Orange County’s music industry was in full swing at the NAMM show held earlier this month at the Anaheim Convention Center and area hotels.
The four-day show, Anaheim’s largest, is for shaking hands and serious business.
“This is a real honest to goodness trade show,” said David McLaren, executive vice president, of Huntington Beach-based BBE Sound Inc., which makes audio gear for musicians.
The show, put on by the Carlsbad-based International Music Products Association, brings together musicians, entrepreneurs, gear makers, distributors and retailers.
This year, registration was up 4% from last year for a total of 81,315 people. NAMM had 1,462 exhibitors this year, the highest in its 104 shows.
NAMM is one of the shiniest shows, with silver and gold brass instruments, sparkling drum kits and flashy guitars.
The exhibits are extraordinary. Buena Park-based Yamaha Corporation of America, part of Japan’s Yamaha Corp., made space for its guitars on the convention floor and took a wing of a nearby hotel for woodwinds, brass and keyboards. Elton John’s red piano was on display there.
Music bigwigs mixed with rockers, punks, goths and classical musicians. Dave Navarro, Mick Fleetwood, Gene Simmons, and pop singer Kelly Clarkson were there.
Here’s a sampling of the show through the eyes of Orange County music companies:
Rickenbacker International Corp., Santa Ana
Rickenbacker, whose guitars were made famous by the Beatles, displayed its models behind glass.
The show was “an opportunity for us to get face to face with people I mostly have a phone relationship with,” said Kenny Howes, the company’s director of customer service.
Rickenbacker has been an OC staple since the 1950s, when it moved to Santa Ana. Founders Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp are credited with the invention of one of the first electric guitars, dubbed the Frying Pan, in 1931.
These days, U2, REM, Tom Petty and Radiohead play Rickenbacker guitars and basses. The guitars can sell for $4,000 and up. The company makes them in Santa Ana.
BBE Sound, Huntington Beach; G & L; Guitars,
Fullerton
BBE’s McLaren was manning his company’s booth, which displayed sound systems and guitars from its G & L; Guitars unit in Fullerton. McLaren is executive vice president of BBE Sound and head of G & L; sales and marketing.
“We’re writing more business than we did last year,” he said.
Until about two years ago, G & L; just handcrafted guitars in OC. To compete with Asian rivals, G & L; recently started making guitars in South Korea as well.
“Having the import line was a little frightening for us at first,” McLaren said.
Imports now make up half of the company’s sales. The company still makes more expensive guitars in Fullerton by hand. The company recently bought a machine that carves guitar shapes out of wood instead of hand-sawing.
The fact that legendary Leo Fender, inventor of the Telecaster and Stratocaster, founded G & L; holds cachet for the company.
But BBE’s focus is on audio gear. The company’s sound products are used in TVs, phones and computers, as well as in the broadcasting and recording industry.
“We’re aggressively growing BBE,” McLaren said.
Danmar Percussion Products,
Irvine
One of OC’s drumming legends, Frank DeVito was at NAMM, hawking his drum accessories. DeVito, who founded Danmar in 1970, sells drum pedal beaters and other kinds of percussion hardware through distributors to music shops.
China is a formidable rival: “It’s been difficult trying to compete with Chinese products,” DeVito said.
He emphasizes American made. Danmar does light manufacturing in Irvine and elsewhere in California.
DeVito once toured with Frank Sinatra and still considers drumming his full-time gig.
Clix Clocks, Huntington Beach
Startups also were at NAMM. Franki Doll Mattson, frontwoman for local punk rock band Franki’s Broken Toys, launched her line of pick-shaped clocks at the show. The custom timepieces are mounted on large guitar picks.
Mattson, a graphic designer, and partner Ken Hensch, are targeting bands, which could sell the clocks at concerts and on Web sites alongside T-shirts and posters.
“Kiss is about to pick them up,” Mattson said.
The band plans to sell them at shows for about $70, she said.
Mattson sells the clocks for about $30. She makes them out of her house. Her “day job” is managing The Brigg nightclub in Huntington Beach.
