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| Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. https://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=41604 |
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| Author: | Fred Tellier [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Just received this email Quote: Dear guitar fans,
We hereby regretfully announce that the Montreal Guitar Show will not be returning. Despite all efforts expended by our team and our partners, a number of factors have made our mission impossible, including the current economic situation, financial losses incurred over the past years, and customs and border complications imposed upon our visiting luthiers. We had sincerely hoped to present the MGS every second year, alternating with the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in California, as we had announced in 2011. However, it has become apparent that without the involvement of major partners, this would not be possible. We would like to thank all those, near and far, who participated in creating this dream of an event for all true guitar fans, especially our advisory committee and all our luthiers. We must certainly not forget that, thanks to the work of all these fine and devoted people, thousands of us had the rare opportunity to experience six years of six-string happiness! We should also remember that said luthiers will have many other opportunities to exhibit their expertise and wares: aside from the Healdsburg show, presenting its new edition in 2015, let us point towards the hard work and dynamism of the Association professionnelle des luthiers artisans en guitares et autres cordes pincées (APLG) and The European Guitar Builders, a new overseas association of luthiers created after a passionate discussion among guitar devotees during the last edition of the MGS! And let’s not forget that six-string savants and supporters can look forward to the upcoming edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and its customary roster of guitar champions, as well as the program of the Jazz All-Year Round series, which will fill our concert calendars in the coming months with shows by such luminaries as Joe Louis Walker, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Bonnie Raitt and George Thorogood… The Montreal Guitar Show team. |
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| Author: | sdsollod [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
That's a shame... |
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| Author: | Alan Carruth [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Yup. I'm really going to miss the show, and the city, but not the hassles at the border. We're back to trying to establish a major East Coast show that can balance out Healdsburg for those of us who don't particularly enjoy flying to California with guitars. Woodstock is a great show, I've heard, but small. Maybe they'll make the effort to enlarge it now that Montreal is gone? We can hope. |
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| Author: | Alain Moisan [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Alan Carruth wrote: Yup. I'm really going to miss the show, and the city, but not the hassles at the border. Alan, if I may ask: on which side of the border were you experiencing hassles? Thanks. |
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| Author: | B. Howard [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:11 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
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| Author: | Chris Pile [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Oh. I thought maybe the blame would be laid at the feet of the Obama administration closing everything they can get their hands on.... |
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| Author: | Sankey Guitars [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Well, there's the Ottawa guitar show. We're just a couple of hours down the road from Montreal. It's been small and just local luthiers up to now, but I suppose we could make it bigger. I won't try to make it the classy international event that the MGS was (I can't afford to lose money either) but for eastern Ontario/western Quebec/northern NY luthiers it might work. |
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| Author: | TonyKarol [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:18 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Hi Mike .. so when is your show in Ottawa .. would love to exhibit at that one ... |
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| Author: | Fred Tellier [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Ottawa might be doable for me also, how many people does it attract Mike Fred |
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| Author: | Sankey Guitars [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Last two years we did a one-day show on fathers' day. That's right around the time of the ottawa international jazz festival. We also have a major blues festival in July that I could probably try to catch some synergy with. We must have attracted a couple of hundred visitors each time, though they often stuck around for a while, took in the mini-concerts etc, so it often felt like more. We didn't take attendance figures because it was free and we didn't think we would get near the building capacity (might have been wrong about that). We kept it to 12 local luthiers, on account of that's about all we could comfortably fit in the rooms we had. If there were enough interest I might rethink it and rent a larger space. Up to this point it has been a pretty small community-building exercise, run on a shoestring budget. In order to make it worthwhile for out-of-owners I'd definitely have to invest more in advertising, maybe make it a two day thing, and probably charge more for tables too. I know there are more local luthiers who would like to take part but we just didn't have space. If anybody else is interested in next years' show, by all means let me know. |
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| Author: | Alain Moisan [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Sankey Guitars wrote: If anybody else is interested in next years' show, by all means let me know. PM sent! |
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| Author: | Josh H [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:08 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
That is a shame. And it would explain why I haven't had any responses when trying to contact the MGS people recently. I'm also interested in the show in Ottawa. Josh |
