I may not be enough of a gear-nerd to follow NAMM like a hawk each year, but inevitably there are always going to be some items of interest I get excited about and I thought I would share a few here.
New Earthquaker Devices pedals:
I’ve had chances to hear Earthquaker Devices products in action and it’s no wonder that they are one of the most hyped stompbox manufacturers out there right now. I can’t afford to buy pedals anywhere near as much as I would like but rest assured effects like the Rainbow Machine and Organizer have been on the top of my wish-list for the past year or more. Well, time to put even more strain on your finances and decision making because Earthquaker just unveiled two new awesome effects; The Pitch Bay and Terminal.
I’m a sucker for a good pitch-shifter, and the Pitch Bay also packs in distortion and a polyphonic harmonizer to make sure you’re getting you’re money’s worth in out of this world weirdness and sonic experimentation. The Terminal, on the other hand, is the true fuzz-lover’s fuzz. But hell, take a listen for yourself and see what you think.
http://earthquakerdevices.com/pitch-bay-polyphonic-harmonizer-and-terminal-fuzz-at-namm-2014/
Spector unveils new Dan Briggs signature model bass:
This one takes the top prize in “holy crap!” and “it’s about time they finally did that”. Dan Briggs’ bass playing in Between the Buried and Me is already the stuff of prog-metal legend as far as I’m concerned, but it was his tone on the Trioscapes’ debut record Separate Realities that cleared up any unlikely misconceptions regarding his bad-assery. It was through him that I first heard about Spector, now I love my Q4 Pro like a child and it’s not even one of the more expensive models. The full specs aren’t available as of yet, but it’s based upon the NS 2000 5-string and will have a figured maple top, EMG-HZs and a TonePump Jr. Preamp. More info will be available soon and I’ll likely be salivating over this one for a while since it’s supposed to carry a $1,999 price tag upon it’s release (I can’t remember if that’s list or not but I hope so). With it being built to his specs I don’t doubt that it will sound amazing, as Dan’s tone in the aforementioned record strikes the perfect balance between modern active sensitivity and old-school passive growl when he digs in with distortion engaged. This thing should be close to everything I would personally want in a bass if his range of clean and effected tones on his recording portfolio are an indication.
New Digitech Bass Whammy:
I’ve hard praises sung for Digitech’s whammy pedal for years but I’ve never owned one for myself. Looks like I might need to change that soon because this thing sounds pretty rad, especially the chord modes and the extra pitch-shifting intervals such as 10ths.
http://www.guitarworld.com/namm-2014-digitech-introduces-bass-whammy-pitch-shifter-pedal
Although I’ve decided I’m definitely either going Ampeg or Sunn tube with my next amp, I’m also digging the new Orange OB-1K. It’s a 1000 watt solid state bass amp that sports a look similar to the Orange tube guitar heads such as the Rockerverb models.
Oh, and Hiwatt bass! Man I wish…maybe someday.
That may not be much but like I said, extensive Namm coverage for all things bass-related isn’t really my thing. These few items I just talked about however, are.
The (slightly) Discerning Bassist 