- Oct 16, 2014
- 6,942
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- Endorsing Artist: Langstrom Carrot Farms
Time to pack up and check out. And I'm still not to the Fender stuff!
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Winter NAMM 2017 (ultra Pic-heavy)
- Thread starter wintremute
- Start date
And some other bass dude looking on......With Friday pretty much done, I headed waaay back over to Hall A, to check on @anton72. I feel it must get lonely being the only bass company in the entire hall. Who do I see? Rudy Sarzo...again! I tell you, that guy is stalking me!
wintremute, thank you! This is the nicest thing! I truly felt like I was there all weekend, from the comfort of my own home! This is waaay up there in TB awesomeness land! You are the man!
I've got a four string fretless. It wasn't expensive but it's well constructed, easy to play and has plenty of scope in terms of tone. I think they're underrated. They sure is purdy too.More LTD.
I don't hear much about LTD here on TB. Who plays these? What's your take?
I went last year, and didn't enjoy it for exactly this reason. The crowding was terrible, exacerbated by "cell phone crawl" where people are taking mass pics, or walking super slow, staring at there phones and not aware of anything around them. If you are gonna go, Wed, Thurs, Fri is the way to do it....and don't expect much on the weekend if you stay.You're clearly a more patient man than I am, Wintremute, I bailed on many of the booths today due to crowding/general douchebagery.
I love gear, but didn't think I could fairly evaluate an instrument in that environment which was really disappointing. I certainly couldn't make a big $$$ decision there. If I can swing another media pass next year, I may go on the Thursday.
BTW, it's super easy for anyone to get a pass. I'm a no one in the music industry, but I just signed up on the NAMM site as a music teacher from a local school here.
First off, hats off to Wintremute, he's pulling more than double duty with the pictures compared to the rest of us combined.
Saturday was a bit more relaxed for me, rather than jetting around the place on my own trying to see as much as possible, I took my time with a friend of mine and looked at a few items more extensively.
First up: Lowdown Basses.
This is a new company based out of Chicago that makes more affordable custom basses. Prices ranged from 1500-2500. They caught my eye on Friday and I made it a point to come back Saturday after talking with their luthier Tim Seisser for a bit. Glad I did. They have a kind of rugged elegance to them, with all the grainy wood and nothing but oil finishes. When I sat down with them a played a while, I immediately noticed how comfortable they were, in the sense of a broken in catchers mitt or a favorite pair of shoes. the wood finish felt wonderful; the feel of lightly oiled grain under your hands lends a sense of groundedness with the instrument. Your body is more able to intuit what it's doing with the instruments when you have that extra sensory feedback. The neck was nice - slightly wider fretboard with a comfy back and 34" spacing made playing naturally easy without having to get used to it. They sounded superb - I could easily get an aggressive roar out of them, or dial it back to a mellow thump with a turn of the tone knob. It's worth noting that the two that I played were passive; just a volume, pickup selector, and tone. I'm usually dead-set on active circuitry, but for once I didn't feel like the basses needed them in the slightest. They sounded great by default.
I immediately got the impression that these are working-man's instruments, not meant to be particularly showy, ostentatious, or absurdly polished (though they certainly are pretty), but something you can take on the road with you and enjoy without fuss. It's worth noting that Tim said that this was the explicit design philosophy behind them, which he nailed. Color me impressed - this is a company to watch in the future for sure.
In the same booth were the SonicFarm amps, which also sounded wonderful. I didn't really play around with them too much, I was more focused on the basses, but I managed to grab a blurry shot of them:
Somebody requested more Sandberg shots, so I tried to get some more I may have missed.
Equilibrium Guitars. These were designed with the modern-day shredder in mind: slim, quick neck and jumbo frets that made zooming and tapping around the fretboard easy as pie. The active electronics made it easy to dial in an aggressive middy tone perfect for any modern day metal band. These kind of gave the opposite impression of the LowDown basses: smooth and sleek and waiting to unleash whatever wanky mayhem you can think of. I liked them
speaking of wanking, here's a final shot of yours truly noodling away on that Sandberg puzzle bass:
After two full days at the convention, I'm all NAMM'd out for this year. I'm going to enjoy a quiet rainy sunday and let my feet recover. Turns out Converse aren't the proper shoe for walking around 10 hours a day
Saturday was a bit more relaxed for me, rather than jetting around the place on my own trying to see as much as possible, I took my time with a friend of mine and looked at a few items more extensively.
First up: Lowdown Basses.
