NAMM 2026: ‘Best in Show’ Winners Announced

NAMM 2026 has just wrapped up, making it the perfect time to look back at the gear that really stood out. NAMM’s organisers have already crowned their official ‘Best in Show’ winners — but we thought it’d be fun to chuck in a few of our favourites too!

Elliot Stent

Elliot Stent

28/01/26 1:00pm - 10 min read | 47 min watch

Gear News / Electric Guitars
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NAMM 2026 wasn’t short on amazing new products. Across our day 1, 2, 3 and 4 roundups, we highlighted the best stuff we spotted — and even got stuck into some early NAMM releases that made waves in the run‑up to the event.

But now the show’s over, and NAMM’s organisers have kept up their yearly tradition of honouring the most innovative, talked‑about products with their prestigious ‘Best in Show’ awards. Below, we’ve gathered all the winners announced so far. We even asked the Andertons team to nominate their own top picks!

Official NAMM 2026 ‘Best in Show’ winners

Scroll down to see the standout products that grabbed the attention of the team behind the NAMM Show:

Neural Quad Cortex Mini

There’s nothing surprising about Neural bagging a ‘Best in Show’ award for the Quad Cortex Mini. We even predicted it in our early NAMM Show 2026 releases blog last week — but we’re not patting ourselves on the back for that one. It was pretty obvious it was gonna happen!

If you missed the announcement, the QC Mini takes everything players love about the OG Quad Cortex and shrinks it down into a super‑portable, pedalboard‑friendly little beast. Same horsepower. Same jaw‑dropping tones. Just… smaller. At over 50% dinkier than its full‑fat sibling, the Quad Cortex Mini is an absolute breeze to drop into any rig. Need a grab‑and‑go fly setup? Easy. Want a compact command centre for your home studio? It’s got that covered too — it even pulls double duty as an audio interface.

You still get Neural DSP’s world‑class amp modelling, their scarily accurate Neural Capture tech, wildly flexible effects routing and that slick multi‑touch display that makes tone‑tweaking a doddle. Plus, it slots straight into the wider Quad Cortex ecosystem, so presets, backups and workflows move across devices without missing a beat.

A photo showing the Neural Quad Cortex Mini next to a NAMM 2026 Best in Show plaque

Buy the Neural Quad Cortex Mini

Polyend Endless user-defined stompbox

Guitar pedals don’t get much more forward‑thinking than this — and clearly the folks at NAMM agreed. The Polyend Endless is pretty much whatever you want it to be. It’s a fully user‑defined multi‑effects stompbox that lets you build your sound from the ground up. Load in ready‑made effects, describe the tone in your head using Polyend’s Playground software, or go full mad‑scientist with open‑source C++ to create entirely custom processors.

With drag‑and‑drop effect loading over USB‑C, a rugged aluminium housing and a customisable magnetic faceplate, Endless is a future‑proof creative platform for guitarists, synth heads and studio tinkerers alike.

Unlike most pedals, you’re not boxed into a fixed set of effects. Endless gives you a constantly expanding library of community‑made creations — from glitchy loopers and granular weirdness to classic reverbs, delays and amp sims. You can completely reconfigure the pedal in minutes to suit whatever session, gig or sonic rabbit hole you’re diving into. We’ll let Piotr from Polyend take it from here in our video…

Buy the Polyend Endless Pedal

Boss GX-1 & GX-1B guitar/bass effects processors

Boss lived up to their name yet again (literally bossing it) with their new GX-1 guitar effects processor and GX-1B bass multi-FX. They fully deserved to pick up a ‘Best in Show’ award for this dynamic duo — just look at these top‑level specs:

  • Boss GX-1: A grab‑and‑go pedalboard packed with 23 pro‑grade AIRD amp models and over 140 effects. It comes loaded with 99 ready‑to‑play presets, plus 99 user slots for your own custom patches. There’s even built‑in Bluetooth, so you can jam along with tracks straight from your mobile device.
  • Boss GX-1B: Everything above, but for bass! You get 16 amps and 130+ effects to play with, along with full support for the Boss Tone Studio app — giving you powerful practice tools and deep sound‑editing right from your phone or tablet.

Congrats Boss, these units are wicked. And if you want to get even more out of ’em, don’t forget about the new FSC-10 footswitch caps Boss also launched at NAMM. These clever little add‑ons make hitting the right switch easier than ever, while still letting those cool LEDs shine through.

A lifestyle photo showing the Boss GX-1 and GX-1B next to each other

Shop the Boss GX-1 & GX-1B

Bad Cat PurePath analogue load box & cab sim

Our pals at Bad Cat found the purr‑fect spot for their NAMM booth this year — “nice and quiet, if not slightly warm,” according to Lee. Ideal conditions, really, because it meant they could show off their brand‑new PurePath in all its glory. And it clearly worked, as it walked away with a ‘Best in Show’ award.

So what’s the PurePath all about? It’s a completely passive, fully analogue load box and cab sim designed to nail the exact tone and feel of your fave guitar cab. Great for silent recording, cab‑free stages or just keeping the neighbours sweet. You get Alnico or Ceramic speaker flavours, open or closed‑back cab options and mic‑placement controls. There’s a balanced XLR out for running straight to your PA or interface, plus a cab out if you want to run a cool hybrid setup.

It’s not on our site just