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Inaugural Alternative Guitar Show Highlights from Kingston's The Fighting Cocks

Mar 25, 202408:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

Fidelity GuitarsFredric EffectsGood Fuzzy SoundsGuitar Gear ResourcesGuitar Gear RetailKingston The Fighting CocksLost Soul LeatherMaybury GuitarsMolyenaux GuitarsThe Alternative Guitar ShowThorpyFXZona Guitars+-

I’m a huge advocate for supporting any kind of grassroots endeavour happening within the guitar industry - obviously the pedal side in particular. So it was a foregone conclusion really that I would attend the very first Alternative Guitar Show and lend it my support - held this time at the wonderful Fighting Cocks Bar / Pub / Live Gig Venue in Kingston.

I loved the venue - which was accesses behind the main bar / pub - and the whole vibe of the space really reminded me of my student years. This was most definitely the kind of establishment I frequented all those many years ago - and I love all the Americana details - number plates / memorabilia and the like on the walls - mixed in with a smattering of Iron Maiden Trooper Beer Paraphernalia.

The venue / location is not necessarily the easiest to get to, which might have hampered the potential number of attendees. I was the first punter on site as such - and pretty much the only one from 11:00 - 12:00 - where it picked up a little after noon - but never got particularly busy. Fun was had by all who attended - which included my now good friends Joe Branton and JD from Guitar Nerds.

The focus of these events would. seem to be homegrown talent - as there were 8 brands present at the show - 4 Guitar Builders / Luthiers, 3 Pedal Builders, and a Leather Smith. The initially advertised Tate FX did not make it - and in their stead we had Good Fuzzy Sounds - which was entirely new to me, and I was glad to add that to my radar.

Fidelity Guitars
Maybury Guitars
Molyneaux Guitars
Zona Guitars
ThorpyFX
Fredric Effects
Good Fuzzy Sounds
Lost Soul Leather

The Alternative Guitar Show Founders and Organisers - Wayne and Jim Rhesus did a sterling job for this first event. While I did not get to meet them as such - I guess they didn’t know who I was! They seemed to know Joe Branton well, and are obviously well acquainted with all the exhibitors - I wish them luck for all their future endeavours.

For most guitar shows I attend my focus is overwhelmingly on the pedal side - in fact so busy was I at the recent Birmingham Show - that the only Guitar Brand I had any interaction with was Fidelity Guitars - and that was in a large part due to Fidelity Matt’s long-standing arrangement with Hamstead Soundworks - where they’ve shared a stand for many a show now.

In any case - and breaking with usual conventions - I’m focusing on the guitar brands first here. After all I had only just recently met Thorpy and Tim Webster at the Birmingham Guitar Show. I had some wonderful chats at this show - in particularly with Matt of Fidelity Guitars - which is why he is the cover star for this report. In fact his J Willgoose Signature Stellarosa Guitar was my favourite overall guitar encountered at the show!

NOTE that the low lighting at the venue - combine with blazing spotlights made for some very tricky conditions for photography - hence the somewhat variable results!

Here follow the individual details :

Fidelity Guitars - Matt

www.fidelity-guitars.co.uk | Cambridge

Pricing : circa £1,400 - £2,500

Best guitar at show - J Willgoose (Public Service Broadcasting) Signature Stellarosa

Also - Tim Webster's personal Double Standard with his own Rare Vintage East-German Pickups

As mentioned in the intro - I had the most involved conversation with Fidelity's Matt Oram. He's a familiar face to me - as I've encountered him numerous times on the shared Hamstead Soundworks / Guitar Shows Stand. While this was the first time we had a proper deep dive conversation.

I'm normally very particular about the ergonomics of the guitars I like - and Matt's Guitars certainly pass muster. I was wowed in particularly by the signature J Willgoose Stellarosa - with its stunning looks, and actually really smart innovations onboard. You have identical 6-way pickup selectors - where the toggle switch on the wing - allows you to flip essentially between two presets - which is the first time I've encountered that function.

A number of his guitars also have a cool push-button kill switch - and there's a specific variant which allows you to shape the impact of that killswitch via 3 further controls. The J Willgoose signature with all the Kill Switch featured added would be total killer!

Also on the sand was Tim Webster's own grey-burst Double Standard featuring his own sourced rare / vintage East German Pickups - which sounded amazing. Apparently there's a project in the works for James' Home of Tones to reverse engineer that pickup set - as everyone that has heard it wants one for themselves.

Of course I'm long way off adding another guitar to my roster as I have several hundred pedals still to go on my infinite wishlist - but the Stellarosa will definitely be on the list when the time is right!

Maybury Guitars - Jason

www.mayburyguitars.co.uk | Woking

GUITARS : Cholla Off Set | Fish Hook S-Type | Fish Hook T-Type | Meloca Bass | Saguaro Double Cut

Pricing : circa £1,150 - £2,500

Best guitar at show - Reclaimed Wood Upscaler Fish Hook S-Type

Also - Cholla Off Set featured in Guitarist Magazine

I was wowed by Jason's reclaimed wood / Upcycled guitars in particular - including his main featured Fish Hook S-Style Upscaler with a Teal Chalk Paint finish and Tortoiseshell Pickguard - which as the show was being offered for under £1k.

The big poster in the background featured the beautifully appointed Guitarist Magazine reviewed Cholla Off Set - where I loved every detail,

Jason is most definitely onto a good thing here.

Molyneaux Guitars - Dan

molyneauxguitars.com | Nottingham

GUITARS : Magpie Offset | Myna T-Style Offset

Pricing : £1,550 - £2,500

Best guitar at show - Olympic White Magpie with Black & Amber Pickguard

Also - Midnight Ocean Turquoise Myna with Black Pickguard

Dan is relatively new to this profession - and was much encouraged by his good friend Matt Oram from Fidelity Guitars to get properly stuck into professional Guitar Luthiery - who Matt also actually does the Nitrocellulose finishes on Dan's guitars too.

There are just two models in the range to date - both clever twists on certain self-evident classic shapes - where you use a Specifier App on the website - to build up your own preference of guitar - with a wide variety of options available throughout.

The simple looks here hide a wealth of attention to detail and Dan operates with a great deal of flexibility - to ensure you get your ideal guitar.

I's a sucker for those Black and Amber Pickguards - they look great on pretty much any colour of guitar!

Zona Guitars - Wayne and Anna-Marie

www.zonaguitars.com | Exeter

GUITARS : Asgard | Fenrir Bass | Isca | Sulis

Pricing : circa £1,600 to £1,750

Best guitar at show - Isca in Shoreline Gold

Also - Asgard in Black with Copper Details

Wayne was another at the show that I had a rather in-depth chat with. And where explained how he made his own pickups by variously combining two single coil pickups - utilising Alnico 2, 3 or 5 magnetic pairings within a humbucker casing.

He also select relatively soft aluminium for his bridge material - where the science indicates that a less rigid metal in that function - allow the core body wood to resonate better.

So whichever of Wayne's guitars you acquire - you're getting a lot of scientific and technical innovations which make those guitars even more unique.

My favourite guitar of Wayne's is his copper-accented black Asgard model, which did not feature at the show. The most impactful Zona Guitar at the show for me was the Shoreline Gold edition - far right on the display table.

ThorpyFX - Adrian / Thorpy

thorpyfx.com | Brackley

Pricing : £199 - £265

Best pedal at show - new format 'blackface' Fallout Cloud

Also - Scarlet Tunic Analog Amp Emulator 3-in-1 : Hiwatt + Selmer + Vox in a box!

Readers should now that Adrian was the very first in this industry that I made a connection with - almost a decade ago now. This is going to be a fairly epic year for Thorpy releases - with the first one due at the end of next month, and then several more coming fast on the heels of that - including some further special projects and special editions.

Moreover Guitar Pedal X is doing a collaboration with ThorpyFX in April - and I look forward to reveal the details of that very soon.

At the show we saw one of the first new 'Black Face Editions' Fallout Cloud Fuzz - in its new Burnt Orange colourway enclosure - looking even more appealing than the stellar original. You were able to buy both Silver Face and Black Face editions of that pedal.

