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    Both Grant and Dave have spent decades building up relationships of trust and respect across the industry. Going to NAMM every year has been a way for them maintain many of these relationships in a face-to-face environment, even if it is only for a few days at a time. I couldn't help but wonder how people would react to not just one, but two new faces representing the Twelfth Fret. 

    It then occurred to me that this year's show would be an amazing opportunity for me to write a feature about NAMM as seen through the eyes of a first-timer. As I found out over the past week, witnessing a NAMM show for the first time is an incredible experience. So, rather than pretend that its just another day at the office, I've decided to share exactly how overwhelming and awesome it was to spend two solid days in the absolute center of the music retail industry.
 
 

Day 1
 

Our walk towards the Anaheim Convention Center for the opening of the NAMM show gave me my first clue as to just how big an event this was going to be. Walking down the sunny avenue, we passed giant hotel after giant hotel. Out of every door we passed flowed a steady stream of conventioneers, all joining into a single bustling herd. Rounding a corner, the Convention Center itself came into view. Its massive. By this point the sidewalks, lawns, and the road itself are jammed full of pedestrians. Making our way inside the building, we found the front hall absolutely packed as people slowly made their way through check-in and into the show floor. A fully equipped stage was set up in the main entranceway. Over the course of the convention, this stage would be the venue of over a dozen musical acts and performances from all over the world. This is in addition to the countless concerts held in neighboring hotels during the convention.

Outside the main entrance

Inside the main entrance

    We entered the convention through the lower level Hall E. This ended up being my favorite room in the entire show. Companies like Collings, Bourgeois, Santa Cruz, McPherson, Deering, and National could all be found within 30 seconds of each other. Mixed in among them were some other well established companies and builders, as well as some new businesses. For younger companies, the NAMM show can make all the difference with regards to the future success of their product. As we walked through the hall, Grant reminisced to me about the early days of the Twelfth Fret. Back when we were a young and relatively unknown shop, many of our first contacts with builders were made at the NAMM show. There was a very specific type of excitement in the room as we wandered around Hall E, and I'm sure it comes from having so many relatively young builders and dealers meeting and interacting with each other for the first time. With dozens of legendary builders in one room, it can be easy to forget that you just might find the “next big thing” quietly tucked away in a little booth in the corner. 
 

Jens Kruger demos a new Banjo pickup at Deering

McPherson Guitars

The Main Show Floor

After spending about an hour doing a tour of Hall E, we were off to have our first meeting of the day with Taylor Guitars. Grant had parted ways with Mike and me about 45 minutes earlier, the plan being to meet on the second floor mezzanine at the Taylor room. Sounds simple right? We made our way up the escalator from Hall E, which took us directly into Hall D on the main show floor. Mike and I had to stop for a moment and just LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS PLACE! From Hall D, we could look across the entire length of the Convention Center main level. Well, not exactly the entire level, because it was too long to see all the way to the far wall!

    Looking for a way to get upstairs to the mezzanine, I spotted an elevator. We went up one level, and found ourselves looking down a long hallway lined with offices. “This doesn't look like the Taylor booth” I said as we began to walk down the hallway. We eventually made it to the end of the hall and found ourselves in a stairway. “Maybe it's farther up…” I said. 

    About 20 minutes later, we met Grant outside the Taylor booth. “Did you get lost?” he asked, half joking. “You have no idea” I said as I reached for my camera to show him the photos I had taken from the catwalk that extended 60 feet above the show floor on the main level. 
 

"This doesn't look like the Taylor booth..."

"Nice view, though!"

“How did you get up there?” Grant asked looking both surprised and a little confused. “ I wish I could tell you, but I'm really not sure.” I said. Moving on to business, we went into the large office room Taylor had set up beside their display booth and sat down with Steve, our Taylor representative. After placing a few orders and catching up a bit, Steve brought us into the beautiful main display room to take a look around, and most importantly to choose some wood sets for three new Build-to-Order Taylor guitars for the shop. In the corner of the room, Taylor had set up a full workstation complete with hundreds of sheets of wood, all ready to be made into something special. Mike and Grant spent almost an hour going through wood sets, choosing details and appointments, and finalizing designs.
 

