What I learned at 06 NAMM...

[SirDouglas]

hehe no we're not related... he has hair... i dont haha..

Randy

[BadgerDave]

You, me, Christopher Reeve/Bernie ... road trip!

Hmmm, . . . snort . . . whu?

Sorry I was napping.

I'm in, can Hef score the badges?

[kurtsstuff]

I'm a veteran of at least 15 NAMM shows (of a buyer/business capacity) and although I choose to not to attend anymore even at the owners dismay..the whole purpose is to generate excitement whether it's the GC's,M&P's or the Wanna be rocktar,gangster rapping sumbitch or whatever the specimen may be....Do the "public" get in the way??..yes...but it's that public that keeps your doors open and your mortgage payment up to date! Vendors are not so much there to sell whatever product but more they are there to sell the "sizzle" of their respective company's offerings. And most complaints I ever hear about NAMM is usually from people that are'nt even in the Music Retail businees so...Most time...I just don't get it???

[rmahurin]

I found out i like cheap looking hooker type / self degredating women.... and BOOBS

Say no more - As far as i'm concerned this alone makes the trip a complete success.

Lighten up mutherfukkers..it's a goddamn tradeshow.

[Kilroy is all about...]

Although, I am not a 'business/industry' type in the sense that I have a store-front or website, I did have an agenda for the five hours I spent in NAMM on saturday.

First of all, there was the 0148 deal, which was quite cool selling IT (with much reluctance!) to a neato-torpedo Sweden--ULF!

Secondly, I had to measure up the neck size for my hamer/bcr custom order and platzer had a cool chuck of wood for my purpleburst dream. signed the order sheet...

Thirdly, I went to 'grip and grin' with Paul Rivera Junior as he was the one who painted those Rick Nielsen Rivera R5512 amps in black/silver checker and he offered to have his techs do an inspection/rebias on the piece i got from RN--that's cool for the end-user. He laughed when i asked him to spill the beans on RN's silverface deluxe Rivera modded amps that RN currently has racked.

Additionally, i stole about 20 minutes of Mark Sampson's (matchless, bad cat, SWR, STAR) time as i blew 'sunshine' telling him how he's an inspiration for all of us class A amp/tube geeks. After that i gave him my business card (Attorney General/nevada highway patrol-get out of a speeding ticket,) and we laughed about "kilroy is here' and kilroy want another tube; he agreed to do a custom, one-off, 35 watter head if i send him the checkered tolex. another cool-end user treatment.

Only spent five hours and it was enough...visual sightings: platzer and his lovely wife; guitarist dave narravo, telsa's frank hannon, paul rivera and junior, and matty smith...righteous dude, so let's do the fall-time clinic in platzerville!

selling a 4-digit is an emotional deal....nothing like flipping a random hamer or gibson or fender...

kilroy posts...

[sirDaniel]

Christopher Reeve/Bernie ... road trip!

thanks MC, I just spit on me monitor

[MCChris]

Christopher Reeve/Bernie ... road trip!

thanks MC, I just spit on me monitor

Printing up some internet maps as we speak. When I get home I'll dig out the Billy Bob teeth and Rolling Thunder trucker cap.

"Where are we?"

"Utah."

"What's ahead?"

"Nevada."

[sirDaniel]

"Where are we?"

"Utah."

"What's ahead?"

"Nevada."

!!!

[Hamer95USA]

I was one of these people at NAMM over the last 4 years but I TOTALLY agree with this statement.

If I were there for the reason the show exists (buying investigating inventory for my business) I would be completely unplussed about having to fight wiht the 21 year old kid with no monetary reason to be there getting in my way cause all he wanted was a pass to the Dean Markley party where Yngwie would be playing and a bunch of strippers would be working.

People who have the means to place an order for thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from a manufacture often have to stand and wait while some 14 year old is working out good charlotte riffs on the latest and greatest thru a korg pandora.

That said, There are reasons that regular people SHOULD get in although maybe not in the amounts that currently do.

- Regular people post pictures of the new gear on NAMM more quickly and in greater numbers than anyone

- Regular people embrace the items that are crazy and might not sell enough to justify a store's order but when ordered by joe dirt directly from the Manufacture it keeps them going another year.

- The industry see what attracts regular people better than the store guys who will be happy to tell you what everyone wants but still has 9 out of 10 xyz's in stock because the terms were so good it will be a cake walk to make money with these even though a $129.95 piece of shit is still a piece of shit.

- Its the only place to see people play that dont tour. Personally, I doubt I would have ever seen Micheal Schenker in concert because of all of his problems if it werent for NAMM. There are a ton of others too.

Whats up with NAMM? sounds like more and more people are down on it. Maybe there should be a manufactures show that is only for non industry or NAMM is limited to NON visitor badges on wed-friday. I realize that many of the artists wear visitor badges but maybe its time for a special vip badge for those guys. What do I know.

Hey folks,

I agree with the points Ted brought up about visitors attending NAMM. I have had the privilege to attend the NAMM convention for the last couple of years. My reasons for attending:

View the newest gear from certain companies I'm interested in. Some of this stuff never gets ordered or is available at your local Guitar Center or mom & pop music store. I'm already interested in buying a couple of things that I saw at the convention.

