone

Amidst the chaos and stress of getting ready for NAMM I recieved an email from a client thanking me for the advice on puting his dream pedal board together. We get a lot of similar emails but I'm grateful for each one because I know how much it means to them. Getting to a point where your sound is your voice is a real moment in any guitarist's career. I've been fortunate enough to do thousands of different gigs from stadiums to boozers all over the world and if there is one thing I know its that when my tone is on form it has a tangible effect on people, a connection is made. And if my sound was off, the opposite was true. I've seen great players miss out on gigs because their tone was off. I have personally got gigs over much better players with better hair because of perceived tonal quality. People, this stuff is important. TheGigRig was not born from a business plan, but from my own efforts to improve my own sound, but I've met so many players who share my passion. I'm still learning new things every day because its a journey. But I can say that once you experience great tone, it can literally change your life.

The art of HUSHsshhhhhh part 2

Sometimes, infact most times buying an expensive low powered amp is not always viable, it may not even give you the sound you want. Yes, my 59 AC10 twin rocks, but it's still not quiet, and the bottom end just doesn't feel the same on the tiny low powered amps, so how do we get our big rigs to rock out at low level.
I'll share with you a little trick that i've used very succesfully around the office. Firstly, i'm not a big fan of attenuators, i know many swear by them, but for me the fundemantal change in tone is too drastic.
Here's a nifty little trick to try.
I set my rig up as I would normally and turn it up to a decent stage volume, (oh it sounds so good!)but at this level it is completely impractical for anything except full on rocking out.
OK, now from the output of my rig which normally goes into my amp i put a fab sounding low gain OD pedal. I've had great results with a King Of Tone, HotCake, Kingsley Jester, even a Blues Driver. I set the pedal up to be almost transparent so you can't tell when you have it on or off. After this is done i simply use the master volume on the pedal to turn down the entire rig.
The cool thing about this approach is the pedal compresses like the back end of the amp when it's cooking so you still get a bit of that natural feel even though the volume is really low.
Try it and see what you think!

playing queit - the art to hush

I played in bands for many years fronted by female artists. They were fantastic but a consistent problem was stage volume. After this it was bands with the boys and balls to the walls rocking out! Now with the new prog project the levels are much more controlled. Instantly, as soon as the volume drops that old 'quiet tone syndrome' comes back. So how do you do it? Get that tone at low levels? There are so many elements to great tone but one thing that stays consistent is the relationship between the amps' output stage and quality of tone. One of the most popular modern boutique amps being made today is the 15 watt ac15 style amp. The advantage these amps have is that you can turn them up without killing people. And when that output stage gets working you get that lovely output stage clipping that sounds so fab. Pair this with a matched low powered speaker and those great tones start to emerge. However, 15 watts is still by no means quiet. its generally ok if using a drummer but sometimes the use of a less efficient speaker is needed to get the amp cooking.
Over the next few days we'll have a look at some more techniques to get the best tome at low volume.

more madness on the way

I wish i could tell you more, i really do, but let me just say i haven't slept in 3 days, we've been working around the clock on a new tone toy and it is going to be stella! Hopefully we'l have it ready to go for NAMM, in fact we hope to have a couple of new toys ready for NAMM in Jan, so i'll keep you all in the loop, pun semi intended.