Dig into the details of new gear from Martin, Godin, Friedman Amps, Reverend, Eastman, Victory Amps, Danelectro and more!
Taylor 314ce LTD
Taylor celebrated their 50th anniversary Wednesday night with an unveiling party in Anaheim for its new anniversary models, which include limited editions of the 814ce, 314ce, AD14ce-SB, PS14ce, PS24ce, and more. Check out the headstock and neck inlays on the PS24ce, joined here by an anniversary model of their popular 314ce.
Martin Inception Maple
Martin took a look at their recipe for making acoustic guitars and tweaked it a bit for their Inception Maple series. They come with a walnut neck and bridge, L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics, and an interesting new bracing system. They are available now for $3,999.
Blackstar ID:Core
Blackstar’s line of ID Core amps are feature packed with loads of sounds and unique recording and streaming capabilities, plus with the PB-1 power bank, you’ll have up to 10 hour of playing—or charging—time. Available now at $159, $199, and $229.
Vox V846 Wah
Vox is unleashing an array of vintage-inspired designs from the Real McCoy and V846 wahs (available March/April for $279 street) to a full line of handwired amps coming this summer.
Silvertone Baritone
Silvertone’s Rick Taylor showed us the company’s late spring entry in the nuevo-retro 6-string sweepstakes—a super comfortable lightweight (naturally) baritone with a 28" scale and the company’s classic lipstick pickups, built to be tuned B to B. Price tag: an attractive $399.
Radial Nuance Select
Radial, whose products for studio and stage include the famed Tonebone preamp, has just released the Nuance Select studio monitor controller—in time for NAMM 2024. The aptly named Nuance allows you to silently switch between two sets of monitors and a subwoofer, has dual stereo inputs with an aux out, two independent headphone amps, and ultra-low distortion of transparency. The tag? $699.
Spector Basses
Spector’s new line of production basses is on display as well as their deep well of custom shop offerings, including a couple NAMM special builds with special finishes and electronic options. Printing and availability on all models at spectorbass.com.
Revv Generator 120
Revv’s flagship amp, the Generator 120, gets a 10th anniversary update. Designer Dan Trudeau went back to his original prototype and revolved the high-gain channels to be more open and aggressive while still keeping all the modern functionality. They are available now for $3,299.
Celestion Pulse XI
Celestion’s got the big bottom covered with their new line of bass speakers, the Pulse Xl series in 15", 12", 10" and horn. Punchy, responsive, with rich full frequency sound and articulation, they boast long voice coils for a deeper bass sound and greater clarity, wound with round copper for the right taste of treble, formed on heat retardant polyimide. Hit celestion.com for more.
Aguilar AG Preamp
Aguilar’s AG preamp delivers the high fidelity tone of their AG series amps straight to pedalboards, with its bright and deep voicing. A great pairing with their SL 110 cabs. And their range of pedal offerings got a facelift to match. For pricing and availability, contact your Aguilar dealer.
Darkglass Combo 500
The new combos from Darkglass cover analog and digital tones. Both the Infinity and Microtubes 500 combo are chock full of sounds, plus they look great, and come in 2x10 and 1x12 arrangements. The line starts at $1,099 and will be available starting late March.
Huss & Dalton Electric Guitars
You know Huss & Dalton from their rich history as a boutique acoustic builder, but their electric offerings are on display here at NAMM. With singlecut and doublecut options, they start around $5,000. To customize your own build, you’ll want to reach out to your dealer or direct to the company about wait times.
Seymour Duncan Powerstage 100 Stereo
Seymour Duncan’s Powerstage 100 Stereo takes their portable—and lightweight!—line of power amps to the next level with more power, more EQ, and, of course, stereo capabilities! Priced at $599, they’re available now.
Positive Grid's Spark Live
Positive Grid’s Spark Live delivers the sounds you love from the company’s other offerings into a 4-channel PA that’s ready to take on any instrument you want to give it. Pre-orders are open now at a special price of $499.
NUX B-8
The NUX B-8 brings advanced wireless capabilities straight to your board with 160 foot range. Features include tuning and boost capabilities and loads of screen options. Available now for $319 street.
Cherub Products
We were treated to a host of new products from Cherub, best known for their clip-on tuners, whose line ranges from tuner/metronome/hydrometer hybrids to multi-use capos and guitar tools.
Mooer GE1000
Mooer’s new GE1000 multi-effects unit delivers a multitude of stomp box functionality in a touchscreen-equipped unit with mappable expression pedal and Bluetooth capability. Priced at $528/$599 (battery powered), they’re available now.
