 |
The Nashville Convention Center, downtown
Nashville. This is the site for the final Summer NAMM in Nashville. The 2005
Summer NAMM is Indianapolis, and the 2006 session is in Austin. Why did Nashville lose the convention? Walk through the hall and it is
immediately clear -- the space is not big enough!
I truly felt sorry for some of the exhibitors. They were
literally shoved in every nook and cranny of the Convention Center!
Nashville has declined to upgrade the Convention Center, so NAMM
voted with their feet. We've talked enough about Nashville and their
challenges....here is yet another success story for the Music City. |
 |
 |
 |
At least Gibson had a booth in the
Convention Center this year coming off the O Gibson, Where Art Thou fiasco of
2002. Starting at the far left, we see the staple '59 Reissue Flametop. Next
to it is a killer blue Les Paul with a flower pot inlay on the headstock. The photo
doesn't do it justice. On the right is one of our favorites, the Firebird
Studio. Very killer guitar -- pretty much a Les Paul neck and electronics with a
Firebird body. |
 |
 |
 |
On the left is the one-off Epi Airstream
guitar. Must be a niche market! Here is a shot of John with a Justin Hawkins
signature guitar...he's the guy with the falsetto and cat suit in The Darkness.
Check the detail of the fingerboard...very killer. The silver finish was really very
cool. |
 |
Remember Ross Perot talking about the
"giant sucking sound"? Well folks...here it is, except these rigs are out
of China, not Mexico. These are some very killer set-neck Les
Paul knockoffs, with a gig-bag, for $159 dealer cost.
When we first saw these we thought they were probably very tired,
but we quickly changed our tune. Very, very nice guitars.
So...who thinks America can compete? We are ready to hear your
perspective.
|
 |
 |
The ESP booth was absolutely killer.
On the far left you can see our favorite Rat Pack SG along with some other
outrageous graphics. That SG is the standard! Next to it is the CASH
guitar. You can't believe how cool this guitar was in person. We're not
worthy! |
 |
 |
Also at the ESP booth we found the George
Lynch guitars. We saw George in concert at a small club in Phoenix back in 1998,
and he remains one of our all-time favorites. John can be seen with one of the Lynch
Mob guitars. The finishes were completely flawless! Great job, ESP. |
 |
 |
Back in the day, Schecter had all
kinds of cool guitars at the NAMM show. Now they are back with all kinds of cool
imports. We particularly liked the military-themed guitars. The Flying
Tigers motif was kind of similar to the old Jacksons of the late-80's, but they are
really very nice looking and playing guitars. |
 |
Lace was trying to sell us some guitars
with twisted necks (not bad, really), but we particularly liked their pickup
display. We really liked the way the humbuckers had coils placed in the covers
sideways! |
 |
You can have a twisted neck at Lace...how
about a completely twisted body? We thought initially that we had walked into some
type of bizarre time warp. It turns out that the guy making these guitars was
convinced they sounded and played great. We had to make a quick getaway! |
BACK TO TOP |
