Richard Lainegard
  • Home
  • News
  • Media
  • Pics
  • Affiliates/Endorsements
  • Lessons etc.
  • About
  • Live Events
  • Contact
  • Blog

China & Japan tour 2012

10/10/2012

1 Comment

 
In this blog post I will (try to) update daily (scroll down to view newer posts) during my clinic/performance tour in Asia this month.
I'm doing Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo, so without further ado let's go!
(click on all pics to get a larger pop-up)

Here's two clips, first one some jams from Beijing with MOEN. Second one from the Leqtique clinic in Tokyo

Tuesday, October 10 - Wednesday Oct 11

Picture
Departure day for me. Started out in a cold and cloudy Umeå, but expecting Asia to be on par with Swedish summer (only much more humid). Took the better part of a day packing and arranging everything that needed to come with me. No small feat making the it on board, nearly over-weight and with both the PRS and Kemper as carry-on =)

Picture

Made it through the check-in, and uploaded a fancy-pancy pic of my self with my most "let's go to Asia-look". Of course sporting both a UFC hoodie and my (very) worn leather jacket.

Picture

Once airborne I couldn't sleep (as I seldom can on planes, or buses for that matter. I'd make a lousy touring musician, that's for sure!).
But the view was excellent! I really should look into getting some noise canceling headphones for these trips.

Picture
I managed to delete the pic I took over Ulan Bator, but there the snow lay deep on the mountain ranges, and here I though it was getting nippy in Sweden :)

Picture
The inflight entertainment left much to be desired, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some MMA shows I had missed lately

Picture
Had to transfer between Shanghai and Beijing, and nearly missed the flight because SAS Umeå had informed me that I would need to re-check my luggage in Beijing. After waiting half an hour and then asking around, turned out so was not the case. I was lucky enough to get a helping hand by the accommodating staff to secure and check-in my tax-free gifts (some bottles of premium Skåne Akvavit ;)

Then an hour long taxi ride to the hotel took me past everything from skyscrapers to what seemed like hundred year old buildings.


Picture

This view from a staircase at the hotel gives you an idea on what a hot-pot of old and rundown vs. modern high-tech Shanghai really is!



Picture

My Chinese endorser Steve Chen is setting up shop at the Music Messe, so I'm kicking back at the hotel until dinner. Not a single english speaking channel to be found, but at least found some live rock (or something I think supposed to be rock) concert =) Time for dinner later, and after that on to the show area to do a late night sound check, I'll be back with more updates later this evening.


Picture
Steve came by, and we packed all the my gear up for the show, then headed of to do a late night soundcheck.

Picture
Shanghai is a completely different city at night, the whole city is like a fireworks display with all the scyscrapers lit up like x-mas trees.

Picture

The expo place is probably twice as big as Frankfurt Messe or NAMM, which is saying something, during the day they have shuttle buses connecting the different expo halls.

Picture

MOEN's  booth was still under construction, but the main decor was finished, with yours truly pasted across one wall. I'll some demos in this booth as well, but the main performances will be outside, on the bigger stages. First performance at 10:15 tomorrow, so time to get some shut-eye!


Thursday October 11

Picture

First opening day of the Expo started out with great weather. I however, overslept and missed breakfast. To top that off it seems darn near impossible to get a regular black coffee in Shanghai :O

Here we are outside the Expo area with One Control's owner Tomokaz

Picture

And me and Steve as well

Picture

The lobby was filling up nicely, the whole area is probably twice as big as Frankfurt Messe, in other words, it's HUGE!

Picture

The MOEN booth was busy, with Steve's staff setting things up

Picture
Here's a picture of a new pedal board Steve is developing, from this angle it looks pretty ordinary

Picture
But here you can see that the sides is made from some super hard acrylic, and also you bolt on the sides to the actual "planks" of the board. This means you can can decide the width of the pedal board yourself, by changing the length of the boards. Smart idea, and to be able to easily change the size of your pedalboards with some backup "planks" is superb.

