I attended Summer NAMM yesterday, and it was a great experience. I look forward to attending again in the future. I did take some pictures, and will try to post them in this thread and in some other threads I'll devote to specific manufacturers.
Some others have posted here that NAMM is closed to the public, and that only people in the trade (or those who have begged a pass from someone in the trade) are allowed in. They are (normally) correct. Once per year, however, NAMM opens their doors to the public on one specific day. The NAMM representative who I spoke to explained that this only happens at the Summer NAMM event.
I registered online, and purchased my ticket. I then had to take a printout of my confirmation with a photo ID to the registration counter, where I received an armband. I learned later that all of the exhibitors and retailers wore lanyards instead.
I had arrived early, so the lines were very short when I registered. Vendors were allowed into the exhibit hall, but John Q. Public was not allowed inside until 10 AM. There was plenty to look at outside. Several glass booths contained interments from different manufacturers, and one installation was devoted to providing free copies of magazines.
As the day wore on, the stacks of magazines reduced in size and were replenished until no inventory remained. As stock was depleted, a sign was flipped to say so and a board was erected to block off that column. This kept the display looking clean and organized. It communicated to me that they anticipated running out of some titles, and had planned for it.
Inside the exhibit hall were booths for a wide variety of instruments, including some ukuleles. Kamaka, Kanilea, and Koaloha were notably absent… but I wasn't surprised because a detailed map of the exhibit hall with vendor names was available when I first purchased my admission. I say that it's notable because Nashville is not a big ukulele town. The guitar definitely dominates here.
In addition to guitars (and ukuleles) there were drums, harps, fifes, bagpipes, violins, violas, trumpets and other horns, and ocarinas. Some booths were devoted to fabric or leather straps, song and method books, custom amplifiers, or to selling exotic woods to instrument makers. A surprisingly large number of booths were devoted to earbuds, wireless, or otherwise. One vendor offered glue-on fingernails for folks who like to fingerpick.
Sorry, that one is a sideways pic here, but not on my computer.
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