Barry Wood's NAMM Oddities 2019 Edition
Guitars
Eight by Eight
I'm not quite sure why there are two 8-string necks on this guitar but on a certain level I don't care. A double-necked instrument with illuminated frets is enough for me.
- Claas Guitars
- www.claasguitars.com
Z Axis Utilization
I absolutely love the look and design of these three guitars. I don't have to say anything about them that the picture doesn't already say.
- Red Layer Guitars
- www.redlayerguitars.com
Awareness Ribbon Overspecialization
While this could be the symbol for Autistic Catholic Pirate Awareness, I think it's just another art guitar from ESP. Until I looked closely at the head stock I never knew that ESP stood for Electrical Sound Products.
- The ESP Guitar Company
- www.espguitars.com
A Better Name Would Be Bender
They call this folding guitar The Ascender. They may have considered Bender but dismissed it due to potential legal issues. In any case, this is the most thorough approach I've seen to the guitar folding problem.
- Ciari Travel Guitars
- www.ciariguitars.com
Fishin' & Fission
I last covered Versoul 14 years ago with a more pedestrian entry. They have seriously stepped their game with this salmon skin beauty that appears to have some sort of embedded Stark Industries power source.
- Versoul Ltd.
- www.versoul.com
Opulence
Spalt never fails to deliver amazing examples of luthierological excellence, which I think should totally be a word.
- Spalt Instruments
- www.spaltinstruments.com
Bee All You Can Bee
A hive with an integrated amplifier is the perfect accessory to this bee-themed hollow body guitar.
- Malinoski Guitar
- www.malinoskiguitar.com
Batting 1000
I can always count on Minarik for something wonderful. It's usually extravagant inlay work or an interesting body shape. This year it's that and some unique carved-top guitars that seemed to be inspired by the work of Sid and Marty Krofft.
- Minarik Guitars
- www.minarikguitars.com
Varicose Guitar
They were probably thinking of a different sort of vein when they created this guitar, like the kind your Aunt Viola goes to the doctor for.
- The ESP Guitar Company
- www.espguitars.com
A Unique Quartet
The Fender Custom Shop has been busy. Here are a pair of Strats and a pair of Teles, each with their own unique character.
- Fender
- www.fender.com
Cut From the Same Cloth
Separation anxiety will be negligible for this particular guitar.
- Sankey Guitars
- www.sankeyguitars.com
Far Out Man
I thought that watching this video and then looking at the guitar would make it look normal, but I did that and now I think my brain is going to fall out.
- Wylde Audio
- www.wyldeaudio.com
Alternate Histories
Alsip Guitars uses "The New Vintage" as a marketing catchphrase, but in the case of these guitars that look as though they came from an alternate universe where steam power was the dominant energy source in WWII, it's more like "The Vintage That Never Was."
- C. R. Alsip Guitars
- www.cralsipguitars.com
Q*bert's Axe
If the classic arcade game character actually possessed hands, he would feel right at home with this guitar.
- Alloy Guitars
- www.alloyguitars.com
Freaky Friday
Orville Ortega created a guitar that looks like a combo amp. This needs to be paired with this amp I saw a few rows over.
- Createx Colors
- www.createxcolors.com
Six Feet Under
Even a startlingly unique guitar can benefit from presentational augmentation.
- Spalt Instruments
- www.spaltinstruments.com
T-Skin
Just your run-of-the-mill carbon fiber, hollow body, Telecaster with orange pinstriping. If Fender had named this model the Forecaster, I think that San Lorenzo would have had to use a different naming convention.
- San Lorenzo Guitars
- www.compositesound.com
Sharpie on Deck
Many people look at modern art and say "my three-year-old could do that," but there actually is some design imbued into these guitars.
- Sjuman Instruments
- www.sjumaninstruments.com
The Professional
When you put together your Jammy you have to feel like a hit man assembling his high-powered rifle just before zeroing in on your mark.
- Jammy
- www.playjammy.com
Freedom To Resonate
The guitar is one of the few instruments where the player acts as a damper for the backplate. Oroborus corrects this by creating an outer shell.
- Oroborus Customs
- www.oroboruscustoms.com
Guitar Rotisserie
It was the six-string cookout that attracted my attention, but the Tele in the middle sports Valvebucker active pickups driven by tubes, which is something I've never seen before.
- Ruokangas Guitars
- www.ruokangas.com
No Cavity Required
I saw these guitars in 2017, but this year I took a closer look at the knobs. When I saw them before it didn't occur to be that a body that thin had no room for electronics inside.
- Didonato Guitars
- www.didonatoguitars.it
Plywood Chic
This has the look of a bitchin' custom speaker cabinet made by that friend of yours (you know, the one with the custom Chevy van) circa 1977.
- Sqoe/Chard Guitars
- www.sqoeguitars.com
Option Paralysis
This guitar opens up a Pandora’s box of the options by offering three pickups in any combination of pickup choice, coil tap, and phase. You could spend all day just deciding on that before even starting on pedal and amp selections.
- Nutter Guitars
- www.nutterguitars.com
Stealth Tech
Appearances can be deceptive. What looks like a vintage lap steel guitar is actually a modern instrument made of carbon fiber.
- San Lorenzo Guitars
- www.compositesound.com
Release the Kraken
If those are islands, then this is a sea monster of unusual size and it's flying through the air, which would technically make it an air monster.
- Gibson Guitar Corp.
- www.gibson.com
Bonus Bling
Not only is this a one-of-a-kind hand-painted guitar, it's also set with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds in the sleeve and dirigible.
- Fender
- www.fender.com
21st Schizoid Strat
For the 50th anniversary of King Crimson, PRS created this guitar for current band member Jakko Jakszyk.
- Paul Reed Smith Guitars
- www.prsguitars.com
Archtop Progenitor
Orville Gibson made this archtop guitar around 1898 which would make it the Lucy of archtops.
- Gibson Guitar Corp.
- www.gibson.com
The Pretty & The Pandering
As nice as the inlay work is on the one guitar, the crass commercialization of the Woodstack guitar would cause the hippies of old to cringe if they weren't now wearing Crocs with socks.
- C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
- www.martinguitar.com
©2019 Barry Wood