Barry Wood's NAMM Oddities 2009 Edition

 Packrat Barry

You Figure It Out

Oddity of the Year 2009

Neck Spasms

This is quite a unique solution to adjusting the intonation of individual intervals on a guitar. They are accomplishing this by tuning each and every note on the neck individually.

It'd be a great candid camera moment if you brought one of these into a luthier and told him "I think my frets might need a little work, can you fix them?"

Neck Spasms

The Terminator

The Celestion booth was hosting probably the priciest product at the show, the KEF Muon speakers at £80,000 per pair.

Even with the high ambient noise levels of NAMM I could tell that they sounded pretty darn amazing, maybe not $113,000 amazing but certainly very good.

You should place your order now, they're only going to be making 100 pairs of these.

The Terminator

NAMM Milk Bags

These were not the largest specimens I observed at NAMM. I was complelled to take this photo because I'd just seen some larger than this jiggle down the isle.

My thanks go out to the Road Ready Case folks for supplying the visual aid.

NAMM Milk Bags

A Real Page Turner

With a simple footswitch actuator, this music stand will turn the pages for you. It worked every time I tried it there at the show.

They need to figure out how to build one of these into the music shelf of a piano.

A Real Page Turner

Your Tone is Toast

You get all the tone you might imagine you would get eith a 9V battery-powered amp built into a toaster.

Your Tone is Toast

Guitar Bra

The perfect accessory for the guitarist who thinks you can never have too much leather or too many spikes.

I would love to see some metal guitarist pull one of these off their guitar to find they've been playing a Daisy Rock axe.

Guitar Bra

Liberace Would Have Loved This

Instead of the guts of a piano, this piano contains strobe lights, revolving colored lights, and a fog machine, all of which can be seen through the clear side panels. Oh yeah, you can put a MIDI keyboard in it too if you want to play it.

Liberace Would Have Loved This

Flashy Mic

The Martin Ranger NK-450 would be the perfect mic to pair with the piano above. This mic has about eight LEDs that flash in sequence.

Flashy Mic

Emerson Under Glass

The perfect gift for the prog rock fan who has everything, and I mean everything. The detail they put into the big Moog was quite impressive.

Emerson Under Glass

The Visible Metronome

It's just not NAMM without some new application of tranlucent materials. This year metronomes got the treatment.

The Visible Metronome

Sax Partner

I swear, that's what they called this product. If you owned more than one of these would you be a polygamist?

While I doubt that the built-in mic will "capture the natural tone color of your saxaphone without compromising sound quality", combining the mic with the on-board reverb and mp3 player makes it a pretty cool practice accessory.

Sax Partner

Mime Is Money*

The people who make this handheld mp3 player/DJ unit say "This will be to dance music what electric guitars were to rock'n'roll"… uhhh, yeah.

* extra credit for anyone who knows the reference

Mime Is Money

Ah Bin Hypmotized

ZVEX had these giant spinning glasses in their booth. The glasses were an appropriate visual metaphor since their pedals have a disorienting affect on the people who hear them.

Hypmotized

Never Out of Reach

Grip Studios has come up with a unique approach to guitar hangers. These can be adapted for use with existing String Swing hangers so you don't have to punch more holes in your walls.

This display reminds of the "helping hands" in the film Labyrinth.

Never Out of Reach

Wine Cellar for the Garage Band

A doubleneck version would look a lot like a Gibson EDS-1275. They ought to make one and present it to Alex Lifeson, as he's quite the oenophile and an EDS-1275 player.

Wine Cellar for the Garage Band

©2009 Barry Wood