This is a bit more of a "week wrap-up" because I spent the whole weekend and most of the week leading up to it at Summer NAMM in Nashville! One of my oldest friends has started a guitar company and while we went last year to source parts, this year we were exhibiting. The last few weeks have been a big push and there were lots of ups and down along the way, including us almost pulling out of the trip last minute due to a major hardware failure at the shop.
Wed: Got up at 5
0, because we wanted to hit the road by 6:30. We got about a two hour late start after loading up the car and realizing we left a few things we needed back at the shop, so we had to take a trip back across town to grab them. Ride down was fine; I rode with my friend and his dad (who is also involved with the company) and we talked strategy and plans for the weekend. Once we got to the convention center we had to load in our gear and set up our booth, which was unfortunately semi-obstructed by a pillar, reducing out actual useable area. We managed to talk to one of the coordinators at the show and arrange a bit of spillover to the other side of the pillar. From there we started doing some last minute set-up work and restrings. Got out around 6, went to the motel to check in, then drove back to the city for some BBQ. Went to bed after that.
Thurs: First day of our first ever exhibiting NAMM show. We got there earlier for the big NAMM breakfast and opening conference, then booked it to our booth. We had some issues with our rig (Bias on the iPad) but finally got it set-up... but no one was stopping by to play. For the most part people just jammed in their booths and we tried to attract people to just stop and look... if you've never been to NAMM before it's hard to describe the sensory overload you experience there. One of our artists - Dylan - who lives in Nashville but was from our hometown came by and he brought in his guitar and rig and played for most of the day, letting us mingle and meet people more. We knew we weren't going to have a lot of time to check out gear for ourselves, but I managed to snag a short break to head over to one booth to try this guy's new signature guitar and chat with him a bit:
Mid-day our head luthier was finally able to make it down and he did some more set-up work, as the instruments weren't very happy from the long hot drive right into a low-humidity room that was really chilly. Got to talk to
@dougk for a bit, as he had a few instruments in the NAMM Showcase and he was kind enough to stop by our booth for a few minutes and see what we brought with us, as well as talk us through our "first show jitters." After the show we grabbed dinner at a Golden Corral that we'd been to on a previous trip and is somehow not just good for a buffet, but just GOOD. If our local Golden Corral tasted like that I'd consider eating there.
Friday: Back to the booth and one of our other artists - Nick - drove down from Cinci to trade off manning the booth with Dylan. Our luthier's wife was coming down too... she's helped out in the shop several times and isn't just a "booth girl"... she knows a lot about the instruments and is happy to be down there and push us to succeed. Nick has a deal with Levy's straps and he spent some time over there with his sig guitar and after that he had a great interview with Brad Tolinski (former editor of Guitar World) where he talked quite a bit about his signature model. Brad was a really nice guy and at the end of the interview he posed for a photo with the whole (participating) Waits Instruments crew:
Also got to have a chat with this guy and talked to him about stopping by our booth - John Bohlinger of Premier Guitar.
Following a long day at the show, we went back to the motel to grab some dinner (awesome BBQ joint right next to the motel), then went to an after party at Sputnik Sound where I got to see some old friends that
@jaxn slim introduced me several years back, plus some other people I had met at the show. It was an awesome night and really helped invigorate us for the last day of the show.
Saturday: We were late getting to the show because out motel fucked up checkout info, plus a massive rainstorm reduced highway speeds to a crawl. Our goal of the day was to get as many dealers and players as possible to come check us out, so we took shifts wandering the floor and manning the booth. I know I had some really great conversations with some dealers and other exhibitors and we're in talks to collaborate on some new items with a booth or two... you'll have to wait for Anaheim to see those though.
My other goal of the day was to get John and Premier Guitar over to our booth and right before the end of the show I got it to happen!
John was super gracious and head great things to say about our guitars, particularly the Seifert 001E that he was holding in that picture. As a matter of fact, he liked it enough to lead off with Waits Instruments as one of the editors picks at Premier's Guitar Day 3 recap!!!
It was pretty mind-blowing to have a guy that I've frequently watched review gear and interview some of my favorite musicians have such great things to say about the instruments we're building and it definitely left us feeling like we closed the show on a high note. We broke down the booth and headed back home, although Nick, Jesse, and Courtney stayed for one more day.
Sunday: Took it super easy. Ashlee let me sleep in, then I went out to mow the yard and spend some time with her. She had to leave for St. Louis for a few days, so her parents took her to the airport and I got to relax and watch the new Game of Thrones.
It was a hectic whirlwind of a weekend and it was pretty emotional at times... we had to grow a thick skin sometimes, but as a shop we bonded and are starting to see our efforts rewarded and are really excited for whatever will come next.