Brothers and sisters in bass,
Sending positive vibrations from the NAMM Show 2014! As a reminder,
you can find a growing list of new bass gear to look forward to at
bassplayer.com/namm2014. Now digging right in….
After a credential kerfuffle threatened to kill the better
part of a day (major thanks to the staff who helped sort it out!), we hit the
floor hard toward the tail end of the first day.
First stop was the Fender booth—wing, rather, as the Fender
Musical Instrument Corporation has grown to include Guild, Gretch, Guild,
Squire, Jackson, EVH, and many more established brands. We’re looking forward
to a full tour of the booth tomorrow, but we poked around Fender’s redesigned
Rumble bass amps, which are crazy-lightweight, and are pretty stylin’ to boot.
Looking forward to plugging in and seeing what they can do. When we return
tomorrow, we’ll also be sure to check out the promising Guild M-85, and give
you the heads-up in that department.
Heading across the hall to
Gibson, we were treated to some
cool details of their 2014 basses. Did you know they cryogenically freeze their
frets, increasing their stability and making them less susceptible to wear? Just
one of the fun facts we’re looking forward to examining when we review their
new
EB Basses in the coming months.
Radial Engineering was next. The ever-talented Ric
Fierabracci sang the praises of the new Bassbone OD, a two-channel DI that
packs a remarkable number of features in a single, rugged box, and gave a demo
that presented a compelling case for the pedal’s potential for anyone doubling
on fretless, upright, or synth bass. Look for a review soon on that one, too.
Last stop for the evening was a reception we hosted with Guitar
Player, Guitar World, Keyboard, and Electronic Musician. Good times catching up
with friends from Tech 21, TC Electronic, Musician’s Institute, Warwick,
Dunlop, Samson, Sukop, CruzTOOLS, and many others. Thanks to all who came out.
Check back tomorrow for an update on all the cool bass gear
on deck this year.
On the one,
Brian