Picture
One of the MOEN guys, unfortunately Steve's the only one that speaks a word of English, so communication was not so easy, good thing music is a universal language huh? :)

Picture
And here is mine and Denander's signature MOEN pedals, mine the green dual channel OD, and his the dual channel Soul Compressor. My is the final production version seen here, whilst his is still not 100% decided as far as the cover art is concerned, sounds great though!

The idea is also to actually ship them in these sweet wooden boxes too, kinda cool idea I think =)

Picture
And here I am with a smirk on my face holding the first two jewels of the MOEN custom shop line. And, posing in front of a life-size of oneself is kinda weird :D

Picture
Another MOEN guy, seen here test driving the piezo system of the P22

Picture
Here's a still frame from the first performance of the day (videos will come when I get better bandwidth).
I'm using the pedals straight into the Kemper amp, using a profile I made of a Bassman from -64, sounded sweet, and a perfect way to get control of the levels going out into FOH

Picture
After my performances of the day, I took a walk around some parts of the Expo (was too big to muster an entire walkthrough right off the bat, but at least its something). Here just some random pic

Picture
Here's some guy doing some acoustic playing (will also be featured in the video)

Picture
Here's some pretty cool Ibanez and LP copies I though, check that body carve out!

Picture
Here's a guy demoing for Orange, pretty cool idea with him playing along to a video behind him of himself playing the same song

Picture
A group playing traditional Chinese instruments together with a piano, notice all the girls also wearing traditional Chinese dresses. Video of this will also be available

Picture
The Artec booth also had some acoustic demos going on, I remember their stuff as being pretty good too, but never heard their acoustic amps before

Picture
Not many non-asian brands had their own booths at the Expo, but was rather represented by their retailers. Tom Anderson was an exception though

Picture
Farida guitars is Chinas largest guitar brand, and is here demoed by an extremely popular French guitar player nick-named Inophis, "über-shred" is probably the best way to describe his playing, and he is also a real showman on stage (as you will see in the videos)

Picture
Then outside, on one of the stages I perform at was a Chinese guitarist ripping it up

Picture
Then we had lunch. What I thought were regular McDonalds chicken nuggets, were actually some spicy chicken from hell to say the least, super hot!

Picture
Then I arrived for another performance at Stage S1. Some guy was doing a drum demo, really energetic to say the least, but rather un-tight

Picture
And here's me from the second performance at the Peavey stage. Larger stage, but the monitoring sound was pretty awful, so loud I had to wear earplugs ;)

Picture
Up after me was a Brasilian guitarist (living in L.A), called Conrado Pesinato, really nice guy, and really ballsy rock player!
Also, it turns out the lead singer and good friend in his former band in Brazil, is now the singer in Hate Ammo in my hometown in Sweden, small world!

Also, don't be surprised to see a jam with us two coming up, Steve was eager to see it happen =)

Picture
Conrado doing his thing with a sweet rendition of Foxy Lady

Picture
Took another stroll through the halls after his performance, here some cable company

Picture
Do you have a cramped pedal board? How about these Mooer pedals? You could probably fit 30 of these babies on a normal sized pedal train :D Some really cool design in the line also

Picture
An over-the-shoulder peek at a guy demoing some of them

Picture
Now this was a pretty different booth, people (mostly girls it seemed) could sit on that "throne" chair and get their picture taken with some of the most outrageously pimped guitars :)

Picture
When I got back to the booth, and old acquaintance from NAMM was playing my PRS and enjoying the tones of the Parallax and the Jimi Vibe

Picture
Then it was time to head out, outside the sun was setting rapidly

Picture
Pretty crazy house, like something from Barcelona, but without the colors. Kinda looks like something Edward Munch would have designed in this light :O
Apparently it's an art gallery of some sort

Picture
Then we went out for dinner. I'd heard a lot of mixed opinions about Chinese food. 
Most Swedes really like Chinese food, and there's at least one Chinese restaurant in almost every city in Sweden I would guess. However, I bet THIS is not on any of their menus =)

Picture
Deep-fried crab? That's a new sight for me at least.
And yeah, there was plenty of deep fried food in the menu

Picture
We ended up with a wide variety of dishes to sample from.
All of them tasted great, but not a single one had ANY resemblance to what we call Chinese food in Sweden. I'm guessing it's like Swedish pizza, has absolutely nothing in common with Italian pizza expect the shape of it =)

Picture
Final pic of the day is with Steve and wife, a co-worker of his, and Tomokaz of On-Control. My addition to the sampling was a bottle of Skåne Akvavit. Went down really well!

