It's Frankfurt Musikmesse next week, 1-4 April, and I have seen that only on saturday 4th it will be accessible to non-professionals. That's just not right!
The Messe will be overcrowded on that day, as well as parkings, busses and highways.
It will be waiting in long lines for playing a popular tuba or euphonium.
So I plan not to go.
Last year it was also accessible to the public on Friday...., so that split the crowd in 2 parts. That way I had the opportunity to visit the entire Hall of wind-instruments and test everything I wanted.
I don't see that happen this year.
I went back in the mid to late 90s and early 2000's, and I remember that at least one year it was only open to the public one day . . . Thank goodness I always got in as a pro/business person. Riding the bus to/from the outside parking areas was lots of fun, though. . .
Johannes Mader wrote:
I don't think it was open to public on friday the last year. Saturday has been the only public day for the last 2 or 3 years. Before that it was Saturday and Sunday.
Do you have a friend who is a professional (musician, director, music educator, dealer)? Ask him to reserve a card for you.
whooops seems that you're right.
I found last year's brochure, and it was indeed only open for the public on saturday.
Forget about my frustrations above, I was just jealous about pro's being able to choose out of 3 days. Let's see if I can get some pro-tickets.
In the FWIW category, the NAMM (North American Music Merchants) Show is not open to the public (ostensibly--one can almost always finagle a badge as a friend of a friend of a merchant or press member). They may have tried it for a day several years ago; it was a disaster because virtually no business could be conducted between vendors and retailers due to the constantly unbearable decibel level and crowds. However, as large as the NAMM Show is (spilling over one of the largest convention centers in the US in Anaheim), it is still much smaller than Frankfurt.
There are some tubas and euphs on display at NAMM, but nowhere near as many as at Midwest, TMEA, nor Frankfurt. For example, the Yamaha display at NAMM is huge, but they usually only have "student horns" up to the YBB-321. Anything like a YCB-826S Yamayork at NAMM? Fuggedaboutit.
Then again, one can discover some unbelievably BAD horns on the bottom floor (aka the "cheap" booths) where even trying to play a simple diatonic scale in tune is an adventure. Of course, as Yamaha is wont to offer up as a slogan these days as production of more and more of their products drifts away from Japan: "It's the company of origin, not the country of origin." Uh-huh. Many TubeNetters can think of horns that carry a good ol' reliable/respectable brand name whose production has been subcontracted to a different part of the world. In most (not all) cases (pun intended), the horn produced in the newly sourced factory doesn't hold a candle to the higher quality of the original manufacturer's production. This is not only true for tubas and euphoniums, but for most musical instruments. Perhaps many other consumer products, for that matter.
I didn't mean to get off on this tangent. But before the naysayers chime in, it is also true that quality of production of musical instruments in their original country can also deteriorate to the point that a currently built instrument hardly resembles one built with the same brand name decades ago. Case in point: Conn's transition to MacMillan ownership, etc.
Go to the Messe site and buy a ticket as a dealer. You can be creative. be a consultant or what ever not to hard. you download the ticket and swipe it at one of the kisoks at the Messe grounds. Happy trails
Go to the Messe site and buy a ticket as a dealer. You can be creative. be a consultant or what ever not to hard. you download the ticket and swipe it at one of the kisoks at the Messe grounds. Happy trails
Go to the Messe site and buy a ticket as a dealer. You can be creative. be a consultant or what ever not to hard. you download the ticket and swipe it at one of the kisoks at the Messe grounds. Happy trails
seems that you're right.
