The 125th NAMM Show 2026 Review

NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants), the largest global nonprofit music trade organization, celebrated NAMM’s 125th anniversary, and 50 years of the show in the city of Anaheim. Taking place January 20-24, 2026, at the Anaheim Convention Center, the trade show featured immersive education – 75 TEC Tracks (up from 55 last year); continuous live concerts on the Yamaha outdoor stage from 6 am to 11 pm daily; a live band stage inside the Anaheim Hilton; over 1,800 global brand exhibitors from over 125 countries; and registered attendees exceeding 75,000 with more last minute attendees showing up daily.

I arrived on Thursday, January 22, expressly invited by musician Brian Hardgroove as a TEC Tracks host presenter to interview him live for the TEC session. The program we planned included insights into his work as a musician and more, was accented with video, a Q&A with the attendees, and of course amazing swag. To say it went well is evident in the large amount of positive feedback Hardgroove is still receiving. A professional video of the session was taken by Athan Billias, president of the MIDI Association and by Jeff Robbins, founder of Spaceage, LLC. 

Following the TEC session and photo ops with fans, I journeyed to the convention center for a walkabout before it closed for the day. I met up with friends at booths, and later at the Hilton for a performance by guitar extraordinaire, Philip Sayce. Friday, I had my annual meeting with Tom Sumner, CEO of Yamaha; followed by walking three floors of brands to test drive keyboards, guitars, brass, drums and more. To report on all brands is beyond the scope of this piece, and teasers can be found on brands’ social media. Be sure to check out my live videos of NAMM with this report on the MJ website!

Here is just a gist of what Yamaha’s CEO and I discussed: 

Joanne Calitri [JC]. What music industry trends are being tracked by Yamaha at the moment?

Tom Sumner [TS]. We are creating new trends, not following. The guitar business has been flat for everyone; not declining, but flat. So, we are doing new things to keep guitar players in love with guitar playing and the creation of new sounds. We partnered with Chris Buck, an amazing guitar player who designed his own Revstar™ guitar. It is not a signature model because Chris and Yamaha wanted it to be a guitar that can be played by anyone, at approximately $1,200 it isn’t price prohibitive. On the acoustic side we have the TransAcoustic™ guitars with built in reverb and looper to expand songwriting and playing creativity. The user can save the song in the guitar. It is a perfect busker guitar. We made it in both a smaller body – great for players with small hands or shorter arms – and the full body. We came out with the newer Pacifica SC electric guitar with Rupert Neve pickups, and our technology that looks at how the wood vibrates and fine tunes it. We are trying to grow beyond the guitar trends.

JC. As the voice for Yamaha, what makes Yamaha stand out among your peers?

TS. The variety of products we have… we have the largest breadth of any music instrument company: we have pianos, keyboards, guitars, drums, acoustic, brass, woodwind, electronic, live sound gear, and pro audio. Our understanding of all that helps us be more musical overall, understand more deeply how each works, and the technology can be transferred across all our products. We have lots of artists we work with and lots of ideas about new products to create or update. For example, our TransAcoustic™ guitar technology is also in our TransAcoustic™ pianos, taking it to another place creatively.

JC. Does Yamaha have an R&D Idea Center…?

TS. For innovation we have two ways we go about it. We have a really talented group of engineers in Japan and in the U.S., and then our artists, who we ask for input. Another is we let our engineers create new things as a side project that they get to present annually at our Japan headquarters, like a technology fest. It’s an in-house  competition of sorts.

JC. For people attending NAMM for the first time, it can be overwhelming. What would you suggest?

TS. Two things, first plan out and schedule the booths and manufacturers you want to visit, and second, TEC tracks. The second is comprised of those NAMM magical moments where you wander around and find new products that interest you, along with world class studio musicians playing at the many booths. We are up 33% of visitors to our booth on the opening day of NAMM, and actually, the TEC Tracks education helps our customers, and NAMM helps the retailers get better, which helps manufacturers.

Booths, Pedals, and Play 

This year Yamaha celebrated its 60^th anniversary in guitar manufacturing – they first brought guitars to the U.S. in 1966 – with limited editions of the FG9 (acoustic) and Revstar™ (electric), the Pacifica SC electric guitar, and a Chris Buck designed Revstar™ electric guitar. Buck has played Revstar™ since 2016. (Who says he’s not an influencer?) His model has new P90s Alnico 3 magnet pickups for a lower output with warm tone, a 3-way switch, volume and tone knobs, and adjustable saddle bridge. And the guitar is a honey gold. Yamaha celebrated their 60^th at the House of Blues Anaheim with Buck, Matteo Mancuso, and Billy Sheehan playing the limited-edition guitars. 

I next interviewed Yamaha Keyboard product specialist Kramer Ison on their two latest portable keyboards – the PSR-E483 and PSR-E583 – both with presets, quick sampling, looper, and recording. He also demoed the updated digital arranger workstation series flagship Model Genos2™ with 76 keys, patches for drums, background vocals, multiple instruments, looper and a professional microphone to record the mix in real time… and yes, it does sync with a phone app. 

While touring the pianos on the second floor, I texted my keyboard professor, Dr. Ovanes Arakelyan, who advised I go to the Fazioli Pianos Milan room to try out their pianos noting, “they are the best in the world.” I went and was truly in awe. Fazioli pianos are beautifully crafted, and when I played one, I found the action, tone, and sound colors so perfect! Fazioli Pianos exhibited their baby grand and grand pianos, models F212, F228, F278, and two F198 models – one in the standard finish and one in pyramid mahogany, starting SRP $150,000. The grand model had a mirror on the floor under it to view the underside workmanship. 

Students from the Colburn School Los Angeles gave coveted performances. I attended Bingjian Chen’s fully memorized recital of Bach’s “French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816, Allemande and Courante;” Chopin’s “Étude in A Minor, Op. 25, No. 6;” Haydn’s “Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52, 1st mov. Allegro;” and Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit”… phew! 

Seymour Duncan’s booth rocked with their 50^th Anniversary. Seymour himself was there sporting a Stetson with Cathy Carter Duncan and Maricela “MJ” Juarez, the legendary pickup winder. New gear includes their 50^th anniversary pickups – the Slash 3.0, the JB Jazz, and the three voice Mortal Coil active humbucker set featured on ESP, Fender, and many top guitar brands; and guitarist Cole Rolland’s enthused endorsement of the Nazgü/Sentient humbucker set. Duncan’s legendary artists roster booth performers were Kiki Wong, Philip Sayce (who oversaw his signature pickups called the “Mother” Stratocaster Set), Chase Becker, and Lari Basilio. Fresh news is Duncan is in process of building a new facility in Santa Barbara, and we will meet up soon for a full report in my news column! 

Ernie Ball Music Man is celebrating its 50th anniversary of the StingRay™ bass guitar with new models in gold, limited to 300; and their DarkRay II bass guitar ready to buy this spring that will have an octave switch, yes, a full octave up or down, along with a 3-way modes switch. Concert demos of all gear at their booth were by famed bassists Josh Paul, Derek Frank, Paul Gilbert,Dr. Ink and Dmitry (an insane amount of talent when they played together), and their new eight string (!) Richardson Cutlass guitar with 24 frets, demoed by Jason Reeves Richardson himself.

Pearl Drums celebrated their 80^th anniversary with three product releases, the Pearl 2026: Primal Snare Collective with four different metal shells; the Eliminator Mono Pro 2500 Series – the first fully customizable bass drum pedal on the market, in both single and double pedals for jazz and metal; and the new beginner-friendly electronic foldable drum kit eRoadshow™. Playing at their booth were Dennis Chambers, Ray Luzier, Mike Mangini, and Jesus Diaz and Horacio Hernandez.

DR Strings Dragon Skin™ guitar strings, said to be the longest playing strings, were given a run by musicians Jared James Nichols and Eugene Rice at their booth, who wreaked havoc on hard driving americana riffs.

Sully Guitars by president/owner/builder Jon Sullivan, wins the guitar candy award in my book, check out the photo I took of him with his guitars at the Boutique Guitar Booth!

Ibanez had its usual line up of signature guitars and basses, one photo tells it all, from the long-awaited Nita Strauss JIVA10 red electric to the Steve Via PIA77BON2 signature model limited-edition guitar with intricate gold filigree.

