Luthier in a Candy Store
In years past, Grizzly had an enormous booth at the NAMM trade show demonstrating all their power tools, table saws, planers, sanders, shapers, etc. While they were absent this year, there was still plenty to excite and inspire.
For the aspiring luthier or woodworker, there’s nothing more appetizing than stacks of gorgeously figured exotic hardwoods.
Unique and Unusual Gear at NAMM
Here’s a few products from this year’s NAMM trade show that were surprising, unique, or just downright silly:
New Guitars From Vox
At this year’s NAMM, Vox announced a series of new guitars. These things look beautiful. They’ll be available in April 2010, pricing TBA.
- Scale Length: 638mm (25.125″)
- No. Of Frets: 22
- Nut Width: 43mm (1.7″)
- Bridge Pickup: Coaxe
- Neck Pickup: Coaxe
- Body: Mahogany
- Top: Ash or Maple (depending on finish)
Update May 18, 2011: Also see my in-depth review of the SSC-33, and for more about the CoAxe pickup system, see my interview with Vox R&D’s Eric Kirkland.
I recorded a short NAMM demo of Freddy DeMarco playing the vintage cream SSC-55 single cutaway through a Vox AC-30 amp. The pickups sound really versatile, the build quality feels superb, and the styling is understated and excellent. Take a look:
New CTS Guitar Pots
When I met with the friendly CTS guys at the NAMM trade show, they talked up their new 450G series of guitar pots. Compared with the EP086 pots I’m used to, these 450G pots have slightly lower torque when turning. The CTS rep said this is due to less contact surface area on the underside of the pot, as you can see in this photo (EP086 on left, 450G on right).
Another of the primary goals of the new 450G pots is to address part numbering confusion. The rep told me that EP086 is an AllParts number that CTS stamps onto the pot. It’s really a series 450 pot made specially for AllParts, but there’s no cross reference back from EP086 to a CTS part number. The rep told me that CTS builds guitar pots a bit differently than they do commercial/industrial pots, so they internally assign a different 450 part number, built special/custom for the ordering customer. The customer (like AllParts, Mojo, DiMarzio, etc) can have their own part number (like EP086) stamped on the pots. The new 450G series will hopefully help to standardize this part numbering, making it less confusing to the average guitar-geek like you and me 🙂
The datasheet doesn’t appear to be up on the CTS website yet, so I had the rep send it to me. Here it is.
Electronic Components at NAMM
Aside from getting to see a bunch of cool instruments and musicians at the NAMM trade show, I also got to geek out at the electronic components booths!
My buddy was laughing at me while I grilled the CTS guys for details on their pot manufacturing, some of their new guitar pots (the 450G series, and the new enclosed precision pots), why they don’t make standard DPDT push/pull pots, and why all the different CTS distributers put their own part numbers on the components (no good answer – it’s like buying mattresses!)
Fun times visiting CTS, Bourns, AllParts , Gotoh, Alpha, and Electroswitch:
