Tag: guitar

Our Summer NAMM top picks

Four great music finds you should check out

  • Oz Guitar Works Tau-6 headless guitar
  • ZT ‘Lunchbox’ Amplifiers
  • OZZtosh gleaming aluminum guitars
  • WalkaBout drums: replace your cajon?

A musician at a NAMM show is like a kid turned loose for a day in a candy store.  Wherever you look, there’s something that makes your mouth water. That’s true if you are a seasoned visitor or a first-time newbie.

Now the dust has settled on Summer NAMM 2018, presented by the National Association of Music Merchants, we can look back at some of the ideas and products that really stood out. NAMM’s ‘Make Music Experience’ sets aside a day each year for ‘prosumers’ to get an all-day, all access pass at a very affordable price. (See previous posts here at NashvilleMusicLine.com.)

Through the eyes and ears of a newbie

Storm. Photo: Digital Bliss

I returned this year (my 28th NAMM) for the full three-day show. But on the final day, the ‘Make Music Experience’ day, I brought along Storm, a NAMM newbie, to experience the vibe through her eyes and ears. Storm is an up-and-coming alternative songwriter, artist and musician. Here are some of the outstanding products we were able to try out.

Let’s start with Storm’s report, in her own words, about two items that caught her attention…

“I can hardly believe when I got the opportunity to attend Summer NAMM, I was so excited,” said Storm. “As an artist walking down the rows of guitars and other gear, I felt like a kid in a candy store. NAMM did not disappoint. There were so many amazing booths, but in particular a couple of products stood out to me.”

Oz Guitar Works Tau-6 headless guitar

Oz Guitar Works Tau-6 headless guitar
Storm tries out the Oz Tau-6 headless guitar

The first was Oz Guitar Works Tau-6 headless guitar. The Tau-6 is a compact, yet sturdy, headless guitar that is, as a NAMM goer said, “effortless” to play. It features a wood neck and aluminum body, modular removeable pick-ups, steel nuts, dual stereo jack outputs, and a clean sheet design. William ‘Oz’ Anderson was a very chill dude and took the time to answer questions and show his guitars.

When I asked Oz about his inspiration for the Tau-6 he replied, “I wanted to make a guitar that sounded and played better but took a minimalistic view. Keep the essential, chop the rest.” Making this guitar did not come without it’s challenges. Oz states that some of his biggest challenges were making the aluminum body affordable and making the petite body attractive. Continue reading “Our Summer NAMM top picks”

Those darn noisy guitars!

Did your dad ever complain about you playing your guitar too loud in your bedroom? Or get upset about ‘that weird music the kids are playing nowadays’? Well, he wasn’t the first to think guitars are the beginning of the end of the world as we know it.

Read these comments by French musicologist Pierre Trichet (1586 – 1644):

“Even in France, one finds courtesans and ladies who turn themselves into Spanish monkeys. Still there are some in our nation who leave everything behind in order to take up and study the guitar… is it because it has a certain something which is feminine and pleasing to women, flattering their hearts and making them inclined to voluptuousness?”

Monsieur Trichet wasn’t the only 17th century musician to view the guitar as an abomination. Here are the thoughts of Sebastian Covarrubias Orosco, writing in 1611, on the matter:

“Since the invention of the guitar there are very few who study the vihuela… the guitar is nothing but a cow-bell, so easy to play, especially when strummed, that there is not a stable-boy who is not a musician of the guitar.”

In case you’re wondering, the vihuela was a string instrument from the 15th and 16th centuries, played in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Those ‘stable boys’ knew a good thing when they saw it. And how many people do you ever see playing ‘air vihuela’?

Guitars: driving people crazy for over 400 years!

Hmmm… the more things change, the more they stay the same! I saw these quotes in Nigel Cawthorne’s “Guitars: Amazing Facts & Trivia,” a book that will fascinate anyone who loves guitars, be they acoustic or electric. You can find the book here at Amazon.