Eko Marco Polo MM
The Eko Marco Polo MM is a travel-sized mahogany acoustic with big, warm sound. It’s open pore finish is inviting, as is its unique soundhole inlay. At $873, they’re available now.
Eastman Henry James Signature Juliet
Over at Eastman, guitarist Henry James demoed his signature model. His version of the popular Juliet is a solidbody beast with Goldo vibrato, Seymour Duncan Vintage Mini-Humbockers, and a reverse headstock. They’re coming spring 2024 at $2,099.
Lag Sauvage DCE
Lag have set their sites on sustainabilty, using smoked raw eucalyptus—an invasive species that needs to be harvested—for the striking back and sides of the Sauvage DCE. These affordable solid-top BrankoWood acoustics—starting at $420–offer a sound as warm as they look, with onboard electronics. Available in Europe, they’ll be in the U.S. soon.
Red Panda Radius
Red Panda’s new Radius pedal has loads of deep tones to discover. Ostensibly a ring mod/frequency shifter, its unique controls will allow you to head to the outer limits with phase-shifting, tremolo sounds, and much, much more! Priced at $349, they’re available now.
Balaguer Select Custom Guitars
Balaguer Guitars just announced their Select Custom line of highly customized models based on their existing body shapes. Customers can choose scale length, wood, binding, finish, and electronics. All at fairly reasonable prices. You can head over to their website now to play with their online guitar designer.
Santa Cruz Vault Series
Santa Cruz’s Vault Series is built upon the idea of using very old reclaimed wood that master luthier Richard Hoover has been saving for decades. This D-style model uses Brazilian Rosewood from the Bryn Athena Cathedral for the back and sides and master grade Fort Ross Chapel redwood for the top. Nearly every part of this build is immaculate and the craftsmanship pushes the limits of modern lutherie. The price? $70,000.
Third Man Hardware and Donner Triple Threat
Donner and Third Man Hardware just released a new collaboration aimed at guitarists who need a simple and portable multi-effects solution. For $99 you get echo, phaser, and distortion.
Victory Amps MK Clean
Victory Amps brought two new models to the show. The MK Clean is a monster clean machine with loads of headroom, spring reverb, bright switch, and selectable EQ voicings. On the other side, the MK Overdrive is a 3-channel setup with independent gain controls, switchable volume levels, presence, and more. Production begins in March and they will go for around $5k.
Collings Guitars
Collings is offering NAMM visitors a glimpse into some models to come, from sleek solidbodies to an all-new dreadnought. These prototypes aren’t available yet, but they’re here for everyone to get a peek at their vision for the future.
Two Notes Genome
Two notes’ Genome offers deep functionality with loads of amp and pedal models on hand. It’s interface makes it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for and dial it in. Priced at $79.95, it’s free for any existing Two notes hardware or DynIR cab customers.
Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z and the Chris Freeman Signature
That’s Reverend’s Ken Haas with the two new signature models the company debuted at NAMM 2024: the Billy Corgan Drop Z (right, in Billy’s favored satin pearl white finish) and the Chris Freeman model. The Drop Z is designed for drop tuning, with a 24-fret, 26.22" scale neck, an alder body and Railhammer Billy Corgan Z-One pickups. The Chris Freeman has a bridge Railhammer Nuevo 90 and a neck P-90, with rear-mounted volume, tone, and bass contour controls, a 3-way pickup switch, and double kill switches—a toggle and a kill button, It’s available in the turquoise sparkle finish on the 6-string Ken’s holding, or powder yellow. The Drop Z streets for $1,499 and the Freeman at $1,199.
L.R. Baggs HiFi Duet
The L.R. Baggs HiFi Duet is a brand new update to the company’s popular HiFi, now with a studio quality bridge-plate microphone that is blendable with the contact sensors. Pricing and availability coming soon.
Eventide Riptide
Eventide has introduced a new member of their dot9 line with the Riptide, an overdrive/vibe-style pedal with stereo capability. It’s out now for $299. They’re also showing off their new app capabilities for their H90 as well as some fresh algorithms.
Mackie Showbox
Mackie’s new Showbox is a battery-powered solution for solo and duo acts. The defining feature is a detachable mixer that gives you access to a 3-band EQ, looper, and recording options. They are available now for $799.
Chibson Protoypes
We were pleased to run into Jason and Marky from Chibson, who showed us prototypes of their puzzle-piece guitars and extendable-leaf guitar, built by Paoletti Guitars.
Iris/Circle Strings Guitars
The Iris/Circle Strings booth had lots to offer, from their acoustic line built for the discerning working musician’s taste and price range. Their DF slope-shouldered dreadnought is a standout at $2,350. They also brought a pair of Paul Languedoc builds that Trey Anastasio fans were busy bugging out about!
