The 2000 Golden Axe Awards
Guitar Unlimited Division
By Cliff Suttle
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February 21, 2000 - Wow!!! That’s it, just plain WOW! The Golden Axe Award competition at the NAMM show was better than ever. If you’re not familiar with what the Golden Axe Awards are (you have to stop living in that closet and read Harmony Central more often) let me fill you in on contest. The Golden Axe Award is where Harmony Central selects the best guitars and basses at the winter NAMM show. There are four different divisions: Guitar-Unlimited, Guitar-Best Value, Bass-Unlimited, and Bass-Best Value. Ten instruments are selected in each division. The "Unlimited Guitar" is the first division to be announced. Please see the schedule in the introduction for the dates of the three other divisions.
The Unlimited division is about pieces of art that just happen to be fantastic guitars. The important thing to remember about the Unlimited division, is that the guitar had to be professional quality in playability and sound to even enter the contest. As soon as the guitar was deemed of professional quality, then other factors were considered. The other judging factors include, but are not limited to, workmanship, innovation, creativity, and uniqueness. These instruments range in price from $2,400 to $150,000 U.S. As you can see, these are not the types of instruments that you find at your local mass market music store. If you don’t care for this type of instrument, please check out the upcoming Guitar-Best Value award which is more about playability, tone, flexibility, and value for the dollar (mark, yen, pound, or whatever you use in your part of the world).
Here are the rules under which the contest was judged:
- The guitar had to be present at the NAMM show. No late entries were allowed.
- The guitar had to meet or exceed what would be considered pro level quality for playability and sound. Needless to say, all these guitars sound and play wonderfully.
- The guitar had to encompass something that set it apart from other instruments in it’s class. This could include workmanship, inlay work, painting, unusual materials, creativity, or an unusual design.
- Each company could only submit one instrument per division.
- Any model which was a former Golden Axe Finalist from prior years was excluded from the contest. However, companies could enter other models from their line.
Overall, I found the competition to be way up from last year. Many of the manufacturers that placed high last year didn’t place at all this year. Last year the top five places were dominated by large companies. This year, the opposite is true. Smaller custom manufacturers dominated the entire final ten. We have a lot of new faces in the finals this year, but there are some repeat performers who just seem to pour out one great guitar after another.
In last year’s awards, acoustic guitars were not well represented only getting two spots in the top ten. So, this year we have decided to separated the acoustics into there own unlimited mini-category (honoring only five guitars instead of ten). With this in mind, lets hand out the acoustics awards first.
And away we go!
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