Report from my first NAMM show.. great weekend!

[Robert Burns]

Ive got about 100 pics...and about 40 minutes of Video, but its football
tonight, so i dont know when i'll be able to post them? July? :ROTF:

Was a great first experience... notables were...

Doug Whimbish.(Living Color Bass player) Just a super guy
who took way more time than we were worth, to talk to us
even with his family waiting... *(8 minutes or so...We were impressed!)

Billy Sheehan! Wish he had played...but he was gracious, and a great
guy to chat with.

Guthrie Govan! Man, can this guy play any style? Yes! Was at the Cornford amps exhibit for 2 days straight...(wish Greg Howe would have
showed...but he didnt!) he is my hero.

The 8"x10"s worked out great for autographs...as they can be enlarged
to poster size later on... Got Paul Reed Smith to autograph the pic
of the private stock". And he was a busy guy, so i was lucky to catch
him alone for 30 seconds!

Here is a good story.. caught Paul Gilbert playing at the Marshall exhibit..
(video for 29 minutes in High Def!) Afterwards, he was whisked away
to the private area..and we were told that it would be at least an hour
before he came out.. I left after about 15 minutes, walking around, and
then decided to go back and see if maybe i might catch Paul...as i rounded
the corner...he was about to come out.. perfect
(my brother has an 8x10 of the 2 20th's Jems...the 89' Floral, and
the white 77VWH. I merged with him and he smiled..stopped as i asked..
"could you piss off Vai, and sign HIS signature Jems?"
Thats when he cracked me up! He said..(waving his hands up, he's very
annimated)..."Oh sure... Vai cant be here for his own line of guitars"...
and he doesnt care about NAMM".... "But I do" !! Then he laughed and
signed the pic! What a nice down to earth hero... He was busy, but made time for a stupid request. I was impressed.

Being with my friend Justin who is a Bass player...we kept an eye out
for world class bass players too... Bill Clements...one armed amazing
player! Proves what can be done with "legatto" only. Jeff Berlin,
Victor Wooten! The King in our opinion...just a tad ahead of Billy..
Jonus Helborg.. and quite a few others... great players, who make you
want to switch to bass! (no..but almost) Stu Hamm, Arron Nitti, and
many others..all amazing

I didnt bother with Satch's autograph, as we have seen him 6 or 7 times,
so i didnt feel rushed to do it..(having 140 people in line helped to make my decision
too) Paul Stanley of Kiss...(never bought one Kiss Album in my life, so
no need for an autograph..besides, Gene probably has them charging
$20 for it anyway!

Some players who scared the hell outta me... Larry Coryell! Scott Henderson!.. Paul Gilbert! Makes me want to quit. David Grissom..
and some other Jazz cats, who i didnt get their names..but they
were on par with George Benson imo.

Got to talk to Steve Fryette of VHT...all is well, with KT-88's heading my
way! Played the new Sig X head..and its a monster! A ton of switches,
and tonal possibilities! Anyway...im rambling...but it was a great time,
and i got to see most of my hero's..and play a ton of axes i would have
never got the chance to touch...(Suhrs...Eastmans..(boy i love these for
the price!) ( Collings.. Benedetto.. American Masters...Gary Kramer..(these
are cool!) So it was a guitar dream come true...and i almost forgot..
saw Carlos Santana...but that was it... security had him roped off from
the pond scum! (Me) :-) Slash.. crazy crowds for him) Hope i get to go next year !! and pics to
follow soon i hope! Missed Mike Learn, but i sure got to see his amazing
work!
Im going to save $3K and just have Mike do that great "Red Baron" graphic on my Ibanez!
Also honorable mention to whoever does ESP's custom air brushing, as a few of those
were ungodly!! Especially the "Angel over NY'city"... what a piece of art!

[markD]

awesome!!! i'd like to make it to one of those sometime. sounds like a blast!!

[fullmetalguitar]

NAMM was great as usual.

At the Jackson booth, I saw both Grover Jackson and Mike Learn (not at the same time). I really wanted to say hello and get a pic with Grover, but both guys were engrossed in a conversation with someone else and I didn't feel like standing around like a stalker!

I also saw the Paul Gilbert mini concert. He is incredible. I'm pretty sure those were all songs from his new instrumental solo album coming out this month. What a performer! Not only is he an amazing player, but he's got great stage presence, even when he's the only guy on the stage!

Tried twice to see George Lynch play. First was at the Randall booth on Friday. He was supposed to play in this little room. But he was pissed that they couldn't boost the volume of his backing tracks and walked out. All five of us were disappointed. Then on Saturday he was scheduled to play at ESP. They had it listed on their big sign out front. I waited in front of the door with a bunch of others for at least 20 minutes. Finally they tell us that you had to be "on the list" or an ESP dealer to get in. F*ck heads! They couldn't have told us that 20 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the room was mostly empty. Oh well, I probably would have been disappointed in what I heard anyway.

One last thing. I didn't see any DK2M models in the Jackson booth. They had plenty of imports hanging there, just no maple boards. Wonder why not?

[AlexL]

Im going to save $3K and just have Mike do that great "Red Baron" graphic on my Ibanez!

Red Baron Wasn't Mike. It was Dan Lawrence.


- E.

[RacerX]

and walked out. All five of us were disappointed.

