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NAMM what gives?!?

I wish people complained more.

You're not doing it right:

This sucks - why can't people complain more?!?!?

Or for the more wordy side of the house:

Because many of the things I'm about to say regarding NAMM have already been beaten into the ground, I will try to keep this letter short. As this letter will make clear, NAMM finds it convenient to blame all of society's woes on noisome ratbags. Doing so fits with the rest of its populist sloganeering and takes less intellectual effort than investigating the structural factors and material practices that may in fact be the true reason that NAMM has never gotten ahead because of its hard work or innovative ideas. Rather, all of NAMM's successes are due to kickbacks, bribes, black market double-dealing, outright thuggery, and unsavory political intrigue. If NAMM is going to promote violence in all its forms—physical, sexual, psychological, economical, and social—then it should at least have the self-respect to remind itself of a few things: First, it is way ahead—if that's the right phrase—of most moralistic pamphleteers in embracing Titoism. And second, the problem with it is not that it's unforgiving. It's that it wants to feed us ever-larger doses of its lies and crackpot assumptions.

NAMM's prodigal machinations aren't something we can safely ignore. Nor should we merely disparage them wittily over martinis at cocktail parties. No, we must provide information and inspiration to as many people as possible. That's the only way to educate the public about how NAMM has been trying to popularize the narrative that it is beyond reproach. My fear is that if it's successful at promoting such cockamamy notions then even the man on the Clapham omnibus may agree to let it degrade, divide, and destroy our nation.

This hasn't sat well with rebarbative, lethargic sociopaths. So let NAMM call me unrealistic; I call it grumpy. It has been revealed that NAMM plans to make life less pleasant for us. First reaction yields that it's blind to the truth. A little more thought leads to the more accurate conclusion that NAMM refers to a variety of things using the word "unconstitutionality". Translating this bit of jargon into English isn't easy. Basically, it's saying that there should be publicly financed centers of hedonism, which we all know is patently absurd. At any rate, I am fully in accord with those who say that I find its reification of mysticism a tad disconcerting. How much more illumination does that fact need before NAMM can grasp it? Assuming the answer is "a substantial amount", let me point out that conclaves of NAMM's pickthanks have all the dissent found in a North Korean communist party meeting. That's why no one there will ever admit that NAMM's wishy-washy actions have created a class of dependent supplicants and special interests. Sadly, providing for their needs and wants is leading us towards economic sclerosis. All we can do now is challenge NAMM to defend its blandishments or else to change them. That's it for this letter. I sincerely hope that typing it was not a complete waste of energy. Unfortunately, I do realize that my words will probably trigger no useful response in the flabby synapses of NAMM's brain. I just felt obligated to go through the motions because NAMM's longiloquent words are based primarily on prejudice and paranoia.
 
That's a classic appeal to authority fallacy, as "many" could simply be wrong ;)

All good though, there's a shoe for every foot, different strokes for different folks, etc.

It's not an appeal to authority at all. Many players have sung the praises of their TBirds for more years than many bass players have been alive. And it continues to be a popular bass and command a premium price. Not something that would be happening if it were just based on its age and idle chatter alone.

(Minor note: an "appeal to authority fallacy" is when you cite an irrelevant authority in support of an argument. Citing relevant authority (i.e owners and players) or relevant consensus (listeners for example) isn't an appeal to totally irrelevant opinion holders. People should know with utter certainty whether or not they like the TBird sound. And many do.

But even without that, my comment was about personal opinion, which is not something that scientific certitude can be established for to begin with. So an appeal to "authority" is difficult to conceive of since there is no recognized authority over personal opinions. So either way you're misusing the expression. ;))
 
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It's not an appeal to authority at all. Many players have sung the praises of their TBirds for more years than many bass players have been alive. And it continues to be a popular bass and command a premium price. Not something that would be happening if it were just based on its age and idle chatter alone.

(Minor note: an "appeal to authority fallacy" is when you cite an irrelevant authority in support of an argument. Citing relevant authority (i.e owners and players) or relevant consensus (listeners for example) isn't an appeal to totally irrelevant opinion holders. People should know with utter certainty whether or not they like the TBird sound. And many do.

But even without that, my comment was about personal opinion, which is not something that scientific certitude can be established for to begin with. So an appeal to "authority" is difficult to conceive of since there is no recognized authority over personal opinions. So either way you're misusing the expression. ;))

I don't personally find Nikki Sixx or Joe Shmo TBird fan to be a "relevant" authority, but it wasn't really meant to be taken this seriously either :)

As I said, a shoe for every foot.

Myself and many others find the DBird to be a superior design to the original in every aspect, but anyone is welcome to prefer the inferior version ;)
 
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This was actually a pretty good year for bass gear at NAMM compared to past 5 years. On top of everything already listed, Sadowsky released a line selling under 2k, new stuff from Hartke, GK, Markbass, Genz Benz, and Trickfish, MONO released a new gig bag, and a few other things.

