THE NAMM SHOW 2011 I BY ZACH PHILLIPS, KATIE KAILUS, HILARY BROWN, AARON COHEN & ED ENRIGHT
Bluer Skies

Exhibitors wrote orders at NAMM — lots of orders. A rebound?

As indicators go, The NAMM Show 2011 signaled bluer skies ahead.

Held Jan. 13–16 in Anaheim, Calif., the convention boasted a 3-percent rise in attendance compared to last year, with 90,114 registered showgoers. Exhibitors came ready to capitalize on the traffic, investing in more press conferences and dealer events than in recent years. But the most positive sign at NAMM? Retailers were spending again.

"The NAMM Show has always been good for us, but I can say that this was our best year ever," said Quincy Yu, general manager of Tycoon Percussion. "We certainly felt that this was a stronger buying year at the show than in years past, and our sales figures have reflected this."

"Retailers are more eager to buy inventory this year than in the past two years, and this was reflected in the orders which began coming in prior to The NAMM Show, just after 1/1/11," said Marc Minarik, founder of Minarik Guitars.

GCI Technologies, maker of Gemini, Cortex and iKey Audio, prepared by taking out a 33-percent larger booth. "From open to close, the GCI Technologies booth was filled to capacity with curious individuals who were anxious to see our debut of 19 new products," said Ikey Cabasso, the company's vice president of international sales.

Music retailers in attendance expressed slightly more caution. Ray Totaro, president of Boston Piano & Organ in Natick, Mass., said he observed two moods at the show: a cautious optimism that business may be "slowly improving" coupled with "an absence of complaining" and more assertive approach to handling difficult times.

"Overall, the vibe of the show seemed positive but still cautious," added Joe Summa, owner of Greenwich Music of Riverside, Conn. "Suppliers seemed upbeat and eager to show new product but weren't as pushy as they were last year, as far as trying to get orders."

But they did get orders. In a statement issued by NAMM days after the show, the organization's president and CEO, Joe Lamond, even said he believes the music products industry is on a path of recovery and future growth.

"Every opportunity we could have hoped for pretty much happened at the show," said Paul Reed Smith, founder of PRS Guitars. "It was a good NAMM."

More Flair
The guitar aisles at NAMM felt like a fashion show, with endless manufacturers showcasing their unique designs and colors.

Bedell Guitars debuted its limited-edition Hippie Chick line, offering 36 models in each color. The line also includes six one-of-a-kind Amanda Dunbar-designed guitars that feature a Swarovski Austrian Crystal face.

Gibson's new Firebird X Limited Editions are available in a swirled paint finish designed after paint swirls found on the company's Nashville, Tenn., factory floor following last May's flooding. Finishes include Redolution and Blue-volution.

Taylor Guitars rolled out new color options for its SolidBody Electric lines. New colors for the standard body include Borrego Red, Tiger's Eye and Gold Rush, while the classic body line now boasts Lava Red Pearl, Jewelescent Orange and Purple Flake.

"We're offering some really crazy colors and wood styles, giving players more choices and personality," said Dan Boreham, marketing manager for Taylor Guitars Europe.

Vintage Vibes
Elsewhere, guitar products vendors were rockin' like it was 1961. Fishman, for instance, launched the Blackstack Passive Soundhole Pickup, which features the vintage sound of a double-stacked humbucking magnetic pickup.

"These [pickups] give that great vintage sound," said David Fournier, senior product manager for Fishman. "They are great for rock 'n' roll guys that want a great sound."

In celebrating its 35th anniversary, Seymour Duncan rolled out a limited supply of the Seymour Duncan 35 Guitar, a hand-built custom model in a vintage-modified form. Duncan himself created the instrument more than 35 years ago.

The Music Link's executives announced that the AXL Badwater USA series will now be built by hand in California. The American Badwater SRO model takes players back to the 1950s with its vintage-style bent-saddle bridge and TonePros Klusion tuning machines.

