Day 3 – January 21, 2017
Saturday is usually the busiest day at NAMM and journalists need some time to regroup, or have a space to prepare their day. In Hall E in the main area of the Convention Center, NAMM provided all media with a great Media room where we could have coffee, upload our videos, catch up on social media or just take a break. Yamaha had their wonderful Blogger Lounge for the Media located in the Marriott Hotel in the Convention Center complex, which was available for use during all hours that the show was officially open. This is where I began my Saturday.
After making my schedule, I went straight to Line 6, across the hall from the Yamaha Blogger Lounge, to check out their new products and salivate over their pedals and amps. Their Spider V Amp Series is a great line of amps in all sizes, 15 W and up, with various effects included which takes away the need for multiple stomp boxes. Line 6 was also a nominee for a TEC Award in the Wireless Technology category for their Relay G10, a guitar wireless system.
Heading to the main Convention Center, I passed the John Lennon Bus and booth where another fun jam was happening. Notice that Line 6 and Yamaha were sponsors of this great inclusive feature at NAMM.
Next stop was Rocking the Clock! This company had some of the most fun non-performing accessories at the entire show, including clocks made from snare drums and guitars, as well as lamps and furniture made with fun musical instruments. Check them out!
Jake Allen happened to be performing at the Tone Wood Amp booth, showing off the product made just for acoustic guitars. The Tone Wood Amp provides the newest and most unique acoustic guitar playing experience without the need for an amplifier! It enhances the natural sound of virtually any acoustic guitar, adds depth, texture and effects, and creates a unique surround sound feel never experienced by acoustic guitar players before.
Catch his performance on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/t-S7_ElWmcA
Mobile-Catch is a company from Tawain that makes gadgets for the person who has multiple needs while playing live. Here is one of their female guitarists showing us the kapo with the iPhone holder (to be able to shoot selfie videos from a different perspective) and the mic holder / iPad holder for your lyrics. These items are great for buskers who are electrified!
Not only do I love good sounding and different fun guitar pedals, but also love when the designers bring something totally crazy and wild into the mix. When I walked past the OGRE booth, I was immediately drawn to their monster pedals. I look forward to snagging some of these to try out and review!
Koll Guitars had one of the best displays at the show. I wanted to take the truck along with all of the guitars home with me!
Another fun pedal company was Fuzzrocious (great name!) and the pedal I think I HAVE to have is the CAT KING! These pedals come with suggested settings which is great for a newbie who may not know how to even begin to get their sound, or a pro who wants a fast track to getting what the pedal designer had in mind.
Walking down one of the aisles in Hall E, I heard a female singer songwriter who was performing such beautiful music, a crowd was gathering to listen! Boulder Creek Guitars is a small company out of Gilroy, California (well known for their garlic!) and invited Sophia Radisch to play resulting in them being so impressed with her, even though she was not one of their endorsing artists. We will be reviewing Sophia’s CDs as well as presenting a full interview in the near future. Here is a snippet of her live at NAMM.
Check her out on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/abm3kEK5hjE
Stopped at Prisma Guitars whose owner/designer, Nick Pourfard, started making guitars with old skateboards. What an inventive way to recycle and repurpose something that you have loved and used into something you can love and use again. He collects old skateboards from friends and family and each guitar is a work of art!
The Guitar Girl gang stopped by the Korg and Vox booth to check out country music singer songwriter Clare Dunn. Although she was singing and playing guitar to tracks of a band, she had attitude and sang her ass off. Check out this tidbit. https://youtu.be/xj0AChKh8KE This gal is someone to watch. (And that Vox amp sounds GREAT.)
I rushed right over to the EV booth to catch ThundHERstruck playing their awesome versions of everything AC/DC! From the Bon Scott “Dirty Deeds,” https://youtu.be/sMul8XVmMEM to the Brian Johnson “Back In Black.” https://youtu.be/VxfPo8ctQ_w These girls really rock, and this was just an acoustic performance. Hope to be somewhere someday where they are performing their whole loud, live show!
We also got to interview Lez Zeppelin guitarist, Steph Paynes, out from NYC to perform at the She Rock awards on Friday night. When asked just HOW does she become Jimmy Page, she answered this: https://youtu.be/pEj9DcAHhyo And here’s a photo of Steph and the author.
Then Guitar Girl headed over to the TEC Awards!