Blackstar Amps held court and showcased their new handheld amp, the Beam Mini. The booth volume was too loud to test drive it, however the brand has pros swearing by it, with social reels of them in their hotel rooms practicing on the road. Doug Aldrich and Marco Mendoza were up to their usual banter and axe playing competition to show off the brand’s tube amps, including the ones designed by Aldrich himself, the DA100 Ruby and DA412B. I would def recommend the new solid-state ID: Core V4 Stereo 40, I just bought one, it’s a great amp for practicing and for small gigs at a great price.

One of NAMM’s most talked about new products was the Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex Mini desktop/pedal board set up for gigging musicians on the go, fully programmable with a diverse range of tones.

Roland’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring artists whose work has made a lasting impact on music, culture, and innovation, went to DJ Prince Paul, with a celebration at their booth. 

Pioneer Audio brings Sphera™, an aftermarket spatial audio in-dash receiver with Dolby Atmos playback in Apple Carplay™, that can be installed in existing vehicles.

Polyend’s new pedal Endless, is a fully customizable, open-source effects pedal that allows players to continually create new effects via the brand’s open code online. The pedal is a custom-machined aluminum enclosure, magnetic, with a swappable faceplate, a stereo 48 kHz / 24-bit audio path, and no sonic limits. It’s the first pedal to produce effects directly from user-generated descriptions, with reverbs, overdrives, and loopers.

The latest technology using music as medicine was VIBE by Bioharmonic Technologies with a demo booth. Peeps lay down on a vibration and sound therapy bed with eyes covered while the music vibrations play. There is also a portable meditation mat with phone app.

But you ask, was Fender there to showcase their 80^th Anniversary as a company, and the 75^th Anniversary of its famed Stratocaster guitar? If you’re in the know – you KNEW Fender only exhibited its Master Luthiers’ guitars at the Wood, Wire, Volts event in Anaheim on Wednesday, January 21. There were custom vintage guitars and bass guitars displayed with vintage cars to which Leo Fender matched his guitar colors back in the daze. Head over to Fender’s social accounts for a viewing. What’s really new(s) at Fender Music Corporation is its new CEO Edward “Bud” Cole, their longtime president of Fender Asia Pacific. He replaces retiring CEO Andy Mooney. Cole is an active guitar player and song writer with his band Rain Convention, said to have opened for Radiohead in the 1990s. Rumors about his new direction include a new flagship physical store, reaching guitar players from pros to novice, and perhaps inside a Guitar Center store, three-day events with featured artists, and other strategies he used in Japan. 

There were funky pop-up booths, some with just a desk, featuring everything from the Musicroadtrip™ free phone app for travelers to locate live music and buy gear; and ShopBot™, a computer-programmable wood cutter and designer – no more sore hands! 

Awards and the NAMM-Ys™

The NAMM TEC Innovation Award went to Billy Corgan, founding member and front man of GRAMMY® Award-winning band The Smashing Pumpkins. The awards recognize achievements in audio excellence, honoring innovators in recording, live sound, and technology with legends of the industry. List of all winners were Moog Music, Universal Audio, Apple, Shure, Avid-Pro Tools, AEA Ribbon mics, Rupert Neve Designs, Solid State Logic, Audio-Technica, and Native Instruments.

She Rocks Awards annual show took place Friday, January 23 at the Anaheim Hilton. It was co-hosted by Vicki Peterson of The Bangles, and Alecia “Mixi” Demner of Stitched Up Heart. Honorees were Sophie Burrell, Andreea Gleeson, Margaret Glaspy, Kay Hanley, Judith Hill, Reina Ichihashi, Susan Lipp, Lisa MacDonald, Michelle Lewis, Rachel Platten, Heather Dembert Rafter, Carnie Wilson, and Lisa Worden. 

At the Parnelli Awards – honoring individuals and companies in the live event production industry – the Lifetime Achievement went to Marty Horn, Visionary Award to Marc Brickman, and Audio Innovator Award to Michael Laiacona.

Starting this year, Bass Guitar Magazine Awards is now part of the official NAMM Show. Awards went to Mike Dirnt of Green Day, Les Claypool of Primus, Marcus Miller (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), Laura Lee of Khruangbin, and Blu DeTiger.

Quite honestly, my overall find at NAMM this year was a warm gathering of thousands of people from all across the globe, some giving their last dime to get there, and all of us speaking the language of music, celebrating, and supporting music’s diversity… bliss.