Music Live 2002
(Homepage - http://www.shirleyjbutler.ic24.net)

Music Live 2002, held at Birmingham NEC in Hall 12 was the first music show that I have been to in many a year. We ordered tickets for it off the Internet a month or two before the event was to take place in November.


We started off for Birming very early and had a good journey up there. There was plenty of parking and a dedicated, very adequate free coach service to ferry people from the car park to the NEC and back again. I must admit, when I go to a big show like this I am always a bit wary about whether there will be adequate parking. I think this is because in London there isn't adequate parking and when you visit a London venue you are often lucky if you are able to find somewhere to park.

Anyway. It was a great show, with a good range of musical instruments on display from just about every major, and some minor, manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories. It was mainly dominated with guitars, though, and there must have been millions of pounds sterling in musical equipment in that one hall.

The show was very well attended, loads of people milling around and trying the different gear on display. There were freebies to grab, and live demonstrations of equipment. There was a lot of noise in the hall, and there were some manufacturer's stands who seemed to be a bit fed up because they couldn't demonstrate their wares with all the noise going on.

There was a good display of Laney amplication with Dave Ulrich on the guitar, a very very excellent guitarist. Ovation guitars were being demonstrated on the John Hornby Skewes stand by a guitarist I have never seen before, but his guitar playing was damn good, and another guitarist who I also didn't know was demonstrating on the Crate amplifier stand. We also got the chance to have a good look at the Vox Valve-Tronix amplifiers. I have heard a lot about these amplifiers, and how good they are, it was a pity that there was no one actually demonstrating them. There were also some of original Vox amplifiers about as well.
Some of the VOX amplifiers in the Valvetronic range. Nice to see this style of amplifier still being made. I've heard some good stuff about these amplifiers. VOX amplifiers have been around since before The Beatles, and it's nice to see the VOX name has survived, along with the distinctive VOX look that give it the individual character that it has had for many years. I remember the early VOX stuff that I had, the original VOX AC30s and AC50 amplifiers.
John Hornby Skewes' guitarist was demonstrating on the Ovation stand, and playing some very nice guitar pieces too. I haven't got a clue who he is but he played some pretty impressive slide guitar, and he had quite a crowd of people sitting around listening - most of them teenagers to early 20's
Dave Ulrich demonstrating on the Laney stand. Some fine guitar work. My goodness those Laney amplifiers sound good. But then it doesn't surprise me because I've always liked the sound of them amps.
Loads of people at the show. Difficult to navigate at times with all those bodies
More demonstrations on the Peavey stand


One stand that quite surprised me was the Vintage stand. They had a very wide range of guitars and banjos, all sporting the Vintage name. The quality of the instruments on show looked very good, especially the five string banjos and the steel resonator guitars. Amongst the Vintage guitars on show were copies of the Paul Reed Smith and Macaferri guitars, and some very nice electro-accoustics. I must say that I am a bit wary of Vintage guitars because three Vintage guitars that I have tried have not been all that brilliant, and they are the only three that I have tried - so I haven't really had any good experiences of Vintage guitars myself.

Vintage experience one
I tried the Vintage VRS (copy of a PRS) in a shop. It looked very nice although the neck seemed deeper than I would imagine it should feel, which made it feel a bit cumbersome, and the sound from the pickups seemed somewhat hollow and empty. I was playing it thorough a Roland amplifier so the amplifier was good quality, and other guitars sounded ok through it. A further note on this the Vintage VRS. I don't think it took off very well, because the shop where I tried the guitar had reduced it to £199.00, where it was previously priced up at about £270.00 or so.

Vintage experience two
A friend of mine had bought a Vintage Les Paul goldtop copy and he asked me if I would try it and give him my opinion.I found that the first string was buzzing when fretted only at the second fret, which told me that either the neck was warped or the second fret needed adjustment. It also had a hollow sound when played through an amplifier. The guitar had to go back to the shop for replacement.

Vintage experience three
I had a Vintage accoustic with built-in equaliser, which was quite nice and sounded good when played through an amplifier, and a good tone when played as an accoustic, it was in tune all the way down the fret board, and that is where the good parts ended. It has a bad finish that showed up as a rough blotchy surface in parts, like it had not been finished off properly. It had a bit of distortion on it at certain setting of the equaliser, and the fifth string buzzed only when fretted at the second fret, which told me that either the neck was warped or the second fret needed adjustment. I had bought it from a music shop whilst visiting our good friend Les Baker in Grimsby, and it ended up going back to the shop for replacement. I ended up paying a few more bob for an Ovation rather than going for Vintage again.

So, all that glitters is not always gold, and you can't judge a guitar on it's finish. I've seen guitar manufacturers get an immaculate sunburst finish on Marine Ply, and you wouldn't ever guess that it was plywood until you stripped it down. I have seen many good looking guitars, mainly early copies of the Les Paul and Stratocaster that actually had plywood or blockboard bodies, but they still sounded good though.

Also on show from various manufacturers were also keyboard synthesisers, drum kits, recording equipment, musical effects, flutes and other woodwind, plus all kind of accessories. Roland was there showing off their guitar controller and associated synthesisor.

I didn't really go there to spend money. I went there mainly to see what was happening in the musical industry, and it surprised me. Over the years the look of the guitar has changed a lot. One thing I did notice was there was a lot of manufacturers bringing out their version of established Gibson and Fender guitars. I must admit that I very much like to the look of the Fender Showmaster guitars. I did splash out and buy a new guitar lead which was made to look like the electric iron flex cable, and a Marshall keyring. We also came away with lots of freebie goodies and posters.