It has to be mentioned occasionally that the world of commerce that surrounds the bass guitar is small compared to that of acoustic and electric guitars and their amplifiers and accessories. The reason that NAMM shows aren't "all bass all the time" is the same reason there's only a couple pages of bass gear in a Musician's Friend catalog. The big money is in other instruments.

Is Genz Benz back in business? or are you referring to Genzler?
 
Bassists don't want anything new. They typically want the same half-a-century old designs, and tend to buy used anyway.

Any company unveiling something new for bass at NAMM might as well say, "here's a new bass product that only a handful of people are going to buy."

No company really has a valid reason to unveil anything new for bass (except for that Rickenbacker 5-string drool)
Agreed. If it ain't broken..
 
Went to NAMM for years, because I had to go due to work. Will not go again. NAMM is mostly a way for people who don't work in the music business to pretend that they DO. IMHO...

Not sure if I fall into the latter crowd since my involvement in music industry is more as a hobbyist than a working musician or instrument assembler.
But, I would like the opportunity to go at least once to try out some new gear and speak directly with other manufacturers about ideas I have and experiments I've performed.

I would love the opportunity to perform a side-by-side speaker cab comparison in a noisy environment to determine which cabs cut through the noise.
Not too many music stores carry boutique cabs such as Greenboy Audio, Baer, LDS, Bergatino, Ephifani, etc...
Hell, most music stores do not carry most stock brand cabs anymore.

I would like to experience NAMM at least once in my lifetime.
 
Almost NO love for bassists.

Ibanez released a bunch of new Basses.

Way Huge released the Pork Pickle

Blackstar released some combos for bass

Ampeg released 2 new bass pedals

Fender found a way to rerelease more 3TS, Natural and Olympic White Jazz and P Basses and raise the price hundreds.

Not much else. Disappointing!
Are you there currently? Have you been able to visit all the booths?
 
Started watching YouTube videos on Namm here and there but still haven't seen all the ones I might be interested in.

Fender

The bad- Way over a half century and still no 5 string Mexican p5 or fretless 5 really not much going on bass wise at all.

The good- some of the custom Shop relic stuff looks really cool but I'm not sure if I'm interested in spending like $7k-$10k for fender custom Shop to beat up a bass I wouldn't pay over $2k for.

PRS

No news at all. Absolutely nothing new for basses

Musicman

I really don't know what to say. If you're going to change the stingray (a classic design) go about it differently. The neck through stingrays they started making a year or two ago were an example of something cool. Would have been blown away if they decided to do fanned fret sr5 even if it was a very limited edition. A 6 string stingray would have been interesting. But the Im just not feeling the choices they went with. You get one more fret (shut the front door) seriously go 24fret like the bongo or leave it alone. Hardware changes look cheap to me in comparison. Not that they might not look good on a newer design but the Smaller bridge and back of the headstock makes them look like a cheap clone of real stingray. Just not feeling the changes at all. Let the "its too heavy" crowd play their violin basses. I seriously doubt 1 pound lighter is going to make them happy anyways. I've purchased 3 new musicmans over the years and weight was never a major issue for me. Would have rather seen them tweak the compensated nut so it didn't cut the side of my index finger at gigs.

ESP

The good- they are taking some chances and developing new basses

The bad- would have preferred to see them offer the recent AP-5 which is a nice 5 string PJ copy with emgs in different colors (its currently only available in "Im Batman," instead they came out with a new retro inspired body shape that I'm sure some folks will dig but I'm not feeling it.


Warwick

The bad - this years limited editions are Meh. They look like overpriced neck through Ibanez basses.

The good- think i saw a rockbass version of the infinity 5 string which stirs up some gas for An affordable backup bass.

Dingwall - the Darkglass edition NG3 looks badass imo. Probably the most interesting bass I've seen so far this year. Unfortunately I recently bought an ng2 and the DG edition NG3 is an 8 month wait.
FFED30EF-20F8-4144-BC27-B4B8AFFF8578.jpeg
Finish kind of reminds me of The Lamborghini aventador
029E1ED1-AB76-4802-809B-8FDCC7FABED7.jpeg


sadowsky - relatively good job. New more affordable line is interesting.

Pedal wise the pedal I will absolutely buy is the DG alpha/ omega ultra. Big fan of my original alpha omega. I have that pedal on about half of our live sets these days. I honestly assumed they'd release a A/O ultra but more similar to the b7k ultra I had and if that's all it was i wasn't planning on buying one. But I dig the new features. The headphone out is awesome Because nearly all the time I spend practicing at home is with headphones. Will be cool to just chill with my basses and pedalboard and practice. Interested in paying around with the iRs. I also like how they replaced the lower row of knobs that the b7k ultra I owned had with sliders. This not only provides more controls but on the b7k ultra I was constantly bumping that lower row of knobs when i hit the Footswitches. My only complaint about this pedals design is having the little pushbuttons and xlr out on the sides with top Jacks. Defeats some of the benefits of having too Jacks. But as small and feature packed as the pedal is that's one of those "1st world problems" that I can't cry too much about.
466554AD-5AB5-4973-97B6-D00B6E0966BE.jpeg
I'm also curious about the Tech 21 dug pedal. I think the amp has an interesting sound but was expensive and I dig the idea of not changing my rig and having the option to buy a much more affordable pedal for that sound. And at over a $100 cheaper than the new Darkglass I expect tech 21 to sell a good amount of these.
077AA027-11FE-4685-BCEF-93451B9C7A97.jpeg
Still checking stuff out and I'm not super interesting in Amps at the moment so who knows what I've missed
 
