By Binyamin Babayof
GUITAR PEOPLE! Whatever it is that you’re looking for, you’re likely to find it at the NY Guitar Expo.
The NY Guitar Expo is an annual event in Freeport, NY that showcases everything guitar related. The diversity of products and people is truly astounding.
To give you an idea of what I mean by diversity I’m going to introduce you to some of the vendors that I had the pleasure of conversing with. Henry D’allacco, the founder and master luthier at Grosbeak Guitars is an artist who took his passion for guitar and started his own company. His booth at the expo was chock’ full of lightweight, smooth playing, sweet toned guitars. When asked how it is that he started out Henry replied, “It started by just doing set ups and mods, one thing lead to another and here I am.”
The Expo wasn’t just a show for startup companies, the big brands were there too. For example, Taylor, Guitar Center, BOSS and Electro Harmonix, had booths displaying their newest and coolest gear. The latest tech from BOSS that I had the privilege of taking for a test drive was their new GT-1000 Guitar Effects Processor. With the right set of headphones the GT-1000 is a true VR guitar experience, capable of perfectly mimicking virtually every guitar tone known man.
Sure, the new stuff is cool, but it wouldn’t truly be a guitar expo without the classics. The expo housed a plethora of high end vintage guitars. There are few things more beautiful than the sight and sound of a 65’ Telecaster plugged into an old Marshall stack. While some booths felt like a blast into the future there were certainly some booths that had me feeling like I was shot back into the past, the Good ol’ days of the electric guitar.
Being at the Expo was a really incredible experience for me as a guitar player. It taught me that anyone audacious enough to make the claim that “the guitar is dead” was clearly not an attendee at the NY Guitar Expo, where the six string is alive, well, and better than ever before.
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