Over and out for the first day of Music China!


Friday October 12

Picture
Came in from a different direction to the expo today, and ended up passing a hall with tons of traditional Chinese instruments

Picture
How's this for a scalloped neck??

Picture
The classic old Tokai brand is still alive and kicking!

Picture
First off for today was some in-doors performances at the MOEN booth, here doing some whammy bar acrobatics. And boy am I ever unused to these flat necks nowadays :D

Picture
Another tune, another guitar, another angle

Picture
One thing is true about Chinese, they love to take photos!
I must have taken a dozen or so pics with various onlookers every day, and no, this is not the face I pull most of the time ;)

Picture
Here's a pic from one of the outdoor performances, apparently I'm caught up in one of my regular tapping-frenzies

Picture
Back in the booth, there was always a constant stream of visitors, several of whom wanted to jam out. This here guy, was from the Czech republic, living in Shanghai, and playing in a Japanese punk band. He was also a bad-ass at gypsy jazz!

Picture
And here's some guy from Guitar Center in the US

Picture
After a long day at the expo, we went out for dinner (one of our two tables visible here)

Picture
We were toasting in a gift from WJ guitars of China, some sort of spirit made from wheat, tasted similar to grappa, but much stronger.
Apparently very popular in southern China (which was also evident from the way it went down with the Chinese attendants)

Picture
One thing I have learned here is that they like to eat in larger groups, with many dishes placed out that everyone take what they want from, not unlike our Swedish "buffé". Once again, many dishes, not a single one tasting even remotely like the Chinese food served in Sweden,

Picture
This was also interesting, think cold tea in can, sweetened with about a ton of sugar

Picture
Later, back at the hotel, I was presented with one of the drawbacks of bringing a guitar everyone wants to play with me. Humid climate, and some peoples acid hands equals some really dead strings. The PRS was in serious need of new strings and some cleaning of the fretboard. Time to get to work, check back again tomorrow. Who knows, there might be some more playing even?

ps. still no bandwidth, nor time to edit the huuuge amount of video material shot and both my shows and others.ds


Saturday October 13

Picture
Today started out pretty much like any other, breakfast, then a shuttle to the expo.
The area is so huge, so there's at least 30 min walking every single day, regardless from which direction we enter.

Picture
Once there we were revisited by our friend from yesterdays dinner, the Chinese guitarist. His own music is a strange brew of traditional Chinese music and modern funk and fusion, very different and interesting. 

Picture
We also had a short jam together over some tracks, was caught on video of course!

Picture
Always tons of performances going on all over the expo, here som guys doing one of Al Di Meola's tunes, from the Guitar Trio years. Can't remember the name of the tune at the moment though.

Picture
At the T.C Electronics booth opposite us, bass player Dan Zylinski and his girlfriend did some great demos for TC's products. Very, very musical bass player to my ears!

Picture
here's a pic of a pedal board bag has as a prototype for his upcoming pedal board. Very sturdy, and great looks too!

Picture
Tried to take a panorama picture of the booth. It's kinda glitchy in places, but you get the idea. As always, click the pic to enlarge it.

Picture
After dinner we took a cab down to the Shanghai center to the view point, and what a view it was! Unbelievable!!

Picture
Me and Steve Chen. Look out Beijing, we're coming for you next week!!

Picture
There were tons of neon lighted boats cruising up and down the river, this one was particularly big! Looks like some old Portugees fregatt!

