Presenting at winter NAMM-follow up

[Chuck H]

For anyone who read the original post...

Wow...What a cluster f#@% the NAMM show is. And despite all the visitors and tag alongs that make it that way, there are still lots of vendors and merchants you have to kiss up to...I hated it. But I'm glad I went. I got "taken to school" on a few things, but I'm glad I went.

The wierdest thing for me was that there were only two types of electric guitar being played. Jazz and metal !?! Honest to Pete. I hear no jazz or metal in current rock and pop music, but thats all that anyone was playing. My amp specializes in niether. It's more of a rocker so I didn't know how to feel about that.

The NAMM show has what the vendors call "sound police" that are walking around with db meters. Anything over 85db gets a warning. If they have to warn you three times they shut down your power for the day. Most of the serious amp presentors had some kind of sound barrier room in their booth. We didn't.

As it turned out I was in a terrible position for presenting my amp. I spent most of the show selling other Dean Markley products, the UltraSound acoustic amps. They are great amps but I longed constantly to spend more time promoting MY stuff. Dean did bring by one kid (eighteen, looked twelve to me) to play my amp who is a bit of a virtuoso. Already signed with Virgin, yada, yada. My amp performed very well and the kid loved it, score.

The only other time I just had to say "damn the torpedoes" and crank it up was when one of Dean's biggest Euro account reps stopped by the booth. He didn't care for the other electric amp that Dean is selling and was about to walk when I grabbed him. A little Italian guy with long shaggy gray hair and a very self important attitude. He plugged into my amp and I saw his eyes glaze over with a look of realization. He played and played until the "sound police" shut him down. At which point I asked him if he liked it. No longer sporting attitude he nodded yes with a rather humble look on his face. I told him to be sure to tell Dean otherwise it may not go into production. Another score. I also got on really well with the other guys in the booth. The designer (for the acoustic amps) and Dean's head of sales for UltraSound. Score three.

So thats three scores and no catastrophic failures.

I didn't get to kick in the door and take no prisoners as I'd hoped. But I think I achieved enough to earn a regular place in Dean Markley's resource list.

I got to play alot of guitar. Mostly acoustic, but some electric. Surprising to me, a lot of pretty good players seemed to think I was really good?!? I had to admit that I was just pretending to be. I met a few celebrities. I got to shop one of my amps around a little at other booths. Everyone seemed to love it.

I truly hate spending time in the company of the kind of people you meet at these kinds of events. But it was a good experience overall.

Oh, Dean did agree to sign my "statement of intent". So I am at least good for whatever is standard in the industry for my effort.

I know it's a long post, so thank you if you read the whole thing. I think it's a good story.

Chuck

[Enzo]

Hey way to go. You could never learn from discussing it what you learned by just being there. I love trade shows, and have done presentations in other industries, so I got some feel for your experience. The show is for the industry, not the rock and rollers on the street. Like the national candy show is not for people who like candy, it is for those who sell the candy.

Interesting they keep the entire show sound level down. I bet it could turn into chaos quickly if everyone started concert level sound. In the coin-op shows the juke box makers are all presenting, and they got a schedule of times through the day when they could turn their juke boxes up. otherwise no sound. That wouldn;t work at NAMM. We never had a hundred different jukebox makers.


Did you get some good swag?

[cbarrow7625]

Chuck, what was the nameplate on the amp at the show. What kind of amp is it (multi-channel? single? master volumes? crank it to get tone?)? I must have walked past the Dean booth a hundred times. Just wondering if I saw or heard it.

[Chuck H]

The swag factor was really low. Probably because of the economy. I was even charged with bringing home some guitar polishing cloths but came up dry. I did take some cool business cards home. One from Aspen Pitman who I got to talf shop with for a bit. I also met a couple of my hero's in amp building (other than you guys).

The amp I built is called the Challenger 20. There was a 1x12 combo, a head, a 2x12 cab and a 4x10 cab, all in tan tolex w/ maroon grill cloth. It's a single channel amp with an effects loop. You don't need to crank it to get tone, but you do have to crank it to get overdrive. It's very good with the guitars volume control. Just crank it up and play. Electronically I was shooting for a "boutique" concept. But IMO the amps came up short cosmetically.

I wasn't in the DMS booth on the main floor. That booth is all about strings and promotion. I was downstairs (think exposed plumbing and mossy walls) in the UltraSound booth. We got about half the traffic as the main floor.

cbarrow, Have you been to previous shows? How was the turn out at this one by comparison? Did you get downstairs?

Chuck

[cbarrow7625]

I got downstairs briefly on the first day. It's hard to stand out as an amp manufacturer down there; it seems like there was one everywhere you looked. So, I probably missed your stuff. I'll look for it next year.

I have been there the past 4 years with the professional loudspeaker company I work for. The show was not as well attended as previous years. There was a lot of empty booth space downstairs as well as in the arena. That pretty much reflects the reduced attendance. It wasn't an unbelievably low turnout but it was a very noticeable reduction in attendance. I also ran into more 'civilians' this year as well - a lot of guys just browsing and not in the industry.

Thanks for the amp info. Hope you do well with getting it branded by one of the bigger guys.

[jrfrond]

I got downstairs briefly on the first day. It's hard to stand out as an amp manufacturer down there; it seems like there was one everywhere you looked. So, I probably missed your stuff. I'll look for it next year.

I have been there the past 4 years with the professional loudspeaker company I work for. The show was not as well attended as previous years. There was a lot of empty booth space downstairs as well as in the arena. That pretty much reflects the reduced attendance. It wasn't an unbelievably low turnout but it was a very noticeable reduction in attendance. I also ran into more 'civilians' this year as well - a lot of guys just browsing and not in the industry.

Thanks for the amp info. Hope you do well with getting it branded by one of the bigger guys.

Judging by your location, I am guessing you worked at Community.

Yes, the show had less exhibitors than usual, traffic was only heavy on Saturday, and the swag factor was nil (hell, I had to BUY picks this year!). However, the business still shows signs of life.

[daz]

Sounds to me like ya done good ! trying to market anything no matter how good takes time, especially with the amount of competition. But you got some very positive responses so good for you ! Just keep plugging away...

[Chuck H]

Yes. Thanks Daz. As was said in the original post "These are good things to worry about"... Absolutely!

I haven't heard back from any of my cohorts yet but it did take ME two days just to "settle in" after I got home from the show. The other guy's will easily take as long or longer. I'm looking foreward with confidence to see how the chips fall.

Thanks

Chuck

P.S. I hope to retain the rights to distribute this design. I certainly couldn't post it in the public domaign, but if I can I'll make it available to independant builders here via email. The Challenger 20 sounds AMAZING and I think it will be a surprise what a simple circuit it actually is. Fine tuning and layout are the key.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

The first show (amazingly about 16 years ago... wow) ...I did was similar and although we got lots of foot traffic and did lots of demos receiving great feedback/reviews... I only sold one 8-10 watt SE KT66 5F2A amp which wasn't even from the new Crusader line I was there promoting!! ha ha...
The absolute worse part was that someone stole my my son's acoustic guitar during end of the first day of the show and after the show was over, during the tear down and packing up... some creeps stole my custom made A or B +Y pedal, my favorite (butt padded) 30" high bench seat and one of my 5' fold up tables, both of which had "Mission Amps" clearly written on the bottom and the table in 4"-5" high letters!! Sheesh!

[Chuck H]

Yeh, there was a lot of that going on. I didn't lose anything but a few people on our row were robbed. And that was right at the end of the show. We packed up right away but some exhibitors just left their booths to come and break down in the morning. No idea how they fared. A few guitars and many smaller items were taken from other booths before we even got out on the last night of the show.

There were no vendors or visitors left at the convention center when this happened. Just because someone is wearing an "exhibitor" or "securety" tag doesn't make them honest.

I get pissed off when someone steals from me. But if someone steals my musical gear, fishing gear or tools I get violent. There are certain things that have more value than their cost. A thief is bad enough, but a thief that would take those kinds of things from someone is somehow even worse.

Chuck

[Manlius]

Sounds like it was a good endeavor, even if you had to deal with some stuff you wish you hadn't had to. I've never been to the winter show, but can only imagine the nonsense and hoops you have to jump through. But in the end, it is the most viable way to get your products into the hands of some people that can help your business. Ah, that is the rub!