Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Pigtronix has launched three new analog effects at this past NAMM. You may remember Pigtronix from such classics as the Philosopher’s Tone and the EP-1 Envelope Phaser. The three new pedals are EP-2 Envelope Phaser ($299), Aria ($189) and the Philosopher King ($399). Aria and EP2 are in stores now. The Philosopher King will be available soon.
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Having trouble keeping on top of all the different stories and gear coming out of this year’s winter NAMM show? Yeah, us too. The sheer amount of announcements, press releases, celebrity sightings and drool-inducing gear has left our heads spinning.
To make this simple we’re going to highlight other people’s highlights of the 2010 winter NAMM show.
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Sometimes something old seems like something new. At the Winter NAMM Show last week, Martin Guitar announced the release of 13 new guitars this winter. This year, we’d say the company had two primary areas of focus. The first is electrics. Even though Martin is known for their acoustic guitars, 8 out of the 13 guitars released were acoustic-electric models with built-in electronics. But we were most happy to see the two new M-models released - the Martin 000-15M and the Martin D-15M.
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Tired of having to tune every string one at a time? Not enough bread to buy a Robot Guitar that can self-tune? Well TC Electronic has come up with a new kind of tuner pedal called the PolyTune that could be the quickest and easiest way to tune your guitar. The interface displays individual LEDs for each string - just strum and see which strings need a tune up.
The TC Electronic PolyTune pedal will be available in February 2010 and comes with an MSRP of $149 USD.
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Found on pedal boards nearly everywhere, BOSS tuners have been keeping guitarists playing in tune since 1983. But no word yet if they’ve developed anything to keep us in key. At the NAMM show BOSS announced a new version of the classic tuner aptly named the TU-3. The BOSS TU-3 updates the current version, the TU-2, with some new features and enhanced functionality.
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
More news coming out of NAMM as the show kicks off today in Anaheim, California. Taylor has announced a new Baritone 8 String guitar. The new Baritone 8 is interesting because they’ve paired two octave strings with the third and fourth strings, adding a touch of upper-octave brightness. Bob Taylor explains. “We loved the traditional baritone, but missed having some of that upper register. We thought, what if we turned it into a 9-string baritone? So, we made one. But after deciding it was a little too jangly, we pulled off the [doubled second] string, leaving the third and fourth octave strings. It sounded awesome.”
Monday, January 11th, 2010
We have been fans of Recording King guitars since playing the beautiful and reasonably priced Recording King ROS-626 in 2008. We have been huge fans of Eric Schoenberg since about the same time since we were in Schoenberg’s store when we played it.
So you can imagine our excitement when we learned from a very reliable source that Recording King and Eric Schoenberg have been working together to develop a new guitar that will be launched at the Winter NAMM Show this week.
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
For years, my violist girlfriend and I have been engaged in the “frets vs. fretless” argument - whether the relative ease of playing on a fretboard makes up for losing the ability to adequately control intonation. Now, it looks like we’re both wrong.
True Temperament Frets...Just Crazy Enough To Work
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
Facelift
A new product called Facelift has won “Best in Show” at the recent 2009 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. Facelift is a removable and re-usable guitar body decal overlay that can give your axe a whole new look without the cost of a custom paint job or the eventual regret of having ruined your favorite guitar’s original paint job. You don’t even have to remove the strings to add the Facelift - pretty sweet and simple. Full story…
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Blackbird Guitars unveiled its new carbon-fiber Blackbird Super-OM guitar, their first full-size acoustic, at the recent 2009 NAMM Show.
Hollow throughout the body, neck, and headstock, at 3.75 pounds it is one of the lightest acoustics ever. Light weight allows string energy to vibrate a guitar more strongly, which in turn results in a louder guitar. Also, the soundhole has been moved to where the “waist” on the bass side of the guitar would normally be, in order to allow for greater resonating area on the top plate of the guitar. With high-gloss carbon fiber finish, it will be available in March 2009 for a MSRP of $1899 or $2039 with electronics. This may be the acoustic guitar of the future!
