User Group Day - Accounts, Impressions and Photos

[Evan Skopp]

Post 'em here.

[tone4days]

was very cool to be able to see/hear some on the live web feed
thanks for answering my twitter questions too!

have fun at the jam, bros

t4d

[stevie_bees]

Yeah, was good to be a small part of the day. Thank MJ for my apron for me Evan!!

[arellanon]

It was an awesome day at Seymour Duncan. Evan was a great host as was everyone at the factory. I got to chat a little with Gearjoneser, Aceman, and Virtual Kevorkian was there as well but I did not get a chance to say hi to him. I got to (partially) wind my S-Deco (I got MJ to autograph it) and purchased an older pink/yellow Screaming Demon for $40!

Also the little gift bags were just outstanding; we got two t-shirts, picks, strings, stickers, flyers, even coasters!

I will post pics in a bit. All in all a day I'll never forget.

[Scott_F]

All I got was an airline change fee. Work popped up in the way of my normal life. Wish I was there.

[arellanon]

Ok here are some of the better pics I took:



The main entrance sign per say.



Our good friend Evan giving us instructions and orientation.



Seymour himself.



Mrs. Duncan if I am not mistaken.



This is one of the guitars that were available for try out at the UGD. It is a Seymour Duncan Strat with Stack Plus pups.





The Zephyrs.... @_@



Seymour greeting us and telling us some of his awesome stories.



Big Yngwie fan here....... ^_^



This is a display of different pickups throughout the years. This display was one of my favorite parts of my visit at the factory.



A close up of the pickup display showcasing humbuckers.



Old ad for Seymour Duncan.



I love this ad as well: showcasing humbucker greats Seth Lover and Seymour Duncan.



Seymour signing baseplates with MJ and Warren DeMartini.



This is a picture of a pink/yellow Screaming Demon and the S-Deco I helped wind at the factory. I can't believe I got this Demon for $40! It's kinda old; the address on the box reads 601 Pine Ave. Evan, when did you guys move from that old location?



I bought all of this home! The big box to the left, a Stealth Plug guitar computer interface, was won by raffle. I mentioned my purchase of the Screaming Demon as well as a FREE Custom Shop S-Deco. Everything else was a gift bag with goodies from different manufacturers: Seymour Duncan, Dunlop, Cleartone, D'Addario, Planet Waves, AmpliTube, and Star Picks.

Wow, what a day! August 2011 will go down as one of my best guitar months ever. I also purchased a used Carvin DC135 earlier this month. Read about it here:

http://www.carvinbbs.com/viewtopic.php?t=27620

[formula73]

Fantastic!!!!!! I can't wait to see all the other pics, too. Man, I wish I were still down in SoCal...easy drive!

[Evan Skopp]

I can't believe I got this Demon for $40! It's kinda old; the address on the box reads 601 Pine Ave. Evan, when did you guys move from that old location?

August 1993. 18 years ago, the same month I started working at SD.

Thanks for joining us, arellanon!

[arellanon]

August 1993. 18 years ago, the same month I started working at SD.

Thanks for joining us, arellanon!

Wow, so the Screaming Demon I bought is somewhat old.

I had a blast Evan! Can't wait for the next UGD!

[TheLivingDead]

Awesome pics! Hey DeMartini! Maaaan looks like a super awesome time.

[Gearjoneser]

I just got home, and man am I exhausted.

My wife and I had a great time, with all the activities, jam, meeting forum members, talking with Seymour....and Anabel really got along with MJ and Cathy so well. Ana has so much admiration and respect for MJ after today. Me too. Maricela has so much love in her heart and incredible passion for her life's work......truly a lovely person.

I feel like the luckiest guy today. First of all, making UGD pickups is a major highlight for all attendees, and SD was gracious enough to allow all of us a free pickup of our choice. That basically meant I was getting two pickups. The two we built were gold covered production floor Brobuckers. One for my SG Diablo and one for my LP Custom Black Beauty. For that alone, I was stoked. But then the bags full of goodies, including Planet Waves string winders w/cutters, strings, SD shirts, and SD screwdrivers (I love those)

Then, during the course of the day, I picked up two door prizes of a Planet Waves clip-on tuner and PW Guitar Rest. Awesome!

But here's the absolute icing on the cake!!! As I was outside talking with Evan about his Crazy Heart movie Gretsch, which he acquired from his dear friend Stephen Bruton, I heard what I thought was my name on the intercom. I walked in and asked the receptionist who she just announced, and she said my name......OH MAN, OH MAN, I won the grand prize by sheer luck....and I never win anything. They presented me with a Fender Vibro Champ amp, new in box from Fender!!! And I really wanted a Vibro or Super Champ and was thinking about buying one. I've needed a small practice amp ever since my last one died a year ago. Talk about pure dumb luck!
I'm sitting here now looking at it next to my computer desk in complete disbelief. All day, I kept thinking "I can't believe I won an amp!"

Now, it's time to get some sleep, since I didn't get a hotel room. We drove 80 miles home, and will go back tomorrow for the picnic, as well as more time hanging in downtown Santa Barbara.

[north]

I had a great time at the User Group Event today at the factory... met so many cool peeps.....had a blast winding my own pickup...(Installing it today..) The banquet was awesome too....

[BTMN]

[LesStrat]

Awesome!

How many forum bros attended?

[TheLivingDead]

Damn, congrats Joe!

[straightblues]

Thank you to Evan and Dewi and everyone else at Duncan for setting up a great User Group Day. Everyone who attended was treated like a star. Thank you very much for everything. You guys are real pros.

[ErikH]

Congrats, Joe! Full report on those Brobuckers when you get them installed and of course the amp.

[infrared72]

I had a great time at the SD UGD event yesterday. There are a lot of folks working at SD making things for musicians, and I was amazed at all of the steps that go into making a guitar pickup. The factory tour was really informative, and I really enjoyed that. Seymour had a lot of great stories to tell and information to share. The opportunity to tour the custom shop was great as well with MJ sharing some interesting info.

The R&D session upstairs with the engineering guys provided a much better understanding of all the steps and hard work it takes to develop, test, prototype, market and sell guitar pedals. The next time I head out to a music store and see all those SD pickups, pedals, and components in a display case, I feel like I'll have a greater awareness and understanding of the efforts that took place to make these things available.

And the wind your own pickup activity was FANTASTIC! Highly recommended for the next SD UGD.

Thank you for a great event.

-Peter

[JOLLY]

and I never win anything.

Dude, you're always winning something...lol. You won a door prize at the amp show, and you've won a couple of things from that surf shack place down the road from you. Maybe you haven't won anything as nice at that amp, but you've sure as hell won alot more stuff than I have as far as raffles/door prizes or whatever goes.

[tone4days]

we want to hear about the jam - high points? surprises? funny stuff? c'mon fill us in!!