Twice a year the International Music Products Association (NAMM) gathers manufacturers of music equipment and holds trade shows for these companies to display their offerings.  The Winter NAMM show is usually held in January of each year in Anaheim, CA.  The Summer Namm convention opens annually during the month of July in Nashville, TN.

All types of companies belonging to NAMM, from large to small, set up display booths to show their product lines to dealers and official visitors to the show.  Manufacturers often use these extravagant events to debut new products, since media attention is extensive at NAMM shows.

Because NAMM shows are not open to the general public, it can be hard to know exactly what goes on at these noteworthy exhibitions outside the coverage of what major media publications offer.  I had the pleasure and privilege of working at the 2001 Summer NAMM session as a representative for Carr Amplifiers.  Due to my responsibilities at our exhibit, it was impossible to see everything at the show.  There are thousands of things to take in, and to document everything in totality is simply not feasible. 

Therefore, I would like to offer this personal glimpse at my experience and some things I found interesting in Nashville 2001.

Enjoy!

If you are familiar with this Web site, you probably know that I having been using Carr Amplifiers for a couple of years now and am genuinely excited about them.  It has been a special privilege to see Steve Carr build his company from scratch and fine tune his products into something unique.  I have been lucky to field test some of the prototypes in gigging environments before their release and have also aided Steve at clinics for Carr Amps.  I traveled with him and Tim Ristau to exhibit the full line of amps and give the world an opportunity to hear these great products for the first time.

I enjoyed demonstrating the amps for the visitors and found them to be very appreciative of Carr Amplifiers. 

We were later joined by California guitarist Matt King, who has done a tremendous job of promoting the line on the west coast.  It was nice to meet him and witness his enthusiasm for the products.

Here is a look at some of the amps we displayed at the Summer NAMM show for 2001:
 
 

This was Carr Amps' first trip to a NAMM show and it was well worth the journey.  The media coverage for the company is almost unprecedented for such a young organization.  In just a couple of years, the amps have received the praises of Guitar Player, Guitar World, Vintage Guitar, Downbeat, and others.  Perhaps the greatest endorsement has been by The ToneQuest Report, an excellent publication geared toward the tastes of discriminating guitarists.  The magazine offered an incredible review several months ago which has stirred the interests of many standout players and dealerships.  In fact, the article was so good that we couldn't have written a better statement of praise ourselves!

ToneQuest publisher David Wilson and graphic designer Rick Johnson visited us regularly during the show, and we had the opportunity to hang out with them for awhile.  Due in part to their efforts, we have been able to capture the attention of a number of established guitarists in the industry.
 
 

The Carr exhibit had heavy traffic which included some noteworthy people.  It was fantastic to see some legendary personalities playing and loving the amps. 

We spent a lot of time with the one and only Cesar Diaz, perhaps the most famous amp tech in the world.  Cesar is probably best known for his service to Stevie Ray Vaughan as his personal tone guru.  He was responsible for the mods and maintenance of SRV's amps and was a vital contributor to his sound. Through the years, Cesar has also worked on amps for Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and G.E. Smith among others.  He was a guitarist with Bob Dylan for awhile as well.  His pedigree is quite impressive.  Aside from his playing and tech duties, Cesar also has his own amp and effects company.

Cesar was quite gracious and a very interesting person.  We ate dinner with him, the guys from ToneQuest and the whole gang from Terry McInturff Guitars.  What a great evening!
 
 

Danny Flowers is a wonderful songwriter and guitarist, best known for his composition "Tulsa Time."  Eric Clapton and Don Williams both had hits with their versions of the song.   Danny's favorite model was the Slant 6V with it's blackface Fender-oriented clean tones, raunchy overdriven sounds and versatile channel switching.  Besides penning #1 hits, Danny is a very nice guy and was quite interested in Carr Amps. (We are especially biased because he is a native of Henderson, NC)  Be sure to check out his latest album "Forbidden Fruits & Vegetables."  It is an outstanding roots-rock tour de force!
 

   Danny Flowers checks out the Rambler                  Steve Carr demonstrates the finer points of the Slant 6V to Danny 
 
 

We also learned that there is a buzz among Nashville's elite session and live guitarist community over the products.  Scott Coney, guitarist for George Jones and Tracy Byrd, has been using Carr amps for an extended period of time.  He has been spreading the word in Music City and we welcomed some of his friends into our corner of the NAMM world.

