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NAMM 2009 thoughts



We were pinned down, 30 clicks from Danang, low on ammunition and surrounded by VC….I’m sorry if this joke is getting old.

 This years NAMM was not nearly the watershed year for new products but there was some cool stuff. I spent most of my time downstairs in Hall E, where most of the start ups and smaller companies are, demoing at the looperlative booth. I did not see the String Port, but did catch a demo of the Moog guitar, which is amazing, if only I had 8 grand. Also of note. Eventide has announced a new Pitch Factor pedal which puts many of their best harmony effects in a floor pedal. Both diatonic and parallel harmonies are available and you can use two pitches at once as well as delaying them to create echo pitch effects. Very cool.  TC unveiled a really cool new bass amp and cabinets that is tiny like a Walter Woods amp and sounded fantastic. They also released a G Major 2 rack effect that improves on the original and includes some tasty new effects and intelligent pitch shifting as well. I went to try out the Source Audio infrared midi controller, but they didn’t have it set up at the booth. There were some cool boutique effects pedals that I was hoping to try out but the noise level made it hard. Spent some time at Asher guitars trying out some of his new lap steels, wish I had the money to buy em all. Also tried out the new Duisenberg Lap steel that has palm levers for pedal steel bending , and a movable capo. Very nice though the palm pedals where a bit awkward to control.  Back at the Looperlative booth, I had the privilege of meeting David Torn, (who hasn’t been doing much looping as of late, and working like a mad man on film scores),  seeing my old pal Lyle Workman who is also doing a lot of film work, and having Victor Wooten stop by and order an LP-1.  Also I got to see the great Will Lee play at the Sadowsky booth, and I gave bass legend Lee Sklar the finger and had him return the favor! Lee was going around the show taking pictures of people flipping him off! What a funny guy. This is the same guy who has a “producer” switch on his bass, (that does nothing at all J). In addition to my demo duties at Looperlative, I also had a gig sponsored by NAMM and the Museum of Making Music, in the outer lobby on Friday afternoon, where I made a nice connections to start cracking the film scoring scene. Low lights of the show included the usual parade of poseur,  wanna be rock stars, trashy strippers, and the general style over substance tenor of the LA scene. Down here it seems like the music business is about 10% art, and 90% artifice and image. They other low light was the general wanking din of  people trying to show off their speed playing at practically every booth for guitar and bass. What is it with these trade shows where people think they impress each other with how fast they can play? That was what was refreshing about hearing Will Lee play. He grooved like a MOFO. No slap bass, no tapping, just solid musicianship. Not that I don’t appreciate those techniques, its just the wackada wackada widdly widdly hyper playing that starts to grate on my nerves, seems to pervade every corner of the show.  All in all, it was a good show and very stimulating,  and fun.

 Bill