WTDP? journeyed to Dallas, Texas this month to attend the 31st Annual Dallas International Guitar Festival just to the west of downtown at Dallas Market Hall. The show was a drool-inspiring display of vintage guitars and gear, as well as a place for boutique equipment makers and other independent dealers to show off their fineries.

The weekend also featured performances from the likes of Johnny Hiland, Black Stone Cherry, Rick Derringer, Will Ray, Paul Reed Smith Band, Johnny A, Point Blank and George Lynch, among others.

On the show floor, amongst the vintage Gibson and Fender gear, a few pedal makers set up shop to tout and, of course, sell their stomps. Visual Sound was there with the company’s full line of smaller V2 Series pedals, which includes the compression half of its popular Route 66 distortion/compressor stomp in the form of the Comp66, and the distortion box Son of Hyde, one half of the manufacturers Jekyll & Hyde overdrive/distortion box.

We spoke with Steve Mikesell, dealer relations reps for Visual Sound who told us the V2 Series resulted from tons of fan requests to split the popular dual pedal form of its marquee stomps into smaller, more affordable independent effects.

The wickedest effects rig at the show was on display and in full use at the Pigtronix booth. The New York-based outfit showed off its line of futuristic, boutique pedals that offer unique forward-thinking tones as opposed to trying to replicate popular vintage sounds.

When we asked Pigtronix founder and analog pedal maker David Koltai which stomp in his current six-pedal arsenal was the hottest seller, he laughed and replied: ‘Which ever one I have in stock!’

New for 2008 is the Pigtronix’s PolySaturation distortion pedal – a smaller stomp with a beefy sound. Koltai said he believes this will his biggest seller this year due to its smaller size and lower price point.

We made it by Creation Audio Labs a couple of times to talk with Gary Gistinger, but each time – without fail – Gary was locked into what appeared to be fairly high-level conversations with a team of smartly dressed gentlemen. Good for him – bad for us. CAL did have its MK.4.23 clean boost pedal well displayed. Hopefully Gary got a large purchase order out of those meetings!

The top draw at the Burriss Amps booth was the awesome Royal Bluesman 18-watt amp head. This little blue metal fury displayed the sweetest tone we heard at the entire show. Not much bigger than a construction worker’s lunch box, the Class A tube Royal Bluesman sports built-in reverb and vibrato effects. Lexington, Kentucky-based Burriss also had a trio of stomps on display – the Boostier II, the Boostiest II and the Chaloopa (which can act as boost when used with the Royal Bluesman). The Boostier II is a clean gain pre-amp, while the Boostiest II is a dual pedal – one-half clean gain pre-amp and one-half Tube Screamer-inspired overdrive.

Bob Burriss told WTDP? that the Royal Bluesman is getting a lot of attention – and from listening to it being demoed, we understand why.

While Burriss wins the tone award at the show, the aesthetic gold medal goes to the team at Trillium Amplifiers. The Indianapolis-based shop’s stunning, wood cabinet amps looked like they leaped right out the 1940s. Classy vintage styling made these amps appear more like retro console-style stereos than ballsy Class A tube amps.

Jason Beatty, director of sales and marketing, told us the company has a quartet of effects pedals due later this summer. The prototypes were on display at the show, but we didn’t get a chance to hear these bad boys.

Texas-based Kendricks Amps had their new Cactus Juice dual stomp for sale at the show. The pedal is one-half clean boost and one-half overdrive and features true bypass and separate pre-gain and volume controls for both functions.

Lastly, Paul Sanchez had his Red Iron Amps on the floor. These low-watt, tube-driven beauties from Lockhart, Texas, were some of the most hearty-looking cabs and heads of the show. While the amps were nice, it was Paul’s Buffer2 that caught my eye. Designed to run behind a amp/effects simulator – like Line 6’s POD – the Buffer2 brings the digital signal some much needed tube warm and successfully dulls the artifacts and fizz that a lot of digital processors can create. We were so impressed with the simple looking yet very effective unit… we bought one! Thanks Paul.

Enjoy the small gallery below and we hope to see everyone again next year!