Electra-Tone was showing off a pedal with an incredible vibe, and great sound to boot. Here we see the "No. 2," a hand-wired, analog boost/fuzz/distortion pedal that uses an innovative "Magnatone" analog technology to achieve very pleasing, tube-like overdrive.

Here are yours truly and someone the photographer conscripted into being the "booth babe" for the shot. I'm showing off a set of Aurora coated and colored strings. A thin coating is bonded to the string to preserve its tone and life, and this coating can have just about any color you can think of.

In the category of cool crossover, we have Cruz Tools showing off high quality bass tool kits. Cruz is an established motorcycle tool manufacturer, but the owner is also a bass player and was dismayed at the low quality of allen wrenches and other tools usually found in maintenance kits. So he decided to make his own. These are very high quality tool kits that should last a lifetime.

The Belkin TuneStudio records an uncompressed stereo wav file onto your iPod (not included). This would be an excellent tool for podcasters—and it's light and sturdy and should travel well. The USB connection to your computer means as soon as you finish recording, you can upload the file.

The mighty Fat Man was also touring the show, and I convinced him to try out the Vocal Acoustic Monitor from VAM Acoustics. "Sing Better Faster" is its tagline. The VAM allows you to hear yourself so you can maintain correct pitch and improve your singing habits, either with a microphone or not.