Last week was Summer NAMM, the annual (smaller) trade show for musical instruments that comes to Nashville every summer. This is something I look forward to every summer now that I can usually get a pass from some friends that are members of NAMM. They were also able to get a pass for my friend Paul Bogart, shown in one of the photos above. I wanted to introduce Paul to some people I know at Taylor Guitars, since he plays their guitars, and has an amazing story of how they helped Paul after his home was flooded in May of 2010.
I met Paul down at the convention center, and we went into the Taylor room and I introduced him to the guys that I know there, and he got hooked up with Tim Godwin, the new artist relations director, and as far as I could tell, they had a good chat. Paul and I hung out in there a while, talking with various Taylor employees, and playing some really cool guitars. I found a BTO Grand Concert that I got pretty excited about, because it is dangerously close to a guitar I want to do a BTO order on for myself, so I played it for a while. There were other BTO guitars throughout the room that we both played, as well as many stellar standard models that Taylor makes.
We also roamed the main floor of the show, and once out there, discovered that once again, several companies I wanted to see exhibit at the show didn’t even come, and others that were there that I was looking forward to seeing had such tiny booths, that there was nothing worth really stopping for. We did see some super cool electrics in the Larriveé booth, and one is above, which has a spalted maple top. I LOVE spalted maple and hope that at some point in my life, I have an electric with a spalted maple top on it. I think it is the coolest looking wood, but it is quite hard to come by, so you have to wait until someone has a limited edition model with it on there to have a chance.
There were also some nice acoustics at the Breedlove booth, and Fishman had their new Loudbox Mini and Loudbox Artist acoustic amps there that sounded really good. There may be a Loudbox Mini in my future.
Thursday night my friend Barney who works at Taylor and I went to dinner at Margot Cafe, which was amazing. We had a great time and a great dinner and talked about all kinds of stuff other than guitars. It was a nice way to cap off a long day for both of us. I have met upwards of a dozen people who work at Taylor Guitars now, and can honestly say that every one of them have been incredibly nice and professional. Not a lemon in the bunch. That company knows what they are doing as far as hiring great, and personable people. They get it.
Well, Paul and I both came back on Friday and jammed some more in the Taylor room on some awesome guitars, hung out with my peeps in there, and then we went on a mission to find him a road case for a mixing board of his, which proved to be unsuccessful at the show. I suppose his search on that continues. Overall, the time in the Taylor room was a blast, and I was glad to get to hang with Paul that much, and playing some killer guitars. I was disappointed at the no shows or lack of decent booth space and design from many other companies I have interests in, but oh well. Chalk that up to the expense of exhibiting here vs. the payoff in a still fragile economy. Still, I am grateful for the chance to go and continue building on relationships I have with people in that industry.
If you want to see more picts, drop me a line or comment and I can send you more jpegs.
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