Michael Head

The NAMM Show 2010 took place Jan 14 – 17 at the familiar Anaheim Convention Center.  The “NAMM Show” is a trade show of biblical proportions showcasing companies that manufacture, distribute and/or sell musical instruments and products.  Founded in 1901, and based in Carlsbad, NAMM comes from the acronym “National Association of Music Merchants,” but the long form of the name is no longer used.  According to NAMM, they simply say that NAMM stands for the interests of the global music products industry.

My memories are a kaleidoscope of colors, sounds, salesmen, shwag, live performances and unique experiences.  Here’s some of the coolest gear I found and experiences that I had:

Walking in with Seymour Duncan.  As a member of the press, I was there early and ready to go.  Just as the doors were to open we headed out of the free donut and coffee line (they want us press guys and gals all revved up) and straight to the main floor.  Who do I see not ten seconds out of my press room, but the famous pickup maker Seymour Duncan.  THE Seymour Duncan himself.  I acted cool, and we chatted about a few things and quite literally entered the proceedings arm in arm, like we knew each other forever.   I also met Eva Manley of Manley Audio and talked compression and plug-ins with Eddie Kramer.  I knew this was gonna be a great show.

Studio microphones go live.  MXL and Blue are both offering live stage microphones going after the vaunted Shure SM58 in market and price.  The MXL offers the visually pleasing LSC-1&2 in nickel or black finish.  With three interchangeable capsules the microphone has multiple polar patterns (cardoid/hypercardoid/omni ) perfect for any stage environment.  They also offer the lower priced, but rugged, “The Fox”.

Blue Microphones

Blue microphones have their usual cool, retro vibe, and lots of stage sparkle in their enCORE stage microphone line (the uniquely named 100, 100i, 200, 300).  And while Blue tries hard to move to live performance they also creep back to what makes them famous:  recording microphones.

This year they introduced Yeti. My favorite named product of the 2010 NAMM show,

The Yeti

Yeti is a full featured Professional USB microphone with three capsules and four different pattern settings.  This guy utilizes a high quality analog to digital converter, a built in headphone amp for zero-latency monitoring and controls right on the microphone itself.  No drivers to install, the Yeti can roam the audio world freely, instantly bringing high fidelity recording to PC and Mac users alike.

UP THE AMPAGE:  Hand-made, hand-wired boutique amps keep increasing in number and lowering in price.  One company in particular was Burriss Amps, from Lexington, Kentucky.   Bob Burriss has figured out how to reign in the prices of his boutique style amps with a revolutionary manufacturing technique.  Essentially separating the hand-wired circuit board into sections, thereby allowing him stock-pile the components and separate the labor, avoiding delays and one man labor limitations.  He can then “make a bunch of amps when he’s ready.”  Burriss offers multiple combo-style amps, including the Switch Master, the Shadow and the dB Special, used by the likes of Brad Rice (Keith Urban).  But Bob also said that research shows for every one combo pro-style amp, there are “literally a thousand musicians” who want a small, more portable boutique style head.  This is where Burriss really shines and again sets itself apart.

Burriss Amps

At about the size of an average lunchbox/toolbox, Burriss offers perhaps the smallest, full-featured custom, hand-wired amp head in the world.  OK, this was from their press release but you get the idea.  The Royal Bluesman goes from Vox and Roland cleans to Fender mid-overdrive and crunch, while The Dirty Red offers the Marshall, Mesa and Soldano freak in you every drip of high gain distortion you could desire.  The cool as can be Red and Blue tube amp heads weigh in at a supremely portable 14 pounds, and infinitely controllable 18 watts.  Even at low levels, these things crank.   I had a great time running these through their paces and they did not disappoint.  The Royal Blue even has foot-switchable tremolo built in for that cool bluesy vibe.  And dig this pedal pushers:  the optional Power Loop Pedal, which doubles as the amps footswitch, even powers up to ten of your stomp boxes.  Yes you read that correctly.  The footswitch has an out that can power your whole foot pedal rig from right there on stage.  This is super revolutionary stuff from a former signed touring musician who learned a few things out on the road and passes that knowledge on in his line of innovative products.   Burriss also offers custom interchangeable speaker cabinets that require no soldering, handmade foot pedals, and many more revolutionary but simple products for the professional musician and can, and should be checked out further at:  www.burrissamps.com.

