My man Boosty (above). Nice shades.  I snatched em and ran like hell right after this shot. My man Rick Derringer (right). I've always liked the signature rhythm riff in "Free Ride" (when Rick was in Edgar Winter's White Trash), so he showed me how he plays it.  He's still got it.  You should hear is wicked solo jazz instrumental version of "Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo".  We jammed some blues at 2005 NAMM when he played in the booth next door to PedalSnake.  Good bluesman too...but there was no 2nd ax nearby this time.
Big Eddie (above).  Mr. Van Halen stopped in at Fender's after-party one night to demo Fender's new replica of his Frankenstein ax.  I fought thru the crowd with a Nikon D-50, turned off the flash, and held real still shooting from 20 ft with 80mm zoom.  He is still the man.  and and	Shredders everywhere imitate what he invented and mastered, but nobody has the sound and artistry of EHV.  He said he could not tell the difference it the replica (above) and his original. It is a masterful job, done in a very limited production run, with each costing around $35,000.
My man Jimmie.  I read somewhere that Mr. Vaughan's (Stevie Ray's older brother) signature Stratocaster was made of poplar, which I thought was a light-weight wood.  My older Strat is very light, with some as-yet-unidentified bastard wood (Leo ran out of Alder and Ash that day, and sent a kid down to the wood store).  As a result (I think), my Strat has a cool, trashy blues tone that I love, so I've been trying to find out its secret.	Thinking "poplar", and that Jimmie may like a similar trashy tone (no offense), I ask "So Jimmie, is your Strat light-weight?"  He didn't know..."...well, its poplar, right?"  He says "I like it a lot, I think its very pop'lar!"  (groan)
By now a crowd is gathering.  So, to settle the raging debate, I said "Well, let's see how heavy yourn is."  He yanks it out of the soft case and we compare it to one hanging on the wall.   His won't light atall.  Now I wonder if it was even his signature model (I didn't look)...and I still don't know what wood is in my Strat. There's more....earlier at Summer NAMM, he heard me fooling around on a Strat and asked me if I was the guitarist with the Preachers (from Dallas).  Now, I asked reminded him of that, and asked "Was it was because of the way I looked, or the way I played?"  He said "the way you looked." Oh well...
	My man Warren.  On my way into my appointment in the Gibson booth (to try out one of the new little Epiphone Valve Jr. amps---they smoke at 5 Watts!), we saw Mr. Haynes signing photos outside.  I told Warren (thinking he would enjoy the story) that one of our PedalSnake dealers remembers him and his ax-slingin' buds coming into the store as kids, and how they would come in with greasy hands (after the donut shop) with greasy hands, and start jammin on all the most expensive axes in the store, all sporting brand new strings. Upon hearing this, Warren muttered something under his breath (we have since learned that the "probable" dealer may have had a reputation for being fussy...just ask kids to go wash their hands...geez...you never know when they're going to end up famous!).  We knew some of the same guys in Fayetteville NC, though, so all was well.
My man Ronny.  Ronny North is one of our fav PedalSnake endorsers.  Winner of the All Access Award in southern Cal for "Best Male Guitarist", Ronny is unique and spectacular.  He's a shredder, but nobody does it the way he does it, or plays like him.  Here he's enamoured with an ax made of granite. At night, we always paint the town with Ronny.  He's tons of fun, with all his endorsed clothing lines, and constant, upbeat chatter.  (But he's not a very good golfer, according to Jon Levy at Guitar Player mag...  ;-) YOU	At Summer NAMM, Ronny took us to see his buddy Gary Hoey at Antone's in Austin one night.  Now at Winter NAMM, Gary stops into the Fender booth (like all good Strat guys).  Gary does a wonderful creative thing by covering old surf tune instrumentals in a heavy, hard rock style.  Dick Dale loves his stuff...
	The Fender performance area was impressive.  This stage (above)is all within the Fender booth, and sound insulated.  They ROCKED in there without breaking the NAMM 85dB sound limit outside.
I had to stop and ask directions once.  This joker didn't know nuttin.  (Prolly drugs...)
	NAMM indoor stage was cool.  They put on concerts here each morn as folks are arriving, and each eve as folks are leaving.  I  think they were setting up for the evening show when this pic was taken.  The bands are usually very good.  Lots of cool latin rhythms...
After setting up the PedalSnake display (Tuesday before the show), I found some guys with a rental car who were gonna ride up to Malibu for a hike the next day.  Got some cool pix. I think I want to live in Malibu.  Wonder if its expensive...?	The Pacific Coast Highway is quite a drive.  We went on north of Malibu to Point Mugu and climbed the summit there.  This pic is taken from 1200 feet above sea level---as high as we went before starting back down.  I was sore the next day.