The Strings staff just spent four days at Winter NAMM 2016 scouring the showroom floors and meeting with luthiers, designers, and distributors hunting for the latest gear and instruments. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite showstoppers from this year’s five-day convention for you–take a peek!
First up is the new Yamaha Electric Violin. The Yamaha YEV stunned everyone with its elegant design, solid sound, and competitive price. It was such a shocker to the music industry vets, that the organization’s voters selected it as the “Best in Show” for 2016. Imagine that, a product from the strings world beating out DJ equipment, guitars, apps, and everything else for the top honor! Yamaha gave us a look at the YEV the week ahead of the show. Read our first impressions at the link.
![Photo-Jan-21-11-28-26-AM_xlarge[1]](https://i0.wp.com/stringsmagazine.stringlettermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Photo-Jan-21-11-28-26-AM_xlarge1.jpg)
Advertisement
The Yamaha YEV lineup includes four- and five-string violins, in black or natural finishes.
Captions from top left to bottom right.
- Made in Romania by the Gliga workshop, the Gliga Gliolin is a tribute to traditional Romanian violin making. Incredible handcrafted fittings.
- Clare Stefani of Connolly & Co. shows off the latest cello from Revelle 850. It’s made from wood aged for 15 years, which should help it be more stable (and less likely to crack) than many other instruments in the same price range).
- Götz latest cello endpin–available in walnut, ebony, maple, rosewood, and Guibourtia (shown).
- Simon Götz of the famous violin-making family shows off the company’s Model 115CA violin.
- A selection of BAM‘s new line of accessories, which include silk violin bags, microfiber cleaning clothes and, of course, its cases.
- A shot of Krutz‘s maple burl back violin 400 model.
- Christian, the 11-year-old “Rockabilly Boy,” performs on a Krutz bass. View the whole video on our Instagram page (@stringsmagazine).
- Two sets of D’Addario strings: new Kaplan Amo and Vivo viola strings.
- Hello from a handful of the Strings’ staff outside NAMM’s main entrance.
![IMG_5001_mainstory1[1]](https://i0.wp.com/stringsmagazine.stringlettermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/IMG_5001_mainstory11.jpg)
- A bass “in the white.” We know. Bad violin-maker joke.
- Scott Cao treated us to a song on a del Gesù model violin he made. View the whole video on our Instagram page (@stringsmagazine).
- Bows on top of bows on top of bows.
- High-voltage mariachi at Mark Wood‘s booth. View the whole video on our Instagram page (@stringsmagazine).
- Eastman‘s Ruben Salazar showed us the new Bridge Tasman electric violin, available in four- and five-strings.
- A NAMM attendee checks out the HP Lutherie viola, while its maker looks on. View the whole video on our Instagram page (@stringsmagazine).
- Strings magazine sales director (and violist) Cindi Olwell shows off the latest electric viola from French maker HP Lutherie.
- Richard Ratner of JR Music shows off the Calin Wultur Montagnana cello.
- Display of uncut Aubert bridges just waiting for an instrument.
Greg Olwell and Stephanie Powell contributed to this article.