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| Author: | David LaPlante [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:34 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Woodstock is indeed a great and fun show, sort of like A.S.I.A. but with lots of potential clients. The problem is I think that it would be very hard to make the show bigger without losing it's charm by having to move it to a new venue. Baker has offered half tables in order to increase the number of makers attending (fine for me as I exhibit a few demos as I pretty much just build on commission these days) but it does limit the number of guitars that can be displayed. With the demise of Newport, Newport/Miami and now Montreal there does seem to be a void here on the east coast. Alan, Boston would be ideal....!...maybe the luthier org. over that way could be the genesis of something? |
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| Author: | Burton LeGeyt [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:44 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
I agree Boston would be ideal. We have talked about it within the NEL group enough to identify some spaces that could work. The time commitment and logistics are the kicker - no one person has the resources to take the lead. If a small group could be put together to each tackle a specific part it could start to look more do-able. I also agree that Woodstock, apart from space, is pretty great. |
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| Author: | Alan Carruth [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Even after only a couple of days there's a fair amount of buzz going on this, so I suspect something will happen eventually here in the US Northeast. I had hassles on both sides of the borders, coming and going. One year after the festival when we were on the way home the border agent asked what the nine guitars in the back of the car might be worth. When we gave him an estimate he perked right up. 'How do I know you didn't just buy those in Canada and you're trying to smuggle them in?" We couldn't seem to come up with the right answer until my player friend, Ken Bofield, asked him what we should have done. Then he told us about the little form (CPB form 4457) you get on the way up that describes the object. They inspect it, sign and stamp the form, and when you come back in, you're covered, at least for that angle. The following year Ken couldn't see any good way to stop in at US Customs on the way north, so we stopped at Canadian customs. They said we'd have to go back south to get the US form, but then we needed to stop and talk to them too. That used up more than two hours, iirc. As part of the proceeding they called the customs broker the show retained, as detailed in the form letter they had sent us. The next day at the show somebody from the broker's office stopped by at the booth and dropped off an envelope. "You'll get a bill in the mail" was his only comment. A few weeks later, almost literally as I was on my way out the door to go to the GAL Convention, I got the bill: $500 for a 'Customs bond'. There was no indication of how I was to see about the return of what was probably a payment to cover any duty I might have owed. The problem is that more than half the instruments in the car were not mine, but private property of Ken's, which were not dutiable so far as I could tell, but when we tried to break it down the Canadian border people wouldn't hear of it: we had to give them the total value of all of them. Anyway, I hadn't sold anything, and so should not have owed any duty. In my mind, this was the one big failing of an otherwise superbly run show: we US luthiers simply had no clue as to what the laws were or how to comply. They did make some effort before the first one, but my understanding is that one of the US luthiers who had tried to comply was nailed anyway for something they hadn't covered: he lacked a Canadian work permit and thus technically could not sell anything. I was venting about the whole episode at the GAL meeting, and one of the fellows from LMII heard me. He said that they had a package they sent to all the Canadian luthiers going to Healdsburg that detailed all the regs and the paperwork they'd need to have for the show. Had there been a Montreal show this summer, I'd have asked them for the same courtesy. As it is... Burton: has there been talk on the NEL mailing list? I've been booted off, and unable to get back on. *sigh* |
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| Author: | Sankey Guitars [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:04 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Man, what a bummer. One of the great things about the Montreal show was that it was a great mixer for American, Canadian, and French luthiers to learn from and borrow from each other. If your thing in Boston goes ahead, and my thing in Ottawa goes ahead, we'll be segregated again. |
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| Author: | Burton LeGeyt [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Alan, No the talk has been more informal. I sent you a PM- Yes, its true, Montreal was a great middle ground and during a great festival. As was Newport (in RI), which also perished. The "Boston thing" is far from being a thing! |
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| Author: | TonyKarol [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 6:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Hi Alan .. I sent you a PM about your post |
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| Author: | Alan Carruth [ Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
RE: Tony's PM: I don't remember who it was from LMII that talked about the special package of info for Canadian luthiers. It's possible that there is no such thing, and that some of the folks there think they're taking better care of our northern neighbors than they are. It's one of those things that I think show organizers ought to do, even if they don't, especially in these days of proliferating regulations. Montreal did, after all, retain a customs broker, who must know about this stuff: why not tell us up front? |
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| Author: | TonyKarol [ Wed Oct 09, 2013 6:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sad News Montreal Guitar show cancelled. |
Thanks Alan, I will check with LMI to see what they have .... it all seems to be a little grey ... |
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