CREAM CITY MUSIC VISITS NAMM 2011In early January Joe and Jessi Gallenberger, the owners of Cream City
Music, hopped a flight to sunny California to visit the giant NAMM
trade show. Always on the lookout for new products and trends, they
spent a long weekend visiting with reps and finding out what will be
new and great in 2011.
 Joe G admires the prototype Gretsch George Harrison Tribute Guitar. This guitar
was announced by Fred Gretsch and the Harrison family on Wednesday evening at a
Fender/Gretsch Custom Shop dealer reception. Guitar-wise, this was the biggest
news at the 2011 NAMM show. CCM immediately ordered three of the guitars, which
are 'relic-style' replicas made in the Fender Custom shop. The guitar is a spot
on recreation of Georges famous guitar - rare photos, memorbilia and a pick
owned by George will be included with every one of these. Only 60 will be made.
More information at gretsch.com
There were quite a few one-off Fender Custom shop guitars on display. This "Yachtcaster" was our favorite. Chris Craft teamed up with Fender for this art guitar, which had us wondering what happened to Leo's old boats - have they all been rebuilt into Teles and and Strats?  What are all those cards under the strings? Each one is an order request from a
Fender Custom Shop Dealer. We put orders on about twenty of these, but the
"lottery system" Fender invoked to deal with the outrageous demand for these
"one-off" guitars resulted in a successful order for just one guitar.
 More requests for these one-off beauties.
 This 50th Anniversary P-Bass is displayed against the backdrop of the largest
bolt-plate we've every seen. We have a few of these on the way - they're due in
to the shop in March. Limited production.
 Joe G and James Trussart pose with a few of the coolest guitars on the planet.
The guitars James is making at his tiny shop outside LA were true standouts from
the thousands we saw at NAMM. Not only are they beautiful works of art in the
steam punk tradition, they are also percision instruments that play as good as
they look. We hand picked six guitars from this booth as part of a major
commitment CCM made to become one of Trussart's largest dealers in 2011.
 We got some " Experience": Outside the main entrance of the show at any given
time there were a host of charcters and street musicians. We wish we had a
recording to share with you of this one. A real 3-D Jimi tribute that
caught the attention of dozens of fellow musicians late in the afternoon as we
were leaving the show.
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