Gamechanger Audio Mod Series
Gamechanger Audio released an entire new line of pedals at NAMM. The Mod series combines their penchant for inventive, time-based effects with their love for modular synth-style controls. There are literally thousands of ways to control these effects including via pitch and dynamics. For example, you can set a target note and everything either above or below it can be affected by any parameter. Production will start in March and they will be $299 each.
Peterson StroboClip HDC Tuner
The Peterson StroboClip HDC brings the company’s popular sweetener offerings right to your headstock. This new rechargeable model works for 6 hours of continuous use on a single charge and the quick charge circuit delivers 90 more minutes of use on a two minute charge. Available now for $79.
Danelectro Fifty-Niner
Danelectro showed us a variety of new options, from their brightly colored lipstick-pickup-loses Fifty Niner guitars and Red Hot Longhorn bass ($599) to their black-crackle sitar ($899) and their vintage fuzz/distortion pedal the Nicholas 1966 ($199).
Danelectro Fifty-Niner - $599
Red Hot Longhorn - $599
Sitar - $899
Nicholas 1966 - $199
Lichtlaerm Audio Amps
Newcomers Lichtlaerm Audio gave us a tour of their custom-build Prometheus head and Fane-loaded 4x12 cab. Loaded with features, your own will be available within a month or two of order, plus shipping time from Germany, at a starting price of $2,700.
Godin Lerxst Limelight
One of the higher profile releases of the show was Godin's collaboration with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson. The Lerxst Limelight is based on Lifeson's '80s-era model and is outfitted with either a Floyd Rose setup or the Vega-Trem VT1 shown here. The pickups were made by MojoTone and overall, the guitar feels and sounds incredible. Streets for $4,000.
Divided by 13 FTR 37
Divided by 13 relaunched after their acquisition by Two-Rock at the show with this FTR 37. It's a muscular 6V6 circuit with two discreet channels, reverb, push/pull gain boost, and a half-power switch. If you're a fan of Fullerton-style sounds, than this might be just the setup for you. It has a full-bodied clean tone and a rich breakup sound that's dynamic with plenty of sparkle.
Aeroband Guitars
The Aeroband guitar looks like a wild glimpse into the future—and also back into the ‘80s—but with its app capability, the company is touting the education possibilities it has to offer. Also, it’s fun. Priced at $500, it’s available now.
Supro Delegate Custom
Supro enters the boutique amp market with the mighty 1x12 Delegate Custom, inspired by the Aristocrat amp Muddy Waters used for the Live at Newport album … but supercharged. With a custom-colored wraparound cabinet, it’s all hand-built in Ohio with Mercury Magnetics transformers, period-correct Mallory caps, a custom 12” Celestion Greenback, 3-band EQ, and master volume. It’s got a 12AT7 driving the spring reverb, two 6V6 power tubes, and three 12AX7s. The tag: $3,299, and there’s a 2x12 big sibling, too. It’s Supro mastermind David Koltai’s (in photo) latest pride and joy.
KMA Machine Endgame
KMA Machine's Endgame Duality Calibrator might be one of the most feature-packed stomps at the show. It has an exhaustive amount of I/O options but the centerpieces are the automatic double tracker and the switchable IR loader. Other highlights include dual headphone outputs, XLR outputs, Bluetooth capability, stereo effects loop, ambience control, and loads more.
Strandberg Boden Essential
Strandberg's Boden Essential is the company's first sub-$1k guitar. It retains the same look and feel of the other models, but uses locally sourced Indonesian wood to help keep the price down. Ola told us that the pickups are the same as in the standard model, but the hardware is reengineered for durability and sustainability.
Godin Arena Pro
Godin is debuting a pair of all-black nylon-string guitars. The Arena Pro is a LTD Onyx Black is a single cut with a solid cedar top and Canadian wild cherry black and sides, plus top-mounted volume and tone controls. They’ve paired it with a new addition to their Multiac Mundial line in matching onyx black accoutrements. These guitars are available now and priced at $1,099 and $1,299 respectively.
Godin Fifth Ave
Godin’s stunning new hollowbodies will catch the eyes of rockers and jazz cats alike. These lightweight and comfortable thinline Fifth Avenue guitars are available with Godin P-90s for $1,299, and a sunburst model is equipped with Lollar gold-foils at $1,899.
Godin Session T-Pro Hangover
Godin debuted their “hangover” distressed finishes on a pair of solidbodies: their S-style Seymour Duncan-loaded Session T Pro and their Lollar/TV Jones-loaded T-Style Stadium T Pro. These one-of-a-kind models are available for $1,499.
