Musical Instruments

The trip to NAMM this year was packed! I thought I’d write a post of some things that personally caught my eye in a head-scratching way. My francophone counterpart, Marc-Andre and I walked dozens of kilometers over the past four days.    Here’s a few of the things that made me go hmmm …   (including the 24 string bass guitar shown here!)

It was really only a matter of time before Fender would introduce USB connectivity to their Stratocaster line.  Why would you want to have a USB port on your guitar?     It really comes down to convenience. By putting a small USB port (and an A/D converter) in your guitar, the guitar signal is digitized locally and then transmitted to your computer (or other device) over a USB cable.   The guitar retains all its standard analog capabilities BUT outputs to USB as well.

From what I understand, Best Buy and ESP are negotiating an exclusive model of their guitars that you can only get through Best Buy. Unfortunately, I can’t share any details about that deal at this point in time.   However, I took a spin through the ESP booth today and was left speechless by what I saw. There are some beautifully crafted guitars hanging on the walls throughout the booth. The folks at ESP obviously like building guitars and are very creative …. to the extreme! To placate your interest, take a look at the photos of the models we found there…

The iLoud Studio Monitor Speaker is a small package that can pack a hefty little punch. It’s meant for listening to music like other wireless speakers, but it also has special features. If you’re a musician looking for a small keyboard amp or software-driven guitar amp, or if you need to check mixes on the go to make sure they’ll translate well to other systems, the iLoud has you covered.