Dick Dale at NAMM 2008 with Fender Guitars

Dick Dale performs with G.E. Smith, Reggie Hamilton and Curt Bisquera at the NAMM 2008 Gala for the Fender Showcase. Personally, I don't think any of those other guys even deserve to be on the stage with Dick Dale. Well, I guess maybe they are. Dick Dale is King! I love his guitar. The Beast. He really knows how to tame that thing! And Dick Dales knows how use reverb better than anyone else on this planet.

Fender John Severson Sonoran SCE Acoustic Guitars

Fender John Severson Woody Sonoran SCE Acoustic Guitar

Fender John Severson Surf Fever Sonoran SC Acoustic Guitar

If anyone knows surf guitar themes, it's Fender. I saw these two guitars in the Fender display at NAMM. These guitars are both acoustic/electric and they are single cutaway. The designs are by John Severson, an artist and publisher. Apparently, Fender has a California Series of guitars, and these are the two models for this year. I think they did a fantastic job!

Smoking Cigarettes at NAMM

No, I don't smoke. However, I could not escape the smoke yesterday outside the Anaheim Convention Center. As it turns out, NAMM is a convention that welcomes musicians, instrument dealers, instrument distributors, and other people in the music industry. And wouldn't you know it? Many of these people smoke. Because I am such a math nerd, I got to thinking about the amount of cigarettes that are smoked on a daily basis at NAMM. Let's take a look at some imaginary numbers. Keep in mind I'm just making this up:

125,000 people attending NAMM
Let's say that 20% of them smoke
25,000 smokers
Convention Hours: 10am-6pm
Each smoker has at least 3 cigarettes during those hours
25,000 smokers x 3 cigarettes each day=

75,000 cigarettes each day at NAMM!

That's a lot of smoke breaks, a lot of smoke, and a lot of cigarettes! And really it's a lot of people standing outside the convention hall doors telling stories of lore about musicians and their gear. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for some of those conversations. Although the fly would probably have some smoke allergies or something. But I'm sure the stories are good ones.

I guess I could also look at the number of beers sold at NAMM. That number would also be astonishing. Or cell phone calls made during NAMM. Last night I could not make a call until I was 4 blocks away from the convention center. My only guess is that the cell phone towers were jammed up with thousands of calls every second of the day.

Well, I'm off to the show!

NAMM 2009 in Anaheim, CA

I am about to leave for my first trip to NAMM. I've been wanting to go to this show for about 10 years, and I finally saved up enough money for the trip. Of course, it was a little easier this year because the economy is in a downturn, so my plane ticket was only $268 for a round trip to Los Angeles with non-stop flights both way. I kinda wish this was in baseball season because I'd love to see the Dodgers and/or the Angels play a game or two. At any rate, I'm planning on seeing some awesome gear and even awesomer musicians at NAMM 2009. I'll be posting updates every night, and hopefully I can get my camera working. I'll take several hundred pictures, I'm sure. Everyone will be like, "Hey. Who let the tourist into the building?" Oh well. It's what I do. I take pictures. And hopefully I'll be taking pictures of some cool surf guitars!