Friedman Amplification Plexi Vintage Series
Not surprisingly, Dave Friedman created a vintage plexi-style amp that absolutely rips. It's based on an EL34 design, a familiar control setup, and plenty of juice.
Circle Strings Languedoc
Adam Buchwald's burgeoning Vermont guitar empire will take on a new collaboration in 2024. Famed luthier Paul Languedoc has agreed to have Buchwald steward the production of the G2 and G4 models made famous by Phish's Trey Anastasio. Paul will still be making the G2 models while the G4 line will be created in Buchwald's shop (although some elements of the G4 will continue to be handmade by Paul). The G2s will be extremely limited and run north of $60k, but the G4s, when available, will be $16,000.
T-Rex Binson Echorec
The Binson Echorec by T-Rex isn’t new this year, but it sure is cool. It sounds exactly like you think it should, and does all the tricks of the classic units.
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- NAMM 2024 Editors' Picks ›
- NAMM 2024 Editors' Picks ›
- Finding Inspiration in the Pursuit of New Gear ›
- Are Mini-NAMM Conventions the Wave of the Future? ›
- Best Guitar Gear at NAMM 2024 Day 3 ›
A thick, varied take on the silicon Fuzz Face that spans punky, sparkling, and full-spectrum heavy.
Dimensional, thick variations on the silicon Fuzz Face voice. Surprisingly responsive to dynamics at most tube amp’s natural clean/dirty divide. Bass control lends range.
Thins out considerably at lower amp volumes.
$185
McGregor Pedals Classic Fuzz
mcgregorpedals.com
Compared to the dynamic germanium Fuzz Face, silicon versions sometimes come off as brutish. And even though they can be sonorously vicious, if dirty-to-clean range and sensitivity to guitar volume attenuation are top priorities, germanium is probably the way to go. The McGregor Classic Fuzz, however, offers ample reminders about the many ways silicon Fuzz Faces can be beastly, sensitive, and sound supreme.
Even though the two BC107B top hat transistors will look familiar to many who have poked around other SFF-style circuits, the Classic Fuzz is not precisely a silicon Fuzz Face clone. It’s distinguished by a low-pass filter “bass” control that true SFFs lack, but which widens its vocabulary extensively. In an A/B test with a solid, archetypal-sounding BC108 Fuzz Face clone, the Classic Fuzz sounded roughly equivalent at the 60-percent mark of the bass control’s range. But the Classic Fuzz was more dimensional, and on either side of the bass control I heard many intriguing tone variations spanning garage-punk snot and corpulent, almost triangle-Big Muff thickness.
Like most SFFs, the Classic Fuzz sounds best with a generous spoonful of amp volume. I ran it with a Fender Vibrolux just on the clean side of breakup. At amp volumes much lower than that, the fuzz voice thinned, the nuanced responsiveness to guitar volume attenuation dropped off, and the range of clean tones became much narrower. In its happy places, though, the Classic Fuzz rips—lending sparkling overdrive colors and banshee-scream aggression to Stratocasters and sounding especially sweet and terrifyingly mammoth with humbuckers
With internally adjustable midrange boost and versatile Voice 2, these pickups are designed to capture the killer tones of 80s & 90s high performance Strats.
Amid the screaming success of the Gristle-Tone signature Telecaster and P90 pickup sets, it was no surprise that Greg wanted to contribute to the Fluence single width line next.
Unlike the Gristle-Tone for Tele and P90, the Greg Koch Gristle-Tone Signature Series Single Width set represents a modern approach, extracting a wide variety of clean to high gain tones, from the pure, wide-open Voice 1, through the mid-forward vocabulary in Voice 2 with broad control over the midrange qualities to meet all of Greg’s single width needs.
For this set, Greg wanted to capture the killer tones of 80s & 90s high performance Strats, which deliver a wide-band Hi-Fi sound, with more dynamics and versatility. A resonant shift in the 2 & 4 positions can bring out those glassy, toothy in-between tones.
An internally adjustable set-and-forget midrange boost in Voice 2 offers everything from mild added “fatness” to full blown searing leads. Pull up on the Reactive Tone Control for a fat and sassy boost.
Greg Koch says, “These pickups provide the slice and the sinew without the razor blades on the high end and the flabbiness on the low end….Voice 2 brings the heat when you need to go in for the win!"
The pickups are available as a 6-string set and come in white or black. Street price in the U.S. is $269.95 for the set.+`
For more information, please visit fishman.com.
Greg Koch Single Width Pickups | Feature Highlight - YouTube
Nile Rodgers Put Rhythm Up Front (and Cory Wong Listened)
Funk-guitar wiz and Wong Notes host Cory Wong flips the script and sits in the 100 Guitarists guest chair.
