What news from Summer NAMM 2013?

Remember when there were pages and pages of folks reporting on cool new stuff from namm?

 

Yep. I've got a catalog to update and it doesn't look like it's going to take me very long. Even for Summer NAMM it was uneventful. Some product launches happened a week or two beforehand and PRS launched a whole new series without even going.

 

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

Sign of the times with the economy still in the crapper. Nobody can afford to take the risk launching anything new and innovative when people don't have the cash to purchase and recoup the R&D costs.

This past Winter NAMM was a dud, too, for the same reason. Hell, even the gadget world hasn't seen anything new or cool in a couple years now...

 

maybe this comment is better fitted to the effects forum NAMM SHOWS ROCK!

i'm really impressed with this co.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/el-rey-effects-billy-jack-fuzz-997324/


^ this is the summer namm 2013 board

 

I'd imagine nobody could afford to be stale... innovation at NAMM would be awesome. GK just came out with a bunch of products. Genz is in flux, Baer & Bergantino still have newer stuff etc

I think we are just inbetween product cycles with a bunch of stuff.

 

I went last Thursday and meant to do a more in depth follow up Saturday, but a last minute fly date came up...

The Warwick amps looked cool. There was some nice studio stuff, pres, converters, etc.

Strange to walk through a place with so much bass gear and not really GAS for one single thing. More coffee table basses that look like they should be played only by wizards

Tons of new pedal companies...most of what I heard was the same old thing, with cooler, or newer graphics.

Wampler and Earthquaker Devices did have some serious pedals though. I could go for a couple of those

 

My personal fave quote for the day

 

Yeah, mine too.

"only by wizards"

 

Wizard Rock:

 

Mine too. I'm definitely borrowing that one.

 

I think that's part of it. Also, though, it seems like fewer companies are actually going to NAMM.

 

We put some pics from Summer NAMM up on the Bass Gear Magazine Facebook page in the 2013 Summer NAMM album.

 

I saw a couple basses in Tom's pics that didn't look like they should be played by wizards. Digging on those oddball Kay reissues with the weird pickguard. But yeah, mostly Mark seems right

 

I liked those too and agree with the assessment.

 

Jimmy! Some of the Kay and Harmony reissue stuff looked pretty cool...I kinda thought the Kay stuff looked better then they sounded or played, sadly.

I assumed I'd be coming back, but had I known I'd be flying out Saturday, I would've taken a more serious look on Thursday.

 

You know Mark, that always seems to be the way with hollowbodies. The reissues just don't get it done like the originals. I wonder if it's a wood-aging thing.

 

Actually, there were more cool things than I typically expect at Summer NAMM. I'll talk about more of them later, but we gave out three Bass Gear Magazine Best of Show Awards. These went to Keith Roscoe, for a very killer P/J 5 Century Standard, to Traynor, for the (now permanently reissued) YBA-1 (and 2x12 cab), and to Eventide, for their super awesome H9 pedal, which can basically run any of their other pedal effects, and can be controlled by an iPad/iPhone.