Summer NAMM 2008 Final Wrap Up and More Photo Galleries

by Rick Landers.

The 2008 Summer NAMM music instrument industry trade show at the Nashville Convention Center, in Nashville, Tennessee, wound down on Sunday, June 22, after a strong three-day showing of support and plenty of transactions under the belt between manufacturers and those in the guitar distribution chain. NAMM's unique in that it becomes a temporary hub for the music trade with an aim to nurture the symbiotic relationship among musicians, retail dealers, distributors, builders and the media. It's a twice-a-year critical event where music and the music business are promoted with zeal, helping nurture a healthy environment for the music industry in general.

The bottom line is that NAMM is about people wheeling and dealing and keeping things vibrant for the guitar industry. So, I'd like to go final with Modern Guitars coverage by mentioning some of the people I met while covering NAMM and what they contributed to the show. [Article continues below after Summer NAMM 2008 coverage listing.]

More 2008 Summer NAMM Show Coverage
Photo Gallery Five: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Four: 2008 Summer NAMM
2008 Summer NAMM: Gibson Guitar's All-Star Jam Band
Summer NAMM 2008: More from the Floor and Photo Galleries
Photo Gallery One: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Two: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Three: 2008 Summer NAMM
2008 Summer NAMM Show: Fender, Martin and Taylor
Summer NAMM 2008, Thursday June 19 Show Prequel

Modern Guitars coverage for this summer's NAMM show kick-started on June 19 (Thursday) during the set-up day for exhibitors. To capture the spirit and intent of NAMM, I waded through the long list of exhibitors and focused on guitar-oriented booths to highlight as many possible. On Saturday, the first person I met was Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars) and we talked a little about the new maple top PRS Mira, that, by the way, is a great new edition to the Mira line. Paul then called Peter Wolf who handles worldwide sales for PRS and has a column on Modern Guitars. Peter approached us and Paul put his arm around him for a quick photo before they headed off to a meeting and I went to visit vintage guitar guru George Gruhn at his shop on Broadway Street, a block away from the Nashville Convention Center.

When I returned to NAMM, I walked into the Moog room and bumped into Chris Stack, Marketing Manager, while he was walking out. He glanced at my NAMM badge, recognized the name and guided me to Paul Vo, the designer for the new Moog guitars, an incredible pieces of creative engineering. Stationed in the room were several of the Moog guitars, featuring some lively sustain that kept on running far into the sonic distance, like a long train running. These aren’t for those of us with humble wallets and purses, but they’re impressive enough to have us pondering the idea of pawning a few of our lesser played beasts for one of them.

I ran into guitarist Ronny North whom I’d met at Winter NAMM 2006 in Anaheim, California. He was in a crowd watching a young kid of about five pummeling a drum kit, a bit awkwardly but the little guy was cute and into it. North’s a superb guitarist and full of enthusiasm that’s as infectious as it is genuine. He’s now endorsing Tony Guarriello’s Tregan guitars.

Bluegrass guitarist Mark Newton was at the Cedar Creek custom case booth talking to Dennis Reamy, Sales Manager, and later with owner Tom Dougherty and his son, Kevin (see Photo Gallery One for NAMM images). Newton pulls together the Grave’s Mountain Bluegrass Festival each year and tours with his Mark Newton band the rest of the time. Mark’s album, Following Me Back to the Fold was a tribute to women in bluegrass and garnered the 2001 IBMA Recorded Event of the Year Award and his album Hillbilly Hemingway won the 2007 IBMA Award for Best Graphic Design for a Recorded Project.

I then met with Abe Wechter of Wechter Guitars. He's a gifted guitar builder who worked with Gibson's Custom Shop for over a decade before going it alone. Modern Guitars will have an interview on our pages soon in which we talk about such things.

Across from Abe was Bob Benedetto and although I could wax poetically about Bob's world class guitars, what impressed me most was how delightful he and his wife, Cindy, were in embodying the spirit of NAMM.

What a kick it was to meet Phil Everly who keeps things lively with his Everly Strings and other product lines. I especially liked his answer when I asked him to pose for a photo: "That's not hard to do!" This legendary half of the Everly Brothers is both approachable and welcoming.

Roaming up and down the NAMM exhibit floors and quickly strolling the miles of aisles made for several very full days and weary feet. NAMM offered up drool-worthy Fender Custom Shop jobs, some hot new Peavey gear, a host of fine Gibson Les Pauls, a bevy of new Martin and Taylor acoustics and a set of those traditional Gretsch designs. And it's always a treat to meet Paul Reed Smith, Peter Wolf, Mike Eldred, Fred Gretsch, Dick Boak, Chris Martin, Tish Ciravolo, Hartley Peavey and Bob Taylor - all friendly and some of these folks are pretty hot guitarists.

Guitar pickup king Seymour Duncan was checking out some of the Fender Jags up on the wall of the Fender exhibit, so I stopped to ask him a couple of questions. He likes those Jaguars so I asked him to pose in front of them.

In an earlier 2008 Summer NAMM article, I mentioned jetting over to Scotty Moore's place for a chat about his old bandmate, Elvis. Scotty couldn't have been more gracious and told me about the day he met the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" and how the Elvis sound came about in Sam Phillip's Sun Studio.

There were also some newer, very high quality, guitar exhibitors at the Nashville Convention Center that included those wild Johnson guitars, the CA guitar soaked by a shower faucet, industrial-strength Trussart axes, and some football-themed instruments by Helmet Guitars (see the Photo Galleries for images of instruments from these makers). Cases and accessories typically assume the smaller booth spaces and in one of them we met with Greg Kellogg, entrepreneur and innovator at Kellogg Solutions. Greg invented the Kickstand guitar stand that fits on the bottom of a guitar without injury to the instrument and a device called a Gig-anizor that attaches to guitar straps and hold picks and a slide or two, making it easier to grab those during a performance. Late on Saturday, we talked a bit and he was excited about how well NAMM went for him with several discussions with some top guitar company reps about his products.

Standing next to me watching a guitar effects demonstration at Digi-Tech was Harmony Central’s Jon Chappell, who was gathering NAMM news for his readers. Jon’s one of those soft spoken kind of gents who digs deep for high quality journalism and it’s always a treat to run into him and some of the other media folks. As immersed as we are trying to eke out the most coverage possible, Chappell always has time for a friendly chat.

The real bottom line for NAMM is cutting trade deals, but as much as that keeps cash flow churning for all, the commaradarie and music are what lift the spirit at these events. As a wrap up, I'll take you to NAMM one more time through the photos below and additional photo galleries to check out a bit more gear and, of course, the people who make the NAMM shows a success.

More 2008 Summer NAMM Show Coverage
Photo Gallery Five: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Four: 2008 Summer NAMM
2008 Summer NAMM: Gibson Guitar's All-Star Jam Band
Summer NAMM 2008: More from the Floor and Photo Galleries
Photo Gallery One: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Two: 2008 Summer NAMM
Photo Gallery Three: 2008 Summer NAMM
2008 Summer NAMM Show: Fender, Martin and Taylor
Summer NAMM 2008, Thursday June 19 Show Prequel

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