Picture
And this boat looked like something out of the Tron movie =)

Picture
And let's just say we weren't exactly alone! 

That's all or today folks, tomorrow is the last day of the expo,
time for a final live performance, must get some rest before then =)


Sunday October 14

Picture
Last day of the show! I did several performances this day, not only on the larger outside stages, but also some inside.
At one of the outside venues there was a Chinese entertainment TV-company there shooting, and asked Steve if I would be interested in being invited to China to perform on TV. Pretty cool, but he will investigate further to see what kind of show they're doing =)

In this pic we see on of Steve's employees assembling his new Pedal Bridge board, just had new red sides delivered from powder coating. Looks really nice!

Picture
And here Steve is holding the assembled board. Light weight, very sturdy, and the option to custom make your own size is killer

Picture
Steve also does OEM work for overseas companies. Here are a few examples of pedals he has manufactured for an American company.

here you also see that the top bar of the pedal bridge is replaced with some modules. In this you have power, a built in speaker and line-check module, as well as global in/outs.

Picture
Here's another version of the standard parallax. Slightly different red, and different knobs. The white trim is made of rubber, for extra grip.

Picture
Our friend Honza visited the booth again today, doing some killer "italian movie music" with as T.C pedal. This guy can play a huge range of styles.

Picture
Me and Honza took a walk around the expo as well, here at the Mooer booth, checking out a Acoustic pedal of some sort. I'm intrigued to hear this with my PRS P22 piezo, would be a good small option for the acoustic signal live maybe.

Picture
We also visited the Electro Harmonix booth, since Honza wanted to show me a sick pedal. This guy was doing demos for them

Picture
And here's the pedal Honza wanted to show me, the Micro POG.
I've tried many octave pedals, since I'm really interested in finding a good one for using with a looper to lay down simple bass lines for soloing over at clinics and workshops. This was by FAR the best I have ever heard! Tracks perfectly, no aliasing what so ever, and it even does chords all over the range of the fret board PERFECTLY!

Contacted Shun right away, we need to find one of these to use at the Tokyo clinic for sure. And, a bass playing friend of mine in Sweden would kill for this one, he's still struggling with the old Boss Octaver, which is all over the place :/

Picture
Then Honza demoed the pedal for me, and started doing a seriously sick rendition of the Coltrane classic "countdown" with bass and harmonies at the same time. Sounded crazy with this pedal

Picture
This new "talk box" rocker pedal from EH was also insane!
I do a lot of cover gigs in Sweden, and every time I play a Bon Jovi song I wish I had a real talk box. This is by far the best Talk Box I have ever head in a pedal (no hose) format! This is also going on my X-mas list :D

Picture
Some ( I assume) famous Chinese rock guitarist drew quite the crowd at another booth

Picture
I also found a café at the expo that served espresso, nice!
The crema wasn't all that good, and it was a little watery (I think they didn't temper it enough), but it was still the best coffee I had so far =)

Picture
After the show was packed up, we went out for a farewell dinner with Kaz in down town Shanghai. All the building there are really lit up to say the least!

Picture
I thought this restaurant name was pretty funny =)

Picture
Me posing with some sculpture

Picture
We finally decided on a Japanese sushi restaurant. I love sushi, especially Maguro (breast filét of Tuna). I had my fill, and we also finished the last of the spirit I brought for Steve. Very nice dinner!

That was the end of the Shanghai Music expo 2013.
Tomorrow we leave for Beijing, see you there!


Monday October 15

Picture
Today was yet another travel day, this time we fly from Shanghai to Beijing.

One reflection I made whilst here in China is that the "copy" market doesn't just extend to things such as guitars and iPhones, but is (at least I think) more geared towards the domestic market, and we just happen to see this stuff as well.

Like this car for instance, why buy a BMW, when you can get a BYD that looks about the same for a fraction of the cost =)

Picture
Once in Beijing, we took the airport express in to the subway center. This place was even more crazy than Tokyo at rush hour, you had to actually wait in line for a long time just to get in to the subway station (and out of it). The trains themselves were packed to the max!

