SLEISHMAN At NAMM 18-21 JAN '07
Report By David Sleishman
It had been a while since we graced the halls of a NAMM show (1999 to be precise) and weren’t we happy to be back amongst it!
For those that aren’t aware, NAMM stands for National Association Of Music Merchants. Basically, if you have any business to do with the industry of musical instruments, in North America, you are a member of NAMM.
The ‘show’ itself is one huge beast of a thing, and to quote our friends at DRUM! Magazine… ‘The winter NAMM Show is an annual ritual of high decibels, heavy partying, and hard nosed commerce!’
This year the show attracted a crowd of around 84,000 people (trade only), over its four-day duration.
Name the brand and they were there, showing off their latest and greatest.
We had a ball.
At our booth, we showed off two sweet sounding maple kits. A rock sized silver sparkle set up and a shorter stack, fusion sized, dark cherry fade kit.
Both kits were a hit. Even though they were on the floor, they were just singing.
We also had some beautiful Sleishman system snares with us.
On the snare rack, we had:
1 x 14x5.5 and 1 x 14 x 4 Jarrah, vertical ‘stave construction’ shell snares.
1 x 14x4 and 1 x 13x5, Padouk segment shell snare.
(Both the Jarrah and Padouk shells are hand built by master Australian craftsman, Paul Warry and are certainly in a league of their own).
We also had a very tasty 14x8 Birdseye Maple fat backer with reinforcement hoops.
Our patented tuning system blew plenty of minds. Every one that visited our booth got to hear the tonal qualities that Sleishman drum owners have become accustomed to.
All the snares and the silver sparkle kit were found an American home on day 1. The dark cherry kit followed quickly on day 2!
On day 2, our good friend, Will Calhoun dropped by and put in an impromptu performance. Spurred on by not only a rapidly growing crowd, Will found himself getting right into arguably the biggest head turner of a product at NAMM… The new Sleishman Twin Pedal!
Will has owned a couple of sets now for some time, but was clearly enjoying the feel of the latest model (due out June 2007).
We thought we would bring the new version over to show, under the guise of a ‘pre production model’.
He actually borrowed that set of pedals for his performance at the Friday night ‘Wimbash’, held by Doug Wimbish (Will’s band mate from Living Colour, Jungle Funk and many other projects).
It was a great show/jam held at the Anaheim Hilton to a sell out crowd.
Just looking at our Twin Pedal is enough to get anyone’s attention. It was quite amusing to watch guys walk past the stand, look us up and down (as if they were about to keep on walking), then stop dead in their tracks, as this very different pedal caught their eyes. Soon enough, they found themselves sitting at the drums, checking everything out.
The only trouble was we only had the one Twin Pedal set, so only one drummer a time could get a handle on them.
The feedback on the pedal was incredibly positive and we can’t wait to launch them!
Days three and four definitely became a blur, as there were just so many people around at any one time. We found ourselves all talked out and by the end of the show. Don, our partner in crime Greg and myself, all found ourselves excited and extremely happy with our results at the show. At the same time though, we were totally spent!
It was great to talk to so many retailers, publishers, fellow manufacturers and drummers about just what it is we do and how excited we were to be getting Sleishman going in the U.S.
Bring on the 2008 Show!!! |
