namm 07

Had a great time at NAMM 07 yesterday and today. Got there around 12 noon, and who should I run into but Spike (Lucky designs) the leader of the band, Junkbucket. We had a few beers together, and walked up and down the vast maze that is NAMM. Stopped at the King doublebass booth where Spike tried out a new King guitar, and he played some cool rockabilly blues riffs with Jason Burns (CC adcock, The Roadkings, owner of the company, etc..) slapping his bass. I stood back and watched, and enjoyed. Then we walked over to a mallet percussion booth, where we played a bitchin' Vibraphone. I played "yellow bird" and "quiet village" and decided I wanted one..bad....but they are 5000 million dollars, so I decided against it.We walked by the band Korn, (didn't stop, of course) then watched Stevie Wonder at the Rhodes booth.
Yesterday, saw Ronnie James Dio puffing a cigarette outside, Steve Bailey at the Jerzy Drozd booth talking to Jean Baudin playing a 15 string bass. Had a nice talk with Johnny Hatton (brian setzer orchestra) and then walked around some more getting plastered and people watching.

That was a good time for sure. It was good re-connecting with Miguel (Lucas) after I don't know how long. We also saw Dave Mustaine (Megadeth, ex-Metallica), Kerry King (Slayer), Joe Satriani, and Mick Mars (Motley Crue). It's funny that it's almost always the metal guys that are there signing for people. Later that day I ran into Jordan Shapiro (Supersuckers steel guitar player) and got to talk and hang out with him.

An added treat that I wasn't expecting, was the joining of creative minds in Fender and Tiki Farm. Tiki Farm had Dave Burke, I think, paint a bunch of custom acoustic guitars. I wish I had pictures, they were really really cool. It reminded me of the guitars that Shag painted for Fender a couple of years ago. Pretty rad....

After the NAMM show today, I went across the street from my house to the Orange County fairgrounds for a vintage guitar show. I picked up a close to mint 1966 Harmony acoustic guitar for just under 300 bucks. The guitar plays amazing. What a weekend...

Oh yeah, I hung out with Lemmy from Motorhead in Hollywood on Friday night too, but that's another story all together....

Yeah, it is always the metal dudes!!!!!!!

Yesterday I was in the Fender room, (saw the guitars Spike mentioned, and they are cool!-Spike, did you see those acoustic guitars-I think they are American Heritage series-with the cool sweethearts of the rodeo graphics?) anyway, was watching Yngwie Malmsteen play. I don't know why, but I started laughing uncontrolably and had to step outside, until I could compose myself.

Danelectro had some new, minimalist, modern-retro square shaped guitars, and I am suprised Spike didn't buy one on the spot, as we both digged the olive green one.

I had a rare treat yesterday: And a strange coincidence, as the 70's disco album by Sergio Mendes "Magic Lady" was in my CD player on the way to the show. So, I am standing there watching David Pastorius (son of Jaco) playing the bass, and I read the tag on the guy standing next to me, and it is Nate Watts, who was the bass player on the entire Sergio Mendes album. I said "hi" and shook his hand. He was a very nice and humble guy. He is the bass player with Stevie Wonder.

It's the metal heads and thier girlfriends that makes the whole NAMM show worth it: For these guys, the late 80's, early 90's never really ended. Basically, if you have seen the film "heavy metal parking lot" you can get the picture. The dudes are in thier late 40's, still with the hair and the spandex, and the girlfriends look almost exactly like the bossy girlfriend from "spinal tap". And they still shred, on thier Schecter guitars, with the all-black hardware and pointy shapes-they shred and they still flip thier hair like Yngwie. Yngwie had a backing band that was almost exactly the same band as Jack Black's old band in the movie "school of rock". The whole thing is almost cartoon-like, and is the reason I never got into metal.

I had an interesting conversation with the guy who makes Mellotrons-he had a crazy, bad attitude. I felt like he kinda wanted to strike me. He said "why the F#$ck do you think I am sitting here?" after I asked him "who makes the cartriges?"

But most every one has good attitudes, and don't mind stupid questions, or the same questions over and over. After all, there are a LOT of people in the building. Not everyone is a buyer, either, so the companies know they are not really selling you anything, but just showing pride in thier products, and talking them up.

By far, my favorite booth is still King Doublebass. The three owners and employees all play upright in bands, and are not only talented designers, but really nice guys who don't mind any question at all, and will gladly answer them. Thier basses are the best: Any design you can think of, but most look like hot rods-Kustom Kar Kulture hot rods-last year they had the Tiki bass, with the rad pinstriping.

Roland had a great room too, with lot's of fog machines and stobe lights going, and what-not.

you guys didn't go to the Deke Guitar Geek fest though?

very good stuff there.
here are some reviews and pics of it on sg101, 2 pages
http://www.surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1802

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I would have liked to have gone, but I was too tired! I parked at Disneyland both days, walked all the way to the convention, and then walked around a lot. Probably 20 miles all together!!!!

I love Deke. In fact, it was Spike that turned me on to him.

Hey Jeff,
Yeah, I really wanted to go but being a little hung over and super tired from walking all day, I just couldn't pull it together.

On Sunday though, I saw Brian Lombeck and Thom Bresh (Merle Travis' son) playing the most amazing Joe Maphis style guitar together. They both played at Deke's thing the year before and the night before. Brian Lombeck is that super fast flat picker. So I'm standing there watching them and Stevie Wonder comes walking down the isle by the booth that they are playing at. As he and his entourage turn the corner away from the booth that we were at, we could see Stevie start to bob his head to the country picking. Maybe ten minutes later, they all come walking back to where we were and Stevie makes everyone stop so he can listen to the guitars. Pretty rad. I'm not a huge Stevie Wonder fan or anything but I could feel this aura off of him... Such an immense talent. I could also see the two phenomenal guitar players struggling to keep the song together in front of the legend. The song ended and Stevie went crazy. He loved it.