This is a new company based out of Chicago that makes more affordable custom basses. Prices ranged from 1500-2500. They caught my eye on Friday and I made it a point to come back Saturday after talking with their luthier Tim Seisser for a bit. Glad I did. They have a kind of rugged elegance to them, with all the grainy wood and nothing but oil finishes. When I sat down with them a played a while, I immediately noticed how comfortable they were, in the sense of a broken in catchers mitt or a favorite pair of shoes. the wood finish felt wonderful; the feel of lightly oiled grain under your hands lends a sense of groundedness with the instrument. Your body is more able to intuit what it's doing with the instruments when you have that extra sensory feedback. The neck was nice - slightly wider fretboard with a comfy back and 34" spacing made playing naturally easy without having to get used to it. They sounded superb - I could easily get an aggressive roar out of them, or dial it back to a mellow thump with a turn of the tone knob. It's worth noting that the two that I played were passive; just a volume, pickup selector, and tone. I'm usually dead-set on active circuitry, but for once I didn't feel like the basses needed them in the slightest. They sounded great by default.
I immediately got the impression that these are working-man's instruments, not meant to be particularly showy, ostentatious, or absurdly polished (though they certainly are pretty), but something you can take on the road with you and enjoy without fuss. It's worth noting that Tim said that this was the explicit design philosophy behind them, which he nailed. Color me impressed - this is a company to watch in the future for sure.
In the same booth were the SonicFarm amps, which also sounded wonderful. I didn't really play around with them too much, I was more focused on the basses, but I managed to grab a blurry shot of them:
Somebody requested more Sandberg shots, so I tried to get some more I may have missed.
Equilibrium Guitars. These were designed with the modern-day shredder in mind: slim, quick neck and jumbo frets that made zooming and tapping around the fretboard easy as pie. The active electronics made it easy to dial in an aggressive middy tone perfect for any modern day metal band. These kind of gave the opposite impression of the LowDown basses: smooth and sleek and waiting to unleash whatever wanky mayhem you can think of. I liked them
speaking of wanking, here's a final shot of yours truly noodling away on that Sandberg puzzle bass:
After two full days at the convention, I'm all NAMM'd out for this year. I'm going to enjoy a quiet rainy sunday and let my feet recover. Turns out Converse aren't the proper shoe for walking around 10 hours a day
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I love Rickenbacker - and their entire product line looked good - BUT another year with nothing new?
They could increase the value of their brand and sell more instruments if they just offered some variants such as active electronics, different pickups, some 5 string models.
They could increase the value of their brand and sell more instruments if they just offered some variants such as active electronics, different pickups, some 5 string models.
Rickenbacker do ones offs, like that black one last year. They're just a more traditional company, I think (like me, stuck in the past
). Also, I don't think they want to sell more basses. Just my humble opinion.
- Dec 21, 2007
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- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
I wonder if Lemmy was planning to jump ship if the Schecter worked out.
Rickenbacker do ones offs, like that black one last year. They're just a more traditional company, I think (like me, stuck in the past
You could be right - but instead of selling no additional instruments because guys like me already have their classic Rics, they could be selling more if they had some interesting variants.
I don't own a Schecter. I have never owned a Schecter. I have to say, though, that nobody has a better, affordable product range than Schecter. Last year, I think Ibanez won the "paying attention to the bass player" award. Ibanez has some great new offerings this year, but Schecter is also doing some very nice things.
@Killed_by_Death
Damn Michael Anthony, you always have a cool bass!
I am a big Peavey fan. I have to admit that the Trace Elliot Cirrus looks great - I like the Trace green version even better.
I'm in love. I hope this stuff is worthy of the name. I almost bit on the Bass Fly Rig. The Transit B looks even better, and why would you not keep an Elf in your gig bag?
I was planning on putting some of the photos I took at NAMM up, but since this has been so well covered by Wintremute and others, there is no reason to do this.
Nonetheless, here is the coolest bass I saw at NAMM - the Warwick Lee Sklar custom model. Its absolutely gorgeous and you can just tell by touching it that it sounds absolutely superb. It has a 6 position tone selector that lights up with Lee's iconic middle finger salute. Cool.
Warwick Lee Sklar Model
Nonetheless, here is the coolest bass I saw at NAMM - the Warwick Lee Sklar custom model. Its absolutely gorgeous and you can just tell by touching it that it sounds absolutely superb. It has a 6 position tone selector that lights up with Lee's iconic middle finger salute. Cool.
Warwick Lee Sklar Model