Picture
The hotel was a Home Inn, very near to where I will do my clinic show on Wednesday.
The hotel corridor gave me some serious "shining" vibes though, can anyone say "REDRUM" ? ;)

Picture
Then we went out to find some dinner.
Next to the dinner place we chose was this small place that sold cakes and bread.

This particular picture is solely for my beloved fiancée, who loves to bake :)

Picture
We ended up eating some Chinese Hot Pot, delicious, but indeed extremely hot!!

Picture
And finally... BAZINGA!! 
I finally got to try real Chinese dumplings, Sheldon Cooper's favorite.
I can see why, most tasty dish I have yet to try in China. Now if only I could find these (as tasty, not store-bought) back home in Umeå!!

Time for bed, tomorrow Steve will take me to see BOTH the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, I can't wait!!


Tuesday October 16

Picture
Me and Steve spent almost 2 hours trying to get a cab, but finally giving up and getting on the subway. We finally got the bus that would take us to the Great Wall, and our first bit of luck this day, as we secured the last two seats on the packed bus!

Picture
The bus trip was very scenic and took about 1 hour. The mountain regions of China are just stunning, and no picture can do them justice (especially when taken whilst on a moving bus!)

Picture
We finally arrived at our destination!
Plenty of other coaches around, and tons of tourists (mostly Chinese).
You can see a small part of the wall in the background here.

Picture
Here's a map of the part of the wall at this location. The wall is seemingly endless, and this section is just a tiny part of it.

Picture
Time to start a very long climb up a very steep wall indeed!

Picture
This is a experience of a life-time guys, I've always been an extreme nut for ancient history, and it doesn't get much more ancient than China!

Picture
Part of the way up now, I can't imagine the soldiers running up and down this wall in heavy armor, just crazy!

Note: The picture taken "vertical" can't be super-sized I'm afraid :(

Picture
I can see the top!
And by this time my legs were burning!

Picture
A stunning over the other side of the valley!
This is really THE perfect time to visit the Wall. The autumn colors really makes everything come alive!

Picture
Here i am, finally at the top of the wall (at least this length of it)

Picture
I used the panorama function of the iPhone, to try and capture a little of the majestic scenery. Not possible of course, but maybe this will give you some idea
(click to enlarge)

Picture
After making our way down again, we took abus in and headed directly to the Imperial Forbidden city. This place is a bout as huge as it cant get. I doubt there is a bigger palace in the world (at least I can't imagine it).

Picture
The palaces just continued and continued, we could easily have walked here for the better part of a day!

Picture
I tried using the panorama function here too. When objects move within the panorama however, they get distorted, but perhaps this gives you some idea of the size of just ONE of these palace squares

Picture
The palace is grand in it's majesty, but equally impressive in my mind is the complete attention to detail they took so many hundred years ago when building this. Just a small thing like the windows are elaborate in the minutest detail

Picture
This here stone carving is not only 3.7m wide and like 20m long, but the slab is also 1.7m thick and weighs 200ton, that is sick!

Picture
The emperor also had his own garden, with some pretty great trees and sculptures

Picture
This here is all man made stone made to resemble a koral reef, all for the emperor's eyes only

Picture
I took hundreds of pictures during this day, so this is a just a bare minimum of what I thought the blog could handle before boring you guys with my escapades ;)

I'll leave this part with a pic of the exit out of the Forbidden city, we weren't exactly alone :)

Picture
Finally back to something music related =)

To conclude this day we visited the No.1 Jazz café in Beijing where tomorrow's clinic/show/jam will be held. Had one of the greatest red wines I have ever had there, from the Great Wall winery (how fitting!), custom made for the Jazz Café.

Tomorrow's event will be killer. Some of China's most guitarists and bass players will be there, and hopefully jam to! renowned
Tonight we discussed the plan for tomorrow's event. We want to make it a "laid back" environment, inviting players to join me for a jam onstage. 

