NAMM Photos (from 2007)

PedalSnake Does NAMM

2016 Update

Since PedalSnake began selling direct retail, we have not attended the NAMM Show. But we thought these photos from our last show in 2007 would be fun to keep around. It was certainly fun taking them.

Jody "KingSnake" Page, the PedalSnake inventor, always tries to get the most out of the NAMM show.

Always an adventure...some stars, new friends, old friends, and fun (mostly).

And more...a pre-show play day was spent in and around Malibu, with a major hike up the 1300 foot summit at Mugu Peak (north of Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway).

Jody wants to live in Malibu now.

Go figure.

My man Boosty (above). Nice shades.

I snatched em and ran like hell right after this shot. He couldn't catch me...you know...the boots and all.

My man Rick Derringer (right). I've always liked the signature rhythm riff in "Free Ride" (when Rick was in Edgar Winter's White Trash), so he showed me how he plays it. He's still got it. You should hear is wicked solo jazz instrumental version of "Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo". We jammed some blues at 2005 NAMM when he played in the booth next door to PedalSnake. Good bluesman too...but there was no 2nd ax nearby this time. (2015 update: Dan Hartman wrote "Free Ride" and played guitar on it. Oh well, Rick still played it well.)

Big Eddie (above). Mr. Van Halen stopped in at Fender's after-party one night to demo Fender's new replica of his Frankenstein ax. I fought thru the crowd with a Nikon D-50, turned off the flash, and held real still shooting from 20 ft with 80mm zoom. He is still the man, and shredders everywhere imitate what he invented and mastered, but nobody has the

sound and artistry of EHV. He said he could not tell the difference it the replica (above) and his original. It is a masterful job, done in a very limited production run, with each costing around $35,000.

My man Jimmie. I read somewhere that Mr. Vaughan's (Stevie Ray's older brother) signature Stratocaster was made of poplar, which I thought was a light-weight wood. My older Strat is very light, with some as-yet-unidentified wood. As a result (I think), my Strat has a cool, trashy blues tone that I love,
so I've been trying to find out what kind of wood it is under the white

finish. Thinking "poplar", and that Jimmie may like a similar trashy tone (no offense), I ask "So Jimmie, is your Strat light-weight?" He didn't know..."...well, its poplar, right?" He says "I like it a lot, I think its very pop'lar!" (groan)

By now a crowd is gathering. So, to settle the raging debate, I said "Well, let's see how heavy yourn is." He yanks it out of the soft case and we compare it to one hanging on the wall.

His won't light atall. Now I wonder if it was even his signature model (I didn't look)...and I still don't know what wood is in my Strat.

There's more....earlier at Summer NAMM, he heard me fooling around on a Strat and asked me if I was the guitarist with the Preachers (from Dallas). Now, I wondered why he thought I might be a Preacher, so I asked "Was it was because of the way I looked, or the way I played?" He said "the way you looked."

Oh well...

On my way into my appointment in the Gibson booth (to try out one of the new little Epiphone Valve Jr. amps---they smoke at 5 Watts!), we saw Warren Haynes signing photos outside.

I told Warren (thinking he would enjoy the story) that one of our PedalSnake dealers remembers him and his ax-slingin' buds coming into the store as kids, and how they would come in with greasy hands from the donut shop, and start jammin on all the most expensive axes in the store, all sporting brand new strings.

Upon hearing this, Warren muttered something under his breath that sounded like "he was an asshole".

My man Ronny. Ronny North is one of our fav PedalSnake endorsers. Winner of the All Access Award in southern Cal for "Best Male Guitarist", Ronny is unique and spectacular. He's a shredder, but nobody does it the way he does it, or plays like him. Here he's enamored with an ax made of granite.

At night, we always paint the town with Ronny. He's tons of fun, with all his endorsed clothing lines, and constant, upbeat chatter. But he's not a very good golfer, according to Jon Levy at Guitar Player mag... ;-)

At Summer NAMM, Ronny took us to see his buddy Gary Hoey at Antone's in Austin one night. Now at Winter NAMM, Gary stops into the Fender booth (like all good Strat guys).

Gary does a wonderful creative thing by covering old surf tune instrumentals in a heavy, hard rock style. Dick Dale loves his stuff...

I had to stop and ask directions once. This joker didn't know nuttin. (Prolly drugs...)

The Fender performance area was impressive. This stage (above)is all within the Fender booth, and sound insulated. They ROCKED in there without breaking the NAMM 85dB sound limit outside.

NAMM indoor stage was cool. They put on concerts here each morn as folks are arriving, and each eve as folks are leaving.

I think they were setting up for the evening show when this pic was taken. The bands are usually very good. Lots of cool latin rhythms...

After setting up the PedalSnake display (Tuesday before the show), I found some guys with a rental car who were gonna ride up to Malibu for a hike the next day. Got some cool pix.

I think I want to live in Malibu. Wonder if its expensive...?

The Pacific Coast Highway is quite a drive. We went on north of Malibu to Point Mugu and climbed the summit there. This pic is taken from 1200 feet above sea level---as high as we went before starting back down.

I was sore the next day.