The 2019 Winter NAMM Show featured the best weather we have seen in years, some improvements (and some frustrations) on the Show security front, and a plethora of high-talent events. But the real story is all the cool new gear, of course! We bring you the best of the best – the Bass Gear Magazine 2019 Winter NAMM Best of Show Award winners:
Bergantino – forté HP Bass Head
Jim Bergantino blew us away with his first entry into the bass head market, the B|Amp, winning a Bass Gear Magazine Best of Show Award at the 2015 Winter NAMM Show. Following on the success of the B|Amp, Jim introduced the forté bass head – which offered the same output section as the B|Amp, but with a streamlined (and potentially less intimidating) front end. In truth, the B|Amp’s controls are fairly intuitive, but some folks prefer to just turn a few knobs, and not worry about navigating the LED screen/menus. The forte HP builds upon this approach but adds some of the features which have evolved through revisions to the B|Amp firmware: features such as parallel compression, variable high-pass filter, variable low-pass filter, and adjustable distortion/fuzz. The footswitch-controllable Bright switch now offers the choice of +6dB at 2kHz or +8dB at 7kHz. Speaking of the footswitch, Bergantino now offers a new, beefier Bluetooth footswitch, which can control the Drive, Effect, Bright and Mute functions. All of this is paired up with a new class-D output section capable of putting out 600w into 8 ohms, 1,200w into 4 ohms or two ohms. Wow! That is some serious power! At an introductory price of $1,399, the forté HP has a lot to offer! www.bergantino.com
O J Guitars – Brummbass Acoustic Bass Guitar
Beyond a doubt, the most talked-about item at the 2019 NAMM Show was the amazing acoustic bass guitar from Oliver Jaggi and O J Guitars – the Brummbass. This amazing – and large! – instrument is quite impressive at first sight, but its true merit is revealed when you play the bass. Fortunately, there was an isolation booth in the Boutique Guitar Builders Showcase, and this allowed us to hear and feel the beautiful Brummbass. Playing this instrument is honestly one of the most enjoyable musical experiences I have ever had. The tone is piano-like (an over-used term, I know, but entirely appropriate), but also with an acoustic guitar character, and very much a bass instrument. The dual sound holes allow you to hear it quite well. The neck is detachable for travel, but also allows for adjusting the action. The bridge, thumb rest, and other custom-made hardware are primarily made of spruce (for light weight and to not restrict resonation) but laminated with accent woods for aesthetics. The bridge is very special (and decidedly piano-inspired), with no real “saddle,” and the Brummbass requires custom-made strings (which are actually relatively affordable, at about $40). The bass itself bears a significant price tag of $12,500, but when you consider the outrageous level of time and effort to create this instrument, this seems quite reasonable. Oliver is a third-generation Swiss craftsman with over thirty years’ experience as a luthier. The Brummbass is obviously a labor of love, and believe me, if you play it, you will love it! www.ojguitars.com
Two notes – Torpedo C.A.B. M Bass Pedal
As many of you are aware, one of the most effective ways to change your tone/feel on stage is to bring a different bass cab to the gig. But this is also one of the more significant investments you can make as a bass player, and it’s not really practical to bring a large number of cabs to the gig and then swap them out until you find the best fit for the sound in your head. Once you do find the “perfect” cab for what you want the world to hear, we are sometimes frustrated to learn that our only option is to plug into a DI – and lose the particular “magic” that the cab is bringing to the signal chain. Alternately, we may be provided with the option of mic’ing our cab, but the mic selection may not be ideal, and the mic placement may be questionable. The unique characteristics of the room are incredibly important, as well. Our friends at Two notes Audio Engineering have thought about exactly these types of issues, and their product lineup is aimed at cabinet simulation, amplifier simulation, mic placement simulation, and much, much more. We have been very impressed by their cab simulation products in the past (notably the original Torpedo C.A.B. pedal), but the new Torpedo C.A.B. M pedal really got our juices flowing. It is notably smaller than the original C.A.B. pedal but retains essentially the same flexibility, while adding mobile app support. The pedal comes loaded with 32 Two notes virtual cabinets (5 of which are bass-specific), 8 microphones and 8 rooms to choose from, right out of the box. The C.A.B. M can be used as a stand-alone recording interface (with 24-bit/96kHz converters), or you can add it to your in-ear monitoring system so that you can hear your “rig.” It can be used in conjunction with your favorite preamp, or even with an amplified signal. That’s right! You can run from the speaker output of your bass head into the C.A.B. M! If your head does not require a load to operate, you can stop there. But if you need a load, then you connect the speaker/load to the C.A.B. M’s Speaker Output jack. There isn’t enough space to really tell you all about this cool little pedal (which retails at $299), but definitely check it out (and look for an in-depth review to come). www.two-notes.com
