Atelier Z Guitar Works Co., Ltd. Booth 3336
BackStage360 had the chance to chat with the US representative for Japanese Guitar Maker, Atelier Z, BassicallyBassGuitars, about the basses they sell.
BEAUTIFUL BASS GUITARS ON DISPLAY AT ATELIER Z BOOTH
Fred Reitz, thanks for talking with BackStage360. What would you say Atelier Z is known for?
Their contemporary take of the jazz bass. They have taken it to the next level. Not only talking about fit, finish, and construction but the electronics packages they offer.
What new products are you offering this year?
We have a Beta 32 which is a 32’ scale six string bass which features EMG pickups with a Split P Bass and a Humbucker. We also have two very interesting 30“ short scale basses. One is a four string called the “Baby Z” and the other is a five string.
The wood tones on some of these basses were out of this world!
For More info:
BassicallyBassGuitars
Melbourne, Florida
EBS Sweden AB Booth 5645
BackStage360 talked to Ralf Bjurbo, Marketing and Artists Relations Manager at EBS.
RALF BJURBO WITH EBS SPEAKERS
Tell us about EBS.
We are a company for bass players, with everything from professional bass amps down to accessories, (effects) pedals, and everything between.
No bass guitars?
No bass guitars, not yet, but we see what the future brings.
What’s EBS’s latest innovative product?
A new amplifier entirely made in Sweden. It’s a new solid state amplifier. There’s a lot of high grade amplifiers out there but we designed it for touring and recording professional musicians.
I saw you also have a “Programmable Pedal?”
It’s a little bit experimental for us. A few years ago our designers designed a digital platform. The first project was a delay pedal.
But that sound can be changed in a million different ways can’t it?
You can use the program for other sounds. It’s like a pioneering project for us.
For More Information:
EBS Sweden AB
Grindstuvägen 44-46
167 33 Bromma, Stockholm Sweden
Phone: +46 8 735 00 10
Email: info@ebssweden.com
ebssweden.com
facebook.com/EBSSweden
Electro Voice Corp. Booth 18,724
BackStage360 spoke with Paul Heyerdahl about what EV is up to this year at NAMM.
Evolve 30M ON STAGE
What is it your debuting this year? What are you showing off?
We’re headlining the show with the Evolve 30M our new column speaker system.
It’s a 10 inch sub-woofer built into the bass. Overall the entire system is 1,000 watts. The column itself comes in two pieces, with the head top containing six 2.8 inch neodymium drivers built into it. It breaks down into the head piece and two column pieces and ships with a backpack. You can put all your cables in there along with the head piece and two column pieces making it extremely portable. We partnered with Dynacord to build an eight channel CMS mixer in the back of this guy.
Paul also mentioned that both levels and additional effects i.e., reverb and delay, are controllable via an iPad AP.
Very impressive tech!
For More Info:
Electro Voice Corporation
Burnsville, Minnesota
PRS Guitars Booth 210 A, B
In a noisy interview room just off the main display area Backstage360 talked with guitar maker Paul Reed Smith of PRS guitars.
ONE OF THE GORGEOUS PRS GUITARS ON DISPLAY
What are you showing off this year for the musicians at NAMM?
We’ve been demonstrating all these guitars whether it be the 35th anniversary or the re-launch of the McCarty’s, or the 594’s or these hollow body SE’s. There’s piles of new S2 models. It’s been across the board there’s not been one specific thing. We showed off the new Dragon we did. One of the things I did was at a press conference we plugged it in (the Dragon) I said it’s not acceptable to me to just make an art piece. I want it to be a musical instrument!
And what beautiful instruments they are!
For More Info:
PRS Guitars
Stevensville, Maryland
Reverend Guitars Booth 5649
BackStage360 sat down early Friday morning with Ken Haas, CEO of Reverend Guitars to talk about this year’s models.
CEO KEN HASS AT THE REVEREND BOOTH
Did I read you released four new lines this year?
We have a handful of new models this year. We did a ton of new colors. I’ll start with the basses. We have a couple of short scale offerings. The first one is a production model called the Sentinel. It is a pro level 30” scale bass. There’s a lot of people who do long gigs and prefer the short scale for comfort. In our second version, the Wattplower base (Mike Watt Wattplower Mark II), the pickup configuration makes the bass sound huge.
In our guitar line we’re offering the new Contender Set Necks with P90’s, our new Retroblast pickups, Bigsbys, and Humbuckers. We also rehabbed the Warhawk. So many cool things happening!
Judging by the beautiful guitars on display I’d double down on the cool things happening thing!
For More Info:
Reverend Guitars
Toledo, Ohio USA
Sawtooth Musical Instruments Booth 6752
BackStage360 spoke with Owner Kevin “Oz” Osborne Sunday morning about Sawtooth and the show.
OZ SHOWING OFF A SAWTOOTH AXE
Talk about the range of products Sawtooth sells:
Gig bags, straps, and tuners. Rudy Szarzo created his first acoustic bass with us, Vinny Appice uses our command series drums and designed (with Chromacast) percussion bags and Michael Angelo Batio created a line of 5 or 6 guitars with us, some completely off the wall. We have djembes, Rain Sticks, Keyboards and we just released a Bongo Cajon.
What did you roll out this year, what are you talking about at the show?
We rolled out the new Michael Angelo Batio Collection. Guitars that range from $250.00 to $650.00. These are “ET” (ET Series) style guitars with crazy pickups. The one I am looking at right now has the “Tele” (Telecaster) style pickups with your single coil and your lipstick pickup. Right in the middle we have two “Humbucker” pickups. You can switch through or play them all at once. It’s a guitar players dream!
For More Info:
Sawtooth Music Instruments
810 Lawrence Dr.
Newbury Park, CA 91320
Strung Jewelry Booth 6110
Strolling around NAMM some cool jewelry caught my eye. After a short conversation I learned that Strung Jewelry is the brainchild of the rock band Blameshift. BackStage360 chatted with Jenny Mann and Mike LaRoache about their jewelry company Strung.
STRUNG “STORM” BRACELET
Tell us about your Jewelry Company.
Jenny: Our Company is called “Strung” and it’s guitar string jewelry. We’ve been in business for about three years.
It’s very cool by the way. I bought some for myself.
Jenny: Thank you!
Where can people buy your very cool jewelry?
Jenny: You can get it on our website which is getstrung.com. We’re also in stores all over the country.
The company has a great story. Checking out their website I noted they have sections for you to shop by genre; Hardrock, Hip Hop, Country, etc. How Fun!
Give them a look!
For More Info:
By: Thorne Schreiber / BackStage360