Chris Leuzinger, guitarist for Garth Brooks and other noted Nashville artists, dropped in and spent quite a while auditioning the models.  A very humble and congenial guy, Leuzinger displayed some impressive chops and made the amps sound wonderful.  He is very interested in the Rambler and will be borrowing one from the local Nashville dealer to test on an upcoming session.  Chris and I had a very good conversation about pedal effects, and we ended up using some of my boxes to show how well the Carrs reacted to them.  We had a nice time discussing our common use of the generic Boss Blues Driver pedal in our rigs. 
 
 

I was particularly happy to meet former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Rick Vito.  Rick visited our booth and plugged into a Rambler.  Besides his contributions to Fleetwood Mac, he has played with a who's-who of contemporary rock and blues artists from Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, to Albert Collins and John Mayall with many more not listed here.

If you still don't know who Rick Vito is, you will certainly recognize his identifiable slide guitar solo on Bob Seger's "Like A Rock," which inundates television these days on the Chevrolet truck commercials.
 
 

Last but definitely not least came a visit from an astounding player I met at the show named Jason Jordan (hey, he's got a good first name).  This guy absolutely smokes. His trio was demonstrating amps over at the Victoria booth (more on that later....see below).  He came over to our setup and checked out the 4x10 Imperial combo.

There are so many ridiculously hot players in Music City that you almost hesitate to single anybody out, but trust me, there is no one that I have heard who nails the "in the gut" Telecaster chicken-pickin' style any better than Jordan.  Mix in equal parts of Brent Mason, Albert Lee, Jerry Reed,  throw in some Jerry Donahue and the soulfulness of the blues for good measure....well, you get the picture.

His CD "Genuine Vinyl" is the real deal and eminently satisfying for those craving unadulterated blazing country-rock guitar.  Wow!  Nice guy too!

Dealers from around the country were dropping by and expressing interests in securing the Carr line for their respective stores.  We also had some Carr amps on display in some other manufacturers' booths.  The exposure level was very high for this up and coming product line.
 

All in all, it was a very successful and enjoyable initial NAMM show for Carr Amplifiers.

We were honored to share a booth with our friends at Terry McInturff Guitars.  Terry's shop is based near us in North Carolina, so we are well aware of his products.  Terry has worked on some of my guitars before, and it will not be long before I have him build an instrument for me.

It was a real pleasure getting to know Terry and his wife Tracy better.  The opportunity to hang out with them was a treat.  Picking Terry's brain on guitar topics was a valuable experience.  McInturff guitars continue to receive stellar reviews and I could tell that something good was happening by all of the interest in his products at the show. 

Terry introduced me to John Sebastian, which I thought was very cool.  Sebastian, best known for his work with the Lovin' Spoonful and as composer of the theme to TV's "Welcome Back Kotter," was visiting Terry to check out the world-class guitars.  John played Terry's instruments through some of Steve Carr's amps, which was fun for us.
 
 

We spent a lot of time with Terry at this year's show and ate dinner together on a couple of occasions.  He is one of the most knowledgeable guitar people I have met and he is also as a super nice guy, not to mention a fantastic player!

Doug Abrams, Eddie Berman and the rest of the entourage from  Raleigh, North Carolina's  Indoor Storm paid us several visits at the booths.  It's always fun when your friends from back home show up.
 
 

Terry debuted the new McInturff Taurus Sportster model.  What a fine guitar!  The prototype was immaculately constructed and featured a very lively and resonant tone with the P-90-style pickups.  He also lent us a gorgeous red Taurus Standard for use over in the Carr Amps booth.
 
 

I had been hearing about an overdrive/distortion pedal on the Internet for the past year or so called the Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive.  Imagine my surprise and pleasure when none other than its inventor, Jon Blackstone, stopped in to check out the Carr Amps booth.  Like so many people we met this week, Jon was a very personable guy and we had a chance to talk shop with him when Ted Weber graciously took us all out to dinner.

Though he was not formally exhibiting at a particular NAMM show site, Jon luckily had a few of his pedals with him for testing.  The Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive knocked all of us out so much that we bought his display units on the spot.  Very small and stylish, the pedal has versatility and tone that belies its size.  A lot of manufacturers are offering multi-channel overdrive boxes these days but few have the great tone that this unit has.

