NAMM 2020 Day 4 Gallery

Crazy Tube Circuits Killer V

Fans of Magnatone-style amps will surely dig the new Killer V from Crazy Tube Circuits. It houses preamp and vibrato circuits that offer up the chewy, gritty sounds we’ve heard on vintage records. Very impressive. Streets for around $200.

Mayones Aquila

We did an incredible demo vid of the new Aquila series from Mayones Guitars Basses. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Aaron from INTERVALS played! This is a more traditional body style for the company, but it’s still fast and sleek. This QM6 has a swamp ash body, flame maple neck, and some fantastic Lollar pickups.

Tech 21 DI-2112 Geddy Lee SansAmp

Rush was heavy on the minds of many at the NAMM show. Here’s the new DI-2112 Geddy Lee SansAmp from Tech 21. It packs an impressive amount of features into a modest-sized box including dual XLR outputs, sweepable EQ, blend controls, and much more. Seems like a perfect way to get those crunchy bass tones at home. Streets for $329.

Spiral Electric FX Brute

Tom Cram of Spiral Electric FX is a dark wizard of fuzz. We check out the Brute, a multi-faceted stomp that covers both silicon and germanium tones with ease. It features a pair of matched NOS BC108B transistors and NOS Russian 1N34A diodes to create a darker sound that will match well with brighter amps. It’s out now for $249.

Falbo Guitars Intuition

Designer Frank Falbo of Falbo Designs introduces an elegant gateway to fretless bass at NAMM with the Intuition. It’s got a hybrid fretted/fretless neck, with a sleight elevation of the fretless side that makes the transition natural and effortless, Fishman Fluence bass pickups, and a control set that yields three classic voices. It’s got a new-design individual-string bridge that allows maximum body contact for maximum resonance. The price for this handmade tone monster is $3,600.

ET Guitars The Avenger

Ernie Taylor of ET Guitars makes his first trip to NAMM with a fanned fret, multi scale guitar for $800 ... and its sings. The Avenger is a speed demon with a basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard, with proprietary Alnico 5/ceramic humbuckers and coil-splitting. The neck is a thin C profile and has a 24.75 inch scale, and the Frank Falbo designed tremolo is state of the art.

ET Guitars The Avenger

Ernie Taylor of ET Guitars makes his first trip to NAMM with a fanned fret, multi scale guitar for $800 ... and its sings. The Avenger is a speed demon with a basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard, with proprietary Alnico 5/ceramic humbuckers and coil-splitting. The neck is a thin C profile and has a 24.75 inch scale, and the Frank Falbo designed tremolo is state of the art.

Huss & Dalton Statesboro

Long known as makers of fine acoustics, Huss & Dalton Guitar came to NAMM with two trim levels of its first electric offering. The Statesboro SC Custom ($6,000 street) and Statesboro SC Classic (shown, approx. $4,600), feature chambered bodies and Torreified maple tops to assure a comfy weight, and come outfitted with Lindy Fralin pickups.

Gamechanger Audio The Light Pedal

Gamechanger Audio came to NAMM with the latest in its killer line of utterly unique sonic contraptions. The Light Pedal (approx. $300 street) uses a real 3-spring reverb tank and both traditional transducers and a network of four optical sensors to deliver everything from classic-toned ambience to far-out mechanical weirdness of the sort you’d be hard-pressed to conjure via digital means. Truly one of the most musically intriguing offerings at this show.

Lag HyVibe

French builder Lag introduced their all-in-one HyVibe smart guitars at NAMM, transforming their acoustic axes into speakers and pedalboards as well as instruments. Controllable with a smartphone or onboard set, the six guitars in the HyVibe line—including a nylon-string—transmit sonic information through their resonant tops, essentially turning the guitars into a speaker. Literally. You can plug and play an electric guitar through their quarter-inch input jacks. Onboard effects include reverb, distortion, chorus, phasing, pitch shifting and tremolo. Prices start at about a grand. Here’s a look inside the back of the Plexi-White model, which has kaya mahogany back, sides and neck with a blackwood fretboard and graphite nut.

Tsakalis Audio Works MultiCab MkIII DI & Molecular Boost

The pedal gurus at Tsakalis Audio Works came to NAMM with two incredibly handy—and fantastic-sounding—new stomps. The MultiCab MkIII DI ($270 street) uses FR (frequency response) technology to serve up a huge variety of “American” AND “British” amp flavors, along with a bunch of famous amp-cap and mic simulations. Meanwhile, the Molecular Boost ($165 street) features DIP switches enabling several different permutations of EQ boosting, as well as cool expression-pedal functionality.