Christmas may be long over, but for MI, the chance to view all the hot new toys comes later. It was NAMM time all over again and many companies chose the show as a chance to debut their hottest new products, and even some companies made a first big splash in Anaheim. So what was this year’s Tickle Me Elmo?
Let’s start with guitars and amps. One of the biggest pairings in MI kicked off on the first day of the show—Fender and Roland. These two merged technology and innovation to come up with the VG Stratocaster, which combines Roland VG circuitry with Fender’s Strat. It’s got 37 sounds, including Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking, 12-string, and acoustic, as well as five alternate tunings. Switches and knobs on the front of the guitar let the user access all of the sound possibilities.

Two other companies came together at the show, but not to co-develop a product. Rather, Taylor Guitars reached out to D’Addario and Company to endorse the Planet Waves Humidipak. Based on the same concept D’Addario had been using on its reeds, the Humidipak is a two-way humidity system that maintains a 45 percent humidity environment for wooden instruments. The product comes with pouches for the soundhole and the headstock, as well as three packets that emit and absorb humidity in order to reach the optimal level. As part of the Taylor Guitars endorsement, a Humidipack will ship with all Taylor guitars beginning in April.
Tronical’s got a new system that self-tunes electric guitars. It’s called the Powertune System and its individual memory recognizes the player’s tuning preferences to tune the guitar in two seconds to an accuracy of 0.2 cent. There are some pre-programmed presets, and the user can set some of his or her own.
On the amp side comes a new series from Crate. Even as Loud Technologies is moving its St. Louis Music plant overseas, the company is still bringing out new products like the FlexWave Series. These models are equipped with the patented FlexWave Evolution 5 preamp that offers three-band EQ and Sequential Cascading Gain technology for more precise tone shaping.

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