What exactly IS NAMM anyway?

[David Powell]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

When was that David? Please, when you get a chance study our Factory Tour pages which give only hints of how hand-made and hands-on we actually are from the raw lumber to the finished product.

I don't think any Factory Basses were ever made in this fashion regardless of how good some think the 'old ones' were. We are actually more like old school Violin makers but making solid Body Electric Basses employing some of the transferable techniques used in the centuries past.

I didn't mean to imply that the level of care was as great as what you give, just that there was more individual attention given than the current state of affairs. I guess the time I was talking about was "in the days when Roger Rossmeisl worked for Rickenbacker ...." that was in the sixties. Before that he worked for Gibson, after Rickenbacker he worked briefly for Leo Fender. Probably he should have never worked for anyone but himself or his father Wenzel who founded Roger guitars in Germany. In that time, no, there was no company in America that did it how you do it. But we are talking about extreme attention to detail when we talk about your methods and philosophies and I have taken the "tour". But there was a time when at the factories of Rickenbacker, Gibson, and even to an extent Fender, that individual makers ideas and building philosophies were more important than corporate bottom lines. For instance at Rickenbacker, Rossmeisl did the set-ups and dressed frets as well. He wasn't just at the drawing table. Of the surviving legacy American companies, Rickenbacker is definitely not Ken Smith. But in my opinion, there is still more care there than in many others, possibly because the business is still family owned. I can see it and hear it in those instruments.

But more importantly, what would you think of a true custom bass guitar maker's trade show? Perhaps a more intimate thing than NAMM where a small shop like Jim's could visit instead of wading through all the ___ at NAMM.

[Tim Bishop]

I thought NAMM was an acronym for National Association of Making Money! LOL..... : )

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

I thought NAMM was an acronym for National Association of Making Money! LOL..... : )

Hello Tim and welcome!

[John Sprague]

Hey Ken, I'll ring in on this one with one small tidbit:
On Sunday, they made everybody show photo ID to match the badges, which cut down on alot of the riff-raff. Sunday was all business, that insanity of trying to tie up the loose ends amidst a flood of people thinking they were gonna buy a cheap instrument or get a star's autograph was thankfully gone.

I think the days of getting dealers to make appointments was gone before my time, I've never had any success with it. I've even walked the floor hunting down specific dealers that I wanted to meet. Two of my top ten I met that way lol. That's alot of money to put into that show to think "well, maybe". I don't blame you for bailing.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by John Sprague

Hey Ken, I'll ring in on this one with one small tidbit:
On Sunday, they made everybody show photo ID to match the badges, which cut down on alot of the riff-raff. Sunday was all business, that insanity of trying to tie up the loose ends amidst a flood of people thinking they were gonna buy a cheap instrument or get a star's autograph was thankfully gone.

I think the days of getting dealers to make appointments was gone before my time, I've never had any success with it. I've even walked the floor hunting down specific dealers that I wanted to meet. Two of my top ten I met that way lol. That's alot of money to put into that show to think "well, maybe". I don't blame you for bailing.

On Sunday John most people have already left town or are too hung over from Partying on Saturday night. It's the Thursday, Friday and *Saturday (*mainly) that kills me. Sunday ends early and is a walk in the park compared to Fri and Sat. They do that just to make believe they are doing something. In the mean time, NAMM has already published "RECORD Attendance" (to the trades) for Fri and Sat like we get a piece of the door or something. So much BULL, that I watch Politics now on TV to make up for what I miss (not) at NAMM...lol

[Richard Prowse]

Vietnam
______

[Mike Pecanic]

My girlfriend loves Saturdays at the NAMM. It is a textbook exercise in 'wierdo-watching' for her. I go to run into old friends. But I will never work a booth there again, it is hell. And it takes weeks to recover too.