Summer NAMM 2017

There hasn't been too much talk about summer NAMM here. I was there, and I didn't really set out to photograph everything I saw, but I did snap a few pictures.

A few things stood out to me.

1) BackBeat...This was a prototype of a bass "kicker" that you wear on your strap. I liked this a whole lot more than I thought I would
2) Poly Expressive... A guy named Loki from Australia had a prototype of a innovative effects controller system that uses laser positioning to track the location and motion of your foot. For reference, he had mousepad-material mats on the floor to show him the location of his "phantom" expression pedals and stomp switches. This was real too-smart-for-your-own-good, mad-scientist stuff. Really, really cool
3) Serek basses. I only spent a few minutes at the booth, but for me, these were the best basses there. The booth had pretty good foot traffic, and I saw Curtis Novak wearing a Serek shirt. These short scales are nice, classic-feeling designs that are super comfortable to play. I was really impressed by the way that, somehow, regardless of the pickup configuration, these basses all manage to sound different from each other while maintaining a very similar, "part of the same family" tone to them. I can't say enough good things about these instruments.
4) Trace Elliot. It was a noisy room, but I am definitely a fan. The Transit B looks and sounds like a quality piece of Trace Elliot gear. It sounds like what I remember Trace Elliot sounding like. (I say that having only ever owned a single Trace preamp.)
5) Ashdown ORIGINal. I thought the Trace stuff would be my favorite small amp gear. I was wrong. The Hi-Mid knob on these amps is pure magic. I will probably end up with one of these rather than the Elf. There is a DI pedal and a small amplifier in the product line.
6) The Dingwall D-Bird. As a collection, Serek won the day for me. The best single bass that I played? The D-Bird, by a wide margin. If this isn't a perfectly executed design, I'd need a lot more time with it to figure out why.

 

The Thunderbird...I wish I could tell you who made it. I don't remember - it was in the boutique area that had a collection of instruments from various builders.

The D-bird. Keep in mind, I was in a big, noisy room and played it through a small amp for just a brief amount of time. Having said that, I liked everything about it. The rotary switch offered a nice variety. All three pickups got into what I would call "traditional humbucker" territory, and the other positions nicely covered the range of Fender tones. I don't think this bass was trying to break new ground tone-wise, but it covers the Fender thing arguably better than it covers the Gibson-thing. Based on other Dingwalls I have played, I'd bet that if I could run it through my amp, it would take me about two seconds to find the perfect tone for me. The controls are nice and simple: volume, rotary pickup selector, tone.

 

I believe they are a small business, and I don't think they are in production yet. The business card I have lists their website as www.getbackbeat.com.

Somnium. This is actually a really cool concept, and they are just at the prototype stage with their basses. The pickups are in a snap-in chassis that loads from the rear, so you can swap out for different pickup cartridges. The cartridges are reversible, too, so you could quickly go from P-J to J-MM to M-J, or whatever you want. The guitars have swappable body wings, so if they make the perfect neck for you, you could transform the guitar from a tele to a strat to a paul by swapping pickup cartridges and body wings. I really like the idea and the guys were super energetic and friendly. It is tough to get a foothold with nontraditional ideas, but this is the best execution of hot-swap pickups that I have seen.

 

They do more than just look awesome! I am not remotely a short-scale guy, but these are impressive. The neck shape is great. They have a modern P width nut and a little bit narrower string spacing (18mm?) at the bridge. The fretwork is very well done, so he was able to give his basses a great setup with nice, low action. And then you plug them in - I'm pretty sure he was demoing them through a GK MB800 into an Aguilar DB112, and these things had a warm punchy tone with the characteristics of the specific pickup adding some color on top of that.

I'm not looking for a short scale, but these basses are really, really tempting.