Taylor Acoustic Guitars

Bob Taylor

Taylor Electric Guitars

After taking in everything we could from Taylor's display, the three of us moved on to our next meeting; Martin Guitars. The Martin display booth was located right smack in the middle of the main show floor. As you can imagine, it was a very crowded place! Duane, our Martin representative, gave us a piece by piece tour of the entire booth. Some of my personal highlights include a limited edition D28 1955 CFM IV and dangerously good looking limited edition OM Figured Koa with an Adirondack top. We'll give you a closer look when they arrive, but for now you'll have to trust me: these are two very special guitars!    We also got to see a D-100 model on display. We actually sold a left handed version last spring. At over $100,000 US, these guitars are NOT for the faint-of-wallet!

Martin OM Figured Koa

Martin D100

Splitting up with Grant once again, Mike and I moved directly to our next meeting of the day with the boys over at Egnater Amplification. We have been carrying Egnater since I first met them at the summer MIAC show in Toronto a couple years ago, and they have quickly become our best selling brand of amplifiers. The past 18 months have seen a steady release of new amps, from the now legendary Rebel 20 to the updated Rebel 30 and Renegade series of heads and combos. This year, it's all about “The Tweaker”. I spent about 20 minutes playing this 15 Watt all tube head, and I was simply blown away. The Tweaker should be shipping out later in the spring. I have until then to figure out how I'm going to fit another amp in my apartment. Ughhh.

PRS Dragons

For the first time since we arrived, Mike and I found ourselves with a chunk of time large enough to take a real look around. We were given a tour of the PRS display. There were some real jaw-droppers as well as some very interesting new models.    Walking past the Ibanez booth, we found Steve Vai had gotten himself frozen in carbonite again. I don't think he has any gigs lined up this month, so they have some time to figure out how to get him out of there.   I also found the Batmobile in one of the last places I ever expected to find it.

Frozen in carbonite

na na na na na na na na Batman!

Rocking out with Fryette Amps

  Orange Amplifiers built a small townhouse out of 4x12 speaker cabinets. Mesa Boogie had a new amp so small I was tempted to try and sneak it into my bag. We had a great visit with our friends at Recording King, as well as Fryette Amplifiers (keep your eyes open for the new Memphis 30 combo… it's awesome!). 

  There were simply too many amazing displays for me to go through and list them all. Every way we turned, there was another great looking booth from another world renowned company.
 
 

We ended our first day at the show on a nice highlight. We met up with Grant back in Hall E at Bourgeois Guitar's booth. Dana was there himself, and was an absolute pleasure to meet. There were a few very nice pieces on display that I am looking forward to seeing here in the shop fairly soon. I also have to take this opportunity to mention our ulterior motive for visiting with Dana; we got to pose for a photo while he presented us with an award for being the top Bourgeois retailer in the world. You might not be able to make out the plaque in the photo, but it says “Biggest Dealer in the World!” That's right. We're the biggest.

From left: Mike, Nevin, Master Luthier Dana Bourgeois, Grant. We're the biggest.

Day 2
 
 

Despite our exhaustion, we managed to move forward with our day. Glen, our representative with Music Man, gave us a fantastic tour of the Ernie Ball booth. There were several great new guitars on display. My favorite was definitely the new version of the Albert Lee signature model. We have one on the way in a super cool vintage white finish. We also spent some time visiting Eastman to take a look at a few new guitars and mandolins. I was able to hear a demo of the new LR Baggs Acoustic Guitar pickup, called the “Anthem”, which was very impressive. Mike and I also made our way to the far end of the convention center to take a look at Roland's display, which filled an entire ARENA! It was a fantastic display. Meanwhile, Grant paid a visit to National Resophonic Guitars who were showing some beautiful pieces.

