Kevan Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Well folks, I just got back from Indy. Nice town. Not exactly known as a "music mecca", but....we certainly heard some crazy playing. :-) Some highlights of the show for me were: - The new Thermion amp from Ibanez. Yes, I know. I just used a technical term regarding tubes and the name "Ibanez" in the same sentence. They did their homework on this one. If you're looking for another option besides the typical Mesa or Marshall head & cab setups, this one is really worth a look. It's MSRP is about $1500 for the head (I don't remember the price on the cabs, but it was comparable). DO NOT expect Bogner/Dumble/Komet-type sound from this amp. It's a fifteen HUNDRED dollar amp (not fifteen THOUSAND). I would call it "simple tone transportation". BTW- the light on the front of the amp can be turned on & off, and you can change the color of the LED's as well. Cosmetic, but a nice touch. - The Crate "Monoblock". Tiny, tiny amp thingy, good tone, VERY nice pricetag- around $250-300. I would call this a "pocket amp". It's basic and straightforward, but can produce some nice tones. One guy said that he'd buy one and keep it in the emergency kit of his car. :-) - Digitech "JamMan" delay/sampling pedal. I only read about this in the daily NAMM magazine, but the specs looked kinda cool. 6.5 *hours* of phrase capabilities (with the optional big memory card). Yes- I said hours. For jamming or practice, this might be neat to work with. A short-term recorder. - THD Electronics new 4x12 cab. THD didn't want to do the same old 4x12; there's enough of those out there for folks to choose from. They took the basic 4x12 shape, and did some tweaking to it. There are tuned "dispersers" in front of the speaker cones that are tuned specific to the cab. In combination with their tried and true Flexi-50 amp, it made for a nice combination. Yes- I'm friends with the folks at THD, but the new cab really impressed me. It's nice to see folks pushing the envelope. - Framus Guitars & Amps. I hadn't had a chance to play a Framus guitar, or any of their amps...until now. The Ruby Riot and Dragon amps (super-pricey, starting at about $3200) sure do sound nice. The new Ruby Riot has a tremolo section as well. These are the kind of amps you dream about- simple, 2 or 3 channel, nice power, GREAT tone (from any instrument), and they look cool as hell. While at the Framus booth we got to talking gear (really? At a NAMM show? That's odd.). The guys were curious about the Tremol-No, and asked if I would install a unit in one of their new chambered Diablo's with a Wilkinson. Ummm...sure! I didn't do the ground wire, because it's not my $3000 guitar to do that to (LOL), but everything else went in without a hitch. The guys liked that it could become a hardtail and go back to full trem in 2 seconds. I left the unit in the Diablo so they could play around with it more after the show. Very nice guys at Framus, and they build VERY nice gear. As usual, there was the regular assortment of AMAZING builders- Nik Huber, Warrior, etc., and a guy doing full-body molds and turning them into guitars. I've got a few ideas for that one. LMAO Oh, and for the bass heads out there, Jens Ritter showed off some of his awesome work. Both Nik and Jens had dealers pick up *all* of their guitars the very first day of the show. I think that says it all. All the post-show activities will need to be discussed on an adults-only forum (heh heh), but needless to say we had a great time our entire stay in Indy. Quote Link to comment
Gemleggat Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Any pics you can show us kevan? Quote Link to comment
rhoads56 Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Kevan, you've got 24 hours to post some pics or im putting you on a two week "read only" vacation Quote Link to comment
Maiden69 Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Kevan, you've got 24 hours to post some pics or im putting you on a two week "read only" vacation ← Jesus Perry. If I was a MOD I would already banned his .... for not posting pics!!! But remember to keep them at 600x600 y only one pic per post... all the others have to be links OK! Quote Link to comment
gun Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Yeah only 1 pic for post and max 640 x 480 Quote Link to comment
Kevan Posted July 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Funny, ha. It's at least nice to see you guys know the pic posting rules. Sorry, but I don't think I have any pics from the show. I don't cruise around with a camera at the NAMM shows (someone might confuse me with Rich Harris. LOL) There are PLENTY of other people running around taking shots though. I'm sure there are some online already. I know there's a funny one coming of Ed DeGenaro (THD) and I, but I don't think it's up yet. It's a spoof on how tall Ed really is. I'll put up a link as soon as I get one from the guy who took the pic. I found a cool article on the show over at Modern Guitars Magazine's site: http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000934.html Some good pics up there. Here's an HC write-up on the Thermion: http://namm.harmony-central.com/SNAMM05/Co...rmion-Amps.html Here's an HC write-up on the JamMan: http://namm.harmony-central.com/SNAMM05/Co.../PR/JamMan.html One person that I forgot to mention in my first post was Curt Mangan and his string company: http://www.curtmangan.com I had a very nice talk with Curt about the whole string-making process. It was really quite interesting, and he's a helluva nice guy. Quote Link to comment
Reaper Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 One of my former teachers had a Framus Diablo. That was one of the sweetest guitars I've had the chance to play. Quote Link to comment
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