NAMM Report

flank

flank

New member
Hey fellas, just got back from Summer NAMM in Indy a little while ago......thought i would write up a report of some of the stuff that was impressive......though, there was SO much stuff that there that it is hard to get it all straight :D......sorry, no pics, the camera was messed up


Amps:

Crate Power Block - this thing sounded awesome.....i actually couldn't believe it, sure, the guy was a heck of a player, and used a PRS that was great, but this thing sounded great clean and overdriven, had a very even clean sound that was lush, and the ovedrive was mild but warm and responsive and they sell for $200....easily one of the best deals out there, and plenty loud

Peavey Penta amp - this amp was really cool.....it has a cool retro styling, the one we tried had a cool hue of a green in the tolex, and it was the head + 2 4X12's cabs......impressive looking full stack i must say...... on to the tone..... it had a great woody clean tone, sort of reminded me of the old British clean sounds, ala Hiwatt and Marshall Plexis..... this amp has 5 tone settings on it (thus "penta")......i'm not exactly sure what each one was modeled to sound like, but the first setting was a warm woody clean...the 2nd seemed like the first, but with more push and more compression and overdrive.....then the last 3 were more gain tones......there was a sort of Rectifier sound, a Marshall plexi crunch, and then a more edgy marshall hotrod crunch sound.....the marshall plexi crunch sounded really good, the other 2 were not really my cup of tea....... but, there was plenty of gain on tap, and i heard another guy playing it, and he was getting very liquidy violin lead tones from it..... this amp is 140 tube watts, so it was louder than sh!t... i don't know why they had to go that high with it, i never saw anybody playing it with the volume more than halfway....overall, this amp may be a classic, though i didnt spend that much time with it

Fender Jazz King - this amp sounded great, its got 1 15" speaker, and i believe it was 140 watts.....made specially for Jazz players that wanted that round tone of a 15" speaker, and high clean headroom......it sounded amazing for jazz as you would expect for a fender amp.....they had some Benedetto (sp?) guitars by one of them, i heard a guy playing one of those through it, great sound

Gretsch had some cool retro styled combo amps, i don't know what they were, but one was great sounding, it was a 3X10 combo, with maroon tolex......they were very cool amps, i think they must be new or something, didnt check out the model name......but with a slap echo set with it, it made for a great rockabilly or country sounding amp

Krank was there, they had some stacks and huge combo amps.....they were impressive for what they are, not my style at all, but they had some crushing tones

Hiwatt had a bunch of amps there, including a Hiwatt 400!.....i don't think anybody plugged into that beast.....400 watts of Hiwatt power? it was would have knocked the building over :D .....there was also an All-white DR103 full stack that was just pure eye-candy

ill be back later on with some guitar and effects stuff
 
Re: NAMM Report

yea i played the Classic 30 head....they had a cool looking cab that it was hooked into....sounded really good, there was more power strength to the tone than the normal 1x12 C30 combo
 
Re: NAMM Report

Dang, that must've been awesome...probably can't demo gear out though with all the attendees :(
 
Re: NAMM Report

how do u get passes to NAMM? do they have a website that shows when and where the next one will be?
 
Re: NAMM Report

I think the other Peavey amp coming out was the Valve King... only $600 but I wanna see what Peavey can make a $500 tube amp sound like. I'm also waiting for the JSX cabs and combos to become available.
 
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i heard the JSX and Valve King, but i didn't realize that they were new, so i didnt listen in very intently.....
 
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Guitars:

Taylor T5 - this guitar sounded great......can get hollowbody Gretsch tones, tele bridge sounds, Les paul crunch, strat jangle, and a great Taylor acoustic tone.....it does all the sounds very well, and plays somewhere between an electric and an acoustic.....its a great guitar, but commands around $2000......so, a great, but expensive piece......but, in turn, you get a variety of authentic tones

Eric Johson Strat - cool guitar, does have a different feeling neck than alot of fenders......i dont know the specs, but it seemed a little different than an average strat.....i dont know that its worth it though, but just in my opinion

John Mayer Strat - these had a cool sound, they have special wound single coils called "Big Dippers" or something like that.....it was basically like a basic strat, not sure i would go for this, unless you want the name, or the particular sound of the pickups (unless they end up selling them seperately).....they were scooped sounding, lots of bass and treble, which left for a hollow sound

Effects/Tech

TC Electronics - i'm not into the new recording technology stuff, and this has probably been around for a while, but the guy was demoing this device which supplies a very authentic sounding back-up singing voice to whatever you are singing into the mic.....the device takes the signal from your mic and splits it and alters the tone and pitch just slightly, so that it sounds as if a real person is singing backup to you, and harmonizing with you.....it sounded really cool, and had i not known what was going on, i would've thought it was 2 people singing together.....plus, it had a bypass switch, so you could stomp it and turn the harmony backup voice on and off depending on when you needed it during the song......cool stuff

Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz - got to talk with Evan a bit, he's a really nice guy, everybody at the Duncan booth were really nice...... this pedal sounded awesome, thats it.....just a cool versatile tone.....the 6 settings emphasize different parts of the frequency spectrum, from warm to edgy, and from more open to compressed.......it has plenty of fuzz on tap, and very responsive......good compression for lead tones...... cleans up pretty well, not as good as some other fuzzes ive played......but, i would probably use it for more of a total lead boost within a song (clean to straight up nasty lead solo), rather than for cleaning- it- up -with- the- volume- knob type of technique...but either way, i see one of these in my future :D

Korg Pandora guitar processor - i think thats what these things were......they were little silver box guitar processors.....i played around with one for a while and there was some cool tones in there.......i don't have a need for it, but it was a simple and easy to use processor that had plenty of cool sounds......the clean tones were really nice all around

Digitech Hendrix Experience pedal - this pedal was pretty neat......the guy had Hendrix backing tracks playing, and he was playing a strat into this pedal.....The Wind Cries Mary tone was very convincing.....the fuzz sounds were pretty good, not exact matches though.....i didnt hear much else, but it seemed to be a cool thing to have if you have the extra cash, it did have some of Hendrix's sounds pretty well matched, and despite having the Hendrix tag, the tones are cool either way, you can make it sound like alot of stuff, its not contained to being just a "Hendrix pedal"

i'll post some more stuff when i think of it
 
Re: NAMM Report

slash857 said:
how do u get passes to NAMM? do they have a website that shows when and where the next one will be?
Click to expand...
The winter NAMM show is in Anaheim every year, they've moved the summer one around a bit. You have to be in the industry in some capacity to get a pass.
 
Re: NAMM Report

nice report flank thnx. the Fender Jazz King sounds like somthing that would be very cool.
:beerchug:
 
Re: NAMM Report

Reverend wasn't there eh? What about the Visual Sound booth? Did you see/hear anything that interested you there?
 
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