JR Taylor

It was an incredible experience at the NAMM Show 2012 in Anaheim, CA, full of amazing musicians, innovative technologies and plenty of "interesting" people.

My first few steps onto the showroom floor on the first day caught me by surprise when I found myself ten feet from the legendary Stevie Wonder, playing on a keyboard built here in Austin by Infinite Response. That really set the tone for the rest of my experience which included countless more of these "walk-bys" as well as meeting and hanging out with some guys that I have played with or recorded before, including Allan Holdsworth, Virgil Donati, Derek Sherinian, and of course my friends, Todd Sucherman & Ricky Phillips from Styx.

One of my favorite moments was an impromptu jam at the Aviom booth with Johnny Haro (The Dreaming) and Ricky Phillips.
 

I think there's video somewhere, but you can't really hear much, since it was the Aviom booth after all (personal monitor mixers with headphones)! :)

Of course I got to spend some time with my friends at Carvin, who unveiled the new Legacy 3 guitar amp with the legendary Steve Vai. They continue to please with there ever-growing lineup of stellar gear. Also, my good friends at Mission Engineering have some really cool new things in the pipeline (top secret though, you'll have to keep an eye on them)! Other noteworthy pieces were a groundbreaking new amp from Yamaha and a brilliant line of sound reinforcement products from Line 6.

There are some of the highlights - there was so much more, but I have a record to get back to making! I am extremely grateful to Ricky Phillips and also the fine folks at Lectrosonics for making this whole experience possible. Here's to a great year for all of us - may we have even more wonderful things to report next year!