Next Auckland gearfest

[hamo]

Holy crap that Heilo is gorgeous.

Nice one Darkness, nice one Ash.

[Capt. Black]

Higainer's VHT beast rig


Markbass 300watt all tube amp and 8x10. Quite an amazing amp. As it's warming up the cpu tells you that 1. tubes are warming up then two. The bias is being tested and set automatically. Tried it later on and it was thunderous. I gather by the look on people's faces that it seriously tested the sound deadening at the Manor. Apparently the germans don't want users to let it clip. Bollocks I say! Why else do you use a tube amp?


CD and Robin


Machina and Ash


Darkness and the Flame grilled custom shop Ash... again


Terexgeek, nzsimon1 and Mr Glyn

[slash-ed]

Looks like a great lot of fun had by all.. Damn, why am I in the SI. Hopefully when I'm up for a couple of weeks at the end of the year there'll be one I can go to.

[Capt. Black]

Darkness steps out into the lightness.


CD, Hot Grits and Ash


BG snuggling up to Ryan (Customaudioboutique) and higainer's hair trying to blend in with the artistic wall hanging.


Vivek's pedal board and selection of tastefully appointed homebrew pedals. Is that a Korg tuner clone?


Boner inducing Bogners


Boner reducing Bombardier..... the beer that is. The amp is built by BG and it seriously rocks!


CD with his hand on it, Ash, BG, Ryan (CAB) and higainer.


More pedal porn. This may belong to Warren (blackstratblues)

[Capt. Black]

L-R: Machina, CAB and Mr Glyn. (Mr Glyn's t-shirt reads "Don't touch my Theremin" in Esperanto)


Hot grits' answer, in a moment of misunderstanding, to the question, "Bro, what's your preferred fingering?"


Some guitars you just can't put down.


Terexgeek adds a touch of buckle rash to the flame grilled custom shop Ash Helio


Vivek, Duncan (?) and Kev77


Vivek and Terexgeek perving at the flame grilled custom shop Ash Helio


Unfinished and the missing weatherboards.


No caption required

[bender]

Great photos Catpain!

[Fler]

Excellente.

Seriously that was a cool day, really enjoyed meeting like-minded people to talk geek. Some very intelligent people here, some of you folks really know your shit, I learnt a lot. Hopefully by next time my RSI will have healed to a point where I can properly tear up some shit, and haul along my own rig.

Cheers all!
OM

[RobRoyMcCoy]

Some other cool moments for me were hearing Hot Grits play Mr. Glyn's Samick with the Bare Knuckle VHII pickups installed. Then it was CD's Robin(?) single cut style with a pair of Rio Grandes (I think) installed. Then Martin had a go on my Thorn and it was great to hear the guitar being put through its paces by a player as proficient as he.

Also, James's Ampeg SVT head and cab was pretty fucken awesome.

I had to leave early so I did not get to see the Darkness flame guitar so I guess I'll have to wait for the next one.

What a great community! It is the real life events that are my favourite part of this forum so long may they prosper.

Rob

[AmpShop]

A big thanks to BG for organising and to Capt Black for hosting!Good to see a good turnout too.

Vivek's pedals were awesome. Really creative and really usable. I too would like a Vindaloo Vibe!

The Greenstone amp was great - huge sound from a pair of KT88's, the EL84 section is great for convincing tone at lower volumes, loads of tonal possiblities, and low hiss levels for a high gain amp. Also looks fantastic - sounds like a shallow concern - but if you're going to spend 2 years developing an amp, it might as well look good too. Very professional look which would sit well in a store beside anything from Mesa, Framus etc.

Feels like there's a growing community of local builders - hopefully we can find ways to build profile, so that the NZ market stops looking overseas for great gear, be it amps, pedals, or guitars, for big stage use, home use and anything in between.

Also great to hear my Bogner Shiva stock in a different room, through different speakers, in the hands of a couple of great players.

The guy coming in and buying a Swart 6V6se on the spot was a pleasant bonus too

Definitely the most enjoyable Gearfest I've been too, looking forward to the next one! If there's anything anyone would like me to bring, please let me know in advance.

[crunchy as kellogs]

bastard bastard bastard, couldnt make it on the day - when's the next one then i can order bigger padlock for chaining the wife to the cooker.


mucho gear porn

[thehenderson]

This looked like fun!

[Danger Mouse]

The Greenstone amp was great - huge sound from a pair of KT88's, the EL84 section is great for convincing tone at lower volumes, loads of tonal possiblities, and low hiss levels for a high gain amp. Also looks fantastic - sounds like a shallow concern - but if you're going to spend 2 years developing an amp, it might as well look good too. Very professional look which would sit well in a store beside anything from Mesa, Framus etc.

I'm really glad you got to play through it and give it a bit of a work-out, I'd said to Rob that one person I wanted to be impressed was you, due to all your experience with such high-quality equipment. You dialled in a different sound to what I generally set it up as too, so was neat finding out what you thought was a good set-up. Shame I didn't get a chance to talk to you about it afterwards, but my ride was leaving and I had to run...

Have to say though, that Bognor Shiva was sublime, in a very different way to the Greenstone, but none the less it is a fine, fine piece of kit! I have said that the Greenstone would be the last amp I ever need, but if I was to have say two amps....

[AmpShop]

Cheers man!

Yeah, I love how different people will dial in amps differently. It's testament to a good amp that Martin, you and I could all dial in different settings and good sounds we were looking for. I would've liked more time to play with the tone controls - it reminds me of the Bogner Ecstasy in that there's both a good sound there immediately and that you could spend a long time tweaking and finding new sounds. I'd like to hear it through a few different cabs and speakers too.

What a cool thing too, to have a true from-the-ground-up custom design especially for you. Most manufacturers who do "custom" amps are usually just doing spins on their existing designs, tweaking the voicing, adding features etc. Yours is a true custom amp and an original design. Much respect to Rob and the other guys for their hard work ... and to yourself for being the "ears" of the project ... and the financier

Aye, the Shiva did me proud on Saturday. Bone-simple, 2 channels that both sound great, does exactly what it says on the tin, and as Iain (CD) said, you can listen to it for a long time without getting sick of it.

[Fler]

Totally, that Shiva sounds brilliant! Looking forward to hearing the XTC and Uberschall now quite a bit now.

[Danger Mouse]

I would've liked more time to play with the tone controls - it reminds me of the Bogner Ecstasy in that there's both a good sound there immediately and that you could spend a long time tweaking and finding new sounds. I'd like to hear it through a few different cabs and speakers too.

More than happy to bring it around to you some time so you can have a decent play around and try it with some of your cabs, if you fancy. It is a very tweakable amp and I haven't even really scratched the surface of what it can do, which is one of the reasons why I like letting other people have a play... I can copy their settings...