NAMM 2024: It’s that time of year again. And by that, we mean the new year. And with the new year comes new gear, courtesy of our favorite guitar show: NAMM.
Held at Anaheim Convention Center in (hopefully) sunny California, NAMM is the hottest ticket to see the latest and greatest guitars, amps and pedals we’ll be plugging in over the next 12 months.
It’s fair to say that NAMM has had a rocky ride post-Covid. While NAMM 2020 was a blowout banner year for the show, its 2022 return was markedly more low-key.
Industry heavyweights Fender, Gibson and PRS didn’t return after the pandemic, and whole sections of the labyrinthine Convention Center were closed off. But as we noted in our post-show roundup, it didn’t dampen NAMM’s welcoming atmosphere, and made for a more personal event. Big launches from the likes of Ibanez, ESP and Ernie Ball Music Man certainly helped.
2022’s event was held in June, while last year’s festivities took place in April. For 2024, NAMM has settled back into its traditional January timeframe, and with it, we’re seeing the return of exhibitors who might have skipped the first post-pandemic shindigs.
With that in mind, NAMM 2024 is something of a make or break moment for the event – particularly in a climate where expos such as the videogame industry’s E3 have indicated they are done for good.
But we’re already confident this will be a NAMM to remember. The second we logged back onto our emails after a particularly indulgent festive holiday, we were already being tipped off about a number of hot new releases. It feels like there’s genuine excitement around NAMM again, and that is most definitely a reason to celebrate.
With that in mind, we’ve rounded up everything fit to print: the biggest news so far, the rumors gathering steam and our own theories, piped direct from the GW team’s brains and/or Magic 8 Ball.
Come at us, NAMM 2024 – we’re ready for you…
NAMM 2024 electric guitar news
- After offering a surprisingly in-depth look at his new Ernie Ball Music Man signature models just before the holidays, Rabea Massaad is sure to be officially unveiling his tasty new designs at the show. Baked maple bodies, flamed maple necks, extra cutaway carves and Massaad’s signature Bare Knuckle Silos… Yep, these will be a highlight.
- Ibanez always goes hard at NAMM. Always. And wasn’t Tim Henson playing an eight-string TOD recently?
- 2024 marks the return of Dean Guitars after a tricky couple of years of Gibson lawsuits and financial wrangles. But judging from what we’ve seen so far – the classy, Fishman-loaded neck-thru Exile Select, and returning Vengeance and Zero models – the company’s guitars are more competitively spec’d and priced than ever, not to mention being much more in line with 2024 aesthetically, too. We’ll be intrigued to see what else the resurgent company brings to the table.
- Back in May 2023, ESP Guitars announced it had lured Slipknot’s Mick Thomson away from Jackson. Here’s hoping their first signature collaboration will be ready for the show – maybe with some signature Fishman Fluence humbuckers along for the ride…
- Chapman Guitars will likely be showcasing finished versions of its signature models for Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson and “Danish” Pete Honoré.
- Guild Guitars – now under the Yamaha umbrella – will be brandishing its extremely long-awaited Kim Thayil signature model. Can we expect a major play given the new ownership?
- Speaking of Yamaha, it’s been a while since we’ve seen an electric guitar launch from the Japanese company. There’s been a lot of discussion about the Revstar range of late, particularly thanks to a certain Matteo Mancuso. It would be a missed opportunity not to capitalize on his success, says us.
- Musical polymath Jacob Collier made alarmingly good use of a custom five-string Strandberg creation last year, using an altered D A E A D tuning. Could we see a production model? Stranger things have happened.
- Reverend is teasing… something. Something electric guitar-shaped with a bridge humbucker. And a tremolo. In a fetching shade of blue.
NAMM 2024 guitar amp and modeler news
- Those cheeky geniuses at Kemper HQ dropped their smallest Profiler yet, the Profiler Player, in the final week before Christmas. Controlled via your smartphone, and with no screen in sight, it’s a bold move from the German company, but crams an entire guitar rig into one compact pedal.
- Neural DSP finally launched its dedicated desktop controller, Cortex Control, but we would be extremely surprised if a new plugin or even – whisper it – amp modeler didn’t pop up at the show. Even if it’s just an update for an existing plugin, a la Plini X.
- Positive Grid is returning to NAMM this year, and will be showcasing the Spark CAB, its flagship FRFR speaker. Will it seek to expand its live offerings? Or focus on the home?
- IK Multimedia is planning something. We know this much. Could a bigger TONEX modeling pedal be on the cards? Maybe one that combines the company’s underrated X-Gear pedals for a Quad Cortex-rivaling multi-FX? That’s what we’d do if we were in the IK driving seat, anyway.
NAMM 2024 guitar pedal news
- The big news from BOSS is that it’s back at NAMM, to be honest. And still in the throes of its 50th anniversary, we’re bound to see some new limited-editions alongside some fresh stompbox designs. Full-scale SP-1 Spectrum reissue? (No.)
- MXR kicked off the new year in style, dropping the not-so-subtly named Joshua Ambient Echo, which crams the Edge’s classic delay tones in one compact pedal. There’s bound to be more from Dunlop and co, too.
- EarthQuaker Devices has brought its popular Plumes overdrive to bass players with a dedicated low-end offering. The Blumes delivers double the gain, and a deeper response, for the same $99 price tag.
- Strymon has been releasing a mean line of downsized pedals, starting with the Cloudburst and moving onto the Brig dBucket Delay and UltraViolet Vintage Vibe. What’s next on their agenda?
- Jack White’s Third Man Hardware are a surprisingly reliable presence at NAMM, and regularly unveil fresh collaborations with pedal manufacturers. The surprise here is that this year’s collab is with budget gear specialist Donner. But what the heck is it? Some kind of multi-FX?
- Friedman’s recent IR-X put the company’s revered tube preamps on your pedalboard, complete with impulse responses. It was a genuinely exciting launch, and with Friedman coming under the Boutique Amps Distribution banner, we’d be surprised not to see further offerings in this style, perhaps from Morgan or Tone King.
- UAFX, Universal Audio’s guitar pedal offshoot, has been going from strength to strength – especially after moderately famous guitarist the Edge started using its amp-modeling stompboxes at U2’s Sphere residency. Following the release of the Plexi-inspired Lion ’68 back in October, we’d take a punt on something higher-gain… Let’s say Boogie, 5150 or JCM-based.
- After its recent foray into modular synthesis, Gamechanger Audio – of Light Pedal and Bigsby Pedal fame – has been awfully quiet on the guitar front for a while… Could we see some madcap new designs this year?
- In 2023, Revv dropped the Shawn Tubbs Tilt Boost. We’d bet the office capo on something new from the Canadian co.
- Zoom really piqued our interest with the revival of its cult compact MultiStomp multi-FX back in October – we’d love to see this expand into twin-footswitch formats. Just saying…
- Line 6 will be present at the Yamaha booth, as per. The HX One landed back in October – can we expect any more spinoffs from the Helix line? Or something new altogether?
NAMM 2024 acoustic guitar news
- Martin says it’s “on the edge of something groundbreaking”. Following the success of its radical offset SC series, we’re intrigued to see what’s in store…
- The last release we saw from Taylor was the Beacon, an astonishingly well-equipped clip-on tuner. Could we see more forays into electronics at NAMM? Alongside some classy new acoustics, no doubt – more American Dream and environmentally sound models, perhaps…