Bwahaha

[Robert Burns]

NAMM was great as usual.

At the Jackson booth, I saw both Grover Jackson and Mike Learn (not at the same time). I really wanted to say hello and get a pic with Grover, but both guys were engrossed in a conversation with someone else and I didn't feel like standing around like a stalker!

I also saw the Paul Gilbert mini concert. He is incredible. I'm pretty sure those were all songs from his new instrumental solo album coming out this month. What a performer! Not only is he an amazing player, but he's got great stage presence, even when he's the only guy on the stage!

Tried twice to see George Lynch play. First was at the Randall booth on Friday. He was supposed to play in this little room. But he was pissed that they couldn't boost the volume of his backing tracks and walked out. All five of us were disappointed. Then on Saturday he was scheduled to play at ESP. They had it listed on their big sign out front. I waited in front of the door with a bunch of others for at least 20 minutes. Finally they tell us that you had to be "on the list" or an ESP dealer to get in. F*ck heads! They couldn't have told us that 20 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the room was mostly empty. Oh well, I probably would have been disappointed in what I heard anyway.

One last thing. I didn't see any DK2M models in the Jackson booth. They had plenty of imports hanging there, just no maple boards. Wonder why not?

Man that sucks... I wish i could have seen Warren D' also...they posted
his appearance time WRONG in 2 different mags!! He was the #1 reason
for getting an autograph for us!

[fullmetalguitar]

Man that sucks... I wish i could have seen Warren D' also...they posted
his appearance time WRONG in 2 different mags!! He was the #1 reason
for getting an autograph for us!

I saw Warren several times on Friday and Saturday. Isn't it funny how you might see someone a bunch of times, while completely missing other people. That place is so huge that you just have to be in the right place at the right time, but it can be hard... especially when they post the wrong times! You could have easily gotten his autograph on Saturday at Seymour Duncan.

[JerEvil]

Red Baron Wasn't Mike. It was Dan Lawrence.


- E.

Also, check Mike's website. It won't cost $3K for a paint job.

[Venomboy]

Chris Compston paints for ESP and others. He was in the ESP room on thursday for a bit.

[btx109]

This was an incredible NAMM for me...best one yet. Had more fun and met more people than ever before.

Saw Stevie Wonder playing harmonica and different wind instruments on Sunday...Warren DeMartini was in the throng also checking him out and nabbing pics, so I took the opportunity to speak to him (longtime Ratt/DeMartini fan). Saw perhaps the greatest 45 min bass exhibition I've ever seen performed by Marcus Miller at Fender on Saturday, from front row directly in front of him; roughest, nastiest funk pocket ever, and I've seen pretty much every happening player out there, including Vic Wooten. Met and befriended one of my personal guitar heroes, Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton of Parliament/Funkadelic fame...also met various other members of P-Funk. Saw George Lynch and Alexi Laiho perform at the WimBash party, given by Doug Wimbish of Living Colour who also performed...the reports of George losing his chops are greatly exaggerated IMO, if his performance was any indication. Also there was an all-star cover band fronted by the best metal singer I've ever heard live, Tim "Ripper" Owens, wh shrieked like an in-tune and in-control banshee. Those were the "stars," but also met several very cool, "regular" folks, music reps and builders throughout the weekend.

[BenoA]

Thanks for the reports guys! Pretty cool!!!

[Endrik]

Saw perhaps the greatest 45 min bass exhibition I've ever seen performed by Marcus Miller at Fender on Saturday, from front row directly in front of him; roughest, nastiest funk pocket ever,

oh yeah, Marcus is da man, he has the best bass tone EVER!!!!!!!!

[missionguitars1]

Tried twice to see George Lynch play. First was at the Randall booth on Friday. He was supposed to play in this little room. But he was pissed that they couldn't boost the volume of his backing tracks and walked out. All five of us were disappointed. Then on Saturday he was scheduled to play at ESP. They had it listed on their big sign out front. I waited in front of the door with a bunch of others for at least 20 minutes. Finally they tell us that you had to be "on the list" or an ESP dealer to get in. F*ck heads! They couldn't have told us that 20 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the room was mostly empty. Oh well, I probably would have been disappointed in what I heard anyway.

That's funny (but not in a "ha-ha"-way...) as I also tried to see him play at Dean Markley. Same deal - he disappeared into the booth, and never quite got around to playing (at least for the 15 minutes we waited for him to come out)

[Robotechnology]

Crap dude... so you mean we were within 20 feet of each other and didn't know it!?! I was kneeling next to the right monitor during the PG set. Tell me what I have to do to get a copy of the HD video Robert!

[Robert Burns]

Crap dude... so you mean we were within 20 feet of each other and didn't know it!?! I was kneeling next to the right monitor during the PG set. Tell me what I have to do to get a copy of the HD video Robert!

Right now im having problems with audio not working on my HP....but
everything is fine on the camera ! So i know i got it. I may have to update my windows sound card? Anyway..if you were on the right monitor... (Pauls right? Or the left side of Paul with the
audience facing?) you must have seen me filming, as i was 2 feet to your left,or maybe behind you)
of the sound guy! Standing right there, so that everytime Paul came over
to look at that sheet of preset backing tracks, he was 3 feet from me.
I'll get it figured out, and see if i can do my first Youtube upload?