Okay, I've gone through my photos and most of my literature that I picked up at NAMM. Today was both the best and worst day for me. It was the best because I had the most fun today playing and talking to people. I met Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars, which was pretty cool. It was the worst though because... well, that's kind of a buzz kill, so I'll leave it for the last part of my report. So anyways, here is what I can tell you about stuff that was there. I have been looking through my brochures, and I know I have left out a bunch of stuff because some of the literature went missing. If more shows up, I'll post it.
Photos- you can go here to see my photos of the show http://www.flickr.com/photos/49833295@N00/sets/72157612683928333/
You can go here to see official vids and stuff from the show: http://www.namm.org/thenammshow
And here is my report with links:
NAMM Report
Electric guitars:
I played a lot of guitars. I only got to plug in a few, unfortunately.
The Moog Guitar was there. I wasn’t a huge fan of that, it was hard to figure out the
controls, heavy, and didn’t play that well. Maybe if I had seen a demo I would have had a
better time with it.
I also played the Gibson Dark Fire, Axcess, the new Standard, and the ‘59 Reissue. The
Dark Fire was cooler than I thought it would be. I plugged it into the software and went
crazy with it. I think it sounded better than the Fender Virtual. The ‘59 was my least
favorite feel-wise, but it had a great sound. The Axcess was okay. The new Standard had a
really comfy neck. It is assymetrical, but you can’t even tell by looking at it because it is so
slight.
I loved all of the Breedlove electrics. They were incredibly lightweight, sounded amazing,
and were totally ergonomic, not to mention gorgeous.
Here are links to some smaller companies I saw there:
www.rgcguitars.com
www.swingguitars.com
www.odonnellguitars.com
www.jamestrussart.com
www.zuniguitars.com
www.sukop.com
www.dingwallguitars.com
www.fibenare-guitars.com
www.warriorguitar.com
F Bass: These guys used really cool woods, sometimes with matching woodbuckers.
www.fbass.com
Minarik: Odd shaped and highly decorated electrics. www.minarikguitars.com
Kraken: If you can ignore the Engrish, this site is pretty sweet. Some of the most weird and
wonderful guitar designs and finishes are here: www.krakenguitars.com
Gigliotti Guitars: Very distinctive sounding solid body electric guitars with an acoustic
sound when unplugged. They are kind of interesting looking. Check it out:
http://www.gigliottiguitars.com/index.html
Heritage Guitar : It is basically made up of builders who used to work for Gibson back in
the day, and didn’t want to move away from Kalamazoo when Gibson relocated. They still
build guitars the way Gibson did it back then. www.heritageguitar.com
Pedulla Basses: Some of the most figured wood I have ever seen was at this booth.
http://www.pedulla.com/html/pedulla_basses.html
Spector: Another company with truly amazing exotic wood basses: www.spectorguitar.com
Reverend Guitars: I liked the feel and look of these guitars a lot, but unfortunately I didn’t
get to plug one in. www.reverendguitars.com
Acoustic Guitars:
Blackbird: These guitars have hollow necks, and they are quite strange looking. They have
a big sound and a real solid feel when you play. www.blackbirdguitars.com
Tanglewood: The top selling UK acoustic company is coming to the US. I played some of
their guitars, and I liked them.
Sanden Guitars: Michael Sanden is the designer. These are the guitars with the compensated
frets. He also now designs for Tanglewood.
Composite Acoustics: I thought they were pretty cool for not being made of wood. The only
thing I didn’t like was the texture on the neck. My hand instantly got sweaty while I was
playing. They sounded great though, and they had a real solid feel.
www.compositeacoustics.com
Walden Guitars: I liked them, they had a great feel and sound. Some kid who worked there
came and played with me for a few minutes. Good fun. www.waldenguitars.com
Larrivee: Gorgeous, gorgeous acoustics. www.larrivee.com
Parts:
I went to all the hardware booths. There wasn’t much that seemed new. Hipshot had a
new style of tuner that has a round textured black button. It was very modern looking.
Hipshot also has 18:1 locking tuners, which I tried. They were a tiny bit stiff, but the
thumbscrew was easier on the fingers than some other tuners.
ABM Hardware: This stuff was very solid and nice looking: www.abm-mueller.com
Acme Guitar Works: I talked to a guy named George Ellison at the Acme booth. He was
extremely helpful and talked to me about wiring for quite some time. The company makes
wiring kits where all the parts are hand picked by people who have actually wired guitars
before. The wires are mostly teflon covered or cloth covered, they use Orange Drop
capacitors, the pots are made specifically for a guitar application, etc... the other thing they
have is the ToneShaper, which I thought was kind of cool. Anyways, you can check it out
here: www.acmeguitarworks.com
Moses Inc: Necks made from graphite. They were super smooth. I didn’t like the fact that
they didn’t have a whole guitar available to play, just the necks. Apparently they have a
very distinctive sound, and they are very very durable. They have a ton of different shapes
and they make scalloped models. www.mosesgraphite.com
Amps:
I mainly stuck to checking out the big guys, since it is very likely that I will be getting
something fairly common. It was hard to find areas where I could really hear the amps well,
what with all the ambient noise, and I didn’t want to waste exhibitors’ time in the sound
proof rooms since I was just a visitor and not likely to make any large purchases. But I
kinda dug these.
Badcat
Wharfedale
Mad Professor
I also checked out the new VOX Amplug. What a great idea! They don’t sound super
amazing or anything, but for what they are they weren’t bad.
Accessories
Tunerguard: It keeps your guitar tuned while it is in a gig bag. www.tunerguard.com
Shred Neck: I bought one of these because I got a huge discount. I think it’s a pretty cool
idea. It is a practice neck with the first 7 frets and strings so you can practice your fretting.
The only downside is that it’s not really tuneable. www.shredneck.com
Guitar Guard: Protective skins to go on your guitar so it won’t get scratched or dented when
it is on the stand or whatever. Kind of cool: www.guitarguard.net
Souldier- They make straps out of car seatbelts. Kind of interesting. www.souldier.us
Some really nice leather guitar straps: www.lmproducts.com
Greasy Groove: “Dress-up” kits for your guitar. Kind of amusing if you’re into that sort of
thing. www.greasygroove.com
Case Brace: An excellent idea! Check it out: www.casebrace.com
Graphix Guards: Pick guards and such with interesting things on them. They had chrome
finish high hat knobs too (cool looking, but they were made of plastic... I would rather have
metal), which is what got my attention. www.x-guards.com
Pikcard: These are like a credit card with 4 picks that you can pop out of it so that you
always have picks with you. www.pikcard.com
Woods:
Global Wood Source: This was by far the most impressive wood booth in my opinion.
There was some amazing stuff there. The guy who was working there was Scott Walker,
who uses their wood to build his guitars. www.globalwoodsource.com
www.scottwalkerguitars.com
Other stuff:
Wood Violins: Crazy electric violins. Some of them are fretted and have 6 or 7 strings.
www.woodviolins.com
I can’t remember what it was called, but VOX had some great modeling software that a guy
was demoing. It had a ton of specific songs programed into it. He played Zeppelin’s
Heartbreaker and it sounded fantastic.
...okay, the sad story now. I was at the Larrivee booth, which was right across from the
Martin booth. This guy suddenly collapsed in front of the Martin booth. He rolled on his
side and gasped for a minute or two, then he lost consciousness. Some people who were
standing around tried to do CPR and called 911. The medics arrived and worked on him for
around 10-15 minutes, and were still doing CPR when they wheeled him away on a gurney.
I hope they were able to revive him, but it didn’t look good. It was really horrible. I’ve been
checking the news online periodically to see if there is anything about what happened. I
hope you’re okay, dude at the Martin booth!
But tragedy aside, the show was totally awesome and I hope and pray it won't be my last!
arty07:
