While at Winter NAMM 2010, I spent some time with my bands bass player and his old band mates from the 60’s. They kept telling me I needed to go to the Guitar Geek Festival that was happening down the street from the Convention Center. I sat on the fence and almost didn’t go. I was tired, my feet hurt and seen enough for one day. Well, at the last minute I went. My friends had saved me a seat which was a coveted prize they had to fight for to hold for me. It turned out to be the most entertainment I had, including all my interviews with famous icons of the guitar world. Not because it was the hip place to be. It was because everyone there just loved guitars of any kind.

Deke Dickerson performing live at the 7th Annual Guitar Geek Festival

Deke Dickerson was the host of the show, or party, if you will. He emceed and played a variety of instruments throughout the night. Very well I might add. At one point “Deke” who had been dressed as a formal cowboy all evening, came out and did a Ramones tribute with his impromptu band which included Tom Kenny-the voice of Spongebob Squarepants as the lead singer. They were all in costume including the correct wigs.

I thought to myself, “this must be what NAMM would be like if you were on acid.” You see, not only were the mega stars of guitar at NAMM, but every poser on the planet was there too. I’m talking sunglasses and capes, mohawks and zoot suits. You name it. There were freaks covering ever possible mix of genre attire. The interesting thing was that they were not trying to be funny. Deke and his crew were. That is a big difference.

Another segment of the show was the “Electric 12 String Nightmare.” Anyone who brought an electric 12 string could join in on stage to play a song together. There were 17 takers. Have you ever heard seventeen 12 string electric guitars going at once? Me neither. It was worth the price of admission alone.

HoneyBoy Edwards was there and did a set with Joel Paterson, a guitarists guitarist. HoneyBoy is 94 years old and still gigging. Amazingly he had to leave because he had to get to another gig in L.A. Billed as the last living bluesman to play with Robert Johnson, he was worth the price of admission as well. Joel brought up his own band from Chicago and blew everyone away. Now I am an official “Joel Paterson and the Modern Sounds” fan. They were beyond “tight”.

At one point during the History of Lap Steel Guitars segment of the show, Chas Smith loosened some of my fillings with his 28 lbs of titanium fury monster slide guitar. Pushing the envelope with this instrument also was worth the ticket in.

Lots of other amazing stuff went down that night including dueling double neck guitars with Brian Longbeck and Elaine Frizzell and it was all headlined by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Duane Eddy. He played a bunch of his stuff with Deke and Joel and never dropped a single note. And it wasn’t  just Duane who played to utter perfection, it was all of them. They are all Hall of Famers in my book. Yes, that includes you too, Crazy Joe. You did Enon, Ohio proud.

Bruce Jacob armed with one of his killer Coil Guitars at 2010 NAMM

We were lucky enough to catch up with the founder of Coil Guitars on the 3rd day of NAMM. Coil makes awesome guitars and their electronics are developed by guitar-playing engineering professors, so you know they’re amazing. Their electronics are insanely versatile, and are now available to anyone to put in any guitar. Check out this video demonstration we shot at NAMM…

Coil Guitars was started when Bruce became frustrated while searching for a guitar with must-have features, like multi-tone circuits, neck-through construction, and an ebony fretboard with real abalone inlays. He had no problem finding guitars with those specs, the problem was that they all cost more than 2 grand. Out of Bruce’s frustration, came Coil Guitars. In addition to making the electronics that Bruce talked about in the video, they also make a pretty awesome lineup of guitars, like the classy Ronin double cutaway ($999) and the asymmetrical double cutaway Hammer ($999), which is bad ass. They’re definitely a boutique guitar company worth checking out.

Photo and video © 2010 by Dan Coplan

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Riffin’ on Gretsch live at 2010 NAMM

Dan Coplan and Oscar Jordan caught up with Fred Gretsch of Gretsch guitars at the NAMM show on Saturday. He is one cool dude. They discussed guitars, rock n roll and the Gretsch Eddie Cochran tribute guitar.  The only thing that could get them to stop talking guitar was the blaring distortion, screeching from punk band Rancid, who began their set, a short distance away.

For almost 130 years Gretsch has been fine tuning what has become known as “That Great Gretsch Sound.” Gretsch was founded by Friedrich Gretsch in 1883. Only 12 years later Friedrich died, leaving the fledgling company in the hands of his teenage son Fred. Fred built Gretsch into a leader in musical instruments, and eventually handed the company over to his sons, Fred Jr. and Bill in 1927. That’s Fred Jr. in the photo and in the following video…

Photo and video © 2010 by Dan Coplan

Another highlight for us at this years 2010 NAMM show was the Taylor Guitars exhibit. They have a TON of killer guitars and not just your standard 6-string acoustic guitar. Nope. Amongst the vast herd of beautiful guitars on display in the room were a few special models that captivated our attention, the Taylor Solidbody Series and The Taylor Baritone 8-string. We spoke with Taylor’s PR Manager Chalise Zolezzi who gave us a personal tour of the latest and greatest from this years Taylor factory. Later we sat down and rapped with one of Taylor Guitar’s very knowledgeable guitar guru’s,  Product Specialist Corey Witt, for a little one on one about the new “Hot Swappable” Taylor Solidbody guitars.

Check out the video below from 2010 NAMM of sharemyguitar.com’s Oscar Jordan testing out a couple sweet Taylor guitar’s and speaking with a few interesting cats along the way:

We spent a lot more time than we had planned in the Taylor booth. It was just slammed with cool people, killer axes and friendly Taylor representatives. I guess they can afford to be a bit more relaxed than your average exhibitor since they are based in Southern California. Not a major trek for them to get to the Anaheim Convention Center. Plus they’re on eof the cool kids of the class. It’s easy to be chill when everyone wants to hang out with you. On top of all this, what was particularly nice was that everything was meant to be touched, scrutinized and PLAYED! We had a blast checking out various acoustic models and at nearly every moment you could hear random jam sessions breaking out all across the room.  I think it’s safe to say that SMG will be checking back with Taylor Guitar’s at next years NAMM show. And we’re also looking forward to posting reviews and info about the guitars we previewed at this years NAMM. Stay tuned.

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New social network for guitarist to launch soon

ShareMyGuitar.com is set to launch a new social network for guitarist. The social network will allow registered users the ability to create a user page, network with other musicians and reach a global market.

Features include options to upload original songs, youtube videos pics and more. Make friends with other guitarist, join guitar groups and forums or peruse the classified section. Create your own blog and share your bio, band links and more with others. It’s absolutely free to join. The social network is set to launch in a matter of days so please stay tuned and we”ll keep you posted!

Yesterday news flew like wildfire around the online guitar world that Gibson’s Nashville manufaturing plant was raided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials looking for endangered rosewood from Madagascar. At issue is the Lacey Act, which makes it illegal to–among other things–possess any plant material that was obtained in violation of any domestic or foreign laws. The Fish and Wildlife Service alleges that some of the rosewood being used by Gibson was illegally obtained Madagascar rosewood, an endangered species.

Gibson has released the following statement:

“Gibson is a chain of custody certified buyer who purchases wood from legal suppliers who are to follow all standards . . . Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO sit on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and take the issue of certification very seriously.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office has not arrested anyone, but guitars and wood were seized from the property.

A military coup that began in Madagascar in January of this year has disrupted the financial stability of the country. Apparently the export of Madagascar rosewood is often linked with criminal activity, though exportation has been legalized by the new, self-proclaimed Madagascar President. Sources close to the NashvillePost.com are alleging that Gibson was involved in a scheme that imported the endangered rosewood through Germany.

It is not clear whether any of the allegedly illegal rosewood has already been made to guitar necks that have left the Gibson manufacturing plant, or whether any of those “escaped” guitars will be retrieved by U.S. Fish & Wildlife agents. If there are guitars that have already been sold with illegal rosewood necks, it will be interesting to watch what that does to the value of those guitars.

It’s also not clear why Gibson has been singled out, because a simple Google search reveals several other guitar manufacturers that also use Madagascar rosewood in their guitars:

• Martin Guitars
• Taylor Guitars
• Ellis Guitars

And those are just a sampling of the first page of results. A quick scan of the first five pages reveals results that are almost exclusively about guitars made from the endangered wood. I’m sure the next five pages show a similar trend.

UPDATE: The Rain Forrest Alliance has issued a statement clarifying some of the issues involved in the Gibson/Madagascar Rosewood raid:

The wood under investigation is not FSC-certified.  The FSC Chain-of-Custody audit conducted in 2008 verified that Gibson has purchased hard maple, mahogany and muira piranga from FSC-certified forests. These woods are used in the manufacturing of the company’s Les Paul SmartWood and Raw Power guitars, which are sold as FSC-Pure with a certificate of authenticity from Gibson. Under the current scope of their certificate, they also have the ability to purchase swamp ash and poplar from FSC-certified suppliers.  No other species are authorized to be sold with a FSC-certified claim under Gibson’s Chain-of-Custody certificate. The certificate does not cover wood from Madagascar.

Until the investigation has been concluded, Henry E. Juszkiewicz, CEO and Chairman of Gibson Guitar Corporation, has taken a leave of absence as a board member of the Rainforest Alliance.

Read the whole statement for more information about what is going on.

‘T-Man’ talks about state’s attempt to stop his performances

1. Guitar Legend Les Paul Dies at Age 94 was posted on the blog  fretbase and although it wasn’t good news and certainly not the “best” news of the week for those of us who worshiped the great Les Paul, it was a great tribute to the Wizard of Waukesha.

2. The 10 Greatest Electric Guitar Players was posted on the website AntiMusic.com and covers their view of the ten most awesome guitarist to have ever attacked a 6-string.

3. iPhone Guitar Apps was posted on the guitar blog My Life With Guitar and reviews a cool new guitar application for the iPhone, what a shocker! This app is called Gigbaby! and gives you a four track recorder, metronome, several rhythms to jam along with and even a whole lot more. Not bad for only $.99 and they even offer a free version.

4. Top Guitar Twitter Users List – Updated this was posted on the guitar site Guitar Toy Box and provides excellent information about Guitarist on Twitter. Learn about who are the top guitarist on the popular website Twitter. Hopefully ShareMyGuitar will make the next list!

5. Gibson Through The Lens Photography Exhibition – Sydney was posted on the guitar blog Guitar Noize and you happen to be in Sydney Australia you won’t want to miss this. The event features an awesome photo exhibition of Gibson and Epiphone guitars. “Gibson Through The Lens” features some of the world’s most respected and prolific rock photographers such as Ross Halfin, Jim Marshall, Neal Preston, Mick Rock, Bob Gruen, Baron Wolman and Robert Knight, to name a few. This will be the first time the exhibition featuring these iconic and timeless photographs of international musicians with their Gibson or Epiphone guitar has been staged in Australia