MI Pro

Well, the weather was good, wasn’t it? Was that the only redeeming factor of this year’s ‘winter’ NAMM show? Of course not, but few would class it as a classic. Footfall definitely seemed down on last year and although the upper halls were rammed with exhibitors, the lower hall – ‘inventors alley’ – seemed quieter than usual in terms of displays.

There was certainly no shortage of new stuff, although fewer products stood out. Guitarist editor Mick Taylor and myself had our usual fun trying to visit over 200 guitar-related stands as well as doing the all-important PR for the magazine, aided in the latter by editor-at-large Neville Marten. Yet despite four full days of trolling the aisles we were still struggling to fill our ‘Top Ten Products’ feature for our NAMM/Frankfurt 2009 coverage.

Had we not already reviewed them, Fender’s new Mexican-made Road Worn series of aged guitars and basses, Marshall’s MG 4 series and Gibson’s Dark Fire Les Paul would have made our Top Ten. It actually seemed a show less about stand-out product than continuing trends.

So what were they? Well, looking at the big picture, little has changed since last year. Relicing – aging, call it what you will – is definitely more evident, not only with Fender’s important Road Worns but there were many other attempts to create new, old-looking guitars from Gibson, ESP and a host of others.

ESP launched the very limited James Hetfield ‘Iron Cross’ guitar, an aged replica, ironically, of Hetfield’s well-used and customised Gibson Les Paul Custom. At the other end of the spectrum we were taken to a small stand producing fifties-style aged Teles, thankfully without the Fender-correct headstock and proper new company logo. But it was a ‘vintage Tele’ nonetheless, priced between Fender’s Road Worns and its USA-made Relics. Poke around and you’ll find increasing numbers of companies offering aged hardware, not just from small boutique suppliers but more mainstream hardware makers like Germany’s ABM.

Of course, Gibson is rightly celebrating 50 years of its most famous guitar, the 1959 Les Paul, with a limited 50th Anniversary reissue model and various aged and small number artist models: Mike Bloomfield, Jimmy Page’s ‘No 2’ and later in the year, we understand, Billy Gibbons’ fabled ’59.

Yet it’s not all backward looking. Taylor chose this year not to launch a new acoustic, concentrating instead on its new electric T3 (available with or without Bigsby), while introducing a new modernistic vibrato for its SolidBody range. PRS officially launched its new high-end acoustics and amps, already being used by some heavyweight and loyal artists. It also nodded in the direction of us paupers with the Mira X, a more affordable version of its previously most affordable USA-made guitar.

I rarely make it to the lower hall much before Sunday pm and this year was no different. And while it holds well-known brands like Collings, Suhr, Breedlove and Santa Cruz, to name but four, you can really see the dilemma so many lesser-known smaller companies face. It’s often not the products – there was some very fine craft on show. But why, especially now, would someone pay top dollar for an instrument that has no legacy, no vibe?  There seems little point at the moment, in producing anything without the budget to market it. Ironic then that one of our best-known PRs, Max Kay, chose this show to ‘retire’. It’s times like these that we need more PR, not less. Max, you’ll be sorely missed… especially at the bar.

Whereas the backdrop of last year’s show was who was acquiring who, this year it was who was going or has already gone bust. Grim reminders, if any were needed, that for a lengthy period things are going to get tougher. Some feel it’s for the good. We have too much product vying for a market that isn’t expanding. Price alone is no longer a USP; innovations are falling by the wayside lacking the promotional budgets to get a viewing. Our industry is distilling, burning off the unnecessary and leaving mostly old favourites that inspire confidence in the consumer. I saw very few examples of products aimed at the credit crunch, just fewer products, more limited runs and limited-to-demand models. People are playing it safe.

“Hey, people only wanna buy a Strat, a Les Paul or a Marshall,” quipped an FX designer I ran into. He may be right, but what of his own-design pedals that are about as classic as a Heston Blumenthal culinary creation? Are we still fiddling while Rome burns?