MusicRadar

Welcome to NAMM 2011! Yes, the biggest gear show on earth has opened its doors to a jetlagged and excited industry once again and MusicRadar is, as they say, 'all over it'.

On the guitar and bass frontline, we've already been spoilt rotten with a deluge of releases from the likes of Fender, Vox, ESP, and Orange; and tech heads certainly won't be disappointed - it's hardware heaven out there. Scroll down to see what we mean.

As for drums, it's all about new technology - digital modelling cymbal, anyone?

As usual, you can find all of our up-to-the-minute coverage in one place courtesy of MusicRadar's ultimate NAMM 2011 guide, or scroll down for day one's top picks…

NAMM 2011 guitar and bass highlights

Fender Custom Shop guitars and basses in pictures
New Time Machine, Pro, Custom Deluxe and Limited models

Vox Series 22 solid body electric guitars revealed
Affordable double-cutaway SDC-22 models

Squier introduces new Vintage Modified Instruments
Jaguar HH, Jazzmaster and Jazz Bass hit Anaheim

Marshall YJM100 Yngwie Malmsteen signature head unleashed
Swedish shredder gets a 100-watt amp head

ESP unveils Metallica's Hetfield and Hammett signature guitars
Snakebyte, ESP KH-2 SE and LTD KH-SE announced

DigiTech launches TH-150 tube head, Classic-15 and Fusion modelling combos
DigiTech's first foray into guitar and bass amplification

Fender launches American Special Jazz and Precision basses
Two new US-built models heading to Anaheim

Orange Amps launches TH100 amp head
TH30 gets a 100-watt big brother

Vox launches Dynamic Looper pedal
Loop pedal processor announced in Anaheim

The Kemper Profiling Amplifier explained on video
Christoph Kemper shows off "a groundbreaking concept"

NAMM 2011 tech highlights

Korg Kronos workstation unveiled
Nine sound engines in one keyboard

Avid releases M-Audio Venom virtual analogue synth
Also an audio/MIDI interface

Nord unveils Stage 2
Mixing premier piano, organ and synth technology

Arturia announces Spark drum machine
Uses synthesis and samples to create its 480 instruments

Akai SynthStation49 iPad MIDI controller unveiled
Dedicated keyboard for Apple's tablet

New Fairlight CMI-30A goes back to the '80s
Remarkable prototype of sampling synth unveiled

Focusrite RedNet brings pro audio networking to your DAW
System based on Dante networking technology

Universal Audio unveils UAD-2 Satellite Duo and Quad FireWire DSP accelerators
FireWire 800/400 supported

Next page: NAMM 2011 drum highlights

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