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The Prettiest Pedalboard! (Plus: A New DIY Lipstick Tube Guitar)

You know what sucks about attending NAMM as a manufacturer rather than a gear writer? I was epoxied to my booth all day, and I barely saw anything other than my guitar pedals. But on one rare break, I got to hang out with Jannis Anastasakis and his crew from JAM Pedals of Athens, Greece. (I highlighted some of their beautiful work in my pathetically skimpy “NAMM report.”)

Happily, there’s more to celebrate here than great visuals. JAM builds lovely versions of many classic analog effects. Their sounds and production quality are stellar, and JAM often adds modern updates such as realtime expression control, extra knobs, and internal trim pots for customizing tones. It’s quality stuff, used by many a guitar star.

And guess what? Jannis loaned me one of his magnificent Custom Shop analog pedalboards. Γαμώτο!

Sadly, I must now pack up and return this pretty pedalboard. But I’ll be getting my own JAM Delay Llama Supreme, an expanded version of the analog delay heard here, with tap tempo, a cool modulation section, and the almighty infinite-hold switch. (I reviewed it for Premier Guitar a few months ago.)

In the meantime, this experience makes me want to try my own DIY pedalboards. Not as an item for sale — just as a way to group related effects in a single enclosure for stage use. Gears are spinning ….

This doesn’t qualify as any kind of NAMM report. I was imprisoned behind the desk at my Gore Pedals booth, relieved only for bathroom breaks and a couple of visits with old friends. Even so, I saw some lovely and inspiring things, especially the visionary instruments at the Boutique Guitar Showcase and the ravishing stompbox visuals from Greece’s JAM Pedals. (JAM pedals sound great too.) Plus a few old friends dropped by. It was so fun, I went minutes at a time without thinking about the inauguration.

A modernist vision from luthier Pete Malinoski.

Pancake-thin perfection from Venice, Italy's Di Donato Guitars.

Japan-born, California-based luthier Michihiro Matsuda devises seriously radical acoustic guitar designs.

Spalt's Frankenstein Music Machine, a genuine show-stopper.

Whimsy unchained from Vienna-based luthier Michael Spalt.

Serge Michaels of Belgium's TAO Guitars shows off his magnificent Phaeton model.

Like its name promises, the One-Piece Master from Sauvage is carved entirely from a single block of wood.

The Antikythera Mechanism of stompboxes from JAM Pedals. Yes, the gears work.

Fillmore poster meets multi-effect board — a lovely thing from JAM Pedals

Jannis Anastasakis, brilliant builder behind Greece's JAM Pedals.

My NorCal crew [L-R]: Xander Soren, the mastermind in charge of music apps at Apple (and a fine player); Talking Head and producer extraordinaire Jerry Harrison; some schnook; engineer, producer, producer, and cool guy Travis Kasperbauer.

It was awesome to meet the guys behind those ever-inventive Earthquaker pedals.

So nice to run into the brilliant Mike Keneally.

Eleven JAM effect in a single integrated pedalboard.

Curves galore from TAO Guitars.

A metallic duo from McSwain Guitars.

Jannis Anastasakis of JAM Pedals was kind enough to loan me one of the eye-popping pedalboards from his display (the last image in the slideshow). I’ll be posting a demo here soon!