Marshall: Pretty much a self explanatory name in the industry... They didn't showcase anything new this year, so they were marketing a lot of their gear and ran a charity fund during the show as well... For a $2 donation, you got yourself a pretty nifty Marshall bag made from recycled material... The charity was either for the Children's Hospital or Breast Cancer, but I seriously forgot...
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Ernie Ball... They were having a 50th Anniversary Sale or something going on... The line never stopped forming from beginning to end...
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Gibson: Gibson had a pretty small room and they packed the heck out of it with a showcase of towering guitars... Needless to say, I couldn't move around much so I snagged a pic or two before I headed out...
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Ibanez: They weren't too small or too big, but because they were integrated into the Hoshino Gakki company, I found myself drawn towards the drums more than anything... So here's a photo...
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Fender: On the other hand, rented out an entire stage room (The room where SCANDAL performed), plus the room across from it... Yes, there were a lot of guitars...
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I forgot what company this was, but it was more a shop if anything... They housed a lot of sticks ranging from standard drums to mallets and such...
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Vic Firth, my prefered choice of sticks... I didn't see anything new but they had a big area setup for everyone to try out their variety of sticks...
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Remo: Showcasing the X14, a Single ply 14-mil head, they set up 3 kick drums for show and punishment... Out of the 3 on display, the clear head was the most natural sounding out of them all (Then again, my personal bass is Ebony front and Clear batter, so hearing the ebony kicked on was a lil off for me)
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Cymbals: Other than the top dog companies, there was plenty of underground companies showing their stuff. There were way more aisles on cymbals than you see here, but you couldn't come into this section without having your eardrums cut in half.
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Sabian: Being the top dog company, Sabian didn't need to show much because of their solid foundation.
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SIKE!!! They had a TOWER!!! HA HA! I prefer Sabian over Zildjian because of the Brother vs Brother history, so I favor the top underdog... If that makes any sense.
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Zildjian: Much like Sabian and the other companies, they had their entire line on display and whatever new cymbal out on the testing grounds. From Natural to Brilliant, it was absolutely blinding.
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Drumcraft: I didn't get to stop by DC for long, so all I caught was a glimpse of their booth and took a snapshot. Clear shells aren't new or anything, but it looked like that theme for their booth was for more "Wow!" factor. Unless if you're a highly paid artist or something of the sort, then you could get away with LED lights and special effects, but for us garagestars, it's not practical for everyday use.
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Molecules(?): I'm not sure what the name of this company was, but they had some orb-shell setup going. The representative at the booth was busy talking to some other people, but I couldn't see how really worked. It sounded good when he played it, but all I could see was the head decaying faster because the resonance has nowhere else to go except back upwards. Unless if the shell itself absorbed the soundwaves? Whatever, it sounded alright, but I didn't get the chance to ask about the dynamics.
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Tama: The name itself is self explanatory. Ranking high in the market with companies such as Yamaha, Pearl, etc., if you know drums, then you know Tama. Nothing too new this year, but they had some new finishes for their Starclassic line on display. Possibly more, but I only ran in there once.
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Pearl: I don't even has to say anything about this. Other than the drums, they had a huge giant screen that was airing the NFL Playoff games, Mike Mangini's Tour Kit, Tommy Lee's Kit hanging from the ceiling, and a whole lot of their kits laying about for you to oogle at.
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Michael "Nicko" McBrain: Not a drum company, but I thought I'd bring this to light for kicks. Anything "signature" will always be marked up from MSRP price by a massive amount. Regardless if it's the same kit you have in your garage, if it's "signature", then you know it'll rip a hole in your bank.
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Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain replica kit! MSRP or Retail, the price of this kit is nearly the same as what I bought my car for! (Retail tops it by $2K)

At the end of the event, the entire convention shut down their lights to signify that it was finally over. I happened to be standing next to the Sabian booth. The lights were off?
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