Amazing things at NAMM, #1,287: Bootsy Collins's right hand.
Just got back from a couple of days at the 2012 NAMM convention in Anaheim. And I’m glad to be writing about it rather than talking about it, because I have no voice left from screaming over several days of unbelievably loud ambient noise. How ironic that we evaluate the musical instrument industry’s new creations in one of the earth’s most acoustically abysmal environments.
Still, I had a blast. I saw tons of cool new things that will appear on this blog as they become available. I got to see lots of old pals and hobnob with great musicians, brilliant builders, visionary designers, and amusing crackpots. Fun was had.
I didn’t prepare anything like a comprehensive report. For an overview of all the product announcements and press releases, just go here. This is just a short video documenting the misbehavior of my friends and colleagues some cool stuff I saw.
Hi Joe,I had a great time at NAMM. You never know what or who your gonna see, My favorite character at NAMM was a guy who I later found out goes by the name “MUSTACHIO”. You may have seen him, About six feet tall with heels on, skin tight animal print jumpsuit, Floppy hat and a face that looked just like Harry Shearer in Spinal Tap! A friend aproached him to get a pic taken with him and reached in his purse and handed him a card with the name MUSTACHIO on it…..nothing else. He stood for the pic and without saying a word walked away into the crowd.
YOU GOTTA LOVE NAMM!!!!
Yeah, there are obviously some people who wait all year for NAMM to come around so they can strut their stuff. Which, depending on how you look it is, is either awesome or tragic. I’m going with AWESOME! 🙂
Very nice video it hit NAMM spots that I hadn’t seen on other sites. I really liked the Seymour Duncan playing a guitar video, I had never actually heard him play before. You are right about the east coast Tele thing I lived in the Washington DC area in the 70’s and 80’s and was lucky enough to see both Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan many times in very small clubs Roy was always great and Danny was amazing (when he was not trying to be Roy). It is a shame we lost both of them to early deaths (IMHO Roy’s death was suspect in view of the reputation of Fairfax County cops back then).
I was also most intrigued by the Fender pawn shop amps the Excelsior in particular with it’s 15″ speaker and the accordion and mic inputs. My all time favorite amp is the Ampeg Gemini II with accordion inputs and a 15″ alnico Jensen Concertone (mine sits next to my bed so I can play it when my back pain forces me to recline there, it is great medicine). I have always thought that more guitarists should at least try a good 15″ speaker cab as a 15″ speaker just feels so natural with a guitar to me. The JBL D130 is probably the best guitar speaker ever made.
As for the 12AX7 vs 12AT7 the real difference is impedance and current handling which makes the 12AT7 ideal for the power tube (to really see the difference try swapping the 12AX7 for the reverb driver in an old Fender). The 12AT7 is also used as both a phase inverter and reverb tank drive in many amps especially Fenders. I have seen a guitarist use the reverb jack on a Fender Twin Reverb as practice and recording amp which sounded strange but in a good way (there was some EQ on the reverb send). I modded the Twin Reverb amp with an extra switch to kill B+ to the output transformer for this purpose. He used a 6″ alnico Jensen for a speaker (like the ones used in early Dano amps) and it worked very well (he even kept the small spkr cab with him on gigs in case the Twin lost output power and then he relied the monitors to hear himself).
Anyway thanks again for the video it’s nice to see something from NAMM that is not filled with the echoed mud of all the crowd and music demos in the sound track.