I went to my first NAMM show in Anaheim last week. I took a ton of pictures. Check them out. For full video coverage, go to HarmonyCentral.com. To preorder the hottest new products from NAMM, go to MusiciansFriend.com (duh).
Winter NAMM is the largest musical instrument trade convention in the US. This year's 105th show had a record-breaking 1,535 music product manufacturers and over 81,000 attendees. It's cool--you get to see and try out thousands of new products--from guitars and drums to keyboards, music accessories, pro audio tools, DJ equipment, lighting and more. All of our buyers were there to cut deals and I was there to attend a variety of meetings and look into marketing opportunities.
It's a real zoo with thousands of people milling around, huge booths full of music gear and live music at every turn all day and night (and early morning too if you've got the stamina to last that long).
There's so much going on they even publish a daily NAMM Show magazine which was delivered to my hotel room every morning.
This was a momentous occasion because it was my first time playing drums. Thank god no one could hear me. Here I am playing the Custom Roland TD-20S V-Pro Electronic Drum Set. Roland btw had the best booth hands down.
Fender's exhibit was upstairs. Here are some pix of Charvel, Gretsch and Fender Custom guitars, plus a video of the Fender VG Strat that comes out in April.
Play video!
Watch this video on AKG's Limited Edition version of the venerable C414 mics destined to become a collector's item.
Custom DDrum Kit with an interesting cymbal placement.
Check out this video of Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz presenting the latest, amazingly innovative Les Paul Digital guitar.
Yamaha 40th Anniversary Drum Set from Japan--only 40 ever made! This model is a reissue of the legendary YD9000 drums. The artwork which depicts the Gempei war between the Genji and Heike clans is printed on washi, a traditional Japanese paper made by hand.
View this video of the Korg M3 Keyboard Workstation. The follow-up to the M1, the bestselling workstation of all time!
.
Here's the high-concept German collector's guitar from Teuffel. Only 150 exist. The birdfish as it's called is constructed so that the fundamental elements, the tonewoods and pickups are put togethr in a modular fashion. It has won multiple design awards and the British magazine "Guitarist" picked it as one of the most important guitars of the 20th century. Bob Gore is the guy in the picture. He was working at the booth and he said this was one of the best pics he'd ever taken. :)
You can imagine that all of this is very tiring, especially on the feet. So, I was glad that one night at least we were able to sit down and enjoy a concert. The tickets for the
Yamaha Dealer Concert in Disney's Hyperion Theater were tough to get. It was an odd group of performers and not ones I would have normally chosen to see--however it was a surprisingly good show that included
Dr. John,
Richard Marx,
Heather Headley,
Dennis DeYoung from Styx (more on that in a moment) and
Earth, Wind & Fire. Earth, Wind & Fire was really good and they played my favorite song of theirs--"Let's Groove". Go Verdine, go!
.
Dennis DeYoung put on such a weird performance. His voice was quite good and strong, but he pranced around the stage like a Vegas act. Not sure--maybe that's his schtick? It was distracting though because it didn't go with the songs he was singing. My solution? Close my eyes. He had some hits though. I don't even like Styx all that much, yet strangely I knew all the words to both "Lady" and "Babe".
Steve and Richie groovin with me at the concert.
. 
