Yokohama Music Fair 2009

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'd know that I like a guitar or twenty.

You'd think that I love going to guitar shows but to the contrary, the last one I went to I had a massive headache from too many "widdly-widdly" solos and "Stairway To Heaven" etc. There's something very un-musical about people playing their own thing in different keys and not so well at that.

I mentioned the Yokohama Music Fair about a month ago when I thought it was going to be on. I was highly recommended to go by one of the other muso teachers and I'm really glad I did.

Of course I brought my camera, both lenses this time AND she drove my other camera so we had pictures-a-plenty.

The Fair was held at the Pacifico convention center, not far the sail-shaped Intercontinental and Minato Mirai.

At first sight Pacifico resembles the sails of the Sydney Opera House sort of, well not really. Good for fisheyeing!

Inside the Pacifico complex.

A cool trio of Fender Japan telecasters guitars - the "Donald", "Mickey", and "Minnie". I'd seen a Mickey Strat before, but I prefer teles. I liked the "Donald" the best but I was trying to see where the duck cues were here.

Aria isn't a brand I get excited about, but I like mirror guitars and this is no exception.

Fujigen are a company most foreign musicians wouldn't be aware of but they used to make Fender Japan guitars and Ibanez as an OEM. They also make their own high quality guitars too.

If there was one company that stood out more than any other it would undoubtably be ESP.

How're you supposed to play these guitars?
Great attention to detail, but it looks all a bit gay to me.

Sexy Finger? I don't think so..

A guitar for the Mad Max generation.

These guitars looked pretty cool, but normal in comparison to the other ones.

A "grim reaper" bass. I don't see this selling too well.

I like this really tastefully done Strat. Not sure about the fluffy one though.

I was happy getting some freebie picks at the show. Player, I'm a "playa".. ne.

One thing I kind of missed was the lack of hot car show girls fawning the guitars. That would've added a little pizazz to the proceedings. There were these girls though. I could insert a tasteless joke about liking girls that blow horns. Oops, I guess I just did.

I thought I'd be safe here thinking the guitars weren't for sale. In the Premium Guitar Show area there were plenty. Uh oh. Take a deep breath..

Some were so expensive they had "ask" for the price. This "Koi" Fender Strat looked amazing and yes, I was too afraid to ask how much it was.

I'm a sucker for Les Pauls and this one wasn't too bad. 108,000 yen! The tuning pegs weren't original but I couldn't talk them down much more than that. I was close to buying this one. It was about an '89 model, almost the same as my 1990. A good (heavy) weight too.

Another surprise was this taxi yellow Parker Fly guitar. It was the lightest guitar I ever picked up. Unlike other Parker's, this one didn't have a piezo pickup. Sounded pretty nice though. Much better than I expected and the fingerboard felt like butter. Lots to like here. I like the colour. I'm not crazy for the shape and it was more than I'd want to spend anyway.

I had little time to decide to make more big money decisions so I passed and we ventured out around Minato Mirai.

We went south of the Red Brick warehouse to quite a newly developed area leading to the sea bus terminal. It was nice to walk around there at night.

Almost enough to keep my mind off guitars for the rest of the evening.