(Each summer, amid the heat and clamor of Chicago's convention center, McCormick Place, the National Association of Music Merchants [NAMM] holds its annual showing of wares. The convention is the opportunity for those companies who make musicial instrument products to show off the new lines of goodies and creations to the retail merchants, who in turn, will come home and fill up the shelves. Your local music store has probably already shown signs of progress, maybe a new OB-1 or Music Man Sabre. But there are still quite a number of items you haven't seen yet. The following article is a brief peek at some of the hot new stuff you can expect to be replacing the hot old stuff. Obviously, we're just scratching the surface of what's new, but keep tuned in to future issues for more on the latest and greatest in instruments and electronics for musicians. —Ed.)

INTERSOUND introduced a new preamp, the IVP—instrument voice preamplifier,—that should prove useful to guitarists and keyboard players as well. The IVP is a two-channel preamp with a variety of features designed to make the job of obtaining a lot of