Unlike CES, MWC, and IFA, NAMM isn’t one of the shows we cover extensively. I’ve done some sideline reporting here and there, but never paid a lot of attention. I have yet to go to a NAMM show, but maybe 2025 will change that. Still, I do a lot of guitar reviews and related gear reviews so I thought I’d pay more attention this year than previously. This led to our first Best of NAMM 2024 awards.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
The Best of NAMM 2024 awards are going to a few brands due to our not being able to have boots on the ground. Next year, if possible, we can expand our NAMM awards and showcase more great tech stuff for musicians of all kinds. So here are our first annual Best of NAMM 2024 awards, and congratulations to the brands and devices listed below. Stay tuned for more instrument and instrument tech coverage in the future from Techaeris.
Table of contents
Best of NAMM 2024
Sire Larry Carlton L5
Larry Carlton is a legend and the man has been working with Sire Guitars for the past several years. That partnership has produced some of the best guitars for the money, and the new Sire Larry Carlton L5 is no exception. Here are a few features that make this beauty special.
- Lipstick-shaped 3 single-coil pickups configuration creating an aesthetic and sonic impact, producing a clear and twangy sound. Combining the three of them cancels the familiar hum produced by a single-coil.
- The TOM bridge with string thru body design promotes increased sustain throughout the guitar, improving tone, and resonance. More Sustain allows notes to sound audible for longer duration.
- A redesigned single-cut body made of Swamp Ash, a wood material historically known to produce natural sound, combined with the Edgeless™ hard Maple neck for more fun plays.
EVH SA-126 Special
Everyone knows who Eddie Van Halen is, even if you weren’t born in his era of rock and roll. But not everyone knows that his son has taken up his mantel and is just as good a guitar player as his father ever was. Now after almost a 2-year wait, the Wolfgang Van Halen flagship EVH signature guitar has landed and it is freaking spectacular!
The very definition of innovation incarnate, the SA-126 is a hybrid between semi-hollow and solid body guitar: think chambered/center block solid body blended with a bolt-on neck, then kitted out with features most frequently associated with high-performance guitar brands such as a slim neck, jumbo frets and higher output pickups.
The brainchild of Wolfgang Van Halen, the instrument was created with versatility in mind, striking the perfect balance between pummeling rhythm tones and lightning-fast lead runs.
Boss VE-22 Vocal Effects and Looper Pedal
BOSS makes some outstanding gear and while they’ve catered to guitar players with their multi-effects processors and analog pedals, they also have something for you singers out there. The new Boss VE-22 Vocal Effects and Looper Pedal is a great add to any singers’ arsenal.
Whether you’re using it live onstage, in the studio, or for practice at home, the BOSS VE-22 is sure to impress. This compact stomp box offers the company’s best vocal effects yet, including harmony, reverb, and delay. The beautiful harmonies closely follow your vocals and automatically adjust to fit the key you’re singing in. But BOSS didn’t stop there. The company also loaded the VE-22 with outstanding pitch correction.
You can use the pitch correction to subtly sweeten the signal or push the envelope with hard-tuned effects. There’s even an onboard looper with 37 seconds of recording time to expand the sonic possibilities further. On the I/O side, this unit has a microphone preamp with switchable phantom power and sensitivity, an auxiliary input, a headphone output, and stereo XLR outs. You also get a USB-C audio interface for recording directly into your DAW.
Mackie ShowBox All-in-one Performance Rig
While company’s like JBL and SOUNDBOKS are making big ass portable speakers that can be used with your instrument, they’re nothing compared to Mackie’s ShowBox. At least in terms of being used for the traveling musician.
Live performers searching for a supremely capable battery-powered speaker will fall in love with the Mackie ShowBox. Sweetwater can confirm that it lives up to its billing as an all-in-one performance rig. The speaker is both a sensational guitar amplifier and a seriously capable PA speaker. It has an onboard 6-channel mixer with four Onyx80 preamps and inputs for line-level sources.
Speaking of the mixer, you don’t have to be behind the speaker to make level tweaks. The Mix Agent and AutoMix functionality automatically monitor levels and make sure all performers are heard loud and clear. And if you need to tweak an EQ, the breakaway mixer makes it happen quickly from anywhere onstage. We’re just scratching the surface of this battery-powered speaker’s amazing capabilities. Read on to discover how the ShowBox can change the way you play guitar onstage.
Yamaha Seqtrak Mobile Music Ideastation
Yamaha has been at the center of world-class sound for over a century. They’ve pioneered work with pianos and organs before expanding to band and orchestra instruments, synthesizers, and all manners of musical mastery.
With the Seqtrak mobile music ideastation, Yamaha’s distilled this finely honed expertise to craft a flexible, all-in-one module that combines two powerful sound engines with an intuitive interface and streamlined form factor. It lets you take a full studio’s worth of beat-crafting anywhere you go.
Sound designers at Sweetwater are impressed with the Seqtrak’s adaptable suite of connectivity options, boasting a rechargeable battery for uninhibited, completely mobile creation alongside USB-C MIDI capabilities, allowing it to seamlessly integrate into any stage, studio, or on-the-go workflow. Moreover, the accompanying Seqtrak app not only grants further control over the instrument’s wealth of onboard FX, sampling, sequencing, and real-time track building, but includes a Visualizer mode to transform your tunes into a distinctive audiovisual array.
That wraps up the Techaeris Best of NAMM 2024 awards. A short list but a worthy list. Stay tuned as we cover more instruments and instrument tech this year and maybe even make it to the live NAMM 2025 show!
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Last Updated on March 13, 2024.
