Last day and the busiest yet! Its Saturday so the kids are out. Lots of Groms with and without parents checking out the scene, looking for free schwag, and opportunities to play nice guitars through cool amps and efx gear. Fun Stuff! Actually heard some pretty amazing kids playing like pros. We had a few folks come back after taking a couple of days to think about it and take advantage of the great South By Music Gear Expo pricing. It was really fun to meet Sxip Shirey and Mike Trepagnier  who walked away with a couple of T-21HTs at a great deal. We also had the good fortune of having Chris Cowart from Strait Music  take an interest in our boards and we made sale to a really great Austin area retailer  right at the end of the day. The highlight though, was the visit to the booth by Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter to pick up  (in Chris Stamey's words)  "the Steinway of Pedal Boards". We are very excited to have those guys in our camp for sure!

It was fun also to learn about the band Alpine from Australia, the winners of the SxSW Music Gear Expo Giveaway which included a Boicebox T-21HT pedal board (the flagship of our line up).

We are having our own 'in house' drawing for a T-21HT to be chosen at random on April 15, 2012. In order to qualify you must be registered on our site or subscribe to our newsletter. We are also giving away 6 Lava Retro Coiled Guitar cables courtesy of Lava Cable.

Another busy day in the booth with lots of traffic and plenty of interest. Peter was interviewed by Scott Minchk of  'The G-Cast' which is a quirky podcast hosted by Scott about all things Guitar. The episode we are in is a bit long but we show up at around 8:39. Our first press interview! That afternoon Peter took a break from the booth and caught the Punch Brothers in the Radio Day Stage right upstairs in the Austin Convention center.  That night Alison & Peter  saw The Shins and Jimmy Cliff on the top floor of a 4 story parking structure while Taylor caught the DB's down town on 6th street. Later that evening we caught the Dunwells from England at Maggie Mae's. All great shows! 

 Thursday was another busy day at the Gear Expo with lots of good conversations and contacts. Became friends with our booth neighbors Price and Mark Harrison of P3 Amplifiers out of Nashville.  Very high end hand wired tube amps  with enclosures designed by Price who has a really great  esthetic design sense. Lots of traffic in the booth today more positive feedback. The bamboo seems to bring people in with expressions of appreciation of the beauty of the materials and then the practical functional design elements elicit comments like ..."wow, you guys have really thought of everything!".  Very exciting and validating. The sound level in the Expo is pretty extreme but starting to get used to it. Mostly it is a cacophony of white noise with occasional hits of great guitar licks or a song performance at one of the many booths hosting guest artists. Then every couple of hours the "Jam in the Van" booth starts up with live recordings sessions of guest artists. Some really great stuff but located directly behind us so very loud. 

Later that evening we made our way to the Paramount theater in the heart of down town to see  "Nothing Can Hurt Me",  the not yet finished documentary film about late 70's Rock band Big Star. This was a band that released 3 albums to great critical acclaim but due to politics and bad timing the albums were never adequately distributed and the band languished. The music however lives on in the hearts of the many contemporary bands and artists who were influenced by Big Star's music. Largely the brain child of Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter the event was a tribute to the band they had been a friend to in the 70's and included amazing performances of many of the great songs from Big Star by guest artists including  Jody Stephens, Mike Mills, Mitch Easter, Chris Stamey, Charles Cleaver, Jeff Crawford, Django Haskins, Matt McMichaels, and Brett Harris as well as local Austin artists the Tosca String Quartet. Some of the vocalists who helped pay tribute were Jon Auer & Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, Peter Case, The Dunwells, Skylar Guydasz, Bret Harris and Django Haskins.  Once again we were excited to see one of our pedal boards on stage amongst this increadible group of artists. Peter Buck of REM was there and sporting a T-21HT!

Had a brief chat with Peter as well as Pat Sansome of WILCO after the show. We have 2 Boicebox pedalboards with WILCO's manager right now for the band to check out. 

Boicebox is back from South by Soutwest in Austin TX

Well, we’re back and  psyched about our first trade show with the Boicebox Pedal Board line. The show, the music, and Austin were all great and the people we met really made it special.

First post Tues/Wed

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon after a 32  hour drive straight through with no breaks longer than 15 mins. Great to have good company and 3 drivers to share the load. Met Luanne Williams (SxSW Music Gear Expo director) and were encouraged by her warm smile and calm demeanor. She is a real pro and a pleasure to work with. Load in was pretty smooth with Taylor’s  booth set up and we were able to get things squared away enough to wrap up the next day before show opening @ noon. That evening Alison & Peter did some exploring while Taylor took in a show at Austin City Limits. We all needed sleep so not a late night but received exciting news about Andrew Bird (and a couple of our pedal boards airing on Colbert Report that night.

that look as good as they work. A great first day at SXSW! First day was steady with lots of positive feedback. Alison & Peter got to check out the Alabama Shakes up stairs at the convention center in a short teaser set and were blown away by their first music @ SxSW! Hooked up with Seth @ ScreaminFX (30 something PHD electrical engineer who makes some great effects pedals) and traded some gear  for the show. Wrapped up our first day at the expo and got a quick rest up before going out for more music. Really got a taste of the festival Wed Evening as we rode bikes in 78 degree weather through throngs of partying people as music poured out of every door and window we passed. Got to Stubb's around 10 and caught the entire Alabama Shakes show! Wow those guys really rock! Finally it was Andrew Bird @ around midnight and it was so much fun to see our gear on stage for a Showcase act! All 4 members of the band are using our pedalboards and love them and Andrew took one of our “Wheelie” rigs to Paris & London last week! Fantastic show (NPR Broadcast) and fun to get backstage after with Tour Manager Tom Carlson to get better view of gear and talk about how things are working out. We will be sending bassist Alan Hampton the smaller T-16HT to better accommodate his needs and talked with Tom about possibly building a cabinet for the vintage Ampeg bass rig Alan is using. After all of the hard work of the last year, nothing feels better than seeing our product being used by great touring acts that are affirming our vision of building world-class pedal boards that look as good as they work. Great first day at SxSW!