paranoid70
Well-known member
Eric's first NAMM show
This year I finally got a chance to go to NAMM. I always wanted to go, but never had an 'in'. This year I finally got a friend of a friend to get me a pass.
I have been to Engineering Conventions of this size before, but NAMM is a little more cool. Surprisingly, I got a lot more schwag at the Engineering conventions. (I would come home with 20 pens, 10 letter openers, 2 laser pointers and a t-shirt. )
In must say without bias that the Ernie Ball booth was easily one of the best at NAMM. Once again, they just get it - they had so many play stations were you could try out the guitars/basses. Most of the other vendors had nice guitars on display that you could take down and strum along, but no where to plug it in! To be fair, Gibson did too and so did a few others, but the EB booth was by far the most accessible. Nice job guys seriously.
As far as gear goes, the 25ths are really nice - very comfy to play and tons of switching options. Awesome tone as far as I could tell from the listening stations, but you would really need an amp to get the full feel of the sound, resonance, etc. Overall, I really really like it! The Big Al bass is cool and sounds great.
I also finally got to try some instruments I have never played before including a standard Morse (too complex for a dummy like me), a BFR AL (very nice!) and a Silhouette Bass. The Silo Bass was fun as hell - I am not sure what I would use for specifically, but it is a fine instrument.
The Sterling by Music Man line looks really sharp. I don't mean to talk smack about OLP, but these ones look way way better. I didn't plug one in, I should have (I was getting kind of burned out at that point), but they looked and felt really good. I am sure these will end up at a Guitar Center soon. Do not dismiss them as a cheapo knockoff!
As far as 'celebrity musician sightings go, again EBMM wins! They were a bunch there at the same time: Morse, Petrucci, Myung, LaRue, Lukather and Tony Levin and Seargant later in the day. Seargeant was putting on a clinic with the 25th!!!! I talked a bit with the DT and Dregs guys and they were really cool. Of all the oddest things I talked most with John Myung - this guy really loves the Bongo! (Also saw Dweezil Zappa and Scheila Gonzales out in the hallway - go see Zappa Plays Zappa!!!!!!!). There were alot of other musicians like Steve Vai, Mikael Akerfeld, Michael Manring, Victor Wooten, Portnoy and a ton others, but I didn't feel like standing in lines all day long.
I wanted to say hi to Sterling, but he was always busy talking to someone else. Must be exhausting. But, AJ and Dan were really cool answering my stupid questions on how the switching works on the 25th bass and the standard Morse. I have done 'booth duty' at conventions before, and I know it can be a lot of work. Have a few cold one boys, you deserve them.
All in all NAMM was a lot of fun. There was a hell of a lot of stuff to see. Of course Music Man isn't the only vendor making fine instruments, there is alot of really nice stuff out there, especially some of the obscure 'craft' instruments. Plus tons of stuff like drums/cymbals, string/wind instruments, recording and PA equipment, etc. etc. Lots of stuff to see. Definitely a nice Saturday afternoon.
Sorry no pics. My camera broke last week. D'oh!
This year I finally got a chance to go to NAMM. I always wanted to go, but never had an 'in'. This year I finally got a friend of a friend to get me a pass.
I have been to Engineering Conventions of this size before, but NAMM is a little more cool. Surprisingly, I got a lot more schwag at the Engineering conventions. (I would come home with 20 pens, 10 letter openers, 2 laser pointers and a t-shirt. )In must say without bias that the Ernie Ball booth was easily one of the best at NAMM. Once again, they just get it - they had so many play stations were you could try out the guitars/basses. Most of the other vendors had nice guitars on display that you could take down and strum along, but no where to plug it in! To be fair, Gibson did too and so did a few others, but the EB booth was by far the most accessible. Nice job guys seriously.
As far as gear goes, the 25ths are really nice - very comfy to play and tons of switching options. Awesome tone as far as I could tell from the listening stations, but you would really need an amp to get the full feel of the sound, resonance, etc. Overall, I really really like it! The Big Al bass is cool and sounds great.
I also finally got to try some instruments I have never played before including a standard Morse (too complex for a dummy like me), a BFR AL (very nice!) and a Silhouette Bass. The Silo Bass was fun as hell - I am not sure what I would use for specifically, but it is a fine instrument.
The Sterling by Music Man line looks really sharp. I don't mean to talk smack about OLP, but these ones look way way better. I didn't plug one in, I should have (I was getting kind of burned out at that point), but they looked and felt really good. I am sure these will end up at a Guitar Center soon. Do not dismiss them as a cheapo knockoff!
As far as 'celebrity musician sightings go, again EBMM wins! They were a bunch there at the same time: Morse, Petrucci, Myung, LaRue, Lukather and Tony Levin and Seargant later in the day. Seargeant was putting on a clinic with the 25th!!!! I talked a bit with the DT and Dregs guys and they were really cool. Of all the oddest things I talked most with John Myung - this guy really loves the Bongo! (Also saw Dweezil Zappa and Scheila Gonzales out in the hallway - go see Zappa Plays Zappa!!!!!!!). There were alot of other musicians like Steve Vai, Mikael Akerfeld, Michael Manring, Victor Wooten, Portnoy and a ton others, but I didn't feel like standing in lines all day long.
I wanted to say hi to Sterling, but he was always busy talking to someone else. Must be exhausting. But, AJ and Dan were really cool answering my stupid questions on how the switching works on the 25th bass and the standard Morse. I have done 'booth duty' at conventions before, and I know it can be a lot of work. Have a few cold one boys, you deserve them.
All in all NAMM was a lot of fun. There was a hell of a lot of stuff to see. Of course Music Man isn't the only vendor making fine instruments, there is alot of really nice stuff out there, especially some of the obscure 'craft' instruments. Plus tons of stuff like drums/cymbals, string/wind instruments, recording and PA equipment, etc. etc. Lots of stuff to see. Definitely a nice Saturday afternoon.
Sorry no pics. My camera broke last week. D'oh!