"This isn't a guitar like every other guitar on the wall," said Travis Atz, product development director for The Music Link. "We're ensuring top-quality playability by overseeing the building of each one in California."

Fender's new G-DEC 3 Thirty practice amps features the G-DEC 3 Thirty Blues vintage-style amp with a classic look, blonde vinyl covering and chrome corners, evoking an early 1960s feel. The amps also come in metal and country versions. The G-DEC 3-friendly SD cards offer instructional play-along tracks and amp presets in conjunction with some of Hal Leonard's popular titles, including Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC books, as well as such songbooks as Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1.

"These are awesome because teachers can use these when they're teaching their students," said Jason Farrell, public relations manager for Fender. "It enhances their lessons a lot."

Ukes & Beyond
The much-hyped uke craze showed no signs of slowing down at NAMM.

"We have been right in the middle of it," said Rick Carlson, director of sales and marketing for Kala Brand Music. "Everything has been selling very strong for us."

Kala launched the Ukadelic line, which includes paisley, tie-dye, tropical and flag designs. All models are available in soprano size, with the reggae model also available in tenor.

Hohner officially unveiled its Kohala brand of ukes, which includes two series: the Kohala Original and the Kanikapila. The Kohala Original is a lower-end series that offers the four main ukulele sizes and an instruction booklet with each. The Kanikapila series also features the four main sizes and comes bundled with a gig bag, clip-on tuner and instructional booklet.

"Ukuleles are in more and more of a demand," said Jimmy Zednik, inside sales representative for Hohner. "So, naturally, we are excited about the potential of the new Kohala line."

In related news, The NAMM Show featured many notables in the guitar accessories segment, including primeVibe, a seasoner for guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, violins, violas, cellos and upright basses. Users hook an iPod up to the unit, which plays music directly into the instrument's wood. The transducers convert the instrument's wood into a loudspeaker, letting the music be heard through the instrument's body and seasoning the guitar in the process.

"It keeps the guitar, or any instrument, open on a regular basis," said John Kelley, general manager for Musiquip, the distributor of primeVibe. "After the instrument is seasoned, it provides better projection and longer sustain."

The Guitar Rest from Planet Waves turns any flat surface into a guitar stand when the rubber rest is placed over the surface's edge. "The small size makes it easy to throw in any guitar bag, and the top holds picks," said Brian Johnson, fretted string product specialist for D'Addario.

Avid's Game Changer
Avid's recent decision to make Pro Tools 9 open platform resonated among all corners of the audio and recording industry. Phil Moon, vice president of sales and marketing at Lynx Studio Technology, even called the move a "game changer."

"The effect is the end-user can now choose whatever interface they want to use [with Pro Tools 9]," Moon said. "If they want to use one of our sound cards, they can. They couldn't do that before."

And Avid executives pointed out that this newfound flexibility with Pro Tools should extend all the way to the retail floor. Dusty DiMercurio, Avid's marketing manager for retail, mentioned that dealers can now reach more customers than before with Avid products, as users no longer have to choose between a Pro Tools-only setup versus their own customized recording setup.

"Now, a customer who likes using our hardware can buy our hardware without buying our software," he said. "And now, somebody who already invested in [another brand of] hardware can buy Pro Tools. So, resellers have a lot more customers that they can engage with and work with using our solutions."

The move was met with elation from dealers and end-users alike. "Best In Show" panelist and Sweetwater Director of Purchasing John Grabowski gave Avid a "Best In Show" nod partly because of Pro Tools 9. Avid even featured a Pro Tools-appreciation wall in its booth, displaying such social media-generated user comments as, "Pro Tools 9 is siq!"

Wireless Gets Digital
Audio suppliers also jumped on the digital wireless trend. Most notably, Shure debuted its first digital wireless system, the PGX line. Featuring 24-bit, 48-kHz digital wireless technology, it operates on the 900 MHz band, outside of TV interference.