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Went to NAMM for years, because I had to go due to work. Will not go again. NAMM is mostly a way for people who don't work in the music business to pretend that they DO. IMHO...
Or for artists who want to feel like they're important when they're not! (I'm a willing participant in this category. LoL)

Letting a player see their name on a badge like this probably bolsters brand loyalty, which breeds vocal evangelism. I assume that sort of thinking plays into it a bit for why the brands continue to go, and invite people, no matter how small time.
WarwickNAMMBadge.jpg
 
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You're not doing it right:

This sucks - why can't people complain more?!?!?

Or for the more wordy side of the house:

Because many of the things I'm about to say regarding NAMM have already been beaten into the ground, I will try to keep this letter short. As this letter will make clear, NAMM finds it convenient to blame all of society's woes on noisome ratbags. Doing so fits with the rest of its populist sloganeering and takes less intellectual effort than investigating the structural factors and material practices that may in fact be the true reason that NAMM has never gotten ahead because of its hard work or innovative ideas. Rather, all of NAMM's successes are due to kickbacks, bribes, black market double-dealing, outright thuggery, and unsavory political intrigue. If NAMM is going to promote violence in all its forms—physical, sexual, psychological, economical, and social—then it should at least have the self-respect to remind itself of a few things: First, it is way ahead—if that's the right phrase—of most moralistic pamphleteers in embracing Titoism. And second, the problem with it is not that it's unforgiving. It's that it wants to feed us ever-larger doses of its lies and crackpot assumptions.

NAMM's prodigal machinations aren't something we can safely ignore. Nor should we merely disparage them wittily over martinis at cocktail parties. No, we must provide information and inspiration to as many people as possible. That's the only way to educate the public about how NAMM has been trying to popularize the narrative that it is beyond reproach. My fear is that if it's successful at promoting such cockamamy notions then even the man on the Clapham omnibus may agree to let it degrade, divide, and destroy our nation.

This hasn't sat well with rebarbative, lethargic sociopaths. So let NAMM call me unrealistic; I call it grumpy. It has been revealed that NAMM plans to make life less pleasant for us. First reaction yields that it's blind to the truth. A little more thought leads to the more accurate conclusion that NAMM refers to a variety of things using the word "unconstitutionality". Translating this bit of jargon into English isn't easy. Basically, it's saying that there should be publicly financed centers of hedonism, which we all know is patently absurd. At any rate, I am fully in accord with those who say that I find its reification of mysticism a tad disconcerting. How much more illumination does that fact need before NAMM can grasp it? Assuming the answer is "a substantial amount", let me point out that conclaves of NAMM's pickthanks have all the dissent found in a North Korean communist party meeting. That's why no one there will ever admit that NAMM's wishy-washy actions have created a class of dependent supplicants and special interests. Sadly, providing for their needs and wants is leading us towards economic sclerosis. All we can do now is challenge NAMM to defend its blandishments or else to change them. That's it for this letter. I sincerely hope that typing it was not a complete waste of energy. Unfortunately, I do realize that my words will probably trigger no useful response in the flabby synapses of NAMM's brain. I just felt obligated to go through the motions because NAMM's longiloquent words are based primarily on prejudice and paranoia.

I want what he's having..
 
Whenever I've gone I've never felt there was any lack of emphasis on bass. And I always end up seeing a bunch of decently usable/relevant bass oriented things that I had no idea existed. And really great to actually try many of the basses that a GC or Sam Ash is never going to stock.

Also for me one of the best things is seeing the live booth and stage performances and the evening bash-type shows. I mean gear is cool but I think the live music you have access to seeing there can oftentimes be even cooler.

I don't like the crowds and the noise though. When I do go now I'll only go on Thursday and Friday and will always leave the show floor before it hits full saturation.

Crowd-wise I don't envy anyone who is on the show floor right now on a Saturday afternoon.
 
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@Nephilymbass I agree with your comment that the new Stingray hardware looks clone-ish. The roasted neck and lighter bridge seem like decent ideas. I'll reserve judgment until I see them in the wild.
I'm less than thrilled with the news of Fender's new American Original series. Seems like a couple large steps backwards from the AVRIs, at least on paper.
Fender's Parallel Universe guitars and the triangular-pickup Rics are just bizarre, IMO.
 
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