3. the “pandemic years.” “It was great to help NAMM celebrate its 125th anniversary in Anaheim this year, and the show was busy for us,” said Chris Martin, chairman of Martin Guitar. “There are definitely more consumers attending, which I think is a good thing. Some of our independent dealers decided at the last min- ute to attend. And some of our international distributors decided not to attend. I’m not sure if the international distributors not attending was because of economics or poli- tics. [Regardless], I was excited to be able to talk about and show some of our Project 91 guitars. I never imagined we would have found enough 45 quality, CITES-compliant Brazilian rosewood to make another run of pre-war-style D-45s.” WIRED FOR INNOVATION While heritage models, like Martin’s D-45, remain powerful anchors for the category, manufacturers across the guitar spectrum also used NAMM as an opportunity show off how they’ve innovated around the in- strument, leaning into the latest technol- ogy to enhance the playing experience. One example is Yamaha’s TransAcous- tic TA-S3C, the latest update in its line of fully acoustic models with reverb, chorus, delay and looping effects built directly into the instrument. 5. “With the new TA-S3C, we’re taking that next-generation platform and making it a little more accessible for everybody,” said Andy Winston, Yamaha’s guitar prod- uct training specialist. “This model uses the FS body shape with a cutaway. The dealers we had selling the dreadnoughts were saying, ‘I could have sold more if we’d had a smaller body.’ So, we took the tech from the TransAcoustic and put it into a smaller body shape.” Winston said many don’t realize the technology behind Yamaha’s TransAcou- stic guitars originated in the company’s piano division. “About 20 years ago, you could buy a TransAcoustic piano — it was an up- right piano with a large processor and an 8-inch speaker built in, doing chorus and reverb on an effects signal alongside the acoustic piano sound,” Winston said. “Then, about 12 years ago, we got it small enough to fit into guitars — that was the first generation of TransAcoustic with reverb and chorus. This is the next logical
step: figuring out how to put more into it while keeping it useful and not gimmicky. A lot of people don’t realize that Yamaha learns from every division in its build- ing how to make our products, including guitars, better. Having that technology cross over from pianos to excel in guitars is really exciting.” Kepma Guitars USA released a similar acoustic offering at this year’s show with
its Lamplight Series. “The new Kepma Lamplight guitars pair bold, story-inspired aesthetics with premium tonewoods and a comfortable Grand Auditorium design, but, at the core, is its advanced AcoustiFex L1 Smart Loop pickup system, which lets players access studio-quality effects — plus a built-in looper, metronome and drum machine — right from the guitar without exter-
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