"The sound quality is stellar, said Mike Lohman, Shure's media relations manager, who noted that the price is slightly higher than PGX analog systems.

"With a lot of changes in the FCC spectrum, people are going out to buy new wireless," said Mark Humrichouser, Shure's general manager, Americas. "I think we're seeing strong interest in digital platforms, although I don't think people are quite sure how and where those should be used and what the benefits are."

Likewise, Nady showed its new DW-2 digital wireless mic system. It operates in the 2.4 GHz band and has a 120 dB dynamic range and extended frequency response of 30–15 kHz.

Even Lectrosonics went the digital route with the Quadra digital wireless monitor system. "Most wireless monitor systems are FM and analog," said Karl Winkler, the company's director of business development. "They've changed very little in the past two decades, and we're introducing something totally different."

Next-Gen Percussion
The biggest news in drums wasn't a drum product, per se.

Through a strategically placed dual microphone and DSP engine came Zildjian's revelation in percussion signal processing: Gen16 acoustic-electric (AE) cymbal technology. The perforated Gen16 AE cymbal is a real cymbal with a natural response, as opposed to a sample trigger device. Conversely, the tone module features five channels of diverse classic and non-traditional Zildjian tones and optimal sound positioning technology for lower-volume play. Each tone channel includes a half-dozen crash, ride and hi-hat tones, but additional bundles will be available in the future.

"When you have traditional overheads, something has to be sacrificed to make it sound right," said Zildjian Product Specialist Chris Ryan. "You need to be at low volume for each one."

From conception to launch, it took the Zildjian team a mere seven months to develop the Gen16 AE's special sheet alloy for versatile manufacturing in an array of shapes and sizes.

Less Is More
The word "versatile," in fact, resonated amid the havoc of NAMM drum set exhibitors. Several manufacturers leaned away from genre-specific pigeonholes, aiming to join the larger flock with minor adjustments to their product repertoire. Specifically, these exhibitors abided by a less-is-more mantra, casually throwing out such terms as "thinner," "shallower" and "cost-effective."

Pearl, for instance, took a low-mass approach to increase the resonance and tone of Reference series kits, removing a third of the bulk with thinner-ply shells, low-mass STL swivel tube lugs, and 1.6-mm hemmed and welded fat tone hoops. The Reference series uses task-specific bearing edges and birch, maple and African mahogany woods to offset the tonal difference from the thinner shells.

"Depending on what you're tuning for, you've got a much wider range of tuning capabilities," said Steve Armstrong, director of marketing for Pearl. "They really speak to you right over the top."

Sonor complemented its new beech shells with lighter-weight lugs and a smaller total acoustic resonance tom-tom mount to accommodate this year's 2-inch-shallower toms. The move aims to ensure a round, beefy sound, despite the weight loss.

"The reason we went for this shallower T.A.R. mount is because we're starting to see that shallower sizes are starting to come back," said Sonor Product Manager Larry Nelson.

For some, versatility meant leveling the economic playing field. Tama offered multiple configurations of the Starclassic series — a jazz-style kit, a fusion kit and two rock-style kits — as well as lacquer and wrap finishes, while announcing a pocket-friendly price for the birch range.

"This kit is actually paired to fit all kinds of styles," said Tama Division Manager Terry Bissette. "Anybody could play any type of music and get a good sound out of the kit."

Among accessory makers, Vic Firth Director of Education Neil Larrivee showed the lightweight Dual Tone — a wood tip, felt-core butt-ended 5A stick — and rubber-tipped 5B Chop-Out as standout multipurpose extensions of the company's American Classic series.

Modern Classics
To meet the recent demand for vintage and custom kits, manufacturers reimagined classic specs with contemporary adjustments. Yamaha's kapur Club Custom kit exudes an undeniable vintage vibe but flaunts a flagship YESS modeling system and effortless maneuverability never before seen on classic pieces.

"Who hasn't had an old vintage kit with a corkmount and tried to get a drum in the right position?" said Yamaha Marketing Manager David Jewell. "With this Club Custom kit, you're going to be able to do that."

DW took a production-oriented approach and lowered the fundamental frequencies of the limited-size Performance series maple kit using a tri-grain shell construction and classic Collector series parallels.

In cymbals, Paiste authentically restored its coveted 1950s- and '60s-era Formula 602 models. Discontinued in 1994, the Switzerland 320 bronze collection includes two crashes, two rides and a hi-hat.

Inexpensive Innovations
Despite the piano sales downturn in recent years, many piano and keyboard manufacturers at NAMM expressed optimism about their futures. They addressed buyers' thinner wallets with more affordable instruments and harnessed the latest technological advances with new innovations.

Two companies that accomplished a great deal using technology included Roland with the V-Piano Grand and Casio with the WK-7500 digital keyboard, which also hits a reasonable price point — listing at $599.99. The V-Piano Grand uses a new sound generator to sound much larger, and sometimes older, than it actually is. It also uses component object sound modeling, not sampling, so players can make it sound like a 12-foot Steinway with gold strings — or a piano of their own devising altogether. Casio's WK-7500 features a 32-track sequencer and a library of 800 different instrumental sounds. It can also take prerecorded sequences and record them straight into the keyboard.

One of the Casio's sounds is a duplication of a Hammond B-3 organ, complete with drawbars. But not to be outdone, Hammond itself released the new Mini-B, which sounds like its iconic predecessor and comes bundled with a specially designed 100-watt Leslie speaker. It also has a sound generator that can create 96 digital tonewheels.

"Everybody loves the B-3, but a B-3 and Leslie is very expensive, especially with a difficult economy," said Hammond Senior Vice President Dennis Capiga. "The Mini-B makes having that sound much more affordable."

A market that Hammond has always sought, churches, was also the focus of Lowrey's dealer reception at NAMM. Brad Bryan, Lowrey's business management director, emphasized that his company "must understand the church market" as it introduced the new Tribute and Prelude organs. It's a market that can rise above the ebb and flow of ordinary business cycles.

Economic upturns and downturns also haven't stopped such venerable companies as Moog, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. At NAMM, it introduced the Slim Phatty analog synthesizer, which packs its full-featured arpeggiator and oscillators into an instrument that measures only 17 inches wide.

"You can just put it in a bag and put it in a carry-on on a plane," said Moog engineer Steve Dunnington. "It's a little nutty, but we're a little nutty, and we love the sound of analog."

Pro Horn Boom
Brass and woodwind manufacturers showed more interest than usual in the semi-professional and professional markets. Several NAMM exhibitors introduced high-end and step-up horns that played up the appeal of vintage looks while reflecting significant advances in design.

Selmer Paris launched its Jubilee line of Series II and Series III saxophones in celebration of the company's 125th anniversary. Also new from Selmer was the Leblanc Bliss line of student upgrade clarinets.

Cannonball presented the Lynx, a lightweight trumpet with brilliant tone designed for lead players, along with the Fiore model semi-pro grenadilla wood clarinet. "At Cannonball, we're always messing with acoustics," said Ryan Lillywhite, an acoustical technician with Cannonball, of the new trumpet. "We're acoustical freaks, always trying different things to get it to sound better and make it easier to play."

Schilke is now shipping its high-end 1040 FL flugelhorn, which was shown as a prototype last year. "What the pros like about this is in the upper register, when you get above the staff, you get the sense that it slots," said Phil Baughman, Schilke sales manager. "So you can grab a note the way a trumpet does without sacrificing the flugelhorn sound." The company's new ST30 small-bore tenor trombone offers pros lots of tonal options by providing a choice of different bell and slide materials, in addition to three interchangeable lead pipes.