If the invited musicians just want to catch up with their fellow players they rarely get to meet, they are free to do so upstairs in the lounge, and if they want to get down 

and dirty with me or each other on stage, it's free to do so too.
has the potential to be a REALLY cool night tomorrow!!

Ps. ANY place that has a picture and real autograph of Bruce Lee on the wall, AND serves a MEAN espresso
gets a A+ in my book! .ds ;)


Wednesday October 17

Picture
This morning we were planning to go to see the Temple of heaven.
The weather was really nice, and so thought the neighborhood cat that was basking in the sun outside the hotell =)

Picture
On the way there I got the chance to take a picture of one of these modern day moped-rickshas parked. usually you see them racing through the torrents of Beijing traffic seemingly unmindful of any danger. The traffic situation is just crazy in Beijing, I wouldn't dream of driving in that city, not to mention bike or go by scooter in the midst of hundreds and hundreds of racing cards with blaring horns =)

Picture
The whole area around the temple grounds seem to be a sort of huge recreational place especially for middle-aged and senior citizens. Here an old man writing kanji calligraphy with water, really an artform in and by itself.

Picture
Also, the whole area was filled with people playing some sort of kick-ball with a smal feathered ball that weren't allowed to touch ground. Some really skillful people amongst them!

Picture
This guy was doing some cool stuff with a ribbon that I think could have made an olympic gymnast envious =)

Picture
Here's a picture of the main temple of the area.
Apparently it was first built in a square shape in the 15th century, and the rebuilt in to this round shape after a fire ravaged it

Picture
Tried another panorama picture of course =)

Picture
On the way out we saw some older women doing some sort of yoga. 
Talk about agile for their age!

Picture
Then we arrived at the No.1 Jazz café to set up for the clinic show

Picture
Setting up, using both the Kemper and an amp with two deeflexx, really fat sound!

Picture
Here's a  show cabinet with pedals form the MOEN line.
My green Parallax is the center piece on the top shelf,
and is it ever eye-catching =)

Picture
Then we went upstairs where many Chinese musicians and guitarists had gathered. Also several TV channels were present to document the event.

Picture
We had a round of introductions, where I didn't understand a single word :) I did get to see myself in a round video loop on the TV on the wall, so I think some of it referred to the launch of my pedal

Picture
Then we went down stairs to start the performance

Picture
Me and the main men of MOEN doing a pre-performance interview with some Chinese TV-channels at attendence

Picture
Here I am in the middle of a tapping run during a jam with one of the Chinese players

Picture
Apart from my own solo performances, we also did a number of impromptu jams with assembled musicians, some really good jams!

Picture
The assembled players also signed a board and a loop switcher for a give away

Picture
We also had some more informal gatherings upstairs throughout the evening, discussing amongst one another, and also doing some more presentations

Picture
Here I am doing another jam with a young Chinese player.

At the end of the evening we went to a realyl nice restaurant and a huge farewell/celebration dinner for MOEN fx. Unfortunately though,
I don't have the pics from this as of yet, I'll update this post later on =)


Thursday October 18

Picture
I had some serious lack of time to update the blog last couple of days, but here is Thursday's post all be it a bit late.

Eaaarly Thursday morning I got up at the airport hotel to get to the airport for my flight to Tokyo. Good thing I did go there that early though, as the hotel shuttle dropped me off at the wrong terminal, and it took the better part of one hour to get to the correct one.

Picture
At the airpot I was met by my old friend and endorsers Shun Nokina of Leqtique effects, Japan Sporting a new hair-cut for the day (he used to look more like a wild-haired Mongolian step-warrior back in the day =) ). Haircut courtesy of gf =)

Picture
The familiar sight of the Tokyo scy scrapers!
It was raining quite heavily off and on, which is a common thing for Tokyo this time of the year.

Picture
The street where Shun's fantastic house was located
(a wonder of modern technology, where even the shower speaks with you).

