The LA Amp & Guitar Show is housed at the hotel. Typically, manufacturers will have a basic hotel room converted (bed and furniture removed) and display and demo their gear there. The Axe Fest started out as a few of us deciding to get together some upcoming weekend and sharing tip & tricks with on using Axe II. Three days after we inquired on the forum if anyone else would be interested we had 15 people. We thought maybe we should rent a practice facility and make a day of it. All good!
I then contacted Matt asking if he would be in town doing any of his artist activities. I mean how awesome would it be to get the guru to show and give us pointers? It turns out that both he and Cliff were coming for the Amp Show so we starting strategizing how we could get those two to participate in our little get together. Well, as you know it’s ballooned a bit.
With Fractal Audio, Tone Merchants, and Matrix helping support the costs we decided to try to coincide the event with the amp show. In other words, FAS stepped up BIG TIME! We also thought it was a good move since so many have decided to come in from out of town and we could have everything under one roof so to speak.
Now instead of having a simple hotel room we have two large ballrooms. One will be the FAS Gear room where anyone attending the amp show can demo the Fractal Products in many configurations. They are also bringing FAS swag that can be purchased at show costs and providing a first-aid station that will deal with any issues users are having with their gear or presets. If persons don’t feel comfortable trying the gear Edan Baehmann will be present to demo it with his stellar playing.
The other room will house the Fest activities. Presentations will be made across a wide variety of topics such as building presets, dialing it in, tone matching, amp matching, IR captures, advanced preset evaluation, Axe-Edit, controlling, and the Axe in film etc. Saturday is Jam packed and we hope to break it up a little with demos by artists and finish off with a couple of them playing a few tunes and demos on how they use the magic box. Sunday will be used to follow up on topics or include those we could not get to on Saturday due to time constraints. We are also hoping to have a Q&A panel.
The cost that we are charging is 5 dollars above and beyond what you would have paid to enter the Amp Show. We are only able to pull that off because FAS along with Tone Merchants, Matrix Amplification, and several individuals have ponied up. There is also a long list of companies that have provided their time and/or gear to help us out. You will have full access to the entire Amp & Guitar show for the days you purchased. We charged the minimal fee on top so we could put it towards the entry fees for those presenting etc. Only those paying that additional fee will be allowed in the presentation room. We will “attempt” to video the entire event in that room if possible.
We still have quite a few loose ends to tie up. I think it’s going to be a great time for all and knowing the community that is attending I am sure everyone will be open and accommodating to changes that can occur in such a grass roots event that has come together in a short 5 to 6 weeks’ time.
Many of the attendees have offered up some of their gear and time. We are going to contact a few of them shortly and take them up on their offers. It’s been very heartwarming to see the community come together and make these offers. Every person I have contacted has replied with these 6 beautiful words. "Whatever you need let me know”
YOU guys ROCK!
Hope this answers a lot.
