by Ronny North.

I’d like to welcome everyone to my new Modern Guitars PSYKO Guitar column! First things first, let me tell you a little about myself. I play my own signature brand of instrumental rock guitar music. I’m endorsed by 38 music equipment manufacturers and I have a brand new signature guitar coming out by Tregan guitars. My music also gets airplay all around the world. PSYKO Guitar will be about stuff I encounter in my everyday adventures and observations playing guitar and I'd like to kick things off to tell you about Summer NAMM that was held in Nashville, Tennessee this past July.

Playing SUMMER NAMM in Nashville Part One

Being sponsored by so many different companies, I’m very fortunate to be able to play lots of trade shows and clinics every year. I thought I’d take you through what it’s like for me playing these events. Since I just played the Summer NAMM show in Nashville, TN. I thought I’d take you through my experiences during that trip.

Once we’re confirmed to do a musical instrument trade show like NAMM all the planning starts.

This year I played Summer NAMM for my sponsors Tregan Guitars and AMT Electronics. We were premiering the new Tregan Ronny North Signature guitar at the show. If it’s an out of town event (Like it usually is..) I have my assistant Karen check out the airlines and get us a deal on our plane tickets. She also makes sure our hotel is booked, it's close to the venue and reserving a rental car so we can get around.

As Summer NAMM got closer, we also had to make sure that we had all of our stuff ready to go. Things like business cards, current promo 8x10’ photos and promo kits. These are all very important to have when you attend trade shows. Networking at these events is critically important and I plan on talking about this aspect of the biz with you in an upcoming column.

It’s also important to go through what gear you'll need to take with you for your performances. I’m very fortunate that I have my crew to help get organized for my trips. This time it was just my assistant Karen and me going to the show. For this trip, we decided to go a day early so we could see Nashville before the show.

I took two Levi Gig bags. I never go anywhere without them! I needed to take two guitars since I would be playing songs in two different tunings at my demos. I would also be taking a Morley Wah and an AMT Extreme III pedal for my demos at the Tregan booth.

Since I live in Southern California, we flew out of LAX. This is always an adventure for a couple reasons. First, the whole weight thing on the luggage. We were over by a bit, but we quickly got that fixed. Second, the airport security that I always have issues with because of my looks, all my bracelets and gear .As always I set off the metal detectors and was put aside to get searched. As I was being searched I heard someone call my name. It was my buddy Skip who is now an airport security guy!

We chatted while I was searched. As expected, my Levi gig bags always get the attention of the airport security guys. Welcome to my world! After that we had 40 minutes until it was time to board our plane. I've found that it's always a great idea to get to the airport on time and make allowances for hold ups. Karen and I got a couple seats by our boarding gate and decided to get one of those Starbucks vanilla bean shake things to sip on while we waited.

I hate airplane food and we wouldn’t be eating until we landed in Nashville. We did get a burger before we left for the airport, so we were cool. Sitting down sipping on our shakes, I noticed lots of NAMM types also flying on our fight to Nashville. We boarded and I got my gig bags in the overhead compartments above seats. Sometimes I have to fight with flight attendants about this but this time we were flying American Airlines who have always been cool about this. I also had my laptop with a bunch of magazines to read during our 4 ½ hour flight. I always read skateboard magazines when we fly. It’s something I’ve always done. I do skate, so it’s cool to read about what’s going on in the skating world, especially since I really don’t get much time to do it lately.

We took off on time and had a pretty smooth flight. We lucked out that we were the only people in our aisle, so we could stretch out in our seats. I actually got a bit of sleep!

I woke up on the approach toi Nashville ,so I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a few pictures of the countryside below. We landed right on time at 7 pm and once we landed, the adventure began. Now it’s time to race to the baggage claim area. Once we grabbed all of our stuff we quickly picked up our rental car and lucked out with a free upgrade to a mini van.

Karen had everything Mapquested before we left so we knew where we were going. This is very important to do if you don’t know the area. We weren’t in the car 5 minutes when Tony from Tregan guitars called and wanted to know if we were in Nashville and if we were if we wanted to go to dinner. I told him we just landed and that we'd be up for dinner. He said he would pick us up at our hotel in 30 minutes. We literally checked into our hotel, threw the luggage in the room and ran downstairs to meet Tony.

We had a great dinner at the Grand Ole’ Opry Hotel. We had a big day ahead of us, so after dinner we called it a night.

On Thursday, I was invited to attend the Artist Relations event at the Nashville Convention Center. The event was at noon.We also decided to try to see Nashville before we had to attend the NAMM Mixer at 7pm that night. After that we planned on dinner with my friends Randy and Cindy who live in Nashville.

First up, we grabbed some chicken and waffles for breakfast. Then we were off to the Artist Relations (AR) event. It's always cool to try out brand new products. Both Randy and Jessica from AR are the coolest. After that we hit Broadway Boulevard, the main strip of Nashville. I just had to see Gruhn’s Guitars, so we headed that way. Afterward, we were off to the Opry Mills Mall. We raced back to the hotel ,got ready and we made it to the NAMM Mixer to hang out with friends. Of course, we were a little late, but Karen called ahead letting our friends know that we'd be a little late. We arrived and ran into some friends. The mixer had an open bar for all NAMM invitees and they had some bands playing. It was great hanging with everyone and having a few drinks. Karen was the designated driver! My friends Randy and Cindy eventually found us and I invited a bunch of people in our group to come to dinner with us. We decided to go to Kobe’s Japanese Steakhouse. We had a ton of people with us and we all piled into the mini van. Kobe's let us in even though we arrived 10 minutes before closing time. We had the best time! In attendance were my friends Tony G from Tregan Guitars, Grant Austin Taylor, Amy and David (His parents) Randy, Cindy and Karen. It was a great time. Kobe's had a great chef from Brazil who played in a Black Metal band. We were talking with him about music all the time and I almost convinced him to let me cook on the grill...I was so close!

We also got a little nuts and started throwing ice at everyone including the other party at the next table. After dinner Karen and I took a stroll down Broadway to check out a few bars.

Nashville was definitely a great music scene, for sure. It was 2 am and time to call it a night. All of this with the first official day of NAMM yet to come...