Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Wrap-Up

Here are the last of the NAMM photos Jason and I took. Sadly, there were some good instruments where our photos just didn’t turn out. (In Anaheim, we were able to rely on Patrick Ford’s good eye.) So, from left to right, there are pirate dogs, a Giannini Craviola 12-string, the new John Jorgenson Tuxedo model from Saga, and Marc Fichtner’s amazing Wes Montgomery tatoo.

Add comment July 19th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Century Strings

Century Strings had a very interesting style of guitar on display. Called the Draleon, from the front it looks just like another Selmer-style repro, but from the side you can see it actually has a carved top and back. It was hard to hear the subtlety of the tone (the NAMM Show is very loud), but they were very well built and played great. I can’t wait to get my hands on one in more acoustically amenable circumstances.-MJS

Add comment July 19th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Bourgeois Guitars

Although Dana Bourgeois didn’t show up in person, he did send some very nice examples of his work. Check out the figure in the mahogany on the Country Boy Deluxe on the left. I thought it was fancy koa when I first looked at it.-MJS

Add comment July 19th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Richard Hoover of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company had a nice batch of guitars on display. My personal favorite was the new RS, pictured on the left, a 12-fret round-shouldered jumbo that was inspired by the Gibson Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe. The Bob Brozman baritone guitar was also an impressive sounding instrument. Sadly, my full-length photo of it was too blurry, but I did manage to capture the label, which features a nice little drawing of Brozman by Robert Armstrong, who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for guitar makers looking for some good art.-MJS

Add comment July 19th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Martin

Like Taylor, Martin had a smaller booth than normal in Austin. Still, they mangaged to show up with some cool stuff. Because the show was in Texas, they brought a trio of Lone Star State-themed custom guitars. On the left is an HD-28 that was airbushed by Don Oriolo. The two middle shots show a guitar decorated by inlay artist Harvey Leach. I was particulary taken with the way he used the natural color contrast of the wood in the fretboard to create a desert scene. The third Texas themed guitar was painted by our friend Robert Armstrong. The guitar of the far right is the new Buddy Guy Signature Model. And yes, it does have a volume and a tone knob mounted on the top. Whatever Buddy wants, Buddy gets. Martin also announced Signature Models endorsed by Nancy Wilson of Heart, Peter Frampton, Mark Knopfler, David Bromberg, Elliot Easton, Geoff Muldar and Lawrence Juber. They’re also bringing out a replica of Johnny Cash’s black D-35. You can read the story of Cash’s original Black D-35 in the second issue of the Fretboard Journal.-MJS

Add comment July 18th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Talos Amplifiers

The NAMM Show is all about new and shiny so it was a bit of a shock to run across this battered old Tele in the Talos Amp booth to remind us that guitars are meant to be played. It belongs to Bill Kirchen, who is one of the great Telecaster pickers. He’s best known for twanging it up on Commander Cody’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” and he said that this guitar has been his constant companion in countless roadhouses and honky-tonks for more than thirty years.-MJS

Add comment July 18th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Taylor

The Austin NAMM Show is a lot smaller than the one in Anaheim, so large companies like Taylor, who usually have a whole room of their own, were limited to a relatively small booth on the main floor. Still, they did manage to pack it full of cool stuff like a wide range of custom T-5s (the totem pole guitar got a lot of attention) and their new Fall Limited Editions. That’s Taylor sales rep Dave Hagar holding a guitar made of grafted walnut.-MJS

Add comment July 18th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Mandolins

There were quite a few good mandolins at the Summer NAMM show, and Scott Tichenor, the big kahuna over at the Mandolin Cafe, seems to have found them all. His mandolin photos are better than ours, so instead of posting ours, I suggest you head here to check them out.(Scott’s photo on the left shows a batch of mandolins, and one archtop guitar, drying in the Collings shop in Austin.)-MJS

Add comment July 17th, 2006

Austin 2006 Summer NAMM: Collings

Howdy, ya’ll. The FJ staff is here in Austin, Texas for the Summer NAMM show and we’ll be posting photos of what we find over the next few days. I thought I’d start with a look at the new electrics introduced by Austin’s finest, Bill Collings. You can’t really see it in the photo on the left, but the knobs on the electric are turned out of ivoroid at Collings and look very elegant. I didn’t get to try the guitars because, as you can see in the middle shot, John Sebastian kept hogging them. These guitars were announced at the Anaheim NAMM Show in January, but I’m told they’re getting ready to start shipping them soon. The newest addition to the electric line is the solid-body “Junior” in the third photo with the dark sunburst. It also comes in a limed mahogany and a red mahogany finish. Oh, and all of the pickups are made by Jason Lollar, who was profiled in our now sold out first issue.-MJS

UPDATE: Here are few more shots from Collings. The one on the left shows a faded cherry “Junior” (Collings still hasn’t settled on a name); a row of prototype electrics at the Collings workshop; and a shot of the barbecue Bill Collings threw to show off his new workshop. We don’t have more shots
of the food because we were too busy eating it to photograph it.-MJS

Add comment July 15th, 2006