NAMM rant

[chatmatt]

So.. just got home from this year's NAMM show. Anyone else here go?
What a crock, huh? I walked the whole show - upstairs and down. You could fit the interesting guitar finds in a small hotel room. Never have I seen so many shiny, pointy, sparkly guitars - so many ugly, huge, pissy sounding amps - so few(?) pedals that aren't already at Guitar Center.

The 'boutique' pedal community was in poor showing to say the least. Of the handfull of small makers, the booths were unimpressive and generally uninformative. I was really surprised at how unprepared most of the sellers seemed. And not just in mom-n-pop-land, either. There were many bigger name brands on the main floor who didnt have their paperwork or even CARDS 'done in time'. When asked, at least half of the vendors didn't even KNOW their own prices.

At the prices that NAMM charges for booths, I can totally understand why smaller guys dont buy space to show their wares. I can also see that a lot of boutique builders arent shooting for the masses that appear at NAMM. However - if someone DID show their stuff.. REALLY GOOD STUFF.. and had their shit together - literature, cards, packaging - they would stand out. If they engaged customers who came to their booths - if they were friendly and dressed like adults - if they let people try their products with their own hands - it would go a long way. People would be placing orders, asking questions, listening to what's being put in front of them.

Instead, buyers walk up and down the aisles, glancing at some guy with a spalted maple monstrosity, shredding through a tinny, 3 channel amp. Or they are handed xeroxes with ridiculous pricing and typos. Do you guys remember the old ZVex booths of yore? They looked cool, clean, interesting, new. They had real guitars and real amps to listen through. They were friendly guys and knew their shit. Now look at them. I know ZVex isnt cool around here any more.. but Im just talking business sense here. Hobbying is fine and all, but by the time a company bothers to go all the way to NAMM with their stuff - they have no excuse to not put their best foot forward. They're obviously interested in making a go at it and want to land some orders. Why else go?

Anyway.. I'm not really going anywhere with this rant. I guess the positive spin here is that the whole time I was there, all I could think of was how much more I preferred buying things here or on the DAM forum.. or.. fuck.. even ebay. I find cooler, more interesting, and often cheaper things than I ever could at the NAMM show. A few 'boutique' dealers I spoke to (who will go unnamed) were offering 'dealer pricing' that was near or same as their stuff sells for on ebay from 'online dealers'. So... what's the incentive for new buyers?

Those mini fuzz faces were pretty cute, though.

[Chankgeez]

Um ... I think you could've said the same thing about a NAMM show 30 or 40 or 50 years ago and nothing has changed...

[aen]

My booth was pretty last minute, and we were super low on money when I would have needed to spend it on cool booth stuff. This might be our last year at NAMM, so it's kind of a test.
But anyway, yeah, not much cool going on guitar wise. It's electronic music that's exploding. SO MUCH cool stuff there.

Of course, I just make up for a lack of booth pizzaz with a pedal that makes sounds that have never been heard before. And rowdy demos.

[Joe Gress]

My booth was pretty last minute, and we were super low on money when I would have needed to spend it on cool booth stuff. This might be our last year at NAMM, so it's kind of a test.
But anyway, yeah, not much cool going on guitar wise. It's electronic music that's exploding. SO MUCH cool stuff there.

Of course, I just make up for a lack of booth pizzaz with a pedal that makes sounds that have never been heard before. And rowdy demos.

And beards. They separate the men from the women and children.

But honestly, everything I have ever seen from a NAMM show seems to be 5 products out of 200 new ones that I want, and maybe one that I can afford in the next coming months.

[SmallEQ]

It's a show for dealers, its not meant to be the hobbiest or artists' wet dream.

[Rob Fossil]

It's a show for dealers, its not meant to be the hobbiest or artists' wet dream.

Right, that is the OP's main complaint, that the dealers were not prepared for their clients. Whether it be not having the proper promotion, info, swag, or just not having inspired designs on new product. The end result of of the show is to get new orders, if a dealer looks like an unprepared ass-hat, why would you bother sinking big $$$ to order any gear from them? Not every year is going to have a plethora of ground breaking gear (but as Aen said, it looks like the best new gear is in the synth realm. I can't wait to try out the SubPhatty), but it's up to the dealers to spark interest.

[skullservant]

It seems like so much cool shit came out at NAMM this year though...

[Deltaphoenix]

IMO from what I have seen/heard/read online, a few cool pedals and some seriously sweet electronic music gear is being released and some of it is incredibly well priced (Korg MS-20 for under $600 ).
For me, it was a good one

Of course, I would probably hate being surrounded by a bunch of wankers too.

[sonidero]

It's a TRADE SHOW for nerds and dealers... Always was and always will be, only the internet made it seem like the average Joe has to be there to see all the good stuff... If it's good it'll survive NAMM and if it sucks hopefully it'll disappear...

[chatmatt]

Right, that is the OP's main complaint, that the dealers were not prepared for their clients. Whether it be not having the proper promotion, info, swag, or just not having inspired designs on new product. The end result of of the show is to get new orders, if a dealer looks like an unprepared ass-hat, why would you bother sinking big $$$ to order any gear from them? Not every year is going to have a plethora of ground breaking gear (but as Aen said, it looks like the best new gear is in the synth realm. I can't wait to try out the SubPhatty), but it's up to the dealers to spark interest.

That's exactly what I was getting at, Rob. After walking away from one booth where the maker said his pedals would be ready for shipment 'around April or May I hope' and 'might be in a different color or enclosure by then', I thought - and Im supposed to be placing an order here? As you said, the end result is to get new orders. I was there representing a friend's music store that wants to get in to higher-end non-Boss/Dunlop/vanilla pedals. I had money burning a hole in my pocket and no one to give it to.

Thinking of stocking the whole shop with just ILF and ebay finds... dare me?

[skullservant]

Do it

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

I was there representing a friend's music store that wants to get in to higher-end non-Boss/Dunlop/vanilla pedals. I had money burning a hole in my pocket and no one to give it to.

Thinking of stocking the whole shop with just ILF and ebay finds... dare me?

sure. there are obviously plenty of fine builders here willing to discuss their wares at length and looking for more retail outlets...

NAMM is very expensive to just have a booth and when you factor in additional expenses it becomes pretty cost-prohibitive for most small builders. obviously you need to spend money to make money (i may do it next year...) but there comes a point where it's tough to weigh the benefits against the costs when there are so many unknown variables. some good points to think about in your initial post though.

[Officer Bukowski]

Is your friend opening this store here in Orange County? I don't know of any place around here with an interesting pedal selection so that would be really cool.


Also, kinda off topic but I've been like daydreaming about your Les Paul since you brought it over That thing sounds so gooood

[chatmatt]

My friend has a place in Anaheim already, but it's mainly guitar cabs. custom covers etc.

I'm trying to convince him to open a FUZZ ONLY sub-shop - as a destination spot for OC/LA and as an online spot for people to find the most/best in fuzz. I'd love to collect/buy as many homemade, custom, one-off, whatever fuzz pedals there are and have them in a shop. I dont think it would be insulting or outrageous to bump the prices up a bit to pay for the service of finding and buying all of these pedals. A few guitars, a few amps - what else do you need? Considering how many fuzzes can be found here and on ebay etc for under $100 and then sold for that much, that's actually a better mark-up than most of the new boutiques were offering at NAMM. Add to that some of the bigger ticket items (DAM, Pigdog, et al), and there'd be enough inventory and margin to be a decent little supplement to his already working guitar cab shop. To source a Cornish on ebay for a grand or something and offer it in a physical shop in CA for 1200 or 1300 should be an easy sell, even if not super profitable. And would lend some sort of 'cred' to those who care about that stuff.

Anyway... it's mainly speculation right now. Ideally I'd be able to get a decent amount of inventory on consignment from builders to help with the initial costs and all of that, but I'm not going to even think about pulling favors like that until this idea is baked a little further. I think it would a cool little place, though. A site would help as well. The NAMM show just pushed the idea a little further along by reinforcing my fear that the traditional retailers and builders dont have any amo against the growing underground and direct sales market. What CAN be offered is SERVICE - as usual. Someone with good ears and social skills picking out great pedals and assembling them in one easy to navigate place. Thats the idea, anyway. I did this at my store in Hollywood for years and was wildly successful with it. Wasn't planning on getting back in to all of that... but jeez.

As for the Les Paul.. let's get together and do a fuzz blast again one of these days. I have a few new goodies to try out.

[Officer Bukowski]

I think the idea is really great and I'd be so happy to see a place like that open around here. There is nothing like that at all around here that I know of so I think you guys would quickly find your niche with proper promotion.

If things are moving forward with it let me know if there's anything I can help with. It's something I'd like to get involved in.

As for the fuzz meetup, I'm always up for it! Last time was fun and I have a few cool new things to check out as well.