Our gang just returned from Nashville with tired feet, tons of interviews, video footage, and pretty serious hangovers from the wall-to-wall parties that are part of the summer NAMM vibe...
Our gang just returned from Nashville with tired feet, tons of interviews, video footage, and pretty serious hangovers from the wall-to-wall parties that are part of the summer NAMM vibe... head to www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/Daily/News/Summer_NAMM_Wrap_Up.aspx to check out Joe Coffey’s Summer NAMM wrap-up report.
I think it’s also fair to say that Nashville was the right place to hold the summer NAMM event. After the modestly attended events in Indianapolis and Austin, Nashville rocked. Attendance was slamming, and there was plenty of great entertainment (Slash, Larry Carlton, Vince Gill, Brent Mason and Eric Gales were among the guitar heroes we saw, visited and videoed). Check out our YouTube video of Carl Bradychok, a 17-year-old phenomenon tearing it up with Hahn Guitars! The exhibitors also reported lots of gear orders being written and placed.
While the larger economy sucks (I’m thinking of adding a fuel surcharge for hauling my band’s gear to gigs), I’m happy to report that exhibitors at NAMM reported business was “great” to “pretty good!” I guess this goes to show that passion and entertainment remain important even in times of $4 per gallon gasoline; escalating food prices; and the dwindling values of stock portfolios! Nothing like tone chasing to take your mind off our sputtering economy.
I think another reason business in our community remains steady is that the gear being produced is just so damn good. Even though I’ve been playing for over 20 years, I continue to be blown away by the gear being crafted today.
I’d also like to invite you all to visit our new “video room” at premierguitar where you can see and hear all of the gear videos we shot at NAMM. We also made some news of our own in Nashville by announcing that Gary Ciocci and Jon Levy, long-time, respected staff members at Guitar Player, joined Premier Guitar as our new partners. We’re all really psyched to have Jon and Gary join us and contribute to our continuing and relentless pursuit of being your number one source for all things guitar.
We already have lots of new products and services in the works, and they’re all in response to suggestions from our readers and viewers. For example, check out our free weekly insider’s report, PG Backstage Pass, loaded with exclusive stories, videos and podcasts not found in Premier Guitar magazine. You can see an example of an issue at premierguitar.com/newsletter and sign up on our home page to receive it in your inbox every week. By the way, there is no advertising in Premier Guitar’s Backstage Pass and we never, ever, release your email address. Enjoy!
Finally, as many of you know from watching the national news, we Iowans have been hit hard by what has been described as a “500 year flood” (check out the story at premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/Daily/News/Premier_Guitar_Fights_Floods.aspx). I want to personally thank the thousands of fellow gearheads who have called, written or emailed us in our time of need. I’m happy to report we continued to publish on schedule, kept our websites live and filled with daily updates, all while sandbagging and bailing. As we said in our flood story, we’re here to serve you all “come hell or high water” – happily we survived both.
Nuff sed,
Trent Salter, Publisher
