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GALLERY: NAMM 2013 - Day 1

Everything the PG editors saw at Winter NAMM on Thursday.

"Unlike the original all-mahogany Martin 000-17, the new-at-NAMM 000-17SM has a spruce top as well as a 12-fret neck and slotted headstock--making this a sweet amalgam of classic Martin style elements and a silky smooth fingerstyle machine."

Loud, evil, searing hot, and unexpectedly versatile, the Fuzz Warā€™s demented bass cousin has a bold and more-complex personality all its own that sounds radical with guitar, too.

Evil. Just plain evil. Unexpected and vast variation. Responds interestingly to bass volume and tone attenuation. Wet/dry mix control. Sounds amazing (and extra evil) with guitar.

None.

$195

Death By Audio Bass War
deathbyaudio.com

5
5
4.5
4.5

If you like your fuzz measured in megatonnage, the Death By AudioFuzz War is one of lifeā€™s great joys. And if youā€™re a bass player with similar predilections and accustomed to watching guitar players have all the fun, the new DBA Bass War will be sweet revenge.

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This unusual bass instrument is strung with just two flatwound strings, each with its own fretting surface thatā€™s bent 135 degrees away from one another.

All photos by Madison Thorn

While this forgotten, oddball instrument was designed with multidextrous guitarists in mind, it never quite took offā€”making it a rare, vintage treasure.

At Fannyā€™s House of Music, you never know what strange or fascinating relics you might find. Guitorgan? Been there, sold that. A Hawaiian tremoloa fretless zither? Weā€™ve had two.

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Fuzz, octave, and odd intervals co-mingle and clash with bizarre, mangled, musical, pretty, and often shockingly unpredictable results.

Scores of tones that span the musical and the ridiculous. Fun and ferocious fuzz. Octave can be used independently. Often intuitive in spite of its complexity. Tracks pitch shifts without glitches

Easy to get lost in the weeds if you donā€™t do your homework.

$249

Keeley Octa Psi
robertkeeley.com

4.5
4.5
3.5
4.5

Iā€™d venture that most guitarists instinctively regard fuzz as a brutish, brainless effect (which is funny given how much energy in our community is dedicated to dissecting the nuances and merits of different fuzz types). Keeleyā€™s Octa Psi, however, transcends mere troglodyte status by combining a fundamentally nasty fuzz voice in three switchable variations, and a web of octave and interval tones that transform the Octa Psi into a synthesizer capable of textures ranging from soaring to demented to downright evil.

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Keeley Octa Psi Demo | First Look
- YouTube

Ferocious fuzz forces, a +/- 2-octave range, and the capacity for odd intervals make this menacing machine almost as much synth as dirt device.

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