Down To Rock #20

NAMM 2025 recap

Once again into the musical equipment battle ground!!!

The NAMM show is back to its former glory and I’m all about it, it’s about time it got back to normal, and the crowds proved it! There were products I wanted to try and plenty of artist demos I wanted to attend. With the help of the NAMM APP and social media posts, the show was super easy to navigate and to keep track of the show schedule. Of course, I was able to hang with my fellow band mates from Rebel Rebel, SteelWitch and the Bounty (ftwrecords.com). I was able to attend demos for Rock n Roll Relics guitars with Ryan Roxie (Alice Cooper) and Soren Anderson (Glen Hughes), who I teched for a few shows in the past. I was able to check out Ciari Guitars, which offer very cool designed folding guitars that can fit in a backpack for easy travel with Quinten Gibson (Darius Rucker) demoing and the Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) model was on display.

Two products that stood out were the Spark mini amp, which is small but has great sound quality with 4 built in tones, clean to super dirty and with the ability to dial in effects/tones via the APP with blue tooth. The other product I was very interested in trying out was the MXR Rockman X-100 pedal, which is a replica of the 1980’s Rockman X-100 box, which was how the band BOSTON got their clean, smooth sound. I used to use the Rockman live with Rebel Rebel during our formative years in California, along with a BOSS half rack size delay (ala Neal X of Sigue Sigue Sputnik). I put it in a product called the Rackmount, which allowed you to slip the Rockman in it to protect the fragile plastic box and slider controls. MXR have developed that vintage Rockman X-100 sound into a floor stomp box pedal, and it is very cool. I was able to demo it for an hour and it replicates the original accurately from clean tones to super distorted with a smooth output. It made my leads super clean and clear, I actually sounded like a pro for a minute! Although not a pedal I would use live, I live by the EVH Signature distortion pedal, but it would be great in the studio for recordings and crisp clean guitar leads.

Overall, it was super fun hanging with fellow musicians and checking out all the new gear and meeting people that keep the live and studio music industry moving. See you again in January 2026.