-by Tim Coleman
Its NAMM time!! Well sort of…. This is usually my favourite time of the year cause I’m lucky enough to get to go every January to the NAMM convention in LA. All the latest music gear, all the big, small and never heard of companies, musicians, bands and music (so much music) … plus some beer (so much beer). Thanks to COVID it was cancelled this year, but there’s still a tonne of new releases in the world of guitar, far too many in fact for me to BLOG about, so here’s some which you can expect to see in our stores over the coming months!
New from Taylor
Taylor Guitars have updated their Presentation Series, keeping with the Sinker Redwood Top, but this year going for the Honduran Rosewood back and sides, a tonally similar timber to rosewood, but has a far more striking figure more resembling cocobolo. There’s also some new models in the Grand Theatre (GT) line, being one of their newest shapes, this smaller body guitar sits somewhere in between a GS Mini and a Grand Concert Size. Taylor have adding an 800 series featuring Spruce and Rosewood timber combinations as well as the K21ce all Koa model.
The new Taylor GT series line-up.
Heaps of new gear from Fender
Fender as always have released a bunch of new models. The most notable for this year would be the 75th anniversary models. There’s both a Mexican and American model, we will be getting these in (looks as though not until July though).
Left to right: 75th Anniversay Mexican Strat, 75th Ann. Mex Tele, 75th Ann. USA Strat, 75th Ann. USA Tele.
Then there was the Chrissy Hynde Tele, the Jason Isbell Tele, the Dhani Harrison Uke, the Ben Gibbard Mustang, the American Ultra Luxe Series and the new 68 Custom amps. I have to give special mention to the new NOVENTA Series guitars because P90’s. Yes, We have all of this range on order. Again expect them Winter 2021.
Left to right: Chrissy Hynde Telecaster, Ben Gibbard Mustang, Dhani Harrison Ukulele, Noventa Series Telecaster
Gretsch new offerings for 2021
Gretsch released a bunch of new models, my personal favourite being the G6119TG-62RW-LTD Limited Edition ‘62 Rosewood Tenny with Bigsby and Gold Hardware and the G6134T Limited Edition Penguin Koa with Bigsby, expect to see these instore soon! There’s also a bunch of new Streamliner models with P90s, a G2410 which is a far more familiar looking style for Gretsch at the Streamliner price-point as well as some colour upgrades for some existing models.
Pictured: G6119TG-62RW-LTD Limited Edition ‘62 Rosewood Tenny with Bigsby
Hot NEW axes from Jackson
Jackson has a whole new range called the MIJ range which stands for Made in Japan and features 3 models; being a Dinky, Soloist and Rhoads.
Pictured: new MJ series Dinky in Matte Black Ash
Personal favourite of the Jackson releases was the new X series models. The new DK2’s and DK3’s look awesome and feature some very outstanding colours and of course they also come in black.
Pictured: new X-Series models
A final word from Ibanez
Ibanez have also released a bunch of new signature models, updated some old signature models and released an entirely new model called the AZS. The AZ line has been super popular since Ibanez returned to our stores in 2020 and the AZS adds the tele shape to the line-up.
I’m a “tele guy”, so I’m looking at this one with a weird look but knowing Ibanez, it will be an amazing guitar both tone wise and playability wise. Let’s face it, If Josh Smith endorses one, then it must be good!
Pictured; New AZS Models
Heaps more cool stuff coming over the next few months and like 2020 we’ll be adding a whole bunch of new brands to our line up this year yet again, so stay tuned!
-Tim
