Summer NAMM Nashville 2019

Walking into Summer NAMM there was a myriad of new musical and music technology on

namm 2019
NAMM 2019 Floor

display. There were lots of IEMs (In Ear Monitors) there, not surprising as this is clearly the future of stage monitoring. Since I play guitar mostly and my second musical passion being recording, I zeroed in a lot on guitar and recording gear.

fix audio, series 500, console
Fix Audio Series 500 console

 

I am really intrigued by the 500 series stuff. Was instantly drawn to a 500 series mixer by Fix Audio. Imagine having a console where every preamp could be easily changed to suit any style of music and instrument. Also the console main section and metering was changeable. I am partial to VU meters and the console on display was full of VU’s. Pricey but a great idea!!

api, the box, 500 series
API The Box

 

There was The Box there from API. Same idea with a lot of 500 series modules that could be changed to suit any taste.

paoletti leonardo, guitar
Paoletti Leonardo Guitar

Got to see first hand the Paoletti guitars, handcrafted in Italy from 130 to 150 year old chestnut woods from the Paoletti family’s Chianti wine barrells. They had 2 guitars on display, the Leonardo (a true work of art) and a guitar owned by Richard Fortus from Guns N Roses.

guns-n-roses
Paoletti Guitar owned by Richard Fortus of Guns-n-Roses

 

 

 

 

There was also a true backpack guitar that the neck folded and would easily fit in a backpack and stored under an airline seat. Then the guitar could be easily taken out and ready to play in just minutes. This was from Ciari Guitars, a company in Nashville. Should be a hit with the downtown Nashville Broadway musicians who need to move from club to club quickly.

ciari guitar, folding guitar
Ciari Folding Guitar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fender, acoustisonic, guitar
Fender Acoustisonic Guitars

Of course all the big guitar companies were there Fender, Gibson and Martin. Really enjoyed seeing the new Fender Acoustisonic Telecaster, lots of them on display.

Gibson and Martin also had LOTS to see!!! Gibson had a throne made of guitar bodies and necks, had to get a pic on the throne.

gibson, guitar, summer namm 2019
Gibson Guitar Throne

Timberline guitars had some really nice Harp Guitars. A really unusual sound.

timberline, harp guitar
Timberline Harp Guitar

 

jrk, guitar, pickupwheel
JRK pickup wheel guitar

JRK Custom guitars had the pickups on a wheel guitar. The guitars had a hole in the middle and the pickup wheel sits in the hole and can be rotated for different configs of the pickups.

jrk, guitar, pickup wheel
JRK Guitar pickup wheel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I was walking with 2 drummers, we saw some really cool drum stuff. What really caught my eye was a drum pedal that uses polar opposing magnets instead of a spring to push the bass drum and high hat pedal back up.

drumnetics, drum pedal, magnets
Drumnetics Magnet Drum Pedal
drumnetics, drum pedal, high hat pedal
Drumnetics drum and high hat Pedals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some Ergosonic drums that the shells turned forward with a bottom head.

ergosonic, drumset
ErgoSonic drumset

 

 

CafeKit

 

There was a small drum set called a CafeKit, would be nice for really small jobs where there is not a lot of room for the drums.

welch tuning system, drum tuning
Welch Tuning System

Another cool idea was a drum set that had a type of guitar tuner on it, so the heads could be easily tuned on the fly while playing. This is called the Welch Tuning System.

Also there were smaller percussion things, such as brightly colored Cajons and a device called the Junkhat that sort of took the place of a high hat.

drum, junkhat
JunkHat
cajon, percussion
Brightly colored Cajon

 

 

 

 

All in all, lots of things to see and touch. Definitely worth going!!!