NAMM 2026: Welcome, guitar disciples. Once more, we bid you a happy new year and happy new gear, as we usher in NAMM 2026 – the world’s biggest guitar gear show.
The annual gathering of the National Association of Music Merchants has been running since 1902, making January 22-24 2026 the 124th(!) showcase of new guitars, amps, pedals and everything else besides.
We enter 2026 in a different mood than 2025. Last year, we weren’t sure whether the show would even take place owing to the California wildfires. This time, the specter of tariff uncertainty looms over release schedules and price lists.
Fortunately, nothing can stop the torrent of new gear that bursts forth every January, and we are delighted to confirm there are some humdingers on the horizon.
NAMM is less public-facing than it once was, and our diaries are filling up with press conferences and closed-off product showcases. Not everyone will get up close and personal with the latest releases – but you can bet we will.
Yes, once more, the Guitar World team will have boots on the ground at the musical mecca that is the Anaheim Convention Center, bringing you all the biggest releases, artist performances, and weirdest guitar builds you’ve ever seen.
This year’s squad includes Editor-in-Chief Mike Astley-Brown, now on his seventh/eighth/ninth tour of the ACC. News Editor Matt Owen joins him for his second year of hoping to bump into John Mayer at the Anaheim Fresh lunch stand.
GW gear guru Paul Riario – now on what must be at least his 79th NAMM – will be stroking his chin over the finest new goods, ably assisted by videographer Alan Chaput. GW mag’s own Editor-in-Chief Damian Fanelli is also roaming the halls, arm-wrestling his digital counterpart to be first in line for the free content creator coffee.
In short, we got you. All the hottest news, up-to-the-minute as much as patchy show will Wi-Fi allow. Expert insights and hands-on analysis. Artist interviews, celebrity sightings, live shred-offs, and more gear than you could ever dream of sneaking by your significant other.
Welcome to NAMM 2026 LIVE! Bookmark this page, pore over it regularly, cherish it. And prepare yourself for some truly terrible puns…
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(Image credit: Yamaha)
Yamaha's had quite a pre-NAMM day as well. Revstar aficionado Chris Buck – who was wooed by the model away from the Strat, to which he had long been a loyalist up to that point – has put his own signature twist on the model in the form of the new RS02CB.
Loaded with sweet personal visual and sonic touches, it goes well with Yamaha's other major announcement of the day, its new-for-2026 Pacifica single-cut.
(Image credit: PRS Guitars / Mikko Dumadag)
So, you've obviously got your new kit with the pre-show announcements, but how about some star power? This was provided by Ed Sheeran, who on NAMM Eve announced the PRS SE Cosmic Splash, a tastily spec'd hollowbody baritone limited to just 1,000 pieces.
Amazingly, it’s the first time PRS has ever made a hollowbody baritone guitar, save for the one-off Drive guitar it made with Sheeran for the new F1: The Movie soundtrack.
Tantalizingly, the stadium-packing singer-songwriter said of the model, “It's a limited edition, so it will go fast, but there's more to come, so stay tuned.”
(Image credit: Neural DSP)
One thing that is certainly not in doubt is which pre-show release is being chatted about the most at the moment.
Unveiled today, Neural DSP's new Quad Cortex miniis a big f'in deal, as they say. The Quad Cortex completely changed the game for modeling multi-effects pedals, and this pint-sized modeler puts the full QC experience into its smallest format yet, and at the same time, retains the larger unit's power, UI, and most importantly (and unlike its sibling, the Nano Cortex), a touchscreen. We cannot wait to get our hands on it.
(Image credit: Future)
And there they are! Look at our intrepid gang, standing outside the eighth Wonder of the World, the Anaheim Convention Center.
Now, we've seen a multitude of huge gear releases already, and rumors abound about what we might yet see in the coming days. Who'll make a surprise appearance? What product announcement will steal the show? Will Matt get to play a real Dumble again?? Answers to all this and more await...
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