James Brown and Amptweaker brought two new pedals to NAMM. On the left is the Tight Metal Pro, a dual-sided, hi-gain pedal with boost. On the right is the Fat Rock, a new drive pedal that offers some features aimed at players who play through brighter amps.
This super strat prototype from Baudier Guitars is called the V8 after the powerful car engine and supposedly can sustain a note for 10 minutes. The body is a mix of carbon fiber and mahogany, and everything is handpainted down to the pinstripe and piston inlays. The snakeskin-looking lace wood fretboard is a nice touch.
West Virginia's Burrell guitars returned to NAMM after a nearly twenty year absence, and proved that an inventive spirit is still alive and well among small guitar builders. These totally ergonomic acoustics are a feast of curves and comfy contours that ease playing fatigue and they're a breeze to play.
Devilcat brought two new guitars to Nashville. The "Stripey" series (left) is made with 10 pieces of wood, has a bookmatched headstock, and DiMarzios. The "Mark" T-style (right) has a 24 3/4" scale neck.
Furch's D-35SR is one of the prettiest new acoustics at Nashville NAMM. The traditional but luxurious Adirondack Spruce top and Indian Rosewood back and sides are gorgeous enough, but the koa binding lends a very nice bespoke feel. Very nice!
This striking bookmatched Redwood bodied 6-string was designed by John Marshall. It's his Great American Guitar model, dubbed so because every single part was made in the USA. It features walnut sides, maple binding, a one-piece quartersewn neck, walnut neck heel cap, walnut peg head veneer, and a walnut fretboard. "Every little screw was made in this country," Marshall says. "It took me more than six months just to find all the components."
Metalin' Guitars makes 3 lb. aluminum custom guitars with various options like Moses Graphite necks, carbon fiber backs, aluminum etching, and other body accoutrements. Luthier Ken Wolfert uses an extremely high-power water jet cutting machine to cut out his bodies.
Hard to have much more fun than this--Musicvox's new-at-NAMM 12-string Space Cadet bass. It's a handful, but it's smooth playing and looks fantastic in big-flake silver sparkle! $1,449 on the street.
Peterson Signature Guitars debuted four models with chambered Honduran mahogany bodies (two inches thick), bookmatched V-grain maple necks, and coil switching. In the pursuit of tone, these 6-string beauties are handcarved and the woods are tone tapped and matched prior to assembly.
Roland's lunchbox CUBE amp has some oomph for a little guy! It also works with their i-CUBE LINK interface for iOS devices. It comes in red, black, and blonde for $149.
Godin's Seagull Excursion is a triple threat with a parlor, folk, and dread size. They're made with natural Canadian wild cherry wood and the goal was to get a basic beautiful guitar at a low price point. These ideal traveling companions are $299 street.
Skreddy Pedals blew our minds (and those of numerous Gilmour obsessives) with the Lunar Module fuzz. Skreddy's latest, the Hybrid Fuzz Driver is a super-flexible nod to Page and covers a huge range of killer ToneBender and more compressed Fuzz/Supro style tones. They also have a very lush sounding one-knob Phaser called Little Miss Sunshine.
Stompblox will release a modular pedalboard line this fall. Sections are 12.5 by 8.5 inches and are connectable, so pedal freaks can arrange them in whatever shape desired. Stompblox also has a power-supply unit with eight outputs, plus USB and routing capabilities for effect-loop and input and output switching.
When Andy Powers played Taylor's new dreadnought prototype, the mean picking machine broke through the room so sharp that it prompted the name "barn burner."
Toneconcepts' The Distillery has to be about one of the most versatile boost/drive pedals yet conceived. Just back from road testing and development with Nels Cline, David Hidalgo, and Cesar Rosas among others, the pedal seems to be home to about a billion different shades of OD, and the interactive contour and edge controls enable crazy-precise, pinpoint tone control. Look for it to drop in August along with limited, painted artist models for Cline and Los Lobos.
Christian Towner's very cool vibrato system enables you to fit any guitar with a Tune-o-matic tailpiece with a Bigsby B3 without drilling any additional holes. The down tension bar, which enhances tuning stability, fits in place of the tail piece. For Les Pauls, the system includes an aluminum V Block at the end pin which compensates for the extra length of the B3. Totally simple and completely brilliant!
Zoom's new H6 field recorder has four interchangeable capsules for recording versatility: shotgun mic, X/Y mic, mid-side mic and an XLR.
Charles Saufley is a writer, editor, and musician from San Francisco. He has been the gear editor at Premier Guitar since 2010 and previously served as an editor at Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Tessa is a Nebraska native whose career in journalism has taken her from the Midwest to the Middle East and back. In addition to writing about music for publications like SPIN, Tessa has worked as an arts editor and investigative news reporter. Her most challenging role to date was working as a managing editor tasked with reinventing a lifestyle magazine in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. She currently lives in Music City, Tennessee.
Since attending a Dave Matthews Band concert as a teenager, Jason has been into all things guitar. An Iowa native, Jason has degrees in Music Business from Minnesota State-Mankato and Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Northern Iowa. Since then, he has spent time doing everything from promotion at an indie music label to organizing guitar workshops all over the country. Currently, Jason lives with his wife, son, and daughter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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