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February 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 59 Fishman was introducing a new guitar pick- up, one that is unlike any wire-wound pickup used on electric guitars. This pickup is a 48-lay- er flex circuit with an etched circular trace, with plated via holes connecting each layer. This unique pickup, called the Fluence, provides, as Fishman says, the "historical Strat tones with- out the hum." Electrical engineer John Eck was kind enough to spend time with us explaining the development of the product. Certainly this new pickup will advance the state of the art the same way the humbucker pickup did many years ago. This is but a short synopsis of NAMM 2016. Suffice it to say NAMM is a show of shows un- like any you may have attended before. NAMM 2016: True Technology at Last by Dan Feinberg FeIn LIne ASSoCIATeS I have been covering the National Association of Music Merchants show (NAMM) for the last five years. As a techie and as a musician who has played blues and classic rock for decades, I have always loved going to NAMM. Wandering from hall to hall, you see hundreds of instruments be- ing played all at once. If you stand in one place it can all sound like noise, but as you wander it blends into a pleasant symphonic cacophony. You transition from blues to grunge rock, changing the guitar strings to keep our instru- ments sounding good, but humidity, tempera- ture changes, and sudden impacts to the guitar all affect its performance. Now, along comes technology from the experts at Taylor to help you monitor all of these factors. In concert with Blustream, Taylor has developed a patented tool called TaylorSense that monitors humidity, tem- perature, impact, and battery life and commu- nicates with you through an app (Apple iOS for now) on your phone. TaylorSense provides more than a visual pre- sentation of the health of the guitar. It has its own accelerometer for measuring shock in G force, as well as a digital tuner, four-track record- er and a metronome, all of which are connected via Bluetooth to your phone. A smart battery box replaces the 9V battery box in most Taylor acous- tic-electric guitars. Great care has been taken to ensure that the digital signal does not interfere with the analog signals from the various pick- ups in the guitar. It's an outstanding technology product from a "wood shop" like Taylor! Our last formal visit was with Fishman, an- other innovative supplier of high-quality prod- ucts for electric and acoustic guitars. We were fortunate to meet founder Larry Fishman, who was celebrating the company's 35 th anniversary during the show. Fishman is well known for a variety of amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, (the so- called "FishStick" being one interesting ampli- fier) and a variety of other products. Fishman is located in Andover, Massachusetts, not far from the high-technology innovative section of Bos- ton near Route 28. special section: naMM 2016 review