Absolutely everyone that I know who was at NAMM asked me the same question: "Did you see that round keyboard thing in Hall E?"
The Wheelharp is essentially a huge motorized Hurdy Gurdy that covers a multiple-octave range. Before you get too excited, these sell for about $10,000+
And that concludes our safe sax public service announcement for the day.
You don't see many of Nyle Steiner's EVIs around, particularly one outfitted with wireless MIDI like James Ingenito's.
The makers of the Slaperoo were showing a prototype Slaperoo-type instrument made up of four tuned bars.
The tone produced was less "glockenspiel" and more "rock in a dumpster."
These cute Bow Hold Buddies impaled on the bow are actually bow grip learning aids that force the player to use a proper bow grip.
I like the fact that the frog is on the frog.
At about $140, the Tromba is a great product for kids learning to play trombone. I can't remember how many time I had to have mine repaired after dinging the slide or breaking it in some other fashion.
I played one of these but I can't really tell you about the tone because my embouchure is 30+ years out of date.
As you can see they've also got a trumpet, which is a little more expensive due to the instrument being more complex.
It looks like 2013 is going the be the breakout year for plastic band instruments. While clear saxophone looks cool, that probably would have been kind of disgusting for the trombone or trumpet. At least the player could see when they need to open their spit valve.
When instruments are made of plastic it's kind of a stretch to continue calling them brass or woodwinds. Then again, people still talking about "taping" TV shows and making "records."
Gua makes instruments that are made of something they call "Grenaditte" as well others simply made out of "high grade polymer." Neither option is particularly affordable.
That's enough of the plastic stuff, so here's a big hunk of metal. I almost expect to see Admiral Nelson perched atop the air column produced by this Contrabass Flute.
…or not. I think these just may be the ugliest violins that I've ever laid eyes upon.
Thank god they're electric violins and have less surface area to display the atrocious patterns lifted from fabrics found in thrift store bargain bins.
The artwork on the sides of this cello and violin have that NBA-player-tattoo look to them.
Instead of dressing up the sides, this violin does away with them almost completely.
Chord Harmonicas aren't particularly new but they'd not crossed my before so here they land.
For some reason there were a plethora* of 5-string basses that caught my eye this year. Here is the first of the 5 fives I found.
Sandberg calls this the "Sybil" bass, which I'm sure is a reference to this film.
* In case you were wondering, I consider five or more similar oddities a "plethora." You do know what a plethora is don't you?
If Leland Sklar had this bass it would complete his transformation to Leland the White.
This is the counterpart to the Lairat guitar that I covered in 2010.
Yeah, that was a bad joke but at least I didn't try to work in something about a corduroy pillow.
I'm not sure if the Marleaux Diva bass is attractive or ugly. It's definitely got its own look going on. Somebody must have liked it because it's got a "sold" tag on it.
Actually these frets are supposed to look like that. This 7-string bass is equipped with a True Temperament neck.
Mattisson endorsee, Henrik Linder of the band Dirty Loops, was at the booth. That guy's got some serious chops.
I'm sure that Markbass sells some kind of useful products but it was endorsee Igor Saavedra with his custom 8-string bass that caught my attention.
…that I'd try to avoid ukuleles at NAMM, but there are just too many of them nowadays. In this case, I was lured in by the tiki and then snared by Ukulele with a USB port.
©2013 Barry Wood