NAMM 2010 Day 1 and 2

Well just back to the hotel after a long Day 2 at NAMM. Thanks to Keith Miller (www.km-guitarslinger.com) and Morley Pedals (www.morleypedals.com).

Thursday we flew in around noon and got stuck waiting to check in to the Hotel. So after some pizza and chicken buffet, we got all settled in and grabbed a shuttle to the show. We only had a couple of hours so Keith and I spent the time saying hi to the guys we know. Hit up the Carvin booth talked a few of the reps there. Then hit up the Morley booth to talk to Bill and check out their new mini-wah and mini-volume pedals which look sweet. Ran up to Digitech to see any new stuff they have, the highlights were their new stereo looper and single pedal looper.

Then for the rest of the day we got a full demo of the new Cakewalk V-Studio 700 and V-Studio 100. The V-Studio 100 is sweet.  Full 8x6 interface with control surface and digital mixer. It also has 2-track recording standalone.  The 700 is way crazy cool. Tons of neat features... very expensive though. Also talked with Ronnie North and watched him shred for a bit.  Also watched some 12-year olds absolutely kill at singing some Dio-Era Black Sabbath covers. F'n awesome!  Then turned in a bit early to chill.

Today we got there early. Saw a ton of gear and a ton of artists doing demos and just jamming.  It is very humbling to come to NAMM, the amount of talent is just staggering.  Performance highlights were definitely Flametal which were awesome!  Checked out a wicked 80's shredder that I don't know at the Boss/Roland...arena.  Saw some wicked jazz guys and chapman stick dudes.

Gearwise, the new Steven Slate plugins and hardware are amazing!  Their new mastering suite is awesome and the plans are for it to come with a MIDI controller.  It is super easy and really really good sounding mastering stuff and console simulation.   We got to sit through a full on demo of all their products... amazing! Mesa has a new lunch-box type amp which looks really sweet!  Checked out all the Eminence speakers with their magic speaker switcher... oh and I got to demo them for PRS guitars! 

Played on the new Egnater amps geared for Metal. They were sweet and had tons of options...going to stick to ENGL though.   Played on some Carvin stuff which was sweet. Their BX500 rocks, but their new B2000 and B1500 sound great and are also lightweight.  They got some new mixers, dual cut-away guitars, and basses. Their finishes are downright spectacular. I see a new bass amp and probably a 7-string in my future. Presonus is releasing a 24-channel studio-live mixer. They have new controller software which makes it a perfect console for live use and recording. 

Starwise, there are tons of people this year, so artists are just getting mobbed and the lines are really long.  Plus you really see stars everywhere, I mean everywhere. But they are often busy and I hate bothering them. So I stargazed last year, this year it is about the gear!

Really cool thing is that this year we have "Artist" passes. So we were cool enough to get into the Coffin Case fashion show and event.  Saw Renegade Brides, Iron Maidens, and Thunderstruck.  Awesome awesome awesome and deadly hot.  Then the 2 fashion shows were jaw dropping. Beautiful girls and actually cool clothing.  I got lots of video to share a bit later.  It was very cool to get in there and check it out.

Definitely looking forward to hitting it again tomorrow. I think I might check out some classical guitars and see if I can actually play the new little Mesa Lunchbox.  

RAWK ON!