PG editors Shawn Hammond, Charles Saufley, and Rich Osweiler pick their favorites from the last day of the show. See everything we saw in our Day 4 photo gallery.
Gibson 12-string ES-335
Among the many awesome new, period-correct instruments from Gibson Memphis—including several 1959- and 1963-centric semi-hollowbodies—is this fantastic 12-string ES-335 outfitted with Burstbucker 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2 (bridge) pickups.
Andrew White Gypsy Jazz-E
West Virginia acoustic builder Andrew White Guitars brought a whole line of impressive guitars to NAMM. His all-solid import flattops were impressive at less than $1,200, but the Gypsy Jazz-E shown here was what had heads turning the most. It features a solid Italian spruce top, solid curly walnut back and sides, a 1-piece mahogany bolt-on neck, and a fretboard and bridge made of ebony.
Caroline Guitar Company Kilobyte
Caroline Guitar Company's new Kilobyte Lo-Fi Delay lets you go from delicious, rockabilly-appropriate analog slapback echo to avant-garde experimentalism—or a little bit of both. Cool features include the ability to add a warm, fuzzy aftertaste to just the repeats, or you can hold down the momentary footswitch (right) to create self-oscillating freak-outs with infinite feedback.
Stenback DI box
Finnish luthier Tom Stenback brought this classy-looking bass DI to NAMM. The Lo and Hi knobs feature switchable contour sliders, and all three EQ bands have sliders for selecting the range of the knob—45-80 Hz for Lo, 400-800 Hz for Mid, and 3.5-6.5 kHz for Hi.
Immix Eleven V-Series 30
Immix Eleven Amplification completely redesigned new V-Series 30 is powered by four EL84s and features two channels. Channel one uses an EF86 and has a 6-position tone selector and a brightness cut knob, while channel two uses three 12AX7s and a 3-band EQ section. There are also master and gain knobs, as well as a colour control that lets you select the shade of the isolated LEDs that illuminate the logo panel—or you can set it to automatically cycle through them.
Bogner Atma
Bogner Amplification brought the new EL84-loaded Atma to NAMM this year. This 18-watt, 3-channel (clean, crunch, and lead) little beast boasts a 3-way switch for '60s, '70s, or '80s-style gain, voicing, and compression. Other features include the 3-way bright switch and 18/5/1 power attenuation.
MI Amplification
Australia’s MI Amplification released a quartet of classic amp-inspired 1x12 combos at NAMM 2013. Be it the Apache, Aquarius, Crystal Lattice, or the Duchess, each of these tone machines boasts a unique take on vintage sounds.
Diamond Slider
Diamond Pedals released a pair of new pedals at NAMM 2013 with their Slider and Nine Zero Two. We particularly liked the Slider, which offers a wide range of octave, interval, and detuned shifts through a unique and variable sample-rate conversion technique.
Coming Out of the Fog
Thrill Jockey
Imagine an improbable collision of Fairport Convention, the Velvet Underground, and early Jefferson Airplane, and you’ll begin to grasp Arbouretum’s doomy folk-rock sound. With Dave Heumann’s electric guitar alternating between dense, fuzzed-out solos and clear, ringing arpeggios, the Baltimore-based quartet delivers Celtic-tinged vocal melodies over spare tribal drumbeats and massive, grinding bass. Arbouretum excels at casting hypnotic spells with their songs—party music it ain’t.Often coated in washes of silvery reverb and beat-synchronized echo, the band’s throbbing pulse runs like a river of mercury below minimalist acoustic piano, spooky synth textures, and occasional pedal steel provided by guest musician Dave Hadley.
When he solos, Heumann takes his sweet time and explores every region of his fretboard. What’s the hurry? With a molasses-thick distortion and a singing vibrato that recalls such late-’60s British blues-rockers as Mick Taylor and Paul Kossoff, Heumann mixes keening bends, chromatic passing tones, and slippery pentatonics into his droning riffs and phrases. It’s a distinctive sound, and in a world where a lead guitarist is often celebrated for speed and overt virtuosity, Heumann makes a strong case for the slow burn.
Must-hear track: “The Long Night”
Andy Ellis -- Senior Editor
What am I listening to?
Bex Marshall, The House of Mercy. With her chiming electric resonator and sassy, soaring pipes, Marshall is a grooving force of nature. Steeped in swampy folk-blues, her songs are simultaneously funky and literate. Great band too.
What song would you play to serenade your valentine?
A Beatles song is a good bet. It’s tempting to bust out “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” but it’d be “Eight Days a Week.”