NAMM Notes, Riffs, and Wishes

In certain circles, especially where musicians, music retailers and musical gear folks dwell, the acronym NAMM buzzes with a kind of mythic presence. The big top annual meeting of the National Association of Music Merchants has regained its full glory and regalia after a few pandemic fallow years. As in the Before Times, it is a circus-like annual convention, networking zone and friendly cacophony of musical input which takes over the Anaheim Convention Center every mid-January. Disneyland is literally across the street, somehow fittingly.

Throngs of visitors go to NAMM for multiple reasons, from business dealings to metalheads queuing up for signatures by rockstar-status musicians with endorsement deals. I’ve gone for scores of years (too many to mention without aging myself) as a music journalist as well as a guitarist slobbering over gear. Also, I go as a cultural appreciator of the wonderful Charles Ives-ian chaos which descends on the floor, especially in the guitar and drum zones. Speedy “look at me” guitar riffs and drum-bashing coheres into an avant-garde feast, when viewed from a certain angle.

As for instruments I would happily accept as Christmas gifts, I ogled the new Martin double-neck (6 and 12-string), the “Grand J-28E.” An acoustic double-neck makes more sense than an electric double-neck — or the double-taking triple-neck electric by Minarik on the floor.