GALLERY: NAMM 2016 Day 4
The sapele and spruce 312e is one of Taylor's more understated new releases at NAMM, but it's sure one of the nicest sounding--great high end detail and that great 12-feet low end thump. A beautifully balanced guitar.
Godin's new Passion RG-4 Swampash looks and feels great. The chambered body is crafted from a one-piece swamp ash top that's mated to a red cedar body. It's beautifully balanced as a result and we're looking forward to hearing how all that resonance sounds with the Duncan Quarter Pound pickups in the mix.
Mono Cases Vertigo Acoustic case is a light but burly and ultra protective way to pack your flattop. It's top loading so you never have to lay the case flat, has a sandwich-style slot to protect your neck from the top and bottom and a robust rubber tread on the bottom section. Everything up to the size of a dread will sit snug and safe.
We're sincerely hoping Vox moves ahead with the compact Guilietta archtop seen here in prototype form at NAMM. Not only is the Guilietta a smart looking and snappy sounding little archtop, the guitar uses the company's Nutube technology, which enables you to plug in direct and still have a huge range of tone shaping control and tube-like preamp dynamics. Here's hoping we can report on a production version before the year is done.
For those of you driven to frenzy trying to score Kevin Parker's six string in the rear cover of Lonerism, freak out no more. The Impala and its three pickup cousin the Condor (pictured here) are back, resplendent in a gaggle of switches and sporting are-engineered Hagstrom trem. Other cool updates about, most notably the deep carve in the set neck that puts just about every fret within reach. For all the updates it feels and looks authentically vintage. The Condor will be $649 and the Impala $599.
D'Angelico is in town with an oh-so-fine looking semi-hollow called the EX-175 Deluxe. It's a 16" archtop with flame-maple back and sides, a spruce top, and a 3-piece maple/walnut/maple neck. Features include a Bigsby B-30, TV Jones custom hybrid pickups, and a control set that boasts a 6-way toggle for a cornucopia of options.
Got fanned frets? The new LTD B-1004SE Multi-Scale from ESP Guitars does, and it made its debut here at NAMM The 36.25" to 34"-scale bass features a swamp-ash body with a rosewood top, a 5-piece wenge/bubinga neck topped with a rosewood fretboard, a Hipshot Solo bridge, and Gotoh tuners. For electronics, the B-1004SE is packed with a pair of Nordstrand Big Splits that are run by the ESP-designed ABQ-3MS 3-band EQ.
Floyd Rose is at NAMM with a very special tremolo system, and if you really want one, you had better move fast since the run was limited to 10 units total. This all-titanium, surface-mounting system is a direct swap for the Tune-O-Matic and stopbar-type bridge system, which means no routing whatsoever.
Wren and Cuff's new unholy trinity of stomp boxes includes the Sonder chorus/optical tremolo (which features tap tempo and a boost knob), the Irkalla—a distortion/fuzz that aims to preserve low-end articulation for down-tuned riffs—and the Elephant Skin. The latter was designed for Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders and is essentially Russian Muff-style fuzz with an added gain stage.
Faith Guitars came to NAMM with three new flattops: The Venus Blood Moon cutaway acoustic-electric (top, $1,450 street) features top, back, and sides of solid figured trembesi—an Indonesian wood that noted U.K. luthier Patrick Eggle (Faith's designer) says is tonally midway between rosewood and mahogany. Faith also has two new all-solid-wood travel-size Nomad guitars (bottom) that go go for around $600.
Rock Stock Pedals came to Anaheim with two new true-bypass stomps. The Raven ($159 street) is a low-noise, Screamer-style OD that aims for a wider drive range. The Skyline ($179 street) serves up spring-style reverb with mix, body, tone, and decay controls.
EarthQuaker Devices has been bringing its own intriguing amp designs to NAMM as pedal-demo vehicles for the last couple of years, but this year they finally announced a model that's available for purchase: The super-simple Sound Projector 25 is a linear, 25-watt class-A head that features volume, treble, and bass controls, and comes stock with KT66 power tubes. Thanks to its external bias-test points, it can also easily be adjusted to run other octal tubes (e.g., EL34, 6L6, 6V6). It's available in black or white covering for $1,850 street, or with a matching Baltic-birch 2x12 cab with Celestion Vintage 30s or custom Warehouse speakers for $2,450.
Spector's new Euro4LX features a carved European alder body topped with figured maple, a three-piece maple neck with rosewood fretboard, and new custom Bartolini pickups driven by an active TonePump circuit.
Duesenberg Guitars showed up in Anaheim with a bunch of lookers. The Gran Royale hollowbody (top, approx. $3,150 street) has 60mm sides, internal soundposts for feedback control, and classic-looking new Phonico pickups controlled by a 4-position dial selector (treble bout). The Paloma (bottom, about $2,900 street) has a Grand Vintage humbucker, and Pearlito and AlnicoBlade single-coils (also controlled by a 4-position selector).
After a few years of of revisions, Bad Cat Amplifiers finally announced the Unleash V2. At it's core, it's an attenuator that gives allows you to keep the feel of a cranked amp at reasonable levels. Unleash V2 also gives you a second channel, effects loop, and can go from 100 watts down to 1/10 of a watt. Pair this with a combo amp for an effective wet/dry rig. All for $549 street.