Eastman Guitars and Mandolins

LR Baggs Anthem Acoustic Pickup

Roland Cube Series Amplifiers

National Wood Body Tricone

National Resophonic Guitars

We met back up with Grant a few hours later back in Hall E for our meeting with Collings Guitars. As expected, there was a beautiful selection of instruments on display in Collings' booth, including Grants personal favorite guitar of the show: the C10 Art Deco. Thanks to pure luck, we also happened to bump into a few friends during our visit with Collings, including Jean Larrivee. Here's what Grant has to say about our run in with these guitar legends:

Collings Guitars

"John Larrivée is setting up another facility in Washington state I gather...more news on that as things progress.  Michael Gurian continues to be very involved in guitar building and has become one of the primary sources of custom guitar building supplies such as marketry inlay strips, purfling, custom pearl and abalone design and veneers. Also in the photo is Classical guitarist Muriel Anderson. We were fortunate to have Muriel visit our shop in the 1990s to play a concert for us when she was promoting Ramirez guitars...superb player and I'm pleased to see that her career has blossomed over the past decade."
 
 

Collings Electric and Archtop Guitars

Grant's pick of the show: The Collings C10 Art Deco

    As we approached the home stretch, we went up to the 2nd and 3rd level mezzanines for three of our biggest appointments of the show: Gibson, Godin, and Fender Guitars. Our friends from Yorkville Sound Jeremy and Jeff brought us to Gibson’s display room. 
 

The Gibson Show Room

Getting to know the new Angus Young signature SG

Limited edition ES 339 and a pair of limited run ES 359 guitars

Closed to the public, I was surprised to find a very modest selection of about a dozen guitars. The room was very quiet, without the chaos or flash that filled the main show floor. This allowed us to slowly walk around the room and spend a nice amount of time with each individual instrument. Every guitar on display was something special and deserved the chance to be looked at properly. The limited edition ES-359s were a real standout. I'm hoping we will receive ours before the end of January. Grant fell head over heels for the new Keb Mo L-00 Acoustic model. I gather he ordered one on the spot. Stay tuned!

Gibson Keb Mo L-00

Next up, we had a great tour of the Godin display room from our representative Gary. We got to see some great new Simon and Patrick models, as well as some very cool Seagull guitars. We also ran into Robert Godin himself, who was happy as ever to spend some time showing us his guitars and catching up with Grant. I've always been impressed by Godin’s instruments, but being in a room filled with every line of acoustic and electric guitar they build really hammered home just how fantastic they are. I can't think of another company on Godin’s scale that offers so many truly well made instruments.

Robert Godin and Gary Richardson

Godin Electric Guitars

Simon & Patrick Guitars

The Godin 5th Ave Kingpin

Last but absolutely not least was Fender. We met up with our representative Gregg, who did a commendable job of leading us through the psychedelic circus that was Fender's display room. Music boomed out of every corner, while club style lighting swirled around the room. I'm not sure exactly how many guitars Fender had on display, but a safe bet would be somewhere around 1000. That's not including all the amps, stages, PA systems, and Televisions that filled the room. It was truly overwhelming. Despite the chaos, I did manage to spot several great new models. A couple ultra cool new versions of the Road Worn Telecaster are on the way, and the American Special series is sure to be a big hit.

    We ended our day by moving across the hall to Fender's meeting room to sit down with Gregg and take care of some business. I have to point out that Fender's private meeting room had more guitars on display than most show rooms we saw! As we got settled, Gregg mentioned that we just missed Jeff Beck come walking through the office a few hours earlier on his way to a meeting. I couldn't help but picture a room full of exhausted retailers and representatives starring slack jawed as Jeff Beck strolled past their tables! Only at NAMM…
 
 

Our second day at the NAMM show comes to an end

    Our last night in Anaheim was spent in a very quiet, low key manner. Ya, right. It's impossible to gather thousands of musicians from all over the world without some kind of party going down! Even in my questionable condition at the end of the night, I was struck by what a strange business the guitar industry is. Just a few hours earlier, I was in a giant building with staggering amounts of money being thrown around.. This is definitely BIG business. Yet we were all able to relax and have fun together, talking about how much we love music. To be clear, I did my absolute best to maintain a professional persona the entire time.
 
 
 

I wear my sunglasses at night

    Looking back, I'm still amazed by how much we were able to see and do over the course of two days. It was a truly incredible experience, and I hope everyone else is looking forward to spending some time with the new products as much as I am. There are some amazing guitars on their way this year. I hope you all enjoyed this look back at our trip, and a little preview of what's to come! 

- Nevin Douglas