Re: NAMM gathering

[Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>]

> Paolo Valladolid wrote:
> 
> > Some of us forgot that one has to wear nametags to get into NAMM.
> 
> ...uh, talkin' to me?!

No, just responding to the comment about wearing big, funny hats.

Hope you're feeling better.  I did get to meet Kim, Doug, John, and David
Wessel.  Basically Dr. Wessel of CNMAT and his alumni. :)  Oops, and Chris
Muir too.

It's just as well you couldn't come to NAMM because none of the others 
found
anything really interesting outside of software.  I personally had a good
time since it was my first time.  I got to see Michael Manring perform
next door to Stick Enterprises a couple of times, Tony Levin try out
NS Designs' electric cello, Jeff Berlin jam with some guy on ddrums, and
of course 5-6 of the best Stick players in the world perform.   I sort of
saw Reeves Gabrels, but to be honest I dozed off several times even though
I was sitting in front of him being continously assaulted by his guitar
noises.  I got to meet Ralph Novak and try out his Novak fanned fret 
guitars
in person (I'm enamored of his semi-hollow, archtop acoustic electric 
model).   I saw an even weirder looking brand of guitar than the Kleins
- the Stump Preacher guitars.  They are headless with the strings folded
into their little bodies and the tuners arranged in strange places on the
fronts of the guitar bodies.  

Is it my imagination, or are bass guitars gaining more strings with each
passing year?  I saw one guy slapping and tapping on his 9-string bass
monstrosity.  I cracked up when Jeff Berlin shouted "I'm doing all this 
stuff with JUST FOUR STRINGS!!!" during his duet with that ddrum guy.

The Nord people were putting on a cool 2 DJ show.  But they were too busy
being DJs to answer my questions.  The Nord Lead comes with a wooden
"pitch stick" that is a pleasure to play with.

I have an acquaintance named Jimmy who was given free hotel and meals by
MD guitars to demo their guitars using his double-guitar tapping method.
He said people were asking him all day where he got his really cool string
damper, which has individual dampers for each string and works really well.

Other than my disappointment at not seeing the Digital Echoplex or Klein
guitars, I had a good time.

Paolo