Riffarella at Winter NAMM 2024: Behind-the-Scenes
Visiting NAMM 2024
This year at NAMM 2024 was very exciting for Riffarella. This year is the first time that we’ve been able to focus on this project with all of our attention and we couldn’t be more stoked to share the story of Riffarella with friends and brands across the music industry. Let’s dig into our history with NAMM a little bit before we explore the friends and connections that we made there.
History With the NAMM Show
We first went to the NAMM show in 2014. Our founder, Monique, attended with Fargen Amplification and the pedalboard manufacturer, West Coast Pedal Boards. Since that time, we’ve been able to go with and on behalf of various companies and brands: Music Nomad, ESP Guitars, EarthQuaker Devices, Dunable Guitars, PRS Guitars, Seymour Duncan, EMG Pickups and many others.
Throughout these various visits, we’ve made amazing friends and partnerships with many companies that attend: from networking at the She Rocks Awards to developing relationships with amazing content creators like Get Offset and Working Class Music. In 2018, we met Fabi Reyna, founder of She Shreds Media and it was during this time that we became inspired to start our own publication.
Reunion with Industry Friends
EMG Pickups
In 2015, Monique was reached out to by EMG Pickups about being a part of their new installation series as they wanted a local guitar tech to come in to show their YouTube audience of over 250k+ followers how to install their pickups. Working at EMG was a fantastic contract role for Monique because she was extremely impressed by their mission and their belief in her abilities helped her to gain even more confidence in herself as a guitar technician. With EMG, she filmed a number of videos at the time for Gary Holt, Geezer Butler, Kirk Hammett and others. The work she did here over a two-year period was some of the work she is most proud of, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the hardworking people at EMG.
Get Offset
While Monique had known of Emily Harris previously, it wasn’t until they started to work together that they became friends. Emily hosts a tremendously popular podcast/gear demo channel, Get Offset. Emily also introduced Monique to other awesome content creators like Working Class Music, nisebelle, the Mid-Riff podcast and many others. Monique was even a guest on her podcast last September.
Seymour Duncan
In 2021, Monique was approached by Seymour Duncan about joining full-time under a new marketing department and was ecstatic to get back into the world of guitar tech videos. She got to spend a lot of time with the absolute legendary Maricela “MJ” Juarez, who is a huge inspiration to her as a latina in the music industry. You name ‘em, MJ’s worked with them! Her dedication as “la maestra” of Seymour Duncan never ceased to inspire. While Monique was at Seymour Duncan, she also got to help develop the tutorial videos for the groundbreaking 5-way Bluetooth blade switch, Hyperswitch.
Santa Cruz Guitar Company's "The Vault"
One of the collections we looked forward to at NAMM the most was the release of Santa Cruz Guitar Company’s “The Vault Series.” From their website:
“The Vault Series is an ongoing project to utilize woods from Richard’s private collection - stuff that was too good to utilize and saved for later or unique, one of a kind pieces that will likely never be seen again. ‘If not now, when?’ is the question Richard asked leading to this project. ‘As I head into my twilight years, it’s time I put those to work for us in combination with our best and brightest talents to build guitars that are really legacy items. These will be not only the best materials that I’ve saved over the last half century, but the fanciest work that we’re capable of doing, and we’re very capable of doing fancy work.’”
The guitars that were on display here are simply out of this world.
Among some of our favorite highlights:
A D Model dreadnaught top made from reclaimed wood from the chapel roof at Fort Ross in Northern California with stunning Bryn Athyn Cathedral Brazilian Rosewood peghead overlay (and a Diamond Window peghead inlay!)
An H13 model featuring a 45,000 Ancient Kauri set of back and sides with Rococo Vault 14k gold fingerboard inlay
An almost Cheetah-like Brazilian Rosewood bridge adorning an Ancient Sitka Spruce top
A lovely fretboard featuring Mother of Pearl century block inlays set amongst abalone purfling inlaid next to a beautiful ivoroid bound fretboard on a set of freshly Plek’d frets
This booth was a feast for the eyes, and a beautiful retrospective of Richard Hoover’s incredible career.
The Broken Martin from "The Hateful Eight"
The story of the destruction of the 1870’s parlor guitar on loan from the Martin Museum for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” has been well documented over the years but Martin decided to bring the remanents of the instrument to this year’s NAMM show. Supposedly Kurt Russell destroyed the priceless instrument due to a mix-up with a stand-in guitar and as a result, Martin no longer loans out any historical instruments from their museum.
Watch the video below to see it happen in the film.
Final Thoughts
Closing the curtain on NAMM 2024, our journey there as Riffarella stands as a collection of remarkable moments. From our first steps at NAMM in 2014 to the recent show, the evolution of our project took center stage from a collection of meetings with like-minded individuals who supported more diversity in the guitar industry.
Reconnecting with industry friends, like EMG Pickups, Get Offset, and Seymour Duncan, brought back memories of collaboration and shared interests that we believe are paramount to the continued growth and success of Riffarella.
As we pack our memories, NAMM 2024 becomes a chapter in our story—a testament to friendships, industry connections, and the collective passion for music. Until the next NAMM, here's to the journey ahead.