Can't get enough Fender in your life? Fender Furniture by Classic Leather offers classy, functional living-room pieces like this chair and sofa with tasteful nods to your fave brand—and the couch even has a built-in guitar or bass cubby. Prices are in the $3-4k range.
Bad Cat Amplifiers brought their new USA Player Series to NAMM. The more affordable line is still made in their California factory, but with printed circuit boards. Along with bass, treble, cut, and reverb controls the line allows you switch between an EF86 preamp or a 12AX7 via a footswitch. Oh, and the fat switch adds plenty of beef. Prices will range from $1099 to $1499 depending on the configuration.
Rising U.K. outfit Victory Amps made its first NAMM appearance this year with a couple of brand-new heads. The 44-watt V44 Sheriff ($1,649 street) uses EL34s and aims to pack classic plexi tones in a more compact head with two voice modes and an effects loop. The even smaller V22 Sheriff (not shown, $1,149 street) has the same goal but uses EL84s to generate 22 watts.
The mad scientists at EarthQuaker Devices brought eight new pedals and an amp to NAMM. Here's the Gray Channel overdrive that emulates the vintage DOD circuit. It's a hard-clipping OD with two channels and three different modes on each channel. When pushed hard it creates a gritty and sometimes fuzzy tone without coloring the tone of your guitar and amp too much. According to EQD, this was the pedal design that launched the company. It will street for $195 and will be out in March.
Vox came to NAMM with head versions of its popular AC30 and AC15 Customs—the AC30CH ($899 street) and AC15CH (not shown, $599). Like their combo counterparts, both use EL84s and have normal and top-boost channels, as well as tube-driven tremolo and spring reverb, but they also feature the company's new Reactive attenuator circuit.
ESP Guitars' handsome new LTD TE-200 ($389 street) offers really impressive build quality *and* tones, thanks to new ESP-Designed humbuckers.
This 40th Anniversary Adamas Ruby Red from Ovation Guitars was stunning. It has the classic rounded back but with a gloss-woven twill carbon fiber top and ebony fretboard. The Op-Pro Studio electronics feature a three-band EQ with a drive knob to add a little dirt to your sound. It will street for $4799.
Boston-based Black Market Custom brought a wide range of eye-catching boxes to NAMM. The Bluetooth-streaming Rockbox.2.0 has dual USB chargers, 1/4" instrument and aux inputs, and side-mounted bottle opener, while the Dreadnought 100 and Hellcat 100 heads go for full-blown tube goodness in classic and modern flavors.
Electro-Harmonix is at NAMM with the new and versatile Soul POG. It combines two of EHX's most popular pedals (the Soul Food overdrive and Nano POG) into one potent stomp. The Soul POG is equipped with an effects loop, and the mode switch in the octave section offers up two different octave-up sounds.
Orange Amplifiers just showed us a pair of their latest stomps. The Amp Detonator (L) is a buffered AB-Y pedal that features two low-impedance outputs with a custom isolated transformer. The Two Stroke is an amazingly effective clean boost with dual parametric EQ and 18 dB boost/cut.
Voodoo Lab's PX-8 Plus loop-switcher (top) features eight loops, multiple preset banks, preset and live operating modes, and MIDI capability, all for around $350 street. The company also got into the pedalboard game with three new sizes that offer simplified pedal and power-supply attachment, as well as an included padded case. The medium-sized board even has a clever feature that allows the PX-8 Plus switcher to attach to the front without hogging any board space. Board prices are TBD.
Marshall Amplification's new CODE series amps are Bluetooth and USB enabled, and feature 100 editable presets, 14 preamp models, four power-amp models, 8 speaker-cab models, 24 effects, audio and headphone inputs, and compatibility with the online Marshall Gateway community, where players are encouraged to creatively interact and share sounds.
Orange Amplifiers also came to NAMM with a handsome chrome-and-green, 10th-anniversary version of its famed Tiny Terror amp.
Electro-Harmonix brought a ton of cool stuff to NAMM this year. And the Super Space Drum turned out to be especially fun. It's a faithful reissue of the cult-classic SSD released in 1979 and uses analog synthesis techniques to create, control, and manipulate a huge array of mind-synthesized sounds.
Ashdown Engineering's RootMaster series is now available in new, lighter-weight 500- and 800-watt versions. The RM-500-EVO features an all-analog circuit, 5-band EQ, footswitchable drive and sub-harmonics functions, a host of connection options, and a mute switch.
Not for the faint-of-heart, this signature prototype Ibanez Guitars bass for Suicidal Tendencies bassist Thundercat is daunting in every way—it's got a massive hollow body, six massive strings spanning a Naval-carrier-like fretboard, and a bevy of control options.
VOX amps USA's new AV-series combos come in three versions: The AV15 generates 15 watts through an 8" speaker, the AV30 pumps 30 watts through a 10", and the AV60 boasts 60 watts and a 12". All three use 12AX7s to drive the eight available preamp circuits—as well as the power amp—and each also has modulation, delay, and reverb. The AV60 (shown here) also has an aux in and headphone out, as well as an effects loop and speaker output.
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