Pete's NAMM 2012 and EB Concert pics

[PeteDuBaldo]

Everything has been uploaded


EB booth at NAMM 2012
LINK

EB 50th Anniversary bash pt 1
Part 1 LINK

EB 50th Anniversary bash pt 2
Part 2 LINK

[PeteDuBaldo]

Here's my report:

NAMM 2012

Wow, it's crowded and I have never been so busy at a NAMM show before. The hotel wireless is garbage so I haven't posted pics yet. There is too much stuff to even think of seeing everything. Here are some details on the EB stuff for now.

COBALT - these strings rock. The wound strings sport a cobalt alloy winding while the plain steel strings are exactly that - plain steel. The wound strings do feel slightly different (not in a bad way) because of both the material difference and how the way in which they are produced. Tonally they sustain for days, it is ridiculous. We are talking about playing a note, going to grab a bit to eat, and coming back to a guitar that is still ringing. I tried these on an AL. Priced identically to the titanium coated slinky strings (I think $14.50 MSRP)



JP - all, let me repeat ALL, JP models will come with stainless steel frets as standard.

JPXII - Basswood body, maple cap, tone block, mahogany neck. Stainless frets on a 20" radius. This guitar smokes, and felt just as comfortable as the XI which is no surprise since there are no dimensional changes. Available in both 6 and 7 string models, and priced the same as the JPX and JPXI

LUKE III - 3% larger alder body (not 30%), rosewood neck, tremolo, with the amazing "spank" button. Available in HSS and HH, in Black and Olive Gold. HH sports chrome covers and trem tip, while the HSS sports blacked out pickups. All pickups are passive creations by DiMarzio, with a wild EB preamp that allows you to set volume level on any toggle position. List price is $300 more than the LUKE II. Piezo is not an option.

GameChanger - Holy smokes. Instantly rewiring it stereo/mono, assigning pickup configurations, making a "solo patch" and sharing your settings with the rest of the world? March 16th can't get here fast enough (our first batch is due to ship).

In response to Sterling's post, the amount of foot traffic is tremendous and oftentimes prevents people from doing their job, be it a customer meeting with sales reps or vice versa. While I think it is a great idea to allow the public to see the workings of the industry, sometimes there needs to be a little separation. If I had to guess I would say that maybe 1 in 15 or 1 in 20 people are actually working, while the rest appear to be general public that got their hands on badges. Imagine one teacher taking an entire 2nd grade class on a fieldtrip to an amusement park and you have a taste of the chaos. Some of the kids behave, but the ones that are naughty are the ones that leave the impression.

One of the benefits of going to a NAMM show is that many companies have free promo material for people who visit their booths. It's always cool to get some free stuff branded by your favorite companies, but watching one person swoop in and snag entire stacks of posters, stickers, and then clear out the Marshall bag display (stuffing all the bags inside one bag) really makes me wonder how some people can be so selfish and abuse the generosity of these companies. I am willing to bet those bags wind up on ebay...

I did get to meet up with some fellow knuckleheads! kbaim, colin, peterd79, MusicManNut, dkassenbrock, tommyindel and there may be more that I have forgotten and if so, I'm sorry, I'm fried from the show.

Last night several of us went to go see the Steve Morse show down in Dana Point and it was just as amazing as ever. The guys were on fire and really seemed to enjoy the set - then they get up the next day, head to NAMM, and sign autographs for hours. Troopers, troopers.

CONCERT

Flat out amazing. Nick and I got there early to help out and caught the tail end of soundcheck, then grabbed a few pics of all the gear on stage (in part 1 above). For the concert we were standing around 100 feet from the stage, near the entrance to the VIP area. I'm surprised we were able to get such great photos from so far away - this new camera rocks!

1st band
-Sterling had a crack set to open the night with AL, Steve Morse, Jim Cox, and John Ferraro. AL was cracking jokes along the lines of "Ok for our last song we are going to play our 3rd song in a row in a major key"
Hammer Down(?), Country Boy, and something else

2nd band
-Joe Bonamassa had a great blues set, I've never seen him play live before and he hit a home run. Backed by Jim Cox, John Ferraro, Dave La Rue. I don't know any of his songs so I can't tell you what he played.

3rd band
-Steve Morse, Dave La Rue, Van Romaine
Vista Grande & On The Pipe (thanks kbaim!)

4th band
-Paul Gilbert, Dave La Rue, Blues Saraceno, Randy Jackson, Van Romaine:
Magic carpet ride, Takin' care of business, Waiting for the Bus-Jesus just left Chicago

5th band
- Steve Vai with Jim Cox, Dave La Rue, Van Romaine
As with Joe B I had never seen Vai before and he blew my mind. I'm not sure on his song titles but I heard someone say The crying machine and Tender surrender

6th band - tribute to Jimmy Page
Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, John Ferraro, Steve Vai, Randy Jackson, Jim Cox, and I think Blues and Joe might have been hiding on this one
Dancing Days, What is and What Shall Never Be, outro of Moby Dick



Highlights (aside from the playing)
- The Red Carpet photo shoot

- watching people SPRINT down the hall to the ballroom when the doors first opened. I thought someone was going to be trampled.

- the video interlude where all sorts of artists gave testimony to EB strings, including Jimmy Page, John Petrucci, Slash, and the Nigel Tufnel action figure

- Steve Vai's tribute to Sterling

- Walking over to the far edges of the room and seeing the outer portion of the crowd all laying on the floor a la Woodstock watching the show on the 100ft bigscreens

[Slav123]

Cool pics Pete!

[guitarp77]

thanks 4 sharing!!!

[peterd79]

Pete-
i fired you an email yesterday not sure if you got it... my email has been weird.
but my camera wasn't working... would you mind if i printed a few of your pics?

Peter

[kneeoh]

Great pics Pete! My favorite it the pic with Tommy in the background. The looks on the Steves' and Tommy's face says it all.

[PeteDuBaldo]

Pete-
i fired you an email yesterday not sure if you got it... my email has been weird.
but my camera wasn't working... would you mind if i printed a few of your pics?

Peter

Go for it, that's why they are out there!

[PeteDuBaldo]

Finally everything has finished uploading....

[R and R]

Hey, I see you got a picture of my guitar. I scored the LIII HH!

[Roubster]

Thanks for the review and updated pics Pete! That Olive HH LIII is so awesome! Every time I look at it, it's just perfect.

How does the body feel compared to the regular LUKE? Is it fairly noticable with the 3%? How about the effect of the bigger body on the tone? And how are those humbuckers voiced? low or high output? Just want to know everything from whoever got a chance to play that beast!

[PeteDuBaldo]

I plugged it in for around 15 minutes and it was loud! I was fortunate enough to be able to plug into an amp and didn't have to use headphones. It took a minute for me to realize that BP had handed it to me with the boost turned on, but once I got that sorted everything fell into place. The pickups are hot and clear, with the humbuckers giving a nice fat sound while the HSS lets you get that shimmery sound out of the singles. I did not A/B it with a regular LUKE so I can't give a report on the tonal differences.

The body size felt comfortable, and I didn't really notice a difference off the bat from the regular LUKE.

[kbaim]

On the Morse set, he played Vista Grande and On The Pipe. (note: steve didn't play vista grande at either his fri or sun show)
On The AL set, was the second tune called TEAR IT UP? WHatever it was it ripped!
Hey Pete, glad i didn't leave b4 zep medley.
Also agree on Vai, his set BLEW ME AWAY

[look_at_her]

Thanks Pete for the pictures and report-great job you did!!!
Luke III is my dream guitar from now on-love that olive gold finish and HH combo.
Again,thanks for sharing!

[threeminutesboy]

Great thanks for sharing Pete

[dkassenbrock]

Thanks for sharing Pete, It was great seeing you and Nick...sorry I missed Keith and the other Knuckleheads. My daughter and I did a real quick turn (in Fri. morn. ,out Sat. afternoon) Sterling was kind enough to invite us to the 50th party, but my daughter had to be back in AZ. (ughh!, it killed me to miss it!) Oh well, there's always the 100th! lol -Capt. Don