Make contacts with the companies. Endorsements or promotion of their products. I like the booth betties!!

Photo and autograph signing sessions. Oppurtunities to meet your favorite musicians or artists. I would have never met some of the well known musicians that I've met if it wasn't for attending NAMM.

Company after parties. A chance to see famous musicians perform onstage in the hotel ballrooms or clubs.

Networking or meeting other people in the music business that are not necessarily related to retail. I made contact with a few cool people that I might need to hook up with in the future.

Guitar George

[halide]

i don't know if the mon380 and the newport triple filtertron were the same ones i saw and played at the summer/indy namm '05 but i thought they were pretty amazing and would've taken any of them over most of the other offerings at the show.

[kurtsstuff]

My humble opinion is this.....if your not in the business and all you want to do is "hang" with rock stars or beg for an "endorsment" or whatever your "ego" tells you to do....stay home....but I see nothing wrong with the "buying" public being admitted but they really should have like maybe 1 day set aside for that....ummm....like sunday....

[Hamerica]

"Well....with the exception of dealing with my bassist...I HAD A GREAT TIME AT NAMM!!!!!!!"

"Everyone serves a purpose."

"I had a wonderful time and had my share of both business AND fun. From the BCR Family to the Kaman guys to Matt Smith to the folks at NGSW to Brian, Mobbie, Al, Junkee, Ed..everyone...I had a blast! Even manage to come back with easily triple the work and gigs that I had before going to Namm.

Like Brody said..it was a tradeshow.

Kevin,

Oh dear God! Please, please don't ever leave out your bassist. I don't want to meet him (and I would never let him book my trip), but if laughter is the best medicine he just added 10 years to my life. I have never laughed my ass off so much as I did this weekend.

I have said it many times, hell I even posted it, I am always amazed at the quality and good people I have met from that little ole band from Rockford (I think Jol, called them the little band that could), and through Hamer guitars.

Steve and Jen Anderson at Anderson Guitar Gallery in Frisco, BCR Greg and Kristen from BCR Music in Leymone, Tone Junkee, Peter, Alpep from Lost Art, Ed Rechts, Mobster, Bill Rich, and the Kaman Group; Jol, Frank, Frank, Bill, Matt Smith.

Say howdy to Straight Blues. Nice to meet you although we didn't hang. Same to Stike, he was working but I still can smell the pulled pork and beer from a few open houses ago.

To Geoff - Good luck on the new CD.

I met a lot of new people this year. Many thanks to the manufacturers, the artists, the dealers, and most of all the people that make this life worth living.

Best wishes for 2006. I can't wait to see all of the custom orders.

[SirDouglas]

My humble opinion is this.....if your not in the business and all you want to do is "hang" with rock stars or beg for an "endorsment" or whatever your "ego" tells you to do....stay home....

Sadly this is exactly waht i tried to convey on my post... but i guess i wasnt verbose enough to get this point across.... instead alot opted that i was being angry and offensive yet again...(go figure that one eh )

As for whether i pointed the quality issues out that i saw... when i had the time and did stop by both Jol and Frank U were either busy or not spotted... I was quite busy hobbling around the entire floor and basement... having takin a dufle bag half full with me and taking it back FULL... the other half being lit for the boss(since we split the show in half to cover more ground)... i opted to take advantage of some of the other empty booths.... i spent an hour and a half talking to Gary Kahler alone... very enlightening... extremely nice man... and as much and msot people dislike the product i rather prefer it to the Floyd... whom i talked to for about 30 minutes.... i did like the Floyd speed loader though...

I also had no time to spend standing in line to get autographs... but then again im not one for that... celebrity means nothing to me... ability does...if you have this then i applaud you for your effort... and as others ahve posted seeing lines upon lines of colored mohawked kids standing in line with green/yellow badges making it nearly impassable in some areas in a detraction from the true intent...

Let me give an example of what happened to me.... I was at the BC Rich stand talking to a person "working" there... as i "attempted to get information and talk to him about purchases "Constantine" from American Idol" walked by... this "salesman" stopped talking to me completely... ran and got his autograph book.... got the mans signature THEN came backand didnt even apologize for ditching me so he could do this.... lets say they wont be getting any money... ever...

this is why im cynical folks... because of true ignorance of people and lack of any type of respect unless its something benificial immediatly to the person being talked to... i will not deal with people like this... some might say "well why didnt you talk to his boss"... been there done that... it does no good... as others stated this is a trade show... so therefore i deal with it by walking away ... my money may be a drop in the bucket.... but i just filled someone elses bucket becuase of it..

but all in all i had a good time...

no more rants....

i only wish id have gotten to meet more of ya there....

maybe next time...

Randy

[atquinn]

I don't see why NAMM just doesn't have a public day. Let the business people do their thing and then let the public in. But hey, I think the same thing about the E3 convention and it's not happening there either.

-Austin

[Cheap Chick]

I had a really great time... and even if I don't always agree with their individual taste.. there's nothing like being in a giant room with thousands of people who love music! If you have the right attitude, NAMM can be really fun. F'rintstance, I got to play a lot of really nice banjos this year! Of course, I don't have to work at NAMM, so that may explain my cheery attitude about it.. so maybe it's like visiting Disneyland as opposed to working in a Mickey Mouse costume.