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Summer NAMM Show 2005 Indianapolis, Indiana
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One of the er, ahhhh, more interesting NAMM show
booths had the theme of "Know Thy Market." It was
decorated like a church sanctuary, complete with stained glass,
pews, and pulpit, with lots of not-so-subtle hints about selling
instruments, music, and accessories to people "who play
more music on Sunday morning than they do on Saturday night."
That's Richard Keldsen, President of Saga, and our own Richard
Johnston, two guys who will never get this close to wearing
halos ever again. |
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Here's Chris Martin (C.F. Martin IV), holding daughter Claire
Francis (C.F. Martin V), standing beside "Claire's guitar,
" a Brazilian rosewood Size 5 model made in very limited
numbers (yes, Gryphon has one on order). C.F. Martin V proved
to be quite a trooper, and attended sales meetings as well as
the actual show itself with barely a whimper. With that kind
of a start, we predict that she'll be more than ready to take
over when her dad is ready to retire! |
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That's John Sebastian on the left, with Steve McCreary of
Collings Guitars on the right. John is holding the cedar topped
curly Koa C-10 model Gryphon got at the show (it just arrived).
It has subtle shading on the top and tortiseshell (celluloid)
binding that gives it the warm glow of an old violin. Steve
is holding a 14-fret 0-1, with the kind of sunburst Martin used
on its earliest 14-fret 0-18 models in the early 1930s. Of course
we ordered one of those, too. Bill Collings will be at Gryphon
for a "Meet the builder" presentation on August 27
from 1 to 4 PM. |
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Saul from Eastman is showing off their John Pisano model archtop,
which has been slowly refined in the last 18 months and looks
better than ever. Pisano is one of the giants of jazz guitar,
and can often be found in the Eastman booth at the Winter NAMM
shows in Anaheim, Calif. Yep, Gryphon has one of these models
on order. |
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Goodall's "secret weapon" at trade shows is Jean
Goodall's winning smile, which makes it even harder to resist
those excellent guitars from her husband James and his crew.
Here Jean gets an impomptu guitar lesson from Larry Broido of
Acoustic Roots in Philadelphia. |
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Jeff Huss and Mark Dalton are best known for their Huss &
Dalton guitars, but since they used to work for Stelling they
had a head start when it came to building bluegrass banjos as
well. Our favorite has been the walnut model with highly figured
burl walnut resonator, so we couldn't resist the one on display
at NAMM. Here Tim Nelson, head sales guy, shows off our catch. |
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Tim Nelson said he had so many requests for a smaller flatpicking
guitar that Huss & Dalton decided the try a herringbone
version of their popular CM model. Gryphon is getting the one
shown here, which was built for the trade show, and it really
does look much like a slightly smaller dreadnought. |
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Richard Hoover, the founder of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company,
poses here with a sunburst H model while Donovan MacLeod, head
of sales, holds an F model. Most exhibitors at the Indianapolis
NAMM show complained about the poor attendance, but that didn't
keep Santa Cruz from having a great show.Richard Hoover will
be doing a presentation on SCGC at Gryphon in the fall, probably
in October or early November, so watch for details. |
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