P. Mauriat showed the Le Bravo 200 saxophone, an intermediate horn designed for hobbyists who want professional features without spending a ridiculous amount of money. Buffet Crampon brought the Keilwerth brand back to the U.S. pro saxophone market, paying extra attention to its Vintage series.

Antigua Winds turned heads with its Pro-One alto and tenor saxophone series, which features solid designs and minimum bling.

"The purpose of us building the Pro-One was to elevate the awareness of Antigua," said Kerry Klingborg, the company's general manager. "It's aimed right at the professional. We've got a vintage lacquer on the horn, and this engraving is done by hand."

Yamaha rolled out three new pro horn lines: the Custom Z soprano saxophone, the Xeno 20th anniversary trumpet and the 897Z tenor trombone. Each spent a long time in the development stage, as the company consulted with top artists for design input.

Eastman Music added soprano and baritone models to its line of pro saxophones. They're available in black nickel and gold lacquer and feature adjustable palm key heights. Eastman also displayed its new line of reeds in both French (Esperto) and American (Venuto) cuts.

Among B&O accessory companies, Rico had a new offering with its Reserve Classic alto saxophone reeds, which have been winning over top classical saxophonists in large numbers with their dense cut and overall consistency from reed to reed.

In addition to the long-awaited Vandoren V16 mouthpiece for baritone saxophone, Dansr announced the availability of Vandoren V12 reeds for tenor saxophone and the Denis Wick Fiber Mute, a student straight mute with a professional sound.

"There has only been a small amount of student-level straight mutes available in the industry for a very long time, and there's not much quality out there," said trumpeter and educator Kirk Garrison, a Denis Wick artist. "So we had the idea to introduce an entry-level straight mute at a good price. It's real durable, and if you compare it to one of our expensive professional mutes, there's not that much difference."

Play-Along Powerhouses
Play-alongs ruled the day among publishers, who have discovered the power of packaging accompaniment CDs and other learning aids with their print music products.

Alfred beefed up its Jazz Play-Along series and Jazz Easy Play-Along series and added more titles to its Easy Rock and Easy Popular Movie Instrumental Solos series with instrument-specific demo tracks. "You haven't lived until you've heard 'Stairway To Heaven' for viola," said Daniel Smolenski, an Alfred account executive. The company also offered dealers a 55-percent discount with no billing for 90 days on its jazz and pop play-alongs, with fully guaranteed package deals and display options.

Popular video games and Warner Bros. movies also continue providing a huge amount of new repertoire for Alfred, which now includes enhanced accompaniment CDs with such products as its new World Of Warcraft books.

"It is an MP3 CD since traditional audio CDs are almost passé," Smolenski said. "It affords us the opportunity to get more music on the CD, the entire book and all the tracks. It's the preferred format now to rip it right to your iPod."

Hal Leonard played up its Guitar Tab White Pages, a best-selling songbook of hundreds of pop titles that's now available in a play-along format.

"Our play-along series has continued to grow and grow, so we wanted to marry two of our best brands together into one," said David Jahnke, Hal Leonard's vice president of national sales.

The company also expanded its Real Book series to include The Real Book Volume IV, as well as several new titles — The Real Blues Book, The Real Bluegrass Book and The Real Rock Book among them.

Carl Fischer announced that it now includes a piano accompaniment CD of tracks in MP3 format with its Repertoire Classics series of classic instrumental solos and other familiar titles, such as 48 Studies For Alto Saxophone In Eb.

And the ukulele craze continues to fuel the print industry. Homespun Music Instruction released a two-DVD set to teach the instrument to beginners, while Hal Leonard released its Play Ukulele Today! package, which includes a beginner model ukulele, method book, instructional DVD and CD.

Jahnke explained: "We were thinking, how can we help the very beginner ukulele students as well as give the retailers a very easy package to sell?"

The NAMM Show 2012 will be held in Anaheim from Jan. 19–22, 2012. MI