It was once again time for the music instrument business’ biggest show of the year and the 2012 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA Jan. 19th-23rd did not disappoint!!! This year’s show proved to be the biggest attended show ever and as usual the Krank booth was packed all four days with many artists, vendors, distributors and music store buyers stopping by to see the latest and greatest in gear as well as some outstanding booth performances.

This year’s artists performing at the booth included some old and new faces. Jeff Duncan and Phil Sandoval of Armored Saint once again proved to be a huge attraction at the booth, performing a medley of the Saint’s tunes, and this year also marked the first ever Jeff Duncan solo performance, playing a very cool Gary Moore-ish slow blues piece. Another returning performer was Australia’s Michael Katselos. Michael’s band Segression is one of the cooler metal band in Oz and he’s also an accomplished instrumentalist which was on full display in two different booth performances. Also returning was Trixter’s Steve Brown, rockin’ an unaccompanied jam that displayed his sizable trick bag of guitar licks. New to the booth this year was renowned shredder Toshi Iseda who also performed twice, showing off his technique that has garnered him quite the reputation amongst guitar fans. And last we were happy to introduce one of the brightest young players to come along in quite some time, Jordan Ziff of the Phoenix, AZ based rock act Age of Evil. Ziff possesses a deep maturity for a player of just 20 years old with skills reminiscent of John Sykes and Nuno Bettencourt. Ziff along with bandmate Jeremy Goldberg rocked a medley of Age of Evil’s music that had countless people walking into the booth to ask “Who is that?!?!”. All the performances were played through the new Jr. combos which are now available for preorder!!! Check out all the videos below!

Also as is the norm at every NAMM show a who’s who of the music industry walked the halls and swung thru the booth including Pete from The Adicts, Blasko Nicholson of Ozzy Osbourne’s band, Jeff Loomis of Nevermore, legendary a&r man Tom Zutaut (scouting the aformentioned Jordan Ziff), Michael Wilton of Queensryche, Brian Wheat of Tesla, Jose Mangin of SiriusXM and there was even a walk by by the legendary Steve Wonder! All in all a great time and a killer show! Enjoy the videos and photos below!

NAMM 2012 VIDEOS:

Age Of Evil

Armored Saint

Jeff Duncan – Solo

Michael Katselos of Segression – Performance One

Michael Katselos of Segression – Performance Two

Toshi Iseda

Steve Brown of Trixter

Jose Mangin of Sirius XM talks Krank!

PHOTOS:

Plexiglass sound booth this year!

Krank Tech Patrick Flanagan telling us all what he thinks!

Backside of the booth

Krank’s Jeromy Graves by the Jr. jam station

NAMM attendee rockin’ the jam station

Krank’s Chris Catero getting ready for a bass demo

Krank’s Troy Bolton on the performance stage with a new Schecter 7-string V

Crowds packing into the booth

More crowds and the Krank sign that can be seen from space!!!

Krank’s Troy Boltom with Russian distributor Dmirti Navarenko

Krank’s Chris Catero with Jose Mangin, programming director and jock for Sirius XM’s Octane and Liquid Metal stations

Pete from The Adicts jamming in the sound booth

Segression’s Michael Katselos lighting up the booth!

The next generation of Krank Addicts!!!

Krank’s Chris Catero and Trixter’s Steve Brown

Krank’s performance stage with the new Jr. combos…btw they’re ready for order folks!!!

Krank’s Jeromy Graves and Patrick Flanagan with guitar tech and brother Brian “Shine” Abell

Krank’s Chris Catero with Nick Sterling of Sebastian Bach’s band

Check out “Choke” on guitarworld.com:
http://www.guitarworld.com/exclusive-koffin-kats-premiere-new-song-choke

And be sure to go like their Facebook page to keep up all things Koffin Kats!
https://www.facebook.com/koffinkats

Nick is the lead/rhythm guitars and founding member of the Greek heavy metal band X-Piral. With X-Piral he has 3 releases, “Poison Eyes” (2005), “Hunters” (2007) and “Grave New World” (2011) and also participated to numerous festivals such as the “Greek metal gods” festival of the Greek “Rock Hard” magazine. He was also a member of the Metalzone.gr jamming band two years in a row, playing for charity concerts such as the charity concerts of 2010 for the “Doctors without frontiers” organization. Besides X-Piral Nick is a touring guitarist for the heavy/southern rock band Potergeist and he recently joined the legendary Greek epic metal band Airged L’Amh, recording their new album based on more symphonic and folk elements.

Born in February 1st of 1982 he started taking classic guitar lessons together with his brother, guitarist of the heavy/stoner rockers Planet of Zeus, influenced by his cousin, bass player of the well known in Greece and England hard rockers 4Bitten. Later he studied electric guitar with the Greek guitar legend George Stratakis of the 80s metal band Rust. His taste in music varies from artists such as Zakk Wylde to non-metal ones like Johnny Cash and from bands like Savatage to the modern music of Killswitch Engage and In Flames.

As a guitarist he is influenced very much from guitarists of all rock and metal genres but he always admired the man, Dimebag Darrel. He actually loved every single song Dime ever wrote from the Pantera classics to the “Rebel meets rebel” project. One of the main reason he gave a try to the Krankenstein+, besides the Rev’s widely admitted excellent quality and tone, was Dime’s sound in “New Found Power” which ended up to be the best choice he ever made concerning his guitar sound. Together with his 7string Halo guitar this amp provides all the power a metal band needs and most of the European clubs can handle. There is only one thing better than a Krankenstein+ and that is two of those monsters.

To check out more on Nick go to:

http://www.x-piral.com
http://www.airgedlamh.com
http://www.potergeist.com

MUSIC:
“Grave New World” – X-Piral
“One Piece Of Paradise” – X-Piral

Krank wishes to say a huge congrats to the Eric Church Band for their recent album “CHIEF” debuting at #1! This is near and dear to everyone at Krank as one of our own is featured in the band, guitarist Driver Williams who was an original Team Krank member when the company started. Also featured in the band is original Black Crowes guitarist Jeff Cease. For all you gearheads Driver rocks a Krank Nineteen80 and Chadwick.

The band is currently on tour with Toby Keith but stopped in Phoenix to do a one-off date at the Marquee Theater. Below are some photos from the show as well as their current video “Homeboy” and footage of their Jimmy Kimmel appearance the day after.

All photos by David Burgess.

“Homeboy” Video

Jimmy Kimmel Appearance

Eric Church and Driver Williams

Jeff Cease

Driver Williams and Jeff Cease

Krank Amps is proud to announce it’s partnership once again with the 2011 version of the Uproar Tour. The line-up this year features Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, Seether, Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate, Sevendust, Black Tide, Art Of Dying and more. This is the tour’s second year in existence following it’s highly successful debut last fall.

Krank is also teaming up with Best Buy and Schecter Guitars to bring the rock right into every concert goers hands, with Krank amps available to play at Best Buy’s pop up store as well as a very cool playing station in Schecter’s booth where you can jam some their newest guitar models. Check out a picture of it below before it was shipped from our factory!

For more information please visit www.rockstaruproar.com

The Nineteen80 cab offers a different 4×12 tone to players with it’s construction of 13-ply Baltic birch wood, a premium choice of woods that matches well with the Eminence Governor speakers it’s loaded with, very classic midrange in nature while being able to handle high gain equally as well! This versatile cab gives not only Nineteen80 head users an affordable and perfectly matched cab but also provides a nice tonal option for users of the Rev+ and Krankenstein+ and is a great 4×12 option for owners of the Rev Jr. and Krankenstein Jr. 50W heads. The cab features the same dimensions and removable style grill as the Rev and Krankenstein cabs and comes wired 16 ohms standard.

* 4×12 cabinet, 13-ply Baltic birch wood construction
* Loaded with premium Eminence Governor speakers, standard in 4 ohms
* Oversized cab for greater bass response, measurements 29 ¾” W x 31 13/16” H x 14” D
* grill available in black or tan/pepper grill cloth, metal grill also available in black or chrome

The Jr. cabs are some versatile little cabs! They were originally designed as a studio cab prototype at the Krank factory and used a lot during the development of the Jr. heads. We liked the look and sound so much what was going to be a combo became a stack!

It features the same construction as the Nineteen80 4×12, using a 13-ply baltic birch shell and is loaded with the same premium Eminence Governor speakers. Because the Governor is rated at 75W this cab easily handles full size heads as well and is ideal for home rehearsal, studio use, club gigs, or personal onstage monitoring.

* 1×12 cabinet, shell 13-ply baltic birch wood construction
* Loaded with premium Eminence Governor speakers 16 ohms
* Measurements 15 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ x 12″
* Removable grill available in black grill cloth, tan/pepper grill cloth, black metal or chrome

These amps are excellent studio amps as well as being ideal for band rehearsal and club gigging. The matching 1×12 cabs and great for practice as well as miking up nicely in the studio, giving you great separation without the phasing that can accompany miking a 4×12. Also another great choice to match with the 50W head are the Nineteen80 and Rev SST cab, giving you a high quality gigging rig at an affordable price!!!

* Two channel, footswitchable in either a 20W or 50W version
* Preamp three 12AX7 tubes, power section two Sovtek 5881 tubes
* Krank channel: sweep control, 3 band eq, gain, master, Kleen channel: volume, 2 band eq
* Active effects loop, 8 and 16 ohm selector, worldwide voltage use, footswitch included
* Available in black or tan/pepper grill cloth

Jeff Duncan (pictured left) of Armored Saint using the Nineteen80 Jr. along with bandmate Phil Sandoval using a Rev Jr. Pro at the 2011 NAMM show:

Toby Keith guitarist Joey Floyd demoing the Nineteen80 Jr. at the 2011 Winter NAMM show:

Free Reign, featuring members of the Dall Cowboys and Miami Dolphins offensive lines, just released a video for their new single “One Step Away” which can be viewed below. The band recently released their debut full length album “Heavier Than Metal”. Guitarist Justin Chapman and frontman Mark Colombo both use Krankenstein rigs which are on full display in the video! To check out more on the band go to www.freereignmusic.com!

“One Step Away”:

Comprised of two Dallas Cowboys (Marc Colombo and Leonard Davis) and a Miami Dolphin (Cory Procter), Free Reign is certainly a larger than life heavy metal crew. With the line-up rounded out by non-footballer and accomplished guitarist Justin Chapman, the quartet is readying the release of an all-new single, “One Step Away,” which follows up on the promise of last year’s five-song release, ‘Tragedy.’ The “One Step Away” single is on sale via iTunes and all digital sales providers.

Explains Colombo, “‘One Step Away’ is a song about feeling close to success – whether it’d be a band that has worked so hard but could not quite reach their dream, or a team/player that’s accomplished so much but a championship just seems to allude them. What keeps people coming back is the idea that maybe this time nothing will stand in your way of achieving your ultimate goal.”

“One Step Away” will be released by the band via their own label, DC Rightside Music, and a new, full-length studio album titled ‘Heavier Than Metal’ will follow-up the single on April 19th, 2011. Recently, Free Reign won Revolver Magazine’s Golden Gods Award, for “Most Metal Athletes.”

In the group, right tackle Colombo handles vocals, right guard Davis handles bass, and center/guard Procter mans the drums. Procter also showed off his drumming talents on the highly successful VH1 show “Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp”. Immediately upon hitting the metal scene, Free Reign was heralded by some of hard rock/heavy metal’s most recognizable names, including Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde (“FREE REIGN kicks ass! These guys will pound you into submission, check them out now!”), and Twisted Sister’s Eddie Ojeda (“These guys are Twisted Cowboys, I love it…horns up!!”). And with the impending arrival of “One Step Away,” Free Reign are quickly becoming a true hard rocking powerhouse.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT:

www.FreeReignmusic.com

Check out the single “One Step Away”:
Free Reign – “One Step Away”