Though I haven't had time to explore the pedal in depth since we just got back from the show, my initial impressions are that it is very unique in form and function.  The first channel reminds me of a nice and warm Tube Screamer- style sound that seems to be the current rage.  It is very useful and toneful.  Where this box surpasses the competition is in the higher gain stages.  It made our single-coil demo guitars in the booth sound like fat humbuckers with no loss of clarity.  The tones were very reminiscent of Billy Gibbons' and Mark Knopfler's Les Paul tones.  What's even better is that it was a great sound with no fizziness at all!

There are a lot of interesting tonal options with the box, and it might take me a little time to get everything dialed in just as I like it, but I am intrigued by its possibilities.  Jon was very helpful in explaining his design theory for the unit.

For more information, check out Jon Blackstone's excellent Web site at:  http://www.mindspring.com/~j.blackstone/
 
 

A lot of people are familiar with my love for Klein Electric Guitars.  They are very controversial and even unattractive to some who have never played them.  However, they are quite possibly the world's most ergonomically-efficient design and they offer top-shelf craftsmanship.  Kleins are also very toneful and capable of providing a completely unique and rewarding experience for the player.

Lorenzo German, the builder of Klein electrics, has always been a great guy for me to deal with.  If I have ever had a question or concern, he has been right there to help me solve the problem.  Meeting him in person at this year's Summer NAMM show did nothing to diminish my impressions of his personality and devotion to his product.  Thanks to him and Eddie Berman, my Klein guitar has brought me a ton of enjoyment over the past five or six years.

Lorenzo had some terrific pieces on display including a cedar-bodied model with Bartolini pickups (pictured above) and a Klein acoustic electric.  Frank "Silk" Smith, a former guitarist with Albert King and Bobby "Blue" Bland was onhand to demonstrate these instruments.  I was able to play some with Frank and the excellent Piedmont-style blues guitarist, John Cephas.  Harmonica standout Lee Oskar visited the Klein booth and proceeded to jam along with the party that was taking place in the Nashville Convention Center.
 
 

Frank "Silk" Smith caressing his Klein w/a Carr Rambler (l)   Bassist Curtis Johnson (l) holding the groove while Frank (r) comps
 
 

Lorenzo showed me an incomplete Klein with a body made from some walnut that he had salvaged.  We tapped it to check for tone and it was very resonant.  I wonder if I should have him pop some pickups and a neck on there for me.  Hmmm..... I promised myself not to get too gear crazy there.
 
 

Here's a nice photo of John Cephas with the exhilarating Klein acoustic/electric guitar:

We provided Lorenzo with a Carr Rambler for use at his booth.  It received many positive comments from the people who played through it.  The Klein section was a happening place to be and I was definitely pleased to spend some time there.

If you'd like more info on my personal Klein guitar, click here for a picture, and here for a review I wrote awhile back for Indoor Storm.

One of the most ingenious, yet simple things I saw at this season's NAMM show was the Pedaltrain pedal board system.  John Chandler's exhibit was just across the way from our booth and we kept hearing good things about his product.

Constructed of a sturdy alloy, the Pedaltrain features "rail-like" rows covered in Velcro which allow for easy placement and removal of all sizes of pedals.  The intelligent aspect of this design is that your cables can be wired underneath the rails for a very clean layout.  The design is so simple that one would have to wonder "why couldn't I have thought of that?"

                 The Pedaltrain exhibit at NAMM                                             Hard-shell transport case for the Pedaltrain
 

The original transport cases for the pedal board were soft-shell.  They have been replaced by new hard-shell boxes.  Rick Johnson from ToneQuest, Matt King from Carr Amps and I all opted for the discontinued soft-shell versions.
 
 

While we're on the subject of pedal boards, I must mention the highly-advanced units offered by Pedalboard.com at the NAMM show.  These creations were the antithesis of the Pedaltrain boards in terms of extravagance, but offered some excellent options for touring musicians such as extensive switching capabilities, built-in rack spaces, and luxurious wood trim on the sides.  The following pedal boards are serious pieces of equipment and are being used by a number of pro players including the guitarists for Aerosmith, according to the exhibitor.

Levy's had a large display in the main hall of the Nashville Convention Center featuring an abundance of guitar straps and cases.  Some of the designs were exquisite and eye-catching.  Here are some scenes from their exhibit:

I have always loved the sound of rotating speakers such as those found in old Leslies.  The main drawback to them is their size and weight.  They need a road crew to move them!  While there have been some credible attempts to distill the essence of the Leslie into small pedals, there is something that you can only get from an actual moving speaker and the Doppler Effect it produces.

Motion Sound has been making some excellent smaller rotating speaker devices for the past few years, so I was very interested in checking out their latest lineup.  These included footswitches for fast/slow speeds and on/off adjustments.
 
 

I plugged into a Sidewinder model featuring a 12AX7 preamp tube.  This amp sounded authentic and conjured up the classic rotating speaker sounds with ease.  I was attracted to the portability of it and fell in love with the inspirational tones.  The company also makes some other models not pictured here.
 
 

Veillette Guitars (pronounced vay-ette) have caught my eye in guitar publications before, but it was only at this NAMM show that I was first able to play them.  Their lineup consists of well-made instruments specializing in unique tuning formats.  They make a lot of baritones and twelve-string models of both acoustic and electric design.

While all of the guitars I played sounded and played nicely, I was enamored with the MK-IV Nylon-String Baritone Guitar.  Talk about deep and rich!  This model is conducive to creativity.  I could sit and discover new things on it all day.  Maybe one day......

As a past owner of Victoria products, I was keen on checking out the latest from Mark Baier.  Steve Carr and I paid a visit to Mark and talked with him briefly about his new amp models, the Sovereign and the Victorilux.  I didn't spend any time with the Sovereign head, but took a close look at the striking new Victorilux combo.

Victoria has excelled at producing replicas of tweed era Fender amps with high quality and attention to detail.  With the Victorilux, Mark Baier has addressed the wishes of many players by offering a Victoria amp with reverb and tremolo.

Guitarist Jason Jordan, as mentioned before, was demonstrating this particular amp with his ultra-tight rhythm section.  If you want to see Nashville-style picking at its finest, check out a couple of MPEG movies I shot of him by clicking on the following links:

MPEGs:

-Jason Jordan blazes with the new Victoria Victorilux

-Jason Jordan picks a funky and  mean Tele-style guitar with his trio
 

It won't help, but here were his settings on the amp.  Check out the cool faceplate...

There was just too much going on at the NAMM show to get it all on camera, but I can say that music lovers would have had a great time looking at the numerous exhibits.

We ended up working eight hours on our feet each day and put a lot of effort into helping everyone out who was interested in Carr Amps.  Therefore our time to roam was limited, but we did get a good overview of what was happening.

Some of the other exhibits I checked in on briefly were the private room exhibits by Fender and Paul Reed Smith Guitars.  They were so crowded and full of dealers that it was not much fun to visit them.  It reminded me of those scenes you see on the news of stressed-out stock market people working on Wall Street.

While I didn't really notice anything that jumped out at me in the PRS room, I did see where Fender released several amps at this show of interest.  The initial word on these models is that Fender might be addressing some concerns that players have been raising over the past few years regarding their amp line.  The new amps supposedly feature blackface clean sounds with modern overdrive voicings in each amp.

The concession stands at the Nashville Convention Center left a lot to be desired nutritionally-speaking.  Most of what they offered were greasy hamburgers (I called them NAMMburgers), hot dogs, and junk food.  They also charged a ridiculous $2.00 for bottled water.  NAMM is capitalism at its finest.  They won't let you bring in outside food.

I did get to visit a little bit with my old friend Alan Waite from Fender.  It was good to see him again since he's moved to company headquarters in Scottsdale,AZ.  I also got to speak to Fender's Ritchie Fliegler at the airport on the way out.  He seemed like a nice person.

My local friend Greg Germino made the trip out to Nashville with the crew from Mojo Musical Supply.  He had assembled a dynamite head and cabinet amp based on the old Fender Tweed Twin design.  I didn't get the pictures of it that I wanted to, but I hope to get a chance to take some of it and play it in the near future.  Greg also had a Belov amp in the booth.  They had arranged for one to be available in the Klein Guitars display.

It's been an exhausting but memorable week for me.  I am most grateful to Steve Carr for his continued allowance for me to participate in the exciting events of his company. 

I hope you have enjoyed this online journal of my visit to the 2001 Summer NAMM show.  It is now time for me to go catch up on my sleep!

Jason
7/25/01