• Musicians, get ready for some serious bang for your buck! At Summer NAMM ’02, Fender released a new line of affordable, no-nonsense, American-made rocker Strats entitled the Highway 1. This year at Winter NAMM they’ve extended the series to include Teles, Showmasters, J-Bass, P-Bass and Toronados.
• Fender’s Standard Stratocaster is the foundation from which all Strat models come. It incorporates a fast action maple neck, comfort-contoured body, three single-coil pickups and standard synchronized tremolo – it’s where the tradition began and still carries on today. This year Fender graced the Standard series with a few velvety “Satin” colors. The finish drew a great deal of attention from onlookers in the Fender area, and certainly caught our eye. Available in four colors (Candy Apple Red, Midnight Blue, Gun Metal Blue and Midnight Wine), these guitars are sure to be a hit.
• Fender also had on hand a brand new series called the Limited Edition Series that includes Strats, Teles, P-Bass’ and J-Bass’. What sets them apart is the finish – available in either a Pink Paisley or Blue Flower design!
• Much like the massive rigs from the 60s, these custom amp combos not only sounded great, but they just plain looked cool. The Vibroverb is an all tube amp, running 40-watts and a specially designed 15-inch speaker. The ’64 Vibroverb Custom also features a hand wired chassis, solid Finger Jointed Pine cabinet, circuit modifications designed by the legendary Cesar Diaz, a tube driven spring reverb, tube vibrato, tilt-back legs and more.
Focusrite
• The ISA 428 Pre Pack is the perfect multichannel front end for any professional DAW. Featuring four classic, Rupert Neve-designed, transformer-based pre amps with switchable impedance and direct instrument inputs, this multichannel preamp is designed for the most discriminating producer. An optional eight-channel 192kHz ADC, preceded by the all new proprietary Soft Limiter circuit, provides the perfect pathway to world-class sound.
Gibson
• ES-333 Gibson, in addition to a number of other guitars, introduced the ES-333, a more affordable version of their classic semi-hollowbody ES-335. The new model has its own distinctive look, with a satin finish in Faded Cherry, Translucent Brown or Natural. The ES-333 has the same double-cutaway body, with laminated top, back and sides construction as the ES-335. A solid maple center block gives it solidbody performance to go with its more traditional hollowbody styling. The ES-333’s Alnico-magnet humbucking pickups are open-coil (coverless), and it comes with a canvas gig bag.
• While Gibson USA had a lot of new guitars at the show this year a new, full-size Les Paul Studio model in Muir wood really caught our attention. The new guitar reaffirms Gibson’s commitment to producing quality instruments that utilize only Forest Stewardship Council and SmartWood Certified Woods. Gibson partnered with the Rainforest Alliance six years ago when it introduced the world’s first line of eco-friendly SmartWood guitars. The Les Paul SmartWood Studio guitar has a Muiracatiara, or Muir, top and a mahogany back.
• The new limited edition Les Paul Supreme features highly figured maple – the Les Paul’s trademark – on the back as well as the top. Simply stated, this guitar is stunning. Its distinctive look is enhanced by custom binding, deluxe pearl fingerboard inlays and a pearl-and-brass globe inlaid on the headstock.
Glyph
• We first laid our eyes on Glyph’s new Trip2 technology at the 113th AES show last October. To say that we were impressed just won’t do it justice. It was as solid as it could be, amazingly quiet and built with extra technological advances such as Quiet Metal that drastically decreasing vibration noise and S.M.A.R.T technology which allows your computer to monitor the health and well being of your drive system. Here at the NAMM show we got to see it’s smaller sibling, the one bay table-top! Incorporating all the same technology and efficiency, this system ships with your choice of 60GB, 120GB or an amazing 180GB drive that is hot swappable for use with other Trip2 systems.