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:
Artisan Luthiery
Some of the guitars I saw at this year’s NAMM trade show are true works of art. Masterpieces of woodworking, incredibly fine detail, yes. But, I must ask – have these instruments lost sight of their own musicality? Do they sound any good?
I was afraid to (or not allowed to) play many of these, so I have to wonder. I imagine that some of these do indeed triumph both as musical instruments and as works of art, but perhaps others will be better as pieces of furniture or wall art, rather than playing instruments…
Vox Night Train with V112NT Cabinet
I’ve seen and heard a number of demos of the beautiful lunchbox-style Vox Night Train amp head. But none of them played through the new matching V112NT cabinet. I finally got to hear it through the matching cab at the Vox booth at this year’s NAMM trade show. I recorded a demo of Freddy DeMarco playing the Night Train with its matched cabinet. Its an awesome combination. More
What Sells Guitars?
Hot pin-up girls, of course!
Check out this gorgeous, curvy thing! Kim Falcon is pretty cute, too 🙂
New Digitech JamMan Loopers
I’ve long been a fan of looping with guitars. I had the original Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro, before it was co-opted by Gibson. Great looper, but mono and always frustrating that after creating a great composition, there was no way to save it other than just recording the combined analog audio composite. I sold the EDP when I started using Native Instruments Guitar Rig, but was never quite satisfied with the experience of being bound to the computer.
The previous edition of the Digitech Jam Man was nice, but also mono. The Looperlative LP1 and the Boss RC-50 are both stereo but are pretty expensive. I saw a new Looperlative LP2 prototype at NAMM which is much cheaper than the LP1, but it’s mono.