Thoughts on NAMM 2023

As most of you know, NAMM was this week and as often happens there were a lot of announcements from makers in the music industry. But I think that there is more to this than just more announcements. It’s a marker of a change in direction for the industry as a whole.

I personally expect that NAMM will go the way of other industry conventions. Makers are not dependent on NAMM events to release products, they have talented web and social media teams, and NAMM doesn’t create much value for them anymore. Dealers lose out because it’s sometimes the only times that they get to interact directly with the makers of the products that they sell, but we have also seen big makers, and I am talking about you Fender and Gibson, going direct, selling at full MAP and bypassing the dealer channel entirely. While it may make sense when things are in a boom phase, killing the dealers will kill the makers when the current wave slumps. Neither Fender nor Gibson or to be potentially harsh, very few others are doing anything that is actually innovative so what happens when the current crop of buyers dies out? Will the new customers be people buying hats and furniture and home appliances as we see Gibson moving from being a stringed instrument maker to a lifestyle brands distributor simply putting out cheaply made crap with their logo on it and charging huge prices. It worked for the fashion industry (without the direct sales thing) so may be this is where instrument makers will go.

Fender, Gibson and Paul Reed Smith were the big anchors missing from this spring’s NAMM. I know from a previous life that conferences are stupidly expensive for the exhibitors and also pull key people from their jobs to be booth bound. The days of scantily clad booth bunnies are long since dead, a very good thing in my opinion, but it is troubling to see lines of communications from our trusted dealers to the makers being severed.

As some makers go direct, I am hearing in many places that an order from a dealer to a maker, will get goods pulled from it to satisfy a customer who decides to buy direct. I hope that this practice results in festering boils on the butts of such manufacturers, particularly given the lack of innovation and a substantial backorder list of the same old thing. I’m going to separate PRS here, because they do not deal direct, and they have stepped up their dealer interactions in the past year.

Quality continues to be an issue for Gibson and Fender. Warped and twisted necks, massive amounts of fret sprout, poor quality finishes, and even visible sanding marks are hurting the reputations of these companies but all we hear from the senior leadership is a lot of babble with enough spin to qualify any of these people as a politician, and I do not mean that as a complement.

Let’s look at some of the announcements. Martin announced their entry level Street Legend series that trades on the names of loved solid wood models at a lower cost using laminated materials. Laminated sides and backs are not a big deal, you actually want them to be quite stiff, but laminated tops and papier mache fingerboards, do not make a better guitar. Folks wanting a solid wood D-28 or 000-28 clone should check out the excellent Recording King options that cost less than the plywood and recycled paper options. Martin is now also offering instruments that have been ink jet sprayed to look like old instruments. An interesting approach and rather nauseating to me, although I still whack Fender harder for putting inkjet printed wallpaper on the tops of their overpriced and underwhelming Acoustasonic line.

There were lots of new pedals announced as well. One that got a lot of attention was the Josh Scott (of JHS fame, frequently blamed for buyer stupidity around jacked prices for old Bad Monkey pedals) designed new Lizard Queen pedal from Electro Harmonix. Because we all needed yet another fuzz pedal as much as we need yet another Tube Screamer. Bored now.

Universal Audio has added to their effects pedal options. The Galaxy is the pedal implementation of the Galaxy Echo plugin that UA developed in conjunction with Roland that was originally marketed as the Space Echo plugin. The name was changed to Galaxy some years ago. While the new pedals are not yet on the ground in Canada where I am, I know the Galaxy Echo plugin very well and if the pedal is that good, it might be the tape echo pedal without any tape that you want. Certainly going up against the BOSS RE-201 Space Echo. The MAX is the pedal implementation of the famous UREI 1176 compressor but also can emulate a Teletronix LA-2A. I’m looking forward to try this one personally as I love the Origin Effects Cali 6 and the Effectrode LA-2A emulating optical compressor. Having both done well in a single pedal would be cool, and if as believed they are based on the proven UA plugins, this could be the compressor to own. The Del-Verb combines the most popular features of the Starlight Echo Machine and the Golden Reverberator. I own both of those pedals and think that the Del-Verb is a great option for players without the money or need for the two independent pedals..

T-REX has announced their implementation of the famous Binson EchoRec which you may know as a delay system that used a magnetic spinning disk instead of tape. The original Binson sounds like nothing else and while the originals are very scarce, very old and don’t like being moved around, artists like David Gilmour using them as driven the cost of functioning units beyond the stratosphere. I’m looking forward to hearing this pedal, presuming T-REX fixes their wonky Canadian distribution.

Walrus Audio’s leaked line of entry priced pedals called the Fundamentals is now validated. I like this company and their thinking, really strong offerings at non-delusional price points priced at $99 USD or $129 USD depending on the pedal. For folks with more limited funds, this selection could be a real winner, competing the JHS’ well loved 3 series. Wampler is getting into the $100 pedal space as well with the Triumph Overdrive and the Phenom Distortion.

VOX has announced two Brian May amplifiers, the MV50 and the amPlug model. I have neither seen live nor heard either option so have no opinion other than that they are red.

J. Rockett, known for their Archer Klon clones have taken a page from JHS and produced the Archer Select which boasts 7 different Klon clones in one box. No offence all you pedal builders, but there are more than enough Klon clones available now so you can all stop building any more.

Mesa Boogie has announced the Mark VII which looks a lot like a Mark V. I have only seen photos and I cannot tell the difference from a Mark V to look at it or review the specs. Since Mesa is now owned by Gibson this smells to me like taking an existing product, putting a nominally different sticker on it and jacking the price. Call me cynical, which is factually correct, but my belief and confidence in Gibson has been effectively beaten to a pulp.

Neumann in conjunction with Merging Technologies has announced their first audio interface, the MT48. It has a touchscreen interface with 4 inputs and 8 outputs and connects to your computer via USB-C. It’s priced at $1850USD (Yikes!) and is “optimized” for use with Neumann microphones, Neumann Studio Monitors and Neumann headphones. I don’t want to sound like a jerk but while Neumann is globally respected for their vintage and KM series microphones, no one is clamouring for Neumann preamps, speakers or headphones. The unit is priced similarly to the Universal Audio X4. The Neumann boasts a greater dynamic range, but the UA has their UNISON preamps which allows the recording engineer to load UA’s massively respected preamps in front of the DAW. The UA is an extra $150 but also offers 12 inputs and 18 outputs. It also uses Thunderbolt 3 as its connection protocol, a much superior offering than USB-C. If these price points make you twitch, if you do not need 4 mic preamps simultaneously check out the UA Apollo Twin X or the Neve 88M. The Neve while a bit pricey does have actual Neve preamps physically in the box which will matter greatly to some engineer/producer folks.

All the usual suspects have announced or released a slew of Artist Signature guitars. In my many decades of experience, this usually means maybe different pickups, maybe a paint job and a signature decal, along with a significant price jump over the guitar that is the frame of the signature product. There is a perception that these instruments hold their value better than their non-namesake versions, but that only holds true if the Artist remains relevant over a long period of time. Original Clapton, Beck, SRV and Eric Johnson releases have held up well, particularly when the current versions are not as good instruments as the first releases (ask me how I know). I know that I am a relic, but I have no idea who most of these signature artists are, and with rare exceptions haven’t been excited by new music in the last decade and a half. So I am clearly not the target buyer for these signature things. Both Gibson and Fender are notorious for this kind of price jam, but at least Fender actually makes changes other than colour or increased relic abuse on their signature instruments. I still don’t know who any of the new artists are though. I will happily take a first generation Jeff Beck Strat thanks very much.

Sorry gang, I do not have much else to share with you. As I said at the start, I think that the big trade show died a while back and only its corpse keeps lumbering along. Even many of the NAMM “announcements” actually came out before NAMM. Perhaps the owners of these monolithic convention centres can use them to house the homeless or something.

Thank you as always for reading. Please subscribe to be notified of new articles and podcast episodes. I’m Ross Chevalier and until next time, peace.