Jaguar Amps

The hand-wired, class AB amp world was also well represented from a company close to San Diego.  Jaguar Amps makes custom guitar and bass amps out of their Fallbrook factory.  They offer six main amp models with ultra cool custom coverings, if desired, ranging from the 7 watt Jaguar 7 guitar amp, to the 200 watt Jaguar 200 bass amp.  The amps sounded beefy at all levels (a trend?) and were a hit among tube enthusiasts.  Check ‘em out:  www.jaguaramplification.com.

Sharing booths with Jaguar amps was a really cool custom guitar company called Outlaw

Outlaw Guitars

Guitars and Basses.  Out of Studio City Ca., and offering “pro quality, vintage style, custom built and limited guitar” chic, these guitars are right at home on stage and screen.  Both stark and attention grabbing, Outlaw Guitars are unique yet familiar shapes, with serious bad boy swagger.  Every headstock is plain black!!  Beyond that they glow and burn with unique edges and finishes, an old school, weathered and aged charm.  They would look right at home under the arm of a heavy glam metal band bassist or a country rock guitarist looking for that retro cool uniqueness.  They are best to be seen and you can do so at:  www.myspace.com/outlaw_guitars.

Continuing with the aged, weathered and uniquely finished guitars theme was James Trussart Custom Guitars from Los Angeles, Ca.  Trussart began crafting metal violins, dulcimers and hurdy gurdies in

James Trussart Guitars

France in the 1970’s before switching to guitars and settling in LA in 2000.  His main medium is steel, giving the guitars an amazingly original look, feel and sound.  Having myself had a custom built Telecaster made about a month ago, I found myself wishing I had seen this guy first.  These guitars are truly playable works of art used by an all-star list of guitarists including Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Keith Richards, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Cat Power to name a few.  I won’t even slobber, drool or cry anymore here and just tell you to go now to www.jamestrussart.com to just see for yourself.  Grab a hanky and don’t say I didn’t warn you.  These will make you weep.

Of Note: Gibson was a bit of a letdown for the show, with a very small, but pretty informative booth.  I think it was a sign of the economy.  They were featuring their newly released Dusk Tiger Les Paul, which is a self tuning robot guitar that is billed as the most “technologically advanced guitar ever.”  I don’t know about that but I do know it had about a thousand different sounds it could achieve by a dizzying array of push, pull and twist pot combinations.  And it is just really cool to watch a guitar tune itself to the tuning of your choice at the touch of a button.

Meanwhile Schecter Guitars went all out with one of the best setups, with an amazing selection of styles and flavors, an immense custom shop wall, and even had the Chargers playoff game (groan here) on a giant screen on Sunday.

Godin Guitars

Godin Guitars offers many different styles of guitars with an amazing price point and built in Canada. The coolest cats of the crew were the Fifth venue hollow body series, with street prices ranging from the $500-1000 depending on pickup and body style configuration.

For the custom builder in you, MOSES Graphite Instrument Necks had the most spectacular replacement necks for Strat, Tele, and Baritone guitars, as well as J-style, P-style, Music Man and G&L basses.  These were graphite necks with a unique sound all their own and wild custom sparkly, silvery and other-worldy finishes.   MOSES covers the neck in a clear coat allowing for almost any wild finish you can imagine.  They also do custom fingerboard and headstock inlays on all of their products.  (www.mosesgraphite.com).

Watson Guitars was on the lower level but their guitars were top notch.  They hand make them out of their garage and it’s a family love affair for guitars and basses.  Dig it at:  www.watsonguitars.net.

ModTone Guitar Effects offers “boutique tone for everyone” with a variety of effects including multiple flavors of

ModTone Effects

overdrive/distortion, the super creative Deep Dive Octaver, and very unique Stutter/Kill pedal.  This pedal allows immediate “kill” of all signal, useful for tuning or changing guitars, as well a momentary kill switch that can be used musically.  Great demos at:  www.modtone-effects.com

Michael Head is a well-respected San Diego guitarist, producer and audio engineer who can be found at http://www.myspace.com/headtrap and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1022652905.