Tokyo's Freedom Custom Guitar Research turned heads with their very cool single cutaway and bass inspired by the Rickenbacker Light Show. The pickups are amazingly quiet considering all of the fireworks. They're also exceptionally built and very playable instruments.
"Takamine celebrated 50 years with the gorgeous T50TH (left) with solid spruce top, solid cocobolo back and sides, and exquisite inlay and binding using real gold. The EG50TH (right) is part of the collectible G series and features a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a TP4T preamp, and an attractive price: $699 street."
Ibanez' JEM-EVO is a Limited Edition recreation of Vai's famous axe that sells around $10k.
"Fuchs Audio Technology introduced the Bruiser series of bass amps to the 2012 NAMM show. The Bruiser delivers 500 watts into 4 ?, while the Bruiser-I brings 1,000 watts. Also available in the series is the Bruiser-II, which features dual 1,000-watt power amps for 2,000 total watts of searing, low-end rumble."
Los Lobos' David Hidalgo rips it up with the Jam Pedals gang. Cesar Rosas stepped up minutes later and rocked the wah!
"Carvin's new Steve Vai Legacy III head is a 100-watt, EL34 powered amp that can be switched down to 50 or 15 watts. It has three channels that incorporate Legacy I circuitry, a footswitchable master boost, and channel-assignable reverb."
"Ibanez brought their 25th Anniversary RG and S models to the 2012 NAMM Show. To celebrate the anny, Ibanez busted out their original high voltage color options from 1987. These shredders are black-light approved!"
The Deuce Coupe is Jack Deville's new dual-mode overdrive pedal. You can double tap the click-less true bypass switch to activate between 4 and 16dB of boost. Street price is $195 and is shipping now.
"Portland, Oregon's M-tone Guitars has some very thoughtful designs on display. The newest, the Slipstream is built around super comfortable contours, a great-feeling Pao Ferro neck that recalls '60s Fender shapes and Lollar P-90s."
"Blackstar's new HT-Metal uses a high voltage tube design with two cascaded ECC83 triode stages that offer everything from warm boost to extreme filth. Like all of Blackstar's gear, the HT-metal has an ISF control for an even greater range of tones."
Huss & Dalton brought this beautiful 00-SP Custom to NAMM. It's built from 100 year-old sinker Honduran Mahogany that lurked at the bottom of a river in Belize for the last century.
Saturday at NAMM is in full swing with baby alligators at the Gator Cases booth.
"Ibanez unveiled a treasure chest of new guitars and basses at the NAMM show this year. Shown is the SR1206E VNF bass that's loaded with Nordstrand Big Singles in the neck and bridge, and an EQB-IIISC 3-band EQ which can be bypassed via the onboard switch."
"Here's the new Vintage 5/150 Star Bass Bill Wyman model from Framus at the 2012 NAMM show. This 30""-scale bass features Framus Vintage pickups, Framus Vintage machine heads, and a chrome-plated, metal pickguard."
New finishes this year from Ernie Ball's Sterling line -- here on a AX40 and John Petrucci signature model.
"Vox's new Delay Lab is new for 2012. There's 30 delay voices, from vintage emulations to more modern types, a 20 second stereo looper, and an optional expression pedal that enables you to tweak parameters in the fly."
Reverend's new Sensei RA has new Joe Naylor Railhammer pickups with rails under wound strings and pole pieces under the plain strings.
"This cathode-biased, EL84-powered Red Jones head was inspired by Trainwreck design but puts its own delightfully spanky and punchy tones. The standard model features beautiful mahogany construction, but this custom version features padauk, mahogany,rosewood, and other exotic woods, while the 1x12 cab features a grille that's held on by strong magnets."
"Jackson Ampworks' NewCastle is a bare bones and beautiful 18 watt, 2 X EL84 hot rod, and the newest in a line of very impressive compact heads. Pretty slick looking cab' too, no?"
"Reverend's Eastsider is the company's second Pete Anderson Signature model. It has a Broadcaster-style bridge pickup, korina body, and a compound radius fretboard."
Birds and babes beautifully rendered on the Duesenberg Dave Stewart signature model.
Can't wait to find out what they'll call this new prototype from Duesenberg. But the shades-of-Doc-Kaufman tremolo and the humbucker and twin single coil humbucker pickup configuration suggest this will be one very expressive mother.
Morley announced their new Buffer Boost pedal at NAMM. It gives you 20dB of clean boost and maintains signal strength. Expected to start shipping in February.
"Vox offered more sneak peeks from is small but growing USA Custom Shop in California, including the Virage double cutaway on the right an SSC in the center and SDC on the left. Beautiful and sweet playing stuff."
"In addition to being adorably tiny, the new TC Electronic PolyTune Mini has Drop D and Capo modes."
"Traynor showed off the new DNB400 DynaBlock Series of bass amps at the show. The series includes the DNB head, the DNB115 combo, and the (shown) DNBH210 combo."
"Rivera expanded their Shaman line with the Acoustic Shaman Chorus-Vibrato, 3D Shaman Chorus-Vibrato, and Sustain Shaman Compressor-Chorus."
"Reverend's 15th Anniversary Flatroc features flamed maple and a Bigsby, along with new Revtron II pickups."
Malekko released three fuzz pedals (top) and two additions to their micro line. The Chaos and Helium are licensed designs from Studio Electronics who no longer makes the pedals.
Fender Custom Shop's Master Builders go all out for NAMM.
"Based on Mike Soldano's Atomic 16 amp, the EL84-powered, 20-watt JCA22W is a dream for guitarists who love hearing pure tube tone onstage but their regular gig is somewhere with pro sound people who want to control the guitar in the mix. To that end, the JCA22W's monitor-like wedge shape enables you to blast your own unadulterated tones into your face while sending a 4x12-simulated direct output to the PA via the side-mounted MicSim output. "
"The new 28""-scale Viking Baritone features a maple semi-hollow body with flamed top veneer, a vintage-voice humbucker and P-90, dual volume and tone controls, and 22 frets. Besides being beautiful and sounding great, It's remarkable in two big ways--it's possibly the only semi-hollow production baritone on the market, and it streets for around $700."
"Eminence's new vintage-voiced Eric Johnson speaker is a 12"", 50-watt speaker with both British and American characteristics."
"George Benson announced his new signature Ibanez model, the LGB300VYS. It has a 3-piece maple neck, spruce top, and Super 58 pickups. List price is $5,999."
Red Witch introduced the new Synthotron pedal at the 2012 NAMM show. It offers up a wild variety of psychedelic tones for guitarists to get their Dr. Who on.
"iSP debuted its Decimator II and Decimator G String II pedals, which now feature front-panel Link In and Link Out mini jacks that enable you to sync the two to get a more natural response with greater dynamics, clarity, and definition."
Planet Waves' new American Stage cables are made in the USA and feature Planet Waves-designed connectors manufactured by Neutrik and are available in 10 - 30' lengths ranging from $40 to $70.
"Mike Lull Custom Guitars introduced the JAXT4 Jeff Ament signature model bass at the 2012 NAMM show. Ament says, ""It's the only bass that plays like a modern, handmade machine and sounds like the best vintage bass in the shop."""
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