NAMM Observations

[Bassamatic]

WOW - the weather is always so wonderful during this show - I am sure that those traveling from the rest of the country were really grateful and admiring of the LA weather.

It seemed that there were a lot less exhibitors. NAMM did their best to disguise this, but there was a lot of empty space and booths in halls D and E, and new exhibitors in the main halls as some big exhibitors obviously canceled and they were able to snap up the good spaces at the last minute.

There were a LOT of really beautiful handmade instruments there. Of course I looked most at the basses. The work and the exotic woods were just amazing. As I am trying to generate some business at the show, I only had time to play some Lakland basses (Dan and Leo are such great guys) and some Fender products.

NAMM continues to disrespect the attendees by never providing places to sit and eat while visiting the show. Everyone is standing around trying to balance their trays on one hand, eat with the other and try to avoid being bumped by the thousands of people wandering around. One of the atriums between halls had dozens of tables stacked up, but none were put out so that the people buying food at the overpriced food counters could sit and eat it. The shows in Europe and Asia always have plenty of places dedicated to food service and a place to eat. The only tables I saw readily available at NAMM were outside, so that if you were even able to get your food to a table you had to go through TSA level security to get back in. Pretty poor.

Further, NAMM did a very smart thing by creating a nice smartphone app to guide people around the show and provide easy access to the show information. THEN, they negated this effort by requiring the exhibitors and people that were paying hundreds of dollars for membership and to attend the show to PAY for the app. As it is they no longer made the printed directory available without a special coupon given to a few members, saving even more money. This is like going to the movies, and the theater people charging you for a guide to the shows that you are going to pay for. Thumbs down, NAMM.

There was some AMAZING performers in the booths. Very enjoyable. However, I found that while the performances were fantastic, the sound SUCKED in all of them. It was in general muddy and dull, even at demos for sound products companies. What is with these people? It was obvious that they did not take into account the effect of a hall full of people and noise when setting up the sound, and didn't bother to correct it later. Another part of the problem was also . . . .

The demos were all TOO FREAKIN' LOUD!!! Especially the bass demos. They all sounded midrangey and farty and boomy as they caused all the the other nearby instuments to resonate. Totally defeated the purpose of the demo and just pressured everyone else to played louder, and so one. On Saturday I measured the sound in D hall at 98-99 dB average, hitting 105 on peaks. It was not possible to talk to the poor booth personnel that were going to be hoarse by the end of the day. Most of the guitar demos were quiet by comparison, and much better demos IMO. Now, loud is OK with me, but not like this.

I went to visit Fender with my friend who is a dealer. The rep, Sumir, was one of the best mannered and informed sales reps I have ever met. He took plenty of time to show us all the new products (Highway One is going away and being replaced by a very nice new product line) and showed that Fender cares about their dealers, even the small ones, with new special pricing allowing for the slow economy. Kudos, Fender.

I got to chat with Carol Kaye and Lee Sklar. Lee is really a very interesting and cool guy. Carol was playing some great jazz guitar as well as bass.

Bill Bartolini was very kind and took plenty of time helping me solve a tech problem.

The folks at Hipshot not only have really awesome products, but they even offered to make me some custom sized tuners for my old Hofner bass, as the Schallers I installed back in the 60's are too wide to fit in the original case I found recently. What GREAT customer service.

It seems that there are many more small powerful amps in the style of MarkBass.

Still worth attending, but could have been a better show with just a little effort. Next year I will make time to enjoy the exhibits instead of just working.

Thanks for letting me vent!