I did actually come back on Sunday to try and buy one of those new Danos. Unfortunately, they were sending all of the samples out to Germany for another music industry convention the next week. Otherwise, I probably could have scored one for a couple hundred bucks. Damn. They were really cool.... At least I got that '66 Harmony later that day.

Yngwie would make me laugh too. That guy can really play... just the wrong scales at the wrong speed. Kinda like that Swedish cowboy that we met at the Boss booth. Remember that guy?

That swedish cowboy rocked. He was sick, just sick! But I wish I could give him some wardrobe ideas. The whole heavy metal thing with the long hair is soooooo 1991, and does not fit the style he was playing, which was pure Vince Gill style country shredding.

Yngwie, where do I begin? Just this massive amount of "weeeedle-eeeee-deeeedle-eeee-deeeedle-eee" for absolutly no reason at all. Just pointless!! The crowd was eating it up, though!! Interesting to note he is a big fan of Paganini. I believe it. Paganini was a blowheart too. But this kind of playing was only cool when ELP did it. It has no place in rock and roll, in my opinion. I can understand playing with little or no soul. RUSH does it really good, but they are an exeption. I think good rock always has a healthy dose of color in it. You could put BB king and Brian Setzer on the same stage together (for example) and thier styles would not clash. Pure rock and roll equally influenced by both country and blues, which is basically what rock is.

Stevie Wonder. Often, when you meet a celebrity in real life they appear to be totally smaller then they appear on the screen or stage. Dio, very short, Steve Bailey, tiny..Stevie Wonder? A huge massive solidly built man who you just would not want to mess with, blind or not. He looks like he could just kick your ass!!!!

Most of the celebs at NAMM have bodyguards, but they are not keeping you away, just protecting the celeb in case something happens. But you generally can get pretty darn closed to them anyway!

Stevie Wonder looks LIKE a bodyguard. The man is huge. Huge talent, huge man!

Spike, you are all over that Danelecto. The olive green one!!

PS, I still want to adopt that cute little asian guitarist-keyboardist. I bet her parents are really proud of her!! Those little boots she was wearing were priceless!!

Wow! Lucas you didn't get me a pass!! Dude! I'll still be our friend anyway.

Anyway, sorry to interrupt the love fest here but did you guys by chance get to hear Gongzilla at Warwick/Framus booth? They freakin' smoke!!! Bon Lozaga can eat Yingwe or YGnve or whatever his name is for lunch and with actual HUMAN FEELING! CHECK IT! http://www.lolorecords.com/BonSoliSolo2.mpg

Not too shabby. Unfortunately, the clip skips too much so I gave up after a while.

For me, I am so over the sound of distortion guitar. In my humble opinion, it is such a crutch, as the sustain makes things a lot easier to pull off. But, having said that, a lot of these "shredders" are indeed able to pull off the same licks on a clean guitar or acoustic.

NAMM is the kind of place where there is always a bigger fish, and long ago I gave up trying to beat these people. I used to want nothing more then to be the next Jaco or the next Geddy Lee, and I think at one point in high school I came pretty close. But, as I matured musically I developed a greater insight into the beauty of just one well placed note, and learned that a great musician always plays what is "just right" for a song and nothing more. To this day I far more appreciate the sound of Stan Getz to the sound of Michael Brecker (RIP) though like anyone else, I am intellectualy stimulated by Brecker's playing.

Recently I was listening to a Gonzalo Rubalcava album, and although there were many songs where he displayed a mastery of piano similar to Hancock or Corea, there was one song called "promendade" which was so sparce and laid back that it instantly captivated me. I find myself listening to that song over and over.

One guitarist who I think really 'gets' it is Pat Metheny. He is capable of almost mystically good shredding, but often plays gently and unhurried, almost smooth jazzy type stuff. But he can become Mike Stern at the drop of a hat if he wants. I guess I just prefer it whe he sounds more like Jim Hall!!

as far as the pass, Squid, I tried to get a few of them, but was only able to get one. On sunday, they started asking for photo ID as some fool got busted selling them on EBAY. So, even if I had gotten more I would have needed the names ahead of time.

Next year I am going to try real early to get them, so talk to me Bruddah!!

Just joshin' on the passes, mate! I have already had the namm shred-headache (shredache) one too many times.

All I'm saying is that there are guys that can play MUSICALLY with soul, there are guys that can "shred", and then there are the rare ones that can do both.
Metheney is definitely one of those. Hendrix was one. Charlie Christian. Ron Eschete. John Abercrombie. Scofield. Alan Holdsworth, etc etc.... They all shred in their own right. Or maybe I'm old now and the definition of "shred" has become narrower and only applies to metal. Either way...

I can't handle the mechanical wanky wanky widdly widdly bag-o-trix stuff as you guys discussed either. Totally with you on that. BB King over any of those guys any day and BB doesn't even know any chords.

So Lucas----You guys need to play up in my neck-o-the-woods!!! C'MON!!!

On 2007-01-27 01:13, squid wrote:

Music is the best. - F.Z.

I don't remember saying that... :P

back in 1988, I got into NAMM Chicago with a crappy piece of yellowed 1950's stationary from my boss. I was 17 and the memo had lots of typos. Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick was in line in front of me... as was a guy with all sorts of ID and tax statements who they gave a hard time to at check in. I thought no way would my sorry 17 year old typo'd self get in... but amazingly we got in without any hassle. they must have thought we were far too pathetic to be trying to sneak in.

-Z