Funk-guitar wiz and Wong Noteshost Cory Wong flips the script and sits in the 100 Guitarists guest chair. Wong cleared his schedule to talk about one Nile Rodgers’ work on the Halo 2 soundtrack. We were lucky that got him to return our call, but we did move on quickly.
Wong is a scholar of all things rhythm guitar—and that means all things Nile. We talk about how the Hitmaker voices his progressions—“You hear Nile play a chord progression … and it’s that song”—and the role of rhythm guitar in general. Cory delivers his list of best Nile performances, tips for direct guitar sounds, and most surprising Nile collabs.
Ever wonder what it would sound like if Nile Rodgers produced David Lee Roth covering Willie Nelson? Give a listen and drop us a know when you check it out for yourself.
This episode is sponsored by JAM Pedals.
More info: https://www.jampedals.com.
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai unite to form the SATCHVAI Band.
Kicking off on June 13, 2025, this monumental musical journey will feature stops in major cities like London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam, and will also include performances at major European summer festivals including Hellfest, Umbria Jazz Festival and Guitares en Scene Fest. The tour is set to conclude in late July, with more dates to be announced soon.
The duo, along with each of their respective bands, initially joined forces for their first-ever tour together, outside of the G3 format, the past spring (2024) across select U.S. cities, and decided it was finally time to actually form a band together and bring that winning formula to the live stage, beginning in Europe.
Celebrating nearly five decades of musical friendship, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai made their first musical collaboration debut in March 2024. “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1” showcases the unmatched synergy between these two legendary guitarists as they seamlessly trade solo sections throughout the nearly six-minute opus. Their second collaboration is set to be released just before the European tour, adding even more anticipation for this epic run.
Pre-sale tickets for “The SATCHVAI Band Tour” will be available starting Wednesday and Thursday December 11 and 12, with general sales opening on Friday, December 13.
Satch and Vai’s musical careers have been intertwined since their very early days. Satriani served as Vai’s guitar teacher during their teenage years on Long Island, New York. Their connection has continued to evolve over the years, even sharing record labels, starting at Relativity Records in the late 80’s, to both calling Sony/Epic Records home for a significant portion of the 90’s. Together, they have also frequently teamed up with a third guitarist on multiple occasions throughout the span of three decades, participating in the semi-annual G3 Tours, both in the U.S. and abroad.
“The SATCHVAI Band Tour is happening! I’m so looking forward to sharing the stage with Steve again,” Satriani said. “Every time we play together, it takes me back to when we were teenagers, eating and breathing music every second of the day, pushing, challenging, and helping each other to be the best we could be. I guess we’ve never stopped!”
Vai added, “Touring with Joe is always a pleasure and an honor. He is my favorite guitarist to jam with, and now we have another opportunity to take it to the stage. I feel as though we are both at the top of our game, and the show will be a powerful celebration of the coolest instrument in the world, the electric guitar!”
Joe Satriani has had a packed schedule having recently concluded the Sammy Hagar-led Best of All Worlds Tour, which was met with much fanfare and critical acclaim. While Steve Vai has been playing shows across the U.S. as part of the BEAT tour following the conclusion of the Satch/Vai tour earlier this year.
Surfing with the Hydra Tour 2025 Itinerary:
June 13 York, UK Barbican
June 14 London, UK Eventim Apollo
June 17 Glasgow, SC Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
June 18 Wolverhampton, UK Civic Hall
June 19 Manchester, UK O2 Apollo
June 21 Clisson, FR Helfest
June 22 Paris, FR Palais Des Congres
June 23 Antwerp, BE Lotto Arena
June 24 Amsterdam, NL Amsterdam Afas
June 26 Copenhagen, DK Amager Bio
June 29 Helsinki, FI House of Culture
June 30 Tampere, FI Tampere Hall
July 2 Uppsala, SE Parksnackan
July 3 Oslo, NO Sentrum Scene
July 5 Warsaw, PL Torwar
July 8 Munich, DE Tollwood Festival
July 10 Dusseldorf, DE Mitsubishi Electric Hall
July 11 Frankfurt, DE Jahrhunderthalle
July 12 Zurich, CH Volkshaus Zürich
July 13 Milan, IT Comfort Festival @ Villa Casati Stampa
July 15 Pordenone, IT Parco San Valentino
July 16 Perugia, IT Umbria Jazz
July 17 Bologna, IT Sequoie Music Park
July 18 Saint-Julien, FR Guitares en Scene Festival
July 20 Prague, CZ Forum Karlin
July 22 Sofia, BG National Palace of Culture
More dates TBA