Barry Wood's NAMM Oddities 2013 Edition
Percussion
Take Your Tesseract on the Road
This may be the first example of a playable Hypercylinder. Whether a 3 dimensional construct such as a cylinder actually has any meaning in nth-dimensional space is fairly academic.
…maybe I should have gone with a drummer joke…
- SJC Custom Drums
- P.O. Box 1314
- Dudley, MA 01571
- (774) 272-0591
- www.sjcdrums.com
Left With Just the Cookie
Like the Oreos after your sibling got to them, these drum are missing the filling in the middle.
If you ever want to remove the cream filling of an Oreo, there are some interesting ways to accomplish it.
- RotodruM di Martinazzi Riccardo
- Via Nona, 25 - Vill. Badia
- 2 5132 Brescia, Italy
- www.rotodrum.com
Edward Drumtechhands
With this mechanical marvel you can change your drum heads faster than a NASCAR pit crew. The nut drivers are in slots so they adjust for different size rims.
- Crank It Tuners & Music Gear
- 1919 Market Street, Suite 14
- Oakland, CA 94607
- (415) 307-5654
- www.crankitmusicgear.com
Round and Round She Goes
I'm thinking that this take on speedy drum head installation was inspired by the Spirograph.
- Head On Innovations, LLC
- Glen Allen, VA 23059
- (804) 859-8956
- www.trutuner.com
Toys of Yesteryear
Speaking of childhood toys, these snares provided quite the flashback to my childhood.
- SJC Custom Drums
- P.O. Box 1314
- Dudley, MA 01571
- (774) 272-0591
- www.sjcdrums.com
Globular Clusters
This year Off World Percussion introduced their Gemini (top) and Mothership (bottom) tuned percussion. Each chamber produces a different tone even though they share the same playing surface.
- Off World Percussion
- (360) 921-6988
- www.offworldpercussion.com
A George McFlyism?
It actually took me a bit to figure out that this is a contraction of "My Identity." This may not be the catchiest marketing campaign to grace the halls of NAMM.
- Mapex USA, Inc.
- 12020 Eastgate Blvd
- Mt. Juliet, TN 37122
- (615) 773-9900
- www.mapexdrums.com
Fun For The Whole Family
Kind of like dad taking the kids to an amusement park that sells beer.
- Rockett Drum Works
- www.rockettdrumworks.com
Remo Recursive
Remo really should have taken the next step and had pictures of people playing field drums that had pictures of people playing field drums that had…
- Remo Inc.
- 28101 Industry Drive
- Valencia, CA 91355
- (661) 294-5600
- www.remo.com
A Laptop for Percussionists
The Slap-Top is a the perfect cajón drum for percussionists who prefer confortable chairs. You'd also have the option to dual-wield like this talented percussionist who was doing demos at the Meinl booth.
- Meinl USA
- 3300 Ambrose Ave.
- Nashville, TN 37207
- www.meinlpercussion.com
Mobile Cajón
The next cutting edge cajón innovation comes in the form of the wearable Move Box. There are shoulder straps that allow you to wear this on your chest like an Afro-Peruvian version of a venerable washboard.
- Schlagwerk GmbH
- Brückenstraße 10
- 73333 Gingen/Fils, Germany
- +49 (0)7162 / 948 964 0
- www.schlagwerk.com
Doubles as a Tip Jar
This year's cajón coverage wraps up with one that includes one of the traits that's nearly guaranteed to land a product in the Oddities: translucency, in particular, translucency applied to a product that is typically opaque.
- Tycoon USA
- 5370 Schaefer Ave. Suite B
- Chino, CA 91710
- www.tycoonpercussion.com
The Goat of Legend
I took one look at this giant frame drum and thought about the epic goat that must have been taken down to produce the drum head.
OK, it's probably a synthetic head but that would be one bad ass goat if it weren't.
- The NAMM Show
- www.namm.org
Off the Cuff
I noticed a guy attending the show who had come up with his own method for carrying his drumsticks that allowed him to keep his hands free at the same time.
I wonder how many pairs of "drum pants" he owns?
Surface Tension
This year DrumDial was showing an update of their analog tension meter. I'll bet there are drummers out there that think the analog version provides a warmer drum tone that this digital one.
- DrumDial Inc.
- 1830 East Broadway #124-197
- Tucson, Arizona 85719
- (800) 860-0321
- www.drumdial.com
Podorythmie
With product names like Prolog and Logarhythm it makes me think the inventor of these foot tapping amplifiers is into computer programming and math.
- Logjam Music
- www.log-jam.co.uk
Tsukamaki for Drum Sticks
For the bashing drummer in your life. These sticks have nylon thread spun on them that strengthens the stick and provides more grip.
- Fantastix Drum Stick Company
- 539 N. 4th Street
- Steubenville, OH 43952
- (740) 424-0908
- www.newfantastix.com
Artistic Cymbalism
These Turkish cymbals sport hand-painted artwork. Since the audience won't see these, it must be simply for the viewing pleasure of the drummer.
- T-Cymbals, Ltd.
- 00 (90) 212 286 1088
- www.tcymbals.com
Fey Energies
This year Sabian had a high tech upgrade for the cymbal tower they had up at NAMM last year which gives it a cool science fiction containment system look.
- Sabian, Inc.
- 100 Enterprise Drive
- Marshfield, MA. 02050
- www.sabian.com
Eliminate Spinning Wingnuts
Hmmm, that sounds like a political manifesto.
The Cymloc is a system that allows you to single-handedly remove your cymbals from their stands.
- Cymloc
- 117a Barnard Street
- Wodestown, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand
- +64 21 902 109
- www.cymloc.com
Oddities Lure
Yes, I'm a sucker for things that light up.
- Drum-Net Co., Ltd.
- 101 Deoksan-Ro 99 Beon-Gil, Ilsanseo-Gu
- Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
- www.drum-net.co.kr
©2013 Barry Wood