Last month, you may recall, we were in Chicago, taking a brisk stroll through the NAMM International Music and Sound Expo, the largest American musical instrument trade fair. Well, through the underrated magic of printed media, we're back there again to see what we missed last time.

It's no secret that Peavey Electronics has lately had a greater impact on the worldwide electro-music scene than most American manufacturers. Company president Hartley Peavey places great emphasis on innovation; he constantly tries to keep ahead of his competition from the U.S. and elsewhere in providing maximum quality for the money.

At this year's NAMM show, Peavey's big news had to do with guitars. The company is shipping the T-15 guitar which, according to Peavey, is the only American-made guitar retailing for less than $200 (including a hard shell case). As something of a guitar snob, I tested the T-15 as critically as I could and had to concede that it's an excellent instrument for the money. It features a 23½-inch scale maple neck with Peavey's patented bi-laminated construction and full adjustment capabilities. The body is made of contoured hardwood and is fitted with two high performance pickups with selector switch and an adjustable bridge.

Another new axe from Peavey is the T-JR, a miniature electric guitar that seems to be surprisingly playable. Aside from the novelty aspects, the instrument should open up new possibilities in performance locations. I can hardly wait to try one out in the front seat of a sports car, a cramped water closet, underground trains. The mind boggles!

For those in the market for sound reinforcement equipment, two of the leading American microphone manufacturers had new wares on display. Shure Brothers, that well-known concern from the banks of Lake Michigan, was touting the SM85, a handheld condenser microphone designed for professional entertainers. It has an integral multi-stage pop filter, a mid-range presence peak, extended high frequency response, a controlled low frequency roll-off, and an effective internal shock mount for reduced handling noise. The microphone's electronics section is protected by a lightweight but rugged aluminium case and a tough steel grille. Both the case and the grille feature a scratch resistant, ebony polymer finish. As if that weren't enough, it also boasts "a high-level signal handling capability and a smooth and consistent cardioid pattern at all frequencies for exceptional off-axis rejection of unwanted sound for improved separation and isolation," say the Shure people.

The PL88 microphone from Electro-Voice is no slouch either. It's a dynamic cardioid vocal mic that features voice-tailored frequency response characteristics and resistance to the nasty noise that occurs when you're throwing it around on stage. It's finished in a non-reflecting snow grey with a contrasting charcoal grille. It has an on/off switch and is available in both high and low impedance models. It can be had for less than $70, too.

Now that we have these wonderful microphones, we need a mixer, right? Well, as luck would have it, the people at Edcor have a new automatic unit called the AM400. With this mixer, up to seven units can be "daisy chained" together, providing control for 28 inputs; the first unit becomes master and the other six become slaves. It has variable depth of attenuation controls for each input - instead of completely turning each channel on or off, the unit allows the user to turn off each channel by degree. Logic outputs let the user mute certain speakers by activating relays when channels are opened or closed.

According to Edcor, the AM400 is "a hybrid of digital control and analog circuitry." The company also maintains that the attack time for each channel is too quick to be noticed in the form of "clipped" consonants. Its suggested retail price is $500.

New at the show from Morley were two new miniaturised effects: the Sync-Attack and the Sync-A-Wah. How would you like to have the job of thinking up names for sound modification boxes? Anyway, both units are pocket-sized; they were designed to be small and light enough to clip to a guitar strap.

The Sync-Attack enables the musician to control the speed and character of his attack. It also lets him simulate string, woodwind and keyboard sounds. The Sync-A-Wah, on the other hand, provides a 'Wah' effect for each note attack and eliminates sound level sensitivity problems and the need for special settings. According to Morley, very soft, subtle, wahs or strong wahs can be played without altering playing technique.

From Imaginearing Audio, a small, entrepreneurial company in Oregon, we have the Echo/Digital Recorder, a digital storage unit with an easy-to-operate computer control key-pad programming section. This enables the user to echo, delay, reverse echo, record and play back forward and reverse, all in segments of .001 seconds to 16.777 seconds. The product uses no tape and has no moving parts. It's available in two models: one with a 16-second memory, the other with an eight-second memory. Each can be purchased for under $2,000.

Another entrepreneurial type, Dennis Craswell of California's Poly Keyboard Interface, spent the NAMM Expo busily demonstrating two keyboard instruments. One was a quite substantial polyphonic synthesiser; the other was a tiny, wireless combination microphone and keyboard. According to Craswell, the instrument was built especially for Elton John, but somehow Elton neglected to come around and pick up the instrument. Such is show biz!

On the subject of portable synths designed for stage use, Performance Music Systems once again displayed their Syntar, a hybrid electric guitar/synthesiser. It weighs only 14 pounds and contains a three-octave keyboard on the main body. The neck is a nine-key, left hand keyboard/multiple controller. The instrument also has five interface jacks within the power supply. It comes with a 30-foot cable, owners manual and various accessories. Suggested list price is $1695.

Octave-Plateau Electronics, Inc. showed its newly developed line of synthesisers: Voyager 1, Voyager 8, VPK-3 and VPK-5. Both the Voyager modules share a 32-program memory with tape load/dump and a 32-page program stepper allowing any sequence of programs to be accessed with a footswitch in either forward or reverse direction. Both feature paralleled memory bank control between modules and computer interface for expansion. Each has a standard 19-inch rack mount chassis for uniform arrangement of module arrays. The Voyager 8 has eight voices, a split layer or whole eight-voice keyboard module and arpeggiator. It can drive slave synthesisers with left and right hand sections. Stereo/mono outputs are also featured.

The VPK 3 (mono) and VPK 5 (poly) keyboards both have velocity and pressure sensitivity and an XY spring-loaded joystick controller that can connect to the Voyager 8 with a common mic cable, and can control several Voyager system modules simultaneously.

And for guitarists, Charvel Manufacturing had some interesting designs for various solid body guitar types. So, if you should ever have an overwhelming urge to play chess on a Gibson Explorer, Charvel are the people to see.

Companies and manufacturers mentioned:

Peavey Electronics, (Contact Details)
Shure Brothers, Inc., (Contact Details)
Electro-Voice, Inc., (Contact Details)
Edcor, (Contact Details)
Morley, (Contact Details)
Imaginearing Audio, (Contact Details)
Poly Keyboard Interface, (Contact Details)
Performance Music Systems, (Contact Details)
Octave Plateau Electronics, Inc., (Contact Details)
Charvel Manufacturing, (Contact Details)