January 2001 NAMM Announcements

[darren wilson]

I figured we might as well open a thread for the various NAMM announcements that are going to be coming over the next few days. I'm sure just about every company is going to have stuff of interest to us, even if it's not just Ibanez.

I was cruising by Peavey's site the other day and noticed that they've got live artist chats set up with George Lynch and Dweezil Zappa (among others) starting tomorrow (Jan. 18th). Interesting... i didn't know Lynch played any Peavey gear. New developments?

Man, i love this time of year... New cars at the Detroit and L.A. auto shows, new Macs at Macworld San Francisco, and new guitars and music gear at NAMM. What more could a gear-head want?

[rgr]

Apparently Lynch has a signature Peavey amp coming out. *I had heard that he was working with Soldano but apparently that fell through. *Supposedly the amp is based on the Ultra series so it should be interesting. *

Side note: I wish George would put out some new stuff, he was always one of my favorites. *The last thing up at http://www.georgelynch.com was that he was working with Matt Kramer (originally with Saigon Kick) so I have high hopes for that. *They haven't updated/finished that site in forever though.

Roger

[ChrisReedSmith]

I just saw a 2page ad for Marshall's new line of Valvestate stuff. Called the "AVT" line. Or maybe it was ATV. im not sure but it was along those lines. I dont know if those are supposed to be new products from NAMM or what but I've never seen them untill now.

cw

[jemsite]

I just put a frontpage blurb to this topic if anyone has news Good idea Darren... glen

[alienx]

Yep, it's the called Marshall AVT series... I'm curious too!

[alienx]

BTW Squire has 2 interesting news:

1. A neck thru body Subsonic Stagemaster, and

2. An all mahogany, set-neck, carved top double fat tele.

Both around $700 listprices...

[Anonymous]

I have read on Jemsite that Ibanez is to at long last to discontinue the Jem555.

Rumors have it that ESP or should I say LTD are to release budget versions of the Kirk Hammett KH-2 & the George Lynch Kamikaze.

Is Ibanez going to leave a hole in a long standing product line-up.

I beleive the mass audience for this type of guitar is younger & less fluent with funds than maybe a few years ago. I don't have any figures as to how many Jem555's were sold but I would imagine this guitar has influenced a lot of younger players who may in time move up to a 'real Jem'.

My closing comment would be 'Which guitar will fill the hole of the Jem555 to the younger first time Ibanez buyer? I would chose a RG550 Limited Edition, but then I already own a Jem......

[cmartin]

Its quite likely that this was already mentioned in another thread. In case not:
Ernie Ball now has pics and specs for the JP 6 and 7 string guitars on their site.
http://www.ernieball.com/musicman/gu...cci/index.html
http://www.ernieball.com/musicman/gu...ci7/index.html

[ellsobrien]

Has anyone else heard the rumors that Peavey is thinking about buying Gibson? Just image, this time next year you could buy a Peavey Les Paul!

[jay ratkowski]

That Peavey thing is interesting... Gibson has a lot of companies in their empire (Epiphone, Steinberger, Tobias, etc) that would be a big aquisition for Peavey. *My guess is it'd be more of a merger... but who knows. *Peavey makes some great stuff for the money, maybe they'd turn Gibson around. *

Personally, I'd like to hear Gibson announce that they are shutting down.

[Getthis]

roland is coming out with a 9 bank programmable 10 band eq pedal for guitar/bass. it also has a switch for switching between line and guitar level inputs/outputs

[darren wilson]

The Peavey/Gibson thing does sound interesting, though i don't know how credible that rumour is.

Either way, Gibson needs a good boot to the head. They've been using their muscle over the last few years to acquire good companies with good products and then turning over inferior product (Steinberger, Tobias, Trace Elliot, etc.) or gutting and folding the companies altogether (Opcode). It seems they're only interested in promoting quality in their Gibson line.

Peavey are an interesting company... they're pretty quiet about what they do, and they just keep on putting out new and improved products. It'd be interesting to see what they'd do with the Gibson brands if they took over. Maybe there'd be a Wolfgang with a TransTrem! *

They brought out quite a bit of new stuff today. That new Dweezil Zappa "Wiggy" amp looks totally bizarre and trendy. The George Lynch "Triple X" looks kinda interesting. And the new "limited series" guitars look sharp.

Surprisingly, not too much other news has come out today... just the Petrucci official release and a few Fender/Squier products.

Yamaha has re-launched the RGX line including a long-scale drop-6 model. http://www.giles.com/yamaha1/pressre...guitar/rgx.htm (I'd love to try one of the drop-6 models.)

Yamaha also has released a Michael Anthony signature model! http://www.giles.com/yamaha1/pressre...r/bb3000ma.htm

[alienx]

Peavey overtakes Gibson... No, no, no, that would be a nightmare. If it should be true, then I'd appreciate if they could wait till I get my ES335.

Peavey Les Paul... sounds horrible.

Have you checked the Fender-site recently? Very interesting is the new cybertwin amp. Go and read it...

http://www.fender.com/cyber/

According to Fender it's not just giving a snapshot of the amp it's mimming like other modeling amps. It's emulating the amp since it's loaded with the circuitry information of the different amps. It's complicated, go and read it there. I'm really curious about what it's going to sound like.

Yeah, I love this time of the year too...

[jemsite]

FYI Harmony's Update page is here
(Not that you'd expect much Ibanez coverage)

[lgascoig]

Wow, you can order the JPM w/maple fretboard, painted headstock, and optional piezo (just in case you don't want it). *Sounds cool, but sounds like they are made to order (i.e. it sounds like it will take forever to get one if you order it).