Picture
Another cool feature (and space saving) is the retractable dinner table in the living room :D At the press of a button it disappears into the floor

Picture
Perfect timing, the new Boden 8-string by Ola Strandberg had arrived!
Fantastic instrument, but boy do I get lost amongst those additional strings :D

Picture
We also visited the Ikebe Ampstation store, talk about a packed place!

Picture
When we returned Shun's mother was visiting, and had prepared the most traditional Japanese dinner, outstanding!

Picture
For dessert and late snacks, Sapporo beer, soybeans and some local chocolate-dipped chips from Sapporo, nice!

Picture
Kohei with another co-worker of Shun's (total Gojira nut btw).

That's all for tonight, tomorrow will be a full day of Tokyo sightseeing with Kohei, looking forward to it and hope for good weather!


Friday October 19

Picture
This morning started out with a coffee at Starbucks, mine a cappucino, Kohei's is some sort of milkshake/ice cream thing that looked awesome :D

Picture
Then we went to Harajuku for some shopping frenzy =)

Picture
These crepes I've had before when in Tokyo, among the tastiest stuff you can imagine!

Picture
As you can imagine the previous pic is not of the actual crepes, and neither is this. The Japanese have taken working with plastic and paint to an artform, making perfect replicas of their dishes for the display windows.

Picture
Every other store in Harajuku is already displaying for Halloween, pretty early in my mind ;)

Picture
Then we headed to Shibuya, here in the ESP store where you can see that Japanese guitarists have some pretty outrageous signature models :D

Picture
Another freaky guitar model

Picture
I've seen snake skin boots, but real snake skin on a guitar?

Picture
On our way to Ikebe we passed the Disney Tokyo store, 8 floors of Disney magic!

Picture
Then we arrived in the department of Ikebe that deals with PRS, managed by Mr. Inazawa-san. This is one of the best PRS-selections on earth!

Picture
DOuble dragon PRS Private Stock, price tag around a new luxury car!

Picture
One of the beautiful PRS amp models in stock. 
Non of these are available in Sweden (or Europe), so I will definitely take the chance to try some out on Monday before I leave.

Picture
Thumbs up for this store!

Picture
A wall of Gibson, talk about packed!

Picture
Some Fender custom shop strats, also with quite a price tag!

Picture
On the way back, Kohei bought me and Mona this minitaure cats, looks a lot like our cat Viggo :D
Apparently this cat is called "GiGi" in Japan

Picture
We also stopped by a market with some beautiful Japanese hand crafted stuff!

Picture
Traditional Japanese slippers

Picture
The most beautiful hand painted soaps I've ever seen (and they smell good too!)

Picture
On our way back we stopped to listen to a Canadian guitarist playing classical guitar, he was stunning!

Picture
When I got back I made a radio interview over Skype with Swedish radio. Gerhard Stenlund did the interview.

It'll be aired on Monday in Sweden, P4 Västerbotten. 
Check it out (it'll be in the archive as well).

Picture
Then we went out for sushi dinner with the Ikebe Ampstation store manager

Picture
And when I say we went for sushi, we REALLY went for sushi!


Picture
On the way back we took a wrong exit, and ended up stopping by Tokyo Towers =)

The time was probably 3AM before we were home!


Saturday October 20

Picture
Clinic day! Time to pack the car!
Shun's house is really beautiful, but so big it's hr to make it any justice on camera, so you'll have to make do with this nice entrance :D

Picture
Shun's gf Ayaka is a walking smile basically =)

Picture
Setting up for the clinic at Ikebe Ampstation, 3rd floor meeting room

Picture
Shun made these 30 beautiful Maestoso OD's especially for this event (custom color). number 31of them is coming home with me =)

Picture
Place was packed!

Picture
Me and Ike Uneo. This guy started his career at Roland back in -77, and was responsible for the V guitar system (for example all the pickup emulations are based on his personal guitars).

He is also an excellent translator, and has been my side-kick on every single clinic I've ever done in Japan

Picture
Another of Shun's friends and co-workers was a HUGE Gojira fan.
So, I decided to give him the RiptApparel Gojira shirt I had.
This site releases one print every day/all year, and its only available for 24 hours. So it's pretty safe to assume, that even in Tokyo, he'll be pretty alone with this one!

Picture
The event was a great success, and half of Shun's MAT's were taken right away. The Strandberg guitars also caught a lot of interest!


Picture
After the show we all went out for a great dinner at a Korean BBQ place in Shibuya

Picture
Didn't know it whilst eating, but this was apparently tongue. Super tasty though!

Picture
Some more of the guys at the dinner. 

This was one VERY long dinner, we were back home after 6Am!!

So time to sleep!, Tomorrow I will have a private lesson with one of Shun's friends, we will try to use the Kemper to profile Kohei's excellent Two-Rock, and Shun's mother will take us out to Shabu Shabu at one of Tokyos finest restaurants! Can't wait!


Sunday October 21

Picture
This day began with having a short lesson with one of Shun's friends, Yukinori Harada, then updating the blog and some videos which I have been a few days behind on.

Picture
Later we went out for dinner with Shun, his gf and mother. 

Picture
We had superb shabu shabu at a very traditional and high-class Japanese restaurant

Picture
Very packed table =)

Picture
The waitresses wore very traditional kimonos, and this particular girl was tiny enough to have been a 10-year old =) Either that, or all this good food has made me grow to giant :D

Picture
Japanese understated decoration, only one in the room. I like it!

Picture
After dinner we paroosed a huge department store, like a mix between H&M and Best Buy, electronics and clothes in a great mix at every floor =)

Picture
On the way back, I got to try some new koffein-free Coke Zero, tasted very funny indeed

For the rest of the evening it's packing and movie on the schedule =)


Monday October 22

Picture
Today started out by going back to Shibuya to say farewell to the Ikebe guys, and then off to the airport. Here we have Inazawa-san with the new Strandberg Boden.

Picture
Just can't get over how many guitars can fit into a room =)

Picture
It's literally a forest 

Picture
Some great Gibsons here too, that Murphy guy sure knows a thing or two about relicing guitars!

Picture
One of the most gorgeous private stock PRSi I've seen.
Cocobolo fingerboard for the win!

Picture
Also got to try out the PRS Dallas amp. Super warm and punchy,
would probably take an overdrive really well! Unfortunately all mine were in the suitcase.

Picture
Then off we went for the one hour drive to the airport, sayonara Tokyo!

Picture
Lunch at the airport, saying farewell and see you soon!

This will be my last post for this (very long) blog. Tonight I arrive in China, and tomorrow is just travel day(s), so see you in a future blog post from somewhere else in the world =)



1 Comment
Glen Parry link
15/12/2020 09:01:29

Great reading

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2013
    October 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    June 2011
    May 2011
    January 2011

    Categories

    All
    2012
    Anaheim
    Baked Potato
    Cardio
    Cheesecake Factory
    Crossfit
    Dave Grissom
    Davy Knowles
    Day 3
    Deeflexx
    Egnater
    Endurance
    Fitness
    Frankfurt
    Holdsworth
    House Of Blues
    Jack Gardiner
    La
    Leqtique
    Macacheck
    Mar
    Meshuggah
    Moen
    Moen Fx
    Musik Messe
    Namm
    Namm 2012
    Nokina
    Ola Englund
    Ola Strandberg
    One Control
    One Control Japan
    One-control Japan
    On Music & Guitar Playing
    Pedals
    Prs
    Quayle
    Richard Lundmark
    Ron Thal
    Sabian
    Shred
    Shun
    Shun Nokina
    Steve Vai
    Strandberg Guitar Works
    Strength
    Strictly 7 Guitars
    Suhr
    Terry Bozzio
    Thordendal
    Tom Quayle
    Tony Royster Jr
    Tosin Abasi
    Training
    Tweaker
    Welcome

    RSS Feed

©Richard Lainegard 2022