WHAT GRABBED OUR ATTENTION ON THE
SHOW FLOOR
By Dajaun Martineau
Dajaun Martineau is a gold-certified producer , songwriter , multi-instrumentalist , and mixer with multiple Juno-nominated projects . He recently moved from Toronto to Los Angeles and acted as another set of eyes and ears for CMT .
I
was weary about attending a music trade show after the events of the last couple years , but once I walked through the doors my anxiety melted away . The sizable attendance at The 2022 NAMM Show was proof that people are ready to get back to business and maybe a little pleasure too . It wasn ’ t quite the jampacked event that it has been in previous years , but it was a huge and exciting event regardless . I had a wonderful experience reconnecting with old friends and making connections with new people from all corners of the entertainment industry . There were lots of murmurs about the very obvious absence of some major players but I personally felt like it created the perfect environment for the boutique manufactures and indie developers to shine . That is why I have unofficially dubbed 2022 as the “ Boutique NAMM .” Who needs another Telecaster anyway ?
While some of the major guitar manufacturers were not present at the event , there were still so many amazing guitars to see that I didn ’ t actually make it to every booth in the three days . In the prog and metal world , guitar manufacturer Aristides came all the way from The Netherlands to share a booth with Canadian amp and pedal manufacturer Revv . Aristides are uniquely-molded guitars formed from their own proprietary compound called ‘ Arium ,’ which allows the guitar to be stamped as a single piece . The neck has a carbon fibre mesh for improved stability and the fretboard is made of Richlite . These guitars are a fascinating look at the future of guitar manufacturing , showing what can be done with wood alternatives and new manufacturing processes . Revv sharing the booth with Aristides was an excellent pairing allowing players to demo their high-quality amps with unique and impressive guitars .
On the digital side of the guitar tone world , amp simulation company Positive Grid got a lot of attention by winning NAMM ’ s Best in Show award for their new Spark Mini , a tabletop practice amp that includes the best of their software . Their iPad app and DAW plug-in has been a studio standard for years and now comes in a compact , all-in-one package . The amp is easy to use and its incredibly small footprint allows you to have huge amp sounds in a tiny space . Astonishingly , it can run for up to eight hours on a single charge .
The boutique guitar showcase got a lot more attention this year with the majors not showing . Curated by Canadian Jamie Gale , there were some beautiful works of playable art . OD Guitars from Israel had three stunning pieces on display that played beautifully . Omer Deutsch handmakes his guitars professionally , crafting them out of wood that maintains the likeness of some of their carbon fibre counterparts while playing like an old familiar friend . OD Guitars also featured a unique art piece , a guitar made entirely out of Lego . Another guitar manufacturer that caught my eye was R . Robinson guitars , who designed a really unique resonator guitar with the cone on the inside of the guitar . The resonator has six ports to allow sound to flow out , resulting in a guitar with a very unique tone . The sound existed somewhere between a resonator and a traditional acoustic ; a plunky sound with quick decays encouraging rhythmic fingerstyle playing .
Last but not least , Donner guitars has come out with the world ’ s first truly smart guitar . The DMI Smart Guitar is a highly durable carbon fibre acoustic designed with the beginner guitarist in mind . The guitar comes with a smart interface that has some simple functions and a quick access tuner , but the real innovation comes when you connect your smartphone to the guitar via Bluetooth . Suddenly the guitar lights up , revealing LEDs embedded behind the fretboard . As you start to navigate the app , you ’ ll find the ability to display various chord shapes and fingerings on the neck , making it incredibly easy to learn new chords . Donner also includes educational software and videos in the app . The software will display a chord on the neck and won ’ t move on to the next chord until you play the chord correctly five times . Donner has taken this technology one step further by making a whole educational video series built into the app that displays chords and shapes as the video plays . The software even features a Guitar Hero-style mode where the player can learn melodic lines by playing along with the app as the guitar neck is illuminated with the parts as they come in .
In the synth world , we saw the exciting return of a classic . After 36 long years , Tom Oberheim has regained worldwide rights to his trademark . To celebrate , he released the brand new Oberheim OB-X8 , an all-analog synthesizer with modernized digital controls . I had the pleasure of playing the new OB-X8 and it was immediately intuitive . It felt like a classic synth that I could navigate quickly and get sounds in the traditional physical way . The OB-X8 is a combination of Tom ’ s three favorite classic synths : the OB-X , the OB-XA , and the OB-8 . Oberheim faithfully recreated these synths so accurately that even the knob positions are identical to their
24 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE