Best Trade Show Swag Ever

Well, OK, there was free coffee, too, but you had to stand in a mighty long line to get it. I didn't. And I didn't find any free beer this year. But there was free shipping!

The US Postal Service had a booth at CES. I'm not sure why they had ski trainers there (maybe to illustrate what a carrier might have to go through to deliver mail) but their focus was to make people aware of the one-price Priority Mail shipping. They were giving away priority mail cartons - no big deal since you can get them free at any post office. But if you brought it back to the booth filled by Sunday afternoon, they'd ship it for free.

If it wasn't until late Saturday when I stumbled across their booth, I would have picked up more literature on things no high tech consumer can live without like ink jet printable phone and iPod skins, $20,000 phono turntables, and mono 135 watt all class A tube amplifiers with a single 833 (a tube about the size of a boxing glove) as the output stage for only $115,000 a pair - of course you could buy four pair for 7.1 or 6.2 surround. And this is a cheap one. Another using the same output tubes was reported to sell for $350,000 per pair.. Mighty impressive, though.

I was breifly at CES last week on business unrelated to music.

However, I did pass by the Gibson booth.

That new guitar they launched had a big crowd around it.

However, almost all these folks were 50-plus year old guys.

What is the matter with the kids these days?

I walked by there when they were doing a demo of the automatic tuning guitar, but they've launched that one a few times already. They have a new one that's a little odd looking, with digital output, but then they had one of those last year. It's hard for me to get excited over a new electric guitar. Last one that really got my interest was the Roland V-System but that never really caught on.

Kids these days want to play Rock Band. There are a lot of controllers for that game that look just like the real thing, and cost almost as much. Come to think of it, 50-somethings love to play Rock Band too, so maybe they buy the fancy controllers and the kids take it out from under the bed after school and put it back before Daddy or Mommy get home. I'm sure you've heard that story about famous guitarists before.

Polk had a demo room where they were showing a $100 powered speakers that looked and worked sort of like a guitar amplifier. They had a little stage set up with lights and a couple of fancy guitar, bass, and drum controllers, inviting people to get up and play. I didn't. I'm waiting for Old Time String Band where I can play a banjo controller.

I haven't been to CES in a few years, but I did notice that Gibson and Monster were sharing a booth. It's nice when America's most beloved companies can share some quality time.

(you know, this time horizon on posting is just too tempting sometimes. )

Hey, Mike and Ken and others, did you see anything interesting about ATSC Mobile DTV?

They probably lost faith when Gibson rolled out a strat knock off.

I haven't been to CES in a few years, but I did notice that Gibson and Monster were sharing a booth . It's nice when America's most beloved companies can share some quality time. (you know, this time horizon on posting is just too tempting sometimes. ) Hey, Mike and Ken and others, did you see anything interesting about ATSC Mobile DTV?

I did not. However, I was largely occupied with other things and wasn't looking out for this.

However, the 3D TVs ( with glasses) were everywhere.

To me, betwen that lack of content and the unnatural feel of it, Im not sure its going to gain traction just cause the big names ar pushing it.

If it does fly I expect it will be driven by gaming.

Much of the talk I heard about it was related to sports. That's something they can sell every night of the week. They only sell a comput4er game once.

Unfortunately due to the economy, we're gonna see very little, if any, swag at NAMM this week.

They're definitely short on parties. I even ran into George Peterson at the same cheap Mexican restaurant I ate at last night.

I hope I can find someone to give me a T shirt, though. It's chillier here than I expected and I didn't pack enough underwear. Where's Long John's Guitars when you need them?

The last time that I went to CES Gibson had a large tent just outside the main entrance to the convention center. They had performers every evening in their tent, all using (of course) Gibson gear. In 2007 they had Brian Wilson and his band followed by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Good stuff. On my previous visit they had George Thorogood. It appears that they cut the budget a bit this year.

On an earlier visit several years back Daewoo had a simulated golf course set up (video projector and computer). They had a "closest to the pin" contest and I took home a 27" television (they shipped it to me) by landing closest to the pin. Just a VERY lucky shot though.

i have gone to CES only once , and i had fun all the way long