Anyone going to NAMM?

mpm · #1 01-16-2007, 03:31 PM

It looks like I'm going to be there for most of it...

Steve Swan · #2 01-17-2007, 09:36 AM

I'll be there, concentrating on the Paesold and Shen booths. You never know what surprising might be lurking in a corner from some new distributor.

Call me if you want to meet up. (650) 515-1014.

Steve Swan

mpm · #3 01-17-2007, 12:27 PM

Shen? Hey John, you going? Steve, I'll give you a call tonight after work.

mpm · #4 01-19-2007, 11:49 AM

Well, the NAMM show is huge as always, ran into John Sprauge at the Shen booth and talked to Kristen Korb at the BassBash last night. Today I'm going to David Gage's booth and try to find the Paesold booth. More later...

mpm · #5 01-22-2007, 11:31 AM

Ok, the NAMM is over, whew! Daunting, to say the least. Hung with David Gage and Sam, heard Jennifer Lietham a couple of times there. Paesold has changed its name, can't remember if its "Hofner" or "Honher", and heard the Kristen Korb and Todd Johnson duo Sat., they killed. But the show is generally aimed at the electric market, especially the entertainment. All in all, 4 days is about 2 days too much for me...

Steve Swan · #6 01-23-2007, 12:56 PM

I'm still recovering from the long day on Sunday at NAMM. Over the course of the 5 days there I met John Sprague, Paul Strelau, and Sam Shen himself at the Shen booth several times. They had on display a good sampling of their various models and I was pleased to find out that my pal Lisa Gass picked up the beautiful Panormo model that was there. Wilfer had a number of nice basses on display, my favorites all coming in their "4/4" (7/8) size. I snapped up the only Paesold bass on display at the Eastman booth, a "4/4" (7/8) 593. I'd really like to see the 7/8 versions of the Eastman 605 series, but everything there was 3/4 size. The Kolstein Baker model at the EMMC booth was a monster that played like a dream. Whoever snapped that one up got a really nice orchestral bass. There was a very nice carved back Calin Wultur Carcassi model at JR Music Supply, but I have a strong preference for the flatback version. The Calin Wultur Hybrid on display was a large orchestral shape with a fairly low top arch, which seemed to help give it a big, lush sound. The Hofner H510B-3/4 (same as the Paesold 3/4 593) sounded great, but had gotten a little too beaten up by having been dragged to other shows to buy as a new bass.

Noticeable by their absences were Mastri of Germany and any Gill basses. They were favorites of mine at the 2006 show. I also missed seeing Ken Smith. We had a nice time last year doing a morning pre-show bass booth crawl last year. I also missed seeing Barrie Kolstein at the EMMC booth. He had to attend to some city zoning hearing back home regarding a new parking lot for his shop.

It was interesting to see more basses on display this year using back and side woods other than Maple. JR Music Supply had a Panormo carved back model with some really fancy flamed Poplar. It's too bad that the top developed a really bad split that ran from near the g string side of the tail block to the soundpost area. EMMC had a Corsini-like model in Poplar and the Baker model in Willow. Christopher had an Amati flatback model with African Sapele, also known as African Mahogany.

As usual, there were a number of small Chinese bass manufacturers that haven't done enough homework. These basses tend to have odd shapes, huge necks, and very quiet voices from overly heavy top carving. I don't know who it would be, but somebody must be buying this stuff!

I didn't get to hear much music this time, but heard Jennifer Lietham play her Paesold 593 at three different locations just walking by on my way to some other meeting. She must be the hardest working bassist in show business!

Other fun stuff to see was the selection of carbon graphite basses from the french company CoSi and David Gage's Czech-Ease travel bass. There were some nice bows around, including some snakewood bows at the Wilfer and Gotz booths.

All in all NAMM was a nice show of strength for doublebass and bow makers who exhibited.

Steve Swan

bassjamn · #7 01-23-2007, 01:56 PM

Yes, ill be heading down early this weekend, hopefully i dont miss it1

Steve Swan · #8 01-25-2007, 07:10 PM

I forgot to mention that I ambled by the Kingdoublebass booth in a vain effort to find Ken Smith. In the past Ken has usually had his little booth somewhere nearby tham, oddly enough. They had an amazing array of finish treatments and top ply choices for their rockabilly basses. I should have taken some photos. It put some of the car finishes at some hotrod shows to shame!

Steve Swan

John Sprague · #9 01-26-2007, 10:01 AM

Hey, ho, back from NAMM!

It's funny, normally I find people to look different than I thought they did on the phone, but Steve Swan and Doug Heydon were pretty much right on the mark!

I saw Dr. Mike a bunch of times, though no dinner or lunch hook-ups.

I liked the way they required photo IDs on the last day to keep people from handing their badge off to their kid. Not that I hate young people, but it made it possible to tie up all the loose ends with dealers without fighting the crowds. I was disappointed by the evening entertainment, or lack thereof. There should have been more going on. We had a fire drill Sunday night after the show closed, causing me to be there tearing down til midnight. I watched the Colts beat the Pats at the Zildjian booth Sunday night, and they must all be New England fans because the whole bunch of them gave me the stink-eye when I cheered for the Colts lol.

Another NAMM into the history books.

**Freddels** · #10 01-26-2007, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Sprague

Hey, ho, back from NAMM!

I watched the Colts beat the Pats at the Zildjian booth Sunday night, and they must all be New England fans because the whole bunch of them gave me the stink-eye when I cheered for the Colts lol.

Well yeah! Zildjian is based here in MA. What would you expect?

Steve Swan · #11 01-26-2007, 12:48 PM

In my previous mention of non-Maple basses at NAMM I neglected to mention seeing and playing the Willow versions of the Shen SB 200 3/4 flatback, the SB 200W 7/8 flatback, and the SB 200I Rogeri carved back. I thought that the Rogeri model in particular was a great sounding bass.

Steve Swan

emayric · #12 01-30-2007, 05:56 PM

Hi steve
Did you try some basses ? what about traveling basses from Gage or COSI ? did you try it ?

cosi : http://www.cosi-lagarde.com/
gage : http://www.davidgage.com/

Steve Swan · #13 01-31-2007, 01:09 AM

I did try both of the basses. Travel basses are always a compromise in tone and volume. The Gage seems like a good answer to a transportation problem of normal size basses that just seems to be getting worse for us. Definitely more bass-like than the Emminence, but less portable.

The 4/4 CoSi basses sounded surprisingly good, the 3/4 size quite a bit more contained. They are quite expensive in the larger sizes, so I couldn't seriously consider one myself. This bass could really be a good answer to someone that has to play outside in the sun and/or very high humidity.

It was a real treat to be able to try these unusual instruments along with the more conventional basses at the show.

Steve Swan