Music Emporium at NAMM Day 1
Posted by Joe Caruso on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 @ 10:09 AM
A busy first day at NAMM. I spent the better part of the day in Hall E, sometimes referred to as the acoustic room as it's where makers such as Collings, Goodall, Bourgeois and the like set up. It also tends to have a much lower noise level than the main rooms. Here are some of the highlights of my day:
Amazing ukes at the Collings booth where Steve and Alex unveiled two concert ukes with the most amazing koa bodies. Apparently, they'd had a few left-over guitar sides with no matching tops or backs. What does one do with such small pieces of wood? Take a look at these beauties:
Some pretty amazing figure. We snagged both ukes and hope to have them back at The Music Emporium early next week. Bill Collings showed up later in the day with a one-of-a-kind archtop ukulele! Incredible. Here it is held by the lovely Angela Wade:
The other nice addition to the Collings line was an MT2 Mandola. As you would expect, it's a fabulous instrument. Prototype Serial # 001 is a lovely black-face A-style and will be coming home with us as well. (pics to follow)
The Martin booth was bustling. Got to take in a great performance by Jorma as he debuted his new signature M-30. Amazing player with any guitar in his hand, though I'll have to admit the Martin has some very attractive elements: Italian spruce, colorful wood marquetry purfling, and the superb comfort of the M body. Seems more and more players are waking up to the M's unique balance of size, tonal strength, and balance.
Spent a little time at the Cole-Clarke booth. Interesting guitars out of Australia. They're gaining wide acceptance among some well-known players, Jack Johnson being the most notable. I wasn't overwhelmed by their acoustic response but plugged in, wow! They have a very unique pickup system that combines a Takamine-inspired saddle pickup with Cole-Clarke's own tone bar sensor which runs the length of the top in much the same way a major brace wood. The effect is jaw-dropping.
More later...