Upon resurrecting the long-lost Dual Op-Amp Big Muff 2 circuit with Josh Scott of JHS Pedals, Electro-Harmonix recognized that the pedal would be an instant favorite of low-end lovers and went to work “bassifying” the pedal. Enter the low-end optimized Bass Big Muff Pi 2 with features selected for full spectrum fuzz tones of all flavors.
The Bass Big Muff Pi 2 features the original’s pushed mid grunt and classic singing sustain any Big Muff lover would feel at home with. The bass version now includes a clean BLEND knob and Bass Boost for extended tone performance with Bass Guitar or any player looking for extra clarity and low-end. The typical VOL/TONE/SUSTAIN knobs set overall output volume, treble/bass eq balance, and distortion respectively. BLEND sets the overall wet/dry mix to dial in the perfect balance of fuzzy chaos and solid fundaments from your clean tone. The BASS BOOST switch adds even more low-end to your signal for booming bass tone even at higher TONE knob settings.
Additionally, the pedal features a silent true bypass footswitch with Latching/Momentary Action. Click the footswitch for normal latching functionality or press and hold the footswitch of a momentary burst of fuzz.
The Mount Rushmore of acoustic amplification, from left to right: Chris F. Martin IV, Larry Fishman, and Lloyd Baggs at NAMM 2026
Photo by Kate Richardson
NAMM 2026. I survived.
I came down with the flu a week before the show. I cocooned, rested, and managed to recover enough to hit the ground running in Anaheim. Not ideal timing, but then again, timing is rarely perfect in this business.
This year marked NAMM’s 125th anniversary. I served on the NAMM board and eventually on the executive committee, which meant that at the end of that journey, I became NAMM Chairman. My time as chair coincided with COVID. Not exactly a calm period in history.
Joe Lamond was NAMM’s CEO when I stepped into that role. When I reminded him that Martin Guitar had survived multiple pandemics over our nearly two centuries in business, he said, “You are the right NAMM chair for these challenging times.” We got through it. NAMM got through it. My family’s business got through it. And here we are at 125 years.
A Different Show
The NAMM Show today is different than it was before Covid. Travel is expensive. Booth space is expensive. Attending a trade show is not cheap. Companies have to evaluate value carefully, but trade shows remain one of the most efficient and effective ways to see your customers in one place: dealers, distributors, artists, media, influencers, and passionate musicians all under one roof. And Southern California is full of people who are passionate about making music.
Our booth was busy from 10 a.m. on Thursday through the end of the show on Saturday night. The show floor was loud and exciting, filled with people who share the same passion for making and listening to music that you and I have. And they demonstrate it on every instrument imaginable at the same time.
The Beauty of Discovery
One of my favorite things about NAMM is wandering. I’ll stop at a small booth to check out what someone is building, and start a conversation about what they are up to. What I appreciate most is when they engage me before they realize who I am. Sometimes the coolest thing I see at NAMM comes from a company I’ve never heard of. Maybe it’s their first show; maybe they scraped together every dollar they had to be there.
I always show enthusiasm and wish them luck. Sometimes they come back the next year with a bigger booth. Sometimes they never return. Either way, I appreciate that they tried, and I want them all to succeed.
Old Friends and New Ideas
NAMM is the perfect venue to both introduce new products and reinforce the enduring value of tried-and-true models like our D-28. We had some new things to show this year. My personal favorite was being able to share a couple of our Project 91 guitars. Innovation remains essential in a company that has been building instruments for nearly two centuries.
After any NAMM show, I always encourage people to check our website and then check our competitors’ websites. See what’s new and cool—our industry never stands still.
