My Winter NAMM 2011 Pics (3.5MB)

At least, some of them.



There were some pretty hot Jager girls at the Peavey Booth. I saw them later at the Hilton where I was staying. Sara (to my right) was a sweetie. Fun chick.


Here is the TA-30 head. It just dawned on me that I did not play this amp to hear the Gain Boost function :lol: Sorry guys


The RA100. I played this amp for a little bit and it sounded great. The reverb was very nice and the attenuator is definitely very functional. Unfortunately you can't really hear a **** thing at NAMM anyway what with 60,000 people in the same room and the Sound Police patrolling, but I can say that this appears to be a great sounding amp. It is not a two channel, three mode electradyne. Nor is it a bigass Transatlantic. It is a different beast.


The RA100 combo.


The power attenuation section on the rear of the RA100.


Mesa has started to do the engraving and there are only three amps in existence so far. This 'Dyne, this Lonestar, and...


this Mark V. :shock:


I had an appointment with my rep and when I came by for it, Andy Timmons was at the booth, jamming on the RA100. He played a couple riffs off Resolution. Trent introduced me and we chatted for a couple minutes. Andy has a new album in March that I am looking forward to. Andy was very nice :twisted: 8)


Frankly guys, this was a very special moment in my life so far. Randall Smith!!!

We had exchanged two or three sentences before a drunken polynesian man walked up to Trent, Randall, my coworker Ben, and myself. "Are you guys representatives of Mesa Boogie?"

At this point I am mildly mortified, since it is readily apparent that this poor guy has no clue who he's just approached. After an affirmative response, he asked to tell his Mesa Story. The guy tells us about his brand new Triple Rec that bounced off the floor of a club after being knocked over off a cab, and still fired up. He closes with "I bought a Marshall in '83 and I got that Triple Rectifier and they're...they're both...good." :lol: :lol: Randy was very appreciative of the complement but we all got a chuckle after Triple Rec man had sauntered off into the crowd. We all chatted for a bit more and I got the photo op. Randy seems like a nice gentleman indeed.


I got to meet rabies from the forum briefly, but unfortunately I was hungover as **** and didn't get to hang out with him very long. He seems much nicer in person :lol: :mrgreen: (Thanks for the gatorade bro. I owe ya.)

I stopped by the Bogner booth and was wearing my NAMM badge with the Mesa lanyard...I tried to get some pricing info because we're interested in stocking them but their sales rep was not in. Reinholdt was in the booth and while I did not say anything to him, he gave me a dirty look. :mrgreen:

This morning I took the shuttle from the Hilton to John Wayne Airport. After a couple minutes of listening in to the conversation in progress, I realize that none other than Hartley Peavey is in the front seat of the shuttle! Some highlights of the ride over:

"Mr. Peavey, I heard you had a jet!"
"I do. Jet A costs $5.50 a gallon and my [jet, can't remember model] goes through 600 gallons an hour."

...

"If I had been a better musician instead of a builder, I wouldn't be doing this!"
"I tell you what, Hartley, let's swap!"
*laughter from occupants of shuttle, including Mr. Peavey.


NAMM is overwhelming. Very overwhelming. I saw lots of rockstars. There is not enough time in the day to see everything at the show. I was told by some chinese tube amp company "No pictures! NO pictures!" :lol: So I set the cam to movie mode and walked around the booth. :lol: There was a Misa Digital Kitara at the show, and also a Reactable, which were both really cool musical tech toys to check out.

All in all a great way to spend a week off from the sales floor!

Sounds like a huge blast!!

Do go by the Royal Atlantic and demo it more! I'm curious!!

Well, the show's over now, unfortunately. I have a video of Andy playing it but I don't know how good it sounds. Quite loud in there.

nice to meet ya Victor. I pretty much figured either you were horribly hung over or just ate some bad mushrooms. NAMM is overwhelming, I only attended on Friday.

I saw the Opeth lead singer, that's about it, but I know Chad Smith of RHCP was there for Sabian booth (loudest China symbol!)

I gave the Mesa rep (Michael Taylor?) some **** about my bad experiences with Mesa amps (and the good ones), he talked to me for about 10 mins, nice guy.

there are a lot of hot girls at NAMM....

Good for you, great pics too, Did you get to hear Timmons play thru the TA-30 combo? Saw the video on the Mesa site, great tone on that puppy.

Thanx for posting the pics...sounds like it was awesome there.

Unrelated question, but what's inside the large wooden cubicle? In all the M/B NAMM videos I saw, the amps were showcased outside, and there was a large board-room style table inside. Artist signings maybe?

Thanks for posting these pics! Congrats on getting to be there. I hope to get out there one of these years. I also hope to get back to Petaluma again soon to say hello too. Rock on man!

-AJH

it's not really worth the trip. i honestly got kinda bored after 3 hrs...

rabies said:

it's not really worth the trip. i honestly got kinda bored after 3 hrs...

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I would have given almost anything to have been able to go. I'm a drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist (in that order) who also can keep a decent groove on the bass. Between all of those interests, I would have been occupied for hours. Oh well, maybe next year. Thanks again for the gift card!

ifailedshapes said:

rabies said:

it's not really worth the trip. i honestly got kinda bored after 3 hrs...

Click to expand...

I would have given almost anything to have been able to go. I'm a drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist (in that order) who also can keep a decent groove on the bass. Between all of those interests, I would have been occupied for hours. Oh well, maybe next year. Thanks again for the gift card!

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I should say it's definitely worth going once, however. But it gets way too crowded... thx bro.

>Photi G< said:

Unrelated question, but what's inside the large wooden cubicle? In all the M/B NAMM videos I saw, the amps were showcased outside, and there was a large board-room style table inside. Artist signings maybe?

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Places for Reps to meet with Dealers. The walls sorta buffer the nammnoise.

Phyrexia,

You said you had a video of A. Timmons playing the RA100. Any idea on what his take on the amp was?

He looked like he enjoyed it, and was playing some melodies off Resolution when I walked up to the booth initially. I didn't ask him what he personally thought of it - you can't REALLY hear what the amps sound like at NAMM anyway. Even with golden ears and fingers you couldn't.

I did hear some amps being played in hotel rooms and I hear some of the smaller manufacturers bring amps that way for companies and customers to try.

I think people will like the RA100 a lot. The fact that it comes with EL34s to begin with should tell you something about what they're thinking. The attenuator is a cool addition, there is tons of reverb (if you wanted, you could achieve overwhelming amounts with the models at the show)

I am really kicking myself in the *** for neglecting the TA30 combo though.

Dude thanks so much for sharing!! Fantastic pictures!!!

One day I hope to find a way to get into NAMM. Can't wait!