I also though I should remind people of the prowess of the Scarlet Tunics Analog Amp Emulator - which is not just about early Pnk Floyd / Syd Barrett Selemer Amp Tones, but also can be voiced as a HiWatt and Vox AC30 Amp, In fact - I mostly play said pedal more on HiWatt and Vox voicings, than the Core Seller one!

Fredric Effects - Tim

www.fredric.co.uk/pedals | North London

Pricing : £125 - £200

Best pedal at show - Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion

Also - forthcoming 3-in-1 Unpleasant Companion Edition

Tim is the one I've encountered more at these various Guitar Shows than any other builder - invariable when there is an even - Tim is typically there in some guise!

There's not too much to report since the Birmingham Guitar show - where he also had some in-depth chats with Tim. He's still in the process of gradually switching all his compact line to his new really cool wedge-shaped enclosure - he's about half-way through that process now.

I'm due to visit Tim at some stage in the next one or two months - where it was originally just going to be about his 'Pedal Shed' but the big news is that Tim has decided to turn his hand to Luthiery too - and is building an accompanying shed to accommodate that operation. So now I need to wait for that to be completed also - and I can then report back on both his pedal production as well as his burgeoning guitar building production.

Tim says he was inspired by receiving all the progress reports from Matt at Fidelity - when he was building Tim's custom Double Standard signature. Seems Matt is inspiring everyone these days to turn their hand to Luthiery.

Tim is adamant that his guitars are going to be somewhat modern looking and very different to anything that was featured at the show - I look forward to seeing just what shape those take!

Good Fuzzy Sounds - Simon

goodfuzzysounds.com | London

PEDALS : 2.Bad Raw 2 x TK22C Germanium Raw Fuzz | Bad Motoscooter 3 x Germanium 2G381 Fuzz (sort of TB MKI) | Bad Nite 4 x TK22C Germanium Fuzz (Unique) | FZ-X Hot-Rod 2N2614 Fuzztone

Pricing : £150 - £250

Best pedal at show - Bad Nite Fuzz

Also - NKT214 Transistor edition of 2.Bad Raw Fuzz

I was delighted to meet Simon for the first time. He has a very unique take on mostly Germanium style fuzzes - where he says that he doesn't like trim-pots and therefore electronically sets the Bias for each of his transistors - which is then not further adjustable.

Readers will know that I typically require an external Bias control for all my Germanium Fuzzes, indeed I have some for Silicon Varieties also - as the Bias does so much to set the character and voicing of the fuzz - from spitty, starved and velcro to open and seeing, and onto sticky and zithery - I like to access the full range of fuzz voicings - and importantly most Germanium Transistors are temperature sensitive - meaning that often a manual Bias adjustment is necessary.

Simon's fuzzes are mostly pretty unique, while some kind of pivot from core classic fuzz circuits - but all are removed from those - and the 4-transistor Bad Nite Fuzz entirely uniquely distinct.

What all these Fuzzes have is plenty of flavour - while they're not particularly dynamic in their guitar volume gain cleanup ability. You have distinctive full-on and pretty raw sounding fuzzes here - with minimal controls.

These are definitely an intriguing proposition - where I need to overcome some of my own blinkers and personal preference limitations in order to get properly stuck into these. I of course love that this particular variety of fuzzy exists - the more the merrier as far as I am concerned!

Lost Soul Leather - Krystian

www.lostsoulleather.co.uk | London

GOODS : Various Leather Guitar Straps

Pricing : c$79 - £199

This was supposed to be my last stop on the circuit before I headed out at around a quarter to 3. However Kristian was not in residence at that time - hence no picture of the man himself!

Rather intriguingly Krystian is a Touring Guitar Technician by night, Leather Smith by day. And he certainly has a very wide portfolio of quality leather goods!

As with everything within my circle of preferences - I'm very particular about the style of guitar strap I favour - where it's actually a now discontinued PRS Padded Signature Model. There's a few of the Tan ones still available while most of the Black ones are gone now.

If Krystian ever made anything close those those - I would certainly consider them!

Next: Walrus Audio's 9th in the Fundamental Series is the somewhat different AMBIENT Pillowy Atmospheric Reverb