On a personal note, NAMM is also a reunion. I get to see old friends and make new ones. This year I participated in a panel discussion about acoustic-electric guitars and pickups with my friends Larry Fishman, Lloyd Baggs, and Craig Thatcher. We all agreed on one thing: Amplifying an acoustic guitar is challenging, no matter how you approach it.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend time with Greg Mackie from Mackie Sound. If anyone understands amplification, it’s Greg. I asked him his thoughts on the best way to amplify the sound of an acoustic guitar. I was bracing for a technical dissertation that I might struggle to follow, but he just paused for a moment and said, “Chris, acoustic guitars sound best unamplified.” And that’s the challenge.
The Bigger Picture
NAMM is not just about products. It is about community. It is about advocacy. It is about keeping music alive and accessible for future generations. During the show, I had lunch with several past NAMM chairs, all dedicated to promoting the value of music education. That mission remains central to NAMM’s purpose. The current NAMM Chair, Chris White, and the new CEO, John Mlynczak, are doing a good job of keeping up the enthusiasm for this focus of ours.
One hundred twenty-five years is a long time. I am grateful to have been a small part of that story. Come to the NAMM Show next year so you can be a part of it, too.
Say hello to the new STEREO HEADPHONE AMP - our latest handy little beast from Berlin.
At first glance it might look like “just”a headphone amp. But KMA and “just” don’t really go together. So, we gave it a powerful amplifier that can hook up to two pairs of cans simultaneously, a mixable Aux Input with both analog and Bluetooth, clever auto-sensing Ins and Outs and flexible routing options. Plus, like all KMA Machines pedals, it is still hand-built by real humans in our Berlin workshop.
Our Utility Series boxes have graced thousands of rigs worldwide. This one is no exception - it’s an extremely handy box that will no doubt find a permanent home in many setups. There’s plenty more where this came from in 2026, so stay tuned. As a subscriber, you’ll always hear it here first.
A few years ago we released ENDGAME, which is our ultimate end-of-chain utility device. Featuring IR Cab Sims, Power-Amp simulation, True Stereo Doubling, Stereo FX Loop, Aux-in, Bluetooth, Dual Headphone Amp and much, much more. For those that don't need all this power, we decided to take the pristine and powerful dual headphone output stages as well as the flexible AUX features and in the process created the definitive, yet still affordable, stereo headphone amp in a pedalboard friendly box.
You can use it as a standalone clean headphone amplifier or you can place it after your amp-sim of choice. Maybe you want a simple way to incorporate backing tracks into your setup? Well, you can do that with the AUX in and Bluetooth features. For instance, this could allow you to trigger samples and/or full tracks via your phone or computer.
In addition, it’s full Stereo In and full Stereo Out, so you can incorporate your divine stereo effects as well and output it to a stereo interface, mixer or PA with or without the Aux mix present.
This device might look deceptively simple, but it’s serious value for money in every sense possible.
You’ll sometimes see Jim Burns referred to as Britain’s Leo Fender, though the moniker itself tells you who history has favored more. Both were inventive guitar designers. Both used burgeoning tech and techniques to create bold instruments in the early rock ’n’ roll boom. Each worked with musicians to meet the needs of evolving playing styles and made some idiosyncratic choices along the way.
What’s funny is that, due to Leo’s enormous business success, his idiosyncrasies became the template for much of what followed in the guitar industry. Burns’ did not.
Take the Stratocaster’s original control layout: one volume, tone 1 (neck pickup), and tone 2 (middle pickup only upon release, only later adding the bridge pickup). That is, objectively, pretty bizarre. Time and familiarity have made it less so. By comparison, look at this 1964 Burns Vibra Slim, the featured pick for this edition of Vintage Vault. Its idiosyncrasies were strange from the start, and time has only made them more so.
See those control wheels peeking out from under the raised pickguard, closer to what you might encounter on early electrified archtops? Here, they’re fairly hard to reach, given the width of the guard. And the controls themselves are not in a traditional layout. When looking from a player’s position, left-to-right reads tone A, presence B, tone B, volume. Huh?
“If this had caught on, maybe we’d be calling Leo Fender the American Jim Burns.”
It’s best to think of this tone circuit in combination with the Ultra Sonic pickups. The Vibra Slim originally featured two, with the one at the neck being a kind of stacked humbucker, and at the bridge, a straightforward single-coil. So, you set the 3-way switch to the neck (left), bridge (right), or both (center) positions, then set tone A to taste. Presence control blends in extra body from the stacked humbucker’s second coil. And tone B fine-tunes the mix. If this had caught on, maybe we’d be calling Leo Fender the American Jim Burns. But, as you know, it did not. The Vibra Slim was actually one of the last of the original designs Jim Burns made for his namesake company, before Baldwin bought it and started implementing changes.
The Vibra Slim was first available in September 1964, and would be gone by ’68 (a shorter run than LBJ’s). Between the guitar’s birth and demise, Baldwin would even strip away some of what made it unique and lovable. Back upon release in ’64, it was advertised for £140.70 (what would be £3,700 today, adjusting for U.K. inflation today). That’s nearing $5,000 for Americans, with current exchange rates. It was a premium handcrafted guitar, near the top of Burns’ prices.
Similar to its TR-2 predecessor, though lighter thanks to laminated plywood construction, it had a 15 3/4"-wide semi-hollow body (rather than a carved top). And it had a very nicely offset waist that predated the Fender Starcaster by about a dozen years.
Sadly, soon after Baldwin’s purchase in 1965, branding shifts began. Ultra Sonic pickups changed to Bar-O-Matiks. Then, a major overhaul: The original set neck became a bolt-on. The pickguard and control layout changed completely, and steps toward standardization were made. Thumbwheels became standard knobs on the body, and the still-angular horns of the Burns years were softened a little. By 1968, the Vibra Slim was out of Baldwin’s catalogs altogether.
Because players and collectors alike are less familiar with Burns in general and Vibra Slims in particular, you can find these wonderful, handcrafted instruments for very reasonable vintage prices today. While asking prices can vary greatly, the final sold prices are more along the lines of what folks now pay for off-era Fenders or Gibsons, and lawsuit-era MIJ copies of the classics.
This particular Vibra Slim, for sale now through Reverb seller Oscar Guitars, based in Stockholm, Sweden, has an asking price of €1,771 ($2,147). In truly excellent condition, we’ve seen these go for around as high as $3,000 on Reverb, and as low as $1,000 with some heavier wear-and-tear or mods.
It’s interesting that, while one side of the vintage market is pushing up prices for lesser-ran Fender and Gibson models, or even off-brand copies, there’s so little interest in these premium guitars that were built with plenty of their own flair. If you dare to be different, keep your eye out for a Burns Vibra Slim like this.
Sources: Tony Bacon’s “A Brief History of Burns,” Vintage Guitars’ “Baldwin Guitars and Amplifiers” and “Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 7"; Reverb listings and sales data.
From long-lasting strings engineered for clarity and punch to a retro modulation mini and a 3.9-pound amp that hits 200 watts, this month's radar is stacked with gear that punches above its size.
Cleartone Strings
Power Series Electric Guitar Strings
These strings are engineered for players seeking a bigger, clearer, more responsive tone straight from the guitar. A refined nickel-iron blend delivers a natural clean boost with tighter lows, added presence, and improved articulation—making single-coils punchier and humbuckers more responsive. They’re finished with Cleartone’s patented No-Feel coating for long life.
This compact powerhouse is packed with lush modulation effects and epic sounds. It delivers a kaleidoscope of tones with a wide stereo spread. From the pulsating tremolo of the swinging ’60s to the funky phaser and U-Vibe grooves of the ’70s, MOD-mini takes you into a sonic time warp.
It fits in your backpack, weighs 3.9 pounds, and combines Sunn’s legendary Beta Lead and Beta Bass circuits while delivering 200 watts of pure MOSFET tone. This amp features two independent channels, each with its own set of controls—run them both clean or dirty, or mix and blend them for hybrid tones.
![Rig Rundown: All Them Witches [2026]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=65403822&width=1245&height=700&quality=70&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
