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This year's NAMM trip was a short one for me as I only had time for a full day of the show. My wife, 4 month old daugher, and I flew in the night before the show, got our passes from our friends at Brubaker Guitars, and got some sleep to prepare for the long day ahead of us.
I'm used to being at the show for 2-3 days, starting on friday or saturday. Being there on a thursday is nice because the show is less crowded; however, the signings and performances are kept to a minimum both at the show and around town. So who did we miss signing? Antrhrax, Ripper Owens, Kerry King, Mick Mars (I hear he would be filled with elmbalming fluids), Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dragonforce...the list goes on. Performance-wise, Jeff Loomis was to perform at Schecter, Steve Smythe (ENGL perhaps?), and a host of other Hessians. I usually shoot a few hundred images at the show and shoot a ton of video (and post to YouTube so a horde of 14-year olds can post complaints about sound quality and how ESP rulz hailz cu on MySpace tee hee). This year I decided to shoot only stuff that caught my interest. How many pics of Rectifiers before your head hurts (or is that an earache I feel when I hear one?)
Ok, onto the show:
TC Electronic
At this booth they had a woman singer/guitarist (that's "singer/songwriter" to many) demoing a new vocal harmonizer live performance box thingamajig. She sang "Son of a Preacher Man" and would hit the harmony button on key phrases. This box was amazing. It sounded like she had a gospel choir at her disposal (sans the hipocrisy, adultery, and drug abuse). I want one of these boxes. Imagine yelling at the kids. Clean your room, now! What? Don't you talk back to me! I said CLEEEAAAAN. Gimme a CLEAAAAAAAAN. L'od have mersay can a I get a CLEAAAAN? Thass right! Yo room! Whoo CHILE! Entry into Heavan...is prediCATED...by a CLEAN, SHINY, ROOM. Now I KNOW you lookin at them draws on my floor. But the L'OD does NOT look in my backyard! At the RESurrrECTION the L'OD will look upon yo room and FROWN!
Dean Markley
Speaking of raising the dead, as my wife and I walked by the Dean Markely booth, we noticed Dick Dale was singing. Better yet, Rick Springfield was set to appear in just 15 minutes. I found myself at the front of the line eagerly awaiting the man with the Human Touch to grace the show with his presence. He didn't bring Jesse's girl, but I he did order a coffee from the Dean Markely folks (some soft of half caf latte skim tall skinny concoction). I told him my sister was a big fan and videotaped him saying hi to her (really, she's the fan, I could care less except for the cheese factor). Nice guy, not sure why he was at the show.
DigiDesign
These folks had their usual assortment of digital recording software/hardware on display. At one station I demo'd an amp modeling software that was pretty cool. I'd love to buy it, but then that would mean I'd have to make time to use it.
Marshall
Nick Bowcott (formerly of Grim Reaper) was at the booth talking to some folks. I didn't feel like interrupting him and wondered how he'd take it if I yelled "see you in hell my friend, I'll see you in helllll!" As I walked past the booth I noticed a lot of people taking pictures of 2 white Marshall stacks. Not being a Marshall fan, I quickly passed them and thought about Randy Rhoads since he had white Marshalls. Turns out, they were the new Randy Rhoads model Marshall stacks. Without an EQ and MXR Distorion+ I don't really see the point. Maybe Dean can give them a hand in exploiting the dead.
Dean
I used to be really impressed with Dean's NAMM lineup. Perfectly setup, flawless finishes. But that was not the case with many of their instruments. One of the $3400 Dave Mustaine V's had a finish crack at the neck joint and many of the guitars had high action or just didn't play very well. The guitars still look nice but the whole Dimebag Hollobody Daisy Rock Mandolin schtick is getting old. One of the Dean girls was talking to my wife and admiring our daughter and had tears in her eyes when she was saying how cute my daughter is. I was crying because Michael Angelo's wig was nowhere in site.
Peavey
I didn't get a chance to go into the sprawling Peavey booth but quickly checked out what was on display on the outer fringes. They had some new shapes (including a V) in matte black finishes with Kahler trems, and a lot of guitars with custom graphics. The graphics weren't hand painted, they were either silk screened or paper prints applied to the face of the guitars. Some were cool, some were lame.
Brubaker
At the Brubaker booth I played Kevin Brubaker's personal bass, which was probably one of the nicest sounding and best feeling basses I've ever played. And I'm not just saying that because he always hooks me with NAMM passes. Brubaker always has a cool assortment of guitars and basses with some sort of burled and spalted wood construction.
Washburn
While at the Washburn booth I finally got a chance to play the Nick Catanese (Black Label Society) model guitars in both custom and import versions. These are some damn thick guitars with necks on the thicker side. Like many of the guitars at the show, they could have benefitted from a nice setup. The quality on them was pretty damn good and the finishes were impressive. I got to talk to Nick for a bit after he had some shots taken with an older couple that I'm pretty sure were his parents. He's a very mellow guy and very approachable.
This year's NAMM trip was a short one for me as I only had time for a full day of the show. My wife, 4 month old daugher, and I flew in the night before the show, got our passes from our friends at Brubaker Guitars, and got some sleep to prepare for the long day ahead of us.
I'm used to being at the show for 2-3 days, starting on friday or saturday. Being there on a thursday is nice because the show is less crowded; however, the signings and performances are kept to a minimum both at the show and around town. So who did we miss signing? Antrhrax, Ripper Owens, Kerry King, Mick Mars (I hear he would be filled with elmbalming fluids), Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dragonforce...the list goes on. Performance-wise, Jeff Loomis was to perform at Schecter, Steve Smythe (ENGL perhaps?), and a host of other Hessians. I usually shoot a few hundred images at the show and shoot a ton of video (and post to YouTube so a horde of 14-year olds can post complaints about sound quality and how ESP rulz hailz cu on MySpace tee hee). This year I decided to shoot only stuff that caught my interest. How many pics of Rectifiers before your head hurts (or is that an earache I feel when I hear one?)
Ok, onto the show:
TC Electronic
At this booth they had a woman singer/guitarist (that's "singer/songwriter" to many) demoing a new vocal harmonizer live performance box thingamajig. She sang "Son of a Preacher Man" and would hit the harmony button on key phrases. This box was amazing. It sounded like she had a gospel choir at her disposal (sans the hipocrisy, adultery, and drug abuse). I want one of these boxes. Imagine yelling at the kids. Clean your room, now! What? Don't you talk back to me! I said CLEEEAAAAN. Gimme a CLEAAAAAAAAN. L'od have mersay can a I get a CLEAAAAN? Thass right! Yo room! Whoo CHILE! Entry into Heavan...is prediCATED...by a CLEAN, SHINY, ROOM. Now I KNOW you lookin at them draws on my floor. But the L'OD does NOT look in my backyard! At the RESurrrECTION the L'OD will look upon yo room and FROWN!
Dean Markley
Speaking of raising the dead, as my wife and I walked by the Dean Markely booth, we noticed Dick Dale was singing. Better yet, Rick Springfield was set to appear in just 15 minutes. I found myself at the front of the line eagerly awaiting the man with the Human Touch to grace the show with his presence. He didn't bring Jesse's girl, but I he did order a coffee from the Dean Markely folks (some soft of half caf latte skim tall skinny concoction). I told him my sister was a big fan and videotaped him saying hi to her (really, she's the fan, I could care less except for the cheese factor). Nice guy, not sure why he was at the show.
DigiDesign
These folks had their usual assortment of digital recording software/hardware on display. At one station I demo'd an amp modeling software that was pretty cool. I'd love to buy it, but then that would mean I'd have to make time to use it.
Marshall
Nick Bowcott (formerly of Grim Reaper) was at the booth talking to some folks. I didn't feel like interrupting him and wondered how he'd take it if I yelled "see you in hell my friend, I'll see you in helllll!" As I walked past the booth I noticed a lot of people taking pictures of 2 white Marshall stacks. Not being a Marshall fan, I quickly passed them and thought about Randy Rhoads since he had white Marshalls. Turns out, they were the new Randy Rhoads model Marshall stacks. Without an EQ and MXR Distorion+ I don't really see the point. Maybe Dean can give them a hand in exploiting the dead.
Dean
I used to be really impressed with Dean's NAMM lineup. Perfectly setup, flawless finishes. But that was not the case with many of their instruments. One of the $3400 Dave Mustaine V's had a finish crack at the neck joint and many of the guitars had high action or just didn't play very well. The guitars still look nice but the whole Dimebag Hollobody Daisy Rock Mandolin schtick is getting old. One of the Dean girls was talking to my wife and admiring our daughter and had tears in her eyes when she was saying how cute my daughter is. I was crying because Michael Angelo's wig was nowhere in site.
Peavey
I didn't get a chance to go into the sprawling Peavey booth but quickly checked out what was on display on the outer fringes. They had some new shapes (including a V) in matte black finishes with Kahler trems, and a lot of guitars with custom graphics. The graphics weren't hand painted, they were either silk screened or paper prints applied to the face of the guitars. Some were cool, some were lame.
Brubaker
At the Brubaker booth I played Kevin Brubaker's personal bass, which was probably one of the nicest sounding and best feeling basses I've ever played. And I'm not just saying that because he always hooks me with NAMM passes. Brubaker always has a cool assortment of guitars and basses with some sort of burled and spalted wood construction.
Washburn
While at the Washburn booth I finally got a chance to play the Nick Catanese (Black Label Society) model guitars in both custom and import versions. These are some damn thick guitars with necks on the thicker side. Like many of the guitars at the show, they could have benefitted from a nice setup. The quality on them was pretty damn good and the finishes were impressive. I got to talk to Nick for a bit after he had some shots taken with an older couple that I'm pretty sure were his parents. He's a very mellow guy and very approachable.
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