Anyone go to the Artisan Guitar Show in April 2024?

[spectro28]

I couldn't make it last weekend, but wanted to. Anyone go? See anything worthy of note?

Thanks!
Marc

[The Bard Rocks]

This is something that I could talk for hours about. (But not write for hours.) This time I did more playing and less watching music. And had chances for some quality conversations, never as many as I'd like of course. Wish I'd been able to attend both days as usual..

[sinistral]

This is the third year in a row that I’ve gone to the show, and I thought it was far and away the best show yet. Of course, the guitars and the luthiers are the main attraction, but I found the master classes to be exceptional this year. John Thomas gave everyone a preview of his upcoming book on the art and science of the acoustic guitar, and moderated a panel with John Monteleone, Roger Sadowsky, Dick Boak and Michael Millard. Kim Person, recording engineer extraordinaire, gave a presentation that canvassed her career and techniques for recording Stephen Bennett, Tommy Emmanuel and many others. Laurence Juber gave a presentation on the history of the guitar, and among other things demonstrated how chord changes in early Renaissance music ended up in pop songs. His concert Saturday night was simply incredible. I’ve been listening to his recordings for years, and have always wondered how he could possibly produce all the notes in one take (i.e., no over-dubbing). He is an absolute virtuoso.



I took some photos this year, but not as many as in previous years. Also, since I was in and out of the exhibition hall, I wasn’t able to make it to every booth, and I realize now that I didn’t photograph any of the booths in the first row which tended to be the most crowded.

Artisan Guitar Show 2024

[iim7V7IM7]

I attended last weekend. This was my 6th Artisan Guitar Show that I have attended. It is always a well organized show, and John Detrick the show organizer has optimized things across the years. As others have said, a plethora of fine instruments were available for audition, informative seminars and demonstrations and concerts by some fine guitarists. Some welcome optimizations this year was setting up a separate amplifier room to keep the exhibitor noise down. To me, it is an opportunity to sample different instruments, but also catch up with luthier & musician friends as well as fellow guitar enthusiasts.

In terms of guitars that were memorable to me, I would refer back to John Thomas's "Laurel vs. Yanny" psychoacoustic demonstration that he executed on AGF earlier this year and also again during his seminar at Artisan.



People hear things quite differently. What was great for me could be "meh" for you and vice versa. You need to play them for yourself and not listen to what others think.

I was remiss in taking pictures this year as I normally do (apologies). Harrisburg, PA where the show is about 1-1/2 hours from Baltimore, 2 hours from Philadelphia and Washington DC and 3 hours from New York City and Pittsburgh. If you have ever considered attending a show, I highly recommend it.

[jt1]

Thanks for the shout-out, folks! I enjoyed getting folks to question what they hear.

Another great Artisan show. Can't wait for next year.

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by sinistral

I took some photos this year, but not as many as in previous years. Also, since I was in and out of the exhibition hall, I wasn’t able to make it to every booth, and I realize now that I didn’t photograph any of the booths in the first row which tended to be the most crowded.

Artisan Guitar Show 2024

Thanks for the link to those photos!



Tommy

[BlueBowman]

Is that a Ryan guitar that Laurence Juber is playing? Sounds fantastic.

[roscoe2311]

Originally Posted by BlueBowman

Is that a Ryan guitar that Laurence Juber is playing? Sounds fantastic.

I believe it's his own signature model Martin OMC, I may be wrong though