NAMM 2003

NAMM 2003 was held this year from January 16-19, 2003 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA.  The show was attended by 67,601 music industry vendors, buyers, musicians, and other industry professionals this year which was an increase of 4 percent over last year.

My First stop was to the Ludwig booth where I checked in with Jim Catalano, Todd Trendt and Chuck Heuck to find out that Ludwig is now employing a new method of applying laminate finishes to their shells.  Several of their laminate finishes this year are applied as part of the shell making process.  The laminate is placed into the drum shell mold first (almost as though it were just one of the plies).  The wood plies are one by one placed into the mold and when the shell is 'Zapped!' to dry the glue the laminate is bonded as well.  This process results in a finish that is almost seamless with not overlap and a much stronger bond to the wood shell.  There should not be any problems with lifting seams on these shells!

Jim Catalano, Marketing Manager for Ludwig, informed me that Ludwig has has a fantastic year in 2002 and continues to expand it's current markets as well as look for new markets.  Chuck Heuck has been recently promoted into taking charge of developing these new markets  Chuck has been with the company since the 70s and brings a lot of market experience and 'Ludwig' experience with him.  Look for my complete interview with both Jim and Chuck that will be appearing on the site in the next week or so.

In addition to a great display of the latest Ludwig drum and percussion offerings the booth was the site of serveral endorser autograph signings.  Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Kurt Soderman (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - very cool swing band), Blas Elias (Slaughter), Steve Gorman (Black Crowes), Jason Swartzman (actor and drummer - plays with Phantom Planet, movies include Slackers and Rushmore), Patrick Wilson (Weezer), Ed Shaughnessey (has recorded with everyone...most known as Doc Severonson's drummer), Clayton Cameron (Tony Bennett among many others) and several other Ludwig endorsers signed up reams and reams of autographs for their fans.

Though Ludwig was obviously at the top of my list, I also couldn't help but check out all the other drum manufacturers'  gear.  Though it's not appropriate to go into that here (in a  Ludwig only site),  if you're interested check out our sister site (brand new) at www.drum-news.com for the rest of the story.

Click here for Ludwig pictures from the show.