User Group Day - Accounts, Impressions and Photos

[stevie_bees]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Did anybody get any video??

[formula73]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

we want to hear about the jam - high points? surprises? funny stuff? c'mon fill us in!!

This!!!!! This!!!!!

[speed2dirt]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

we want to hear about the jam - high points? surprises? funny stuff? c'mon fill us in!!

High points:
Gearjoneser rocking ZZ Top to perfection on rhythym/lead guitars & vocals

Surprises:
Evan can sing and sing really well.
Frank can rip on slide guitar.
Seymour is an amazing guitar player. He has this trademark move, kind of like Dimebag's squeal, that when you hear it you know it's Seymour. It's this choppy time thing, like he's hitting a killswitch really quickly, but he's not. It's all in his picking. It's a really cool move!
Cathy Duncan is super nice and was an awesome host.

Funny:
MJ razzing Seymour to play one of the TeleGib reissues. Finally Seymour gives in, picks up the guitar and plugs in, and there's no sound. "Frank, you didn't hook up the pickups? Wow! This is embarrassing... Frank, I want to see you in my office Monday morning." It was really funny.

[tone4days]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

we want to hear about the jam - high points? surprises? funny stuff? c'mon fill us in!!

[JOLLY]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

and I never win anything.

Dude, you're always winning something...lol. You won a door prize at the amp show, and you've won a couple of things from that surf shack place down the road from you. Maybe you haven't won anything as nice at that amp, but you've sure as hell won alot more stuff than I have as far as raffles/door prizes or whatever goes.

[infrared72]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

I had a great time at the SD UGD event yesterday. There are a lot of folks working at SD making things for musicians, and I was amazed at all of the steps that go into making a guitar pickup. The factory tour was really informative, and I really enjoyed that. Seymour had a lot of great stories to tell and information to share. The opportunity to tour the custom shop was great as well with MJ sharing some interesting info.

The R&D session upstairs with the engineering guys provided a much better understanding of all the steps and hard work it takes to develop, test, prototype, market and sell guitar pedals. The next time I head out to a music store and see all those SD pickups, pedals, and components in a display case, I feel like I'll have a greater awareness and understanding of the efforts that took place to make these things available.

And the wind your own pickup activity was FANTASTIC! Highly recommended for the next SD UGD.

Thank you for a great event.

-Peter

[ErikH]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Congrats, Joe! Full report on those Brobuckers when you get them installed and of course the amp.

[straightblues]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Thank you to Evan and Dewi and everyone else at Duncan for setting up a great User Group Day. Everyone who attended was treated like a star. Thank you very much for everything. You guys are real pros.

[TheLivingDead]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Damn, congrats Joe!

[LesStrat]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Awesome!

How many forum bros attended?

[BTMN]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

[north]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

I had a great time at the User Group Event today at the factory... met so many cool peeps.....had a blast winding my own pickup...(Installing it today..) The banquet was awesome too....

[Gearjoneser]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

I just got home, and man am I exhausted.

My wife and I had a great time, with all the activities, jam, meeting forum members, talking with Seymour....and Anabel really got along with MJ and Cathy so well. Ana has so much admiration and respect for MJ after today. Me too. Maricela has so much love in her heart and incredible passion for her life's work......truly a lovely person.

I feel like the luckiest guy today. First of all, making UGD pickups is a major highlight for all attendees, and SD was gracious enough to allow all of us a free pickup of our choice. That basically meant I was getting two pickups. The two we built were gold covered production floor Brobuckers. One for my SG Diablo and one for my LP Custom Black Beauty. For that alone, I was stoked. But then the bags full of goodies, including Planet Waves string winders w/cutters, strings, SD shirts, and SD screwdrivers (I love those)

Then, during the course of the day, I picked up two door prizes of a Planet Waves clip-on tuner and PW Guitar Rest. Awesome!

But here's the absolute icing on the cake!!! As I was outside talking with Evan about his Crazy Heart movie Gretsch, which he acquired from his dear friend Stephen Bruton, I heard what I thought was my name on the intercom. I walked in and asked the receptionist who she just announced, and she said my name......OH MAN, OH MAN, I won the grand prize by sheer luck....and I never win anything. They presented me with a Fender Vibro Champ amp, new in box from Fender!!! And I really wanted a Vibro or Super Champ and was thinking about buying one. I've needed a small practice amp ever since my last one died a year ago. Talk about pure dumb luck!
I'm sitting here now looking at it next to my computer desk in complete disbelief. All day, I kept thinking "I can't believe I won an amp!"

Now, it's time to get some sleep, since I didn't get a hotel room. We drove 80 miles home, and will go back tomorrow for the picnic, as well as more time hanging in downtown Santa Barbara.

[TheLivingDead]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

Awesome pics! Hey DeMartini! Maaaan looks like a super awesome time.

[arellanon]

Re: User Group Day - Your Accounts, Impressions and Photos

August 1993. 18 years ago, the same month I started working at SD.

Thanks for joining us, arellanon!

Wow, so the Screaming Demon I bought is somewhat old.

I had a blast Evan! Can't wait for the next UGD!