UGD - Photos and Impressions

[Evan Skopp]

So... does anyone have any photos or impressions of their experiences at User Group Day?

[Evan Skopp]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Brisk:

Thanks for posting your photos here.

[Curly]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

one of the many highlights for me was sitting at the breakfast table with Seymour on Saturday morning

he regaled us with many Tales of the Road, and His Life in Music, and had us all laughing quite a few times

[brisk]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

It was like a dream. I came back to DC but I have not fully came back to the reality. I still feel like I had one heck of dream.

I just want to thank for everyone in Seymour Duncan (Seymour, Cathy, Evan, Billy, Wanda, MJ, Scott, Jessica, Madison, etc). Also, I want to thank everybody showed up.

Santa Barbara was beatiful and state street was real fun. This event would be one of those memories that I will cherish forever.

Thanks Everybody.

[JOLLY]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

I don't even know where to start. I had an absolute blast. I'll re-tell some of the stories tommorrow. All I know is I wouldn't change anything at all that happened. It was epic and I'm sooooo glad I went. You were right Evan....I would have been kicking myself in the butt for years. I truly enjoyed the company of every single person I met. I think we're all brothers for life.....and of course our lil sister (London_Clash/Robin) as well.

Hopefully Scott and everyone else will get back in here and recount the stories we had in the other thread.

[brisk]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

I also want to thank Stevo. He is a great guy. Steve took me to the Atomic Punk (featuring George Lynch) show and it was freaking awesome. After the show, it was quite cold and I took Steve's sweater. Next morning, I called him to return it but he graciously told me to keep it as a present. This is one of many great things testifying how Steve is.

Steve, you are the man. You are Maximus Plexius.

[JOLLY]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

[MikeRocker]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Thank heavens for the "Back" browser button and the cut & paste function!
Once again:

Wow, I'll try not to drone on for too long....
I was a little leery going in, because in my experience, when you get a lot of musicians together, they all have this subtle rivalry thing going on. Let me say that there was absolutely none of that. What a great bunch of people. All the Forum people were just as friendly and open as could be. It was a bunch of fellow guitar nerds, and I loved it!

The Seymour Duncan people are just amazing. From the top (SD & Cathy) down, to the ladies and gentlemen making those pickups on the floor who would smile and say hi as the guitar geeks invading their workspace walked around, everyone was just as nice as they could be. Seymour is totally down-to-earth, and is happy to just chat with anybody about guitars, musicians, or anything. One of the many great things about him is how when you talk to him, he is totally focused on you and what you have to say. It's so nice that he takes the time and has a legitimate interest in everybody. Cathy, Sabina, and Wanda are all just sweethearts. Friendly, always smiling, and just a pleasure to be around. MJ is unbelievable. There's no doubt who's in charge of the Custom Shop. I was one of the first to wind, and she was running around putting out fires and making sure everything was going smoothly. She can do anything. She was helping me wind on one bench while assembling someone else's pickup on another and squeezing in 2 more UGD guys whose orders somehow got lost on another. She turned to me at one point and said "I need five of me!" A great lady. Evan and Billy - super nice guys, great to talk to, lots of stories. Evan gave us a terrific tour and answered tons of questions. It was really interesting hearing how Billy came to work there. Speaking to all of these people and a few others (engineers come to mind), it's obvious that the Seymour Duncan company treats their people terrifically. I was amazed at how they kept thanking us for coming!

The jam. Wow. I was really amazed at the variety of great tones that everybody got. Seymour is a hell of a player (as if he wouldn't be?!!). The crowd was so supportive. And the ladies playing rhythm deserve all of the accolades they're getting and then some. They played for hours and hours, a bunch of different styles of music, without breaking a sweat. I played "Tumblin' Dice" by The Stones with T4D and KAKnight. It was a blast. From my side of the stage, I couldn't hear KAKnight (I was on the other side of the rhythm section), but Tone4Days lived up to his screen name - he sounded amazing! I was really cool hearing Kat play, too. She's just awesome, as well as being super nice.
I'd like to single out people for how cool they were, but there's no point - everyone I spoke to (and you know who you are) was friendly and warm and fun to talk to. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great experience.
By the way, I love my new description!
Needless to say, I'm a Seymour Duncan customer for life (as if I wasn't already!)!

[brisk]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Scott, how about "Precious UGD thread Deletologist' for Evan?

[GoMano]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

The principal thing about UGD for me was this: The people - of both the Forum and the Company - are supremely amazing human beings. THAT was my biggest impression.

And musically - absolutely EVERYONE who played contributed something great; it was a killer jam.

As I just teased Evan a minute ago (now he knows how I felt) - I realized after three songs into the jam the recorder wasn't on (I usually use a VGA Monitor & a Mouse, which I didn't have initially, so my recorder wouldn't drop into record) I freaked man - totally. Once I found a monitor I was able to select the 17 tracks I was using and drop into "record", so the first tune, which is "Cold Shot" (I think) just fades in at the beginning because as soon as I saw that red light turn on the tracks, I just hit "Record" and boom - it recorded. There's still nearly two hours of music though - and some amazing playing.

Playing with George was really cool - he's just a rediculously great musician, and a very, very nice guy. And Kat! Forget it! Amazing.

The one main problem I had with the recording is, I had no feed from that little PA for vocals. Usually, a recordist gets a line out from a snake, the monitor desk or the FOH desk, SOMEWHERE, anywhere, and I didn't have any of that, so, I had to use condensers on the main speakers and record the vocals that way, and they are distorted - and I'm profoundly sorry I didn't work that out long before the gig - but, other than that, the thing wails. ALL of you guys should be exteremely proud of how you played. Just amazingly talented, GRACIOUS people.

I am so happy to have met you, as is my wife. Thanks for a great time!

[Youngpup]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

I just got back home myself. I can not begin to describe how much fun it was to go and meet everyone. I ALSO WANTED to thank you guys that sat at my breakfast table saterday morning. My wife and sister comented on how polite you guys were and I noticed how you guys refrained for swearing in front of them and my little girl. I realy think that shows just how great a group of guys, and girls we have here.

I went to Cathy's ranch on Sunday and staid the night there. I was so impressed with her down to earth personality. I will post some pics for you guys in the next few days. Seymour was such a cool guy and I got to talk with MJ for a long time after the jam. She will not forget me any time soon, now when I call for an order all I have to tell her is it's the guy that wore the old black cowboy hat. I enjoyed meeting all of you alot, what a once in a life time deal.

Tyler

[JOLLY]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Is there any way B2D can post a copy of his speech on here....or will it take up too much server space? Sorry, I couldn't resist Brendan.

[Bones]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Is there any way B2D can post a copy of his speech on here....or will it take up too much server space? Sorry, I couldn't resist Brendan.

Or better yet, a recording, but you would probably only hear barking the whole time.

[big_black]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

So who bought a Daisy Rock?

Looks like a good time. I AM kicking myself right now.

[Stevo]

Re: UGD - Photos and Impressions

Hey brisk I thought it was appropriate to give you a sweater with a name like, um, "brisk"

Pics here
I'll put together a better page. If anyone wants full sized pictures then please email me.

I had a good time meeting everyone. I probably spent most of my time with brisk.. super nice guy, as many of you found out on your own.
When we went to the Atomic Punks show, we talked with Cathy from SD a little, until we could not hear ourselves.. kinda loud.. but a great show.

After the show, we met up with Bill, Jolly, Jeremy and a few other people at a bar off of State St. I am glad these guys were taking a cab home!! I would have liked to do a few shots with them but I had to drive home.

I felt bad cuz I did not recognize Jeremy at first haha.. s'all good.. Jeremy was a really good man to have around as MC, guitar repair, presenter and amp adjuster. I jammed with him but unfortunately, it was hard to hear the opposite site of the stage.. I hear that he sounded great!

I always like to visit with MJ. She's a great lady with much talent and history.

I am glad that so many people finally got to meet Seymour and Evan. It's one thing to post on a discussion board, but it's completely different to go in to their domain, talk with them and watch them play. Both of these guys are really good guitarists and we all know they are very knowledgable about the world of tone.

This is the first time that I have heard Gearjonser and B2D play guitar, and I am totally impressed!

Darn it I talked to KAKnight and did not even know that it was him! I only found out later, by one of the picture captions.. duh.

Curly is a cool dude to hang out with. He's a nice guy, good guitar player, and has a vast knowledge of the guitar world... I coaxed him in to trying out my Marshall... hmm, we might be calling him plexi-curly soon?