Summer NAMM 2008

Transformerless, multi-patterned and ancestrally rich are all terms that describe the Neumann TLM-67. We check it out at the Neumann booth at Summer NAMM 2008.  

Our friend Felix from Numark attempts to break the world record for most mixers overviewed in less than three minutes. The doctors warned him it might be too risky to his health; that there was a good chance he might not survive if he tried, but Felix insisted on going on. Felix, you sweet prince; Godspeed.  

The VOX JamVOX system is VOX's first attempt at software. It allows you to take out the guitar parts to your favorite songs and ruin all them with polyrhythmic double tap solos. At least that's my plan to destroy the world.  

If you want to live your dreams of becoming a famous clarinetist vicariously through your child, but your kid just doesn't take to the taste of reeds, Flavoreeds has a solution. They're flavored reeds come in a number of varieties while maintaining the qualities of a good reed.  

Fender has totally revamped the Jazzmaster in accordance with its 50th birthday wishes. As part of its mid-life crisis, it asked to have some bodywork done so that it can have a more distorted sound to fit in with the kids.  

We've got one more Cool Cat for you coming from Summer NAMM 2008 -- the CT-1 Tremolo. Equipped with a hard switch to activate a square wave, go from classic tremolo to a little hard stop and go action on this kitty.  

In the hotly contested acoustic league, everyone knows that the teams on the West, in general, are the stronger teams. That's why Fender's Acoustic team has introduced the California series, however the Nashville residing Buddy Miller Signature Model has thrown a lot of money in the off season to develop a dream team.  

Originally, the Cool Cat was the name for Danelectro's Chorus pedal before it became a series. The CC-1 Cool Cat Chorus is the chorus pedal in their new Cool Cat line. I guess Danelectro really liked the name.  

Gearwire peeps the new Fender Elvis Costello Jazzmaster at Summer NAMM 2008. Built with Elvis' preferences in mind and the storied pawn shop Jazzmaster that Costello traded his Telecaster for, it's only a matter of time before the third and final Elvis (Glenn Danzig) gets his due.  

At Summer NAMM is Nashville, Chris Shannon from Synergy House played for Gearwire some of the most musical bowls outside of Disney's Beauty And The Beast.  

We're back with another one of Danelectro's Cool Cat offerings. This one is a drive pedal that'll put the blues back in your bones with a twangy Texan kick that'll have you wearing a ten gallon hat and twenty gallon trucker stash in no time.  

We see the new Fender Classic Player Jaguar Special. The Jaguar has long been renowned in surf rock rings from coast to coast, and now Fender fattens it up a little. . . because they're planning on eating it.  

When he isn't immersed in Sabbathian doom jammery, Britton Wetherald enjoys getting a bit twangy. It's no surprise that Britton was psyched for the Gretsch Knotty Pine Roundup at Summer NAMM '08.  

Don't let the name fool you, Century Violins deals with fretted instruments of all types. For example, in this video, we see a gypsy-style archtop acoustic guitar, and it gets played by someone who may or may not be an actual gypsy!  

Undoubtedly, when you're a guitar warlock like Joe Satriani, guitar, amp and effect companies will want to work with you. The best way to endear yourself to Mr. Satriani? Emboss a "Surfing With The Alien" Silver Surfer onto a guitar.  

With nine pedals in the Danelectro Cool Cat series and all of them at Summer NAMM 2008, we really hope you appreciate how hard it is to come up with puns, references and the like. Of course, there's always more than one way to skin a cat. With the CF-1 Fuzz pedal, I'll keep the foremost way to skin this particular cat to myself.  

Michael Tobias Design shows off the new Kingston Z (for Zephyr) Bass. In four, five or six strings, this Buzz Feiten equipped bass with a burl top is a classy bass for classy bassists.  

Did you know that most electric sitars are made from the reincarnated remains of regular acoustic sitars? Not Synergy House's Electric Sitar -- but that factoid did get me thinking. Can my remains be used to create some kind of electric human? God, I hope so.  

The J. Backlund Designs JBD100 is a very cool-looking retro-futuristic guitar. However, their retro-futurism only validates the crazy Jetsonian idea of the future. Maybe someone should design a retro-futuristic-retrograded guitar that looks like what people from the past think people from the future will think things from the past look like.  

Gearwire's Bill Holland takes on the M-Audio Torq Xponent. First, we see the features. Then we see the features in action.  

When Fender finally unveiled the Billy Corgan Stratocaster, I asked him how he felt about the occasion. Corgan replied, "Today is the greatest day I've ever known." Then I skipped two tracks forward and listened to "Rocket" because that song is a jam.  

Oh, you want to see more Cool Cats? In lieu of pictures of Miles Davis, we bring you even more Danelectro Cool Cat effect pedals. The CM1 is another metal distortion, though this one is less "Crazy Train" and more "Black Dog."  

At the Gretsch booth at Summer NAMM 2008, Britton Wetherald could be seen appreciating the Billy Zoom signature model, and scoffing at faux aging techniques (fair game on jeans, though).  

All the way from India, we check out Radel's line of digital Indian instruments. In this video, we check out the Radel Electronic Tanpura, a digital drone instrument with a two octave range.  

Britton Wetherald -- purveyor of fine metal guitars -- stopped by the Jackson Custom Shop booth at Summer NAMM to see what limited edition axes the shred heads from the west coast had to offer for 2008.  

Back in Britton Wetherald's day, student guitars weren't a thing to scoff at, and NAMM Shows weren't in places like Nashville. They were only on uphill slopes, and to get from one booth to the other took five hours, but nobody complained because at the time, nobody knew what digital equipment was.  

Synergy House is an importer of traditional Indian instruments, and had a veritable percussive menagerie on display that would have made ol' George Harrison drool. Here we take a look at their student Tablas.  

Ibanez has long been associated with the power of hard rock and metal, and undoubtedly their super-slick super-fast necks and percussive amp tones justify that reputation. Ibanez is looking to grow, though, and their new SR series of bass amps is worlds more flexible than the previous SW series.  

We talk to Hiwatt about their CP103 Pete Townsend Signature Series amplifier. It utilizes old school overdrive techniques -- like splitting your guitar into four different inputs with their own volumes to crank up.  

Danelectro has always gone for the retro-chic 50s vibe, but in the 1950s, there was no metal. Yet the CM-2 Cool Cat Metal II pedal defies all metal logic. But Satan predates the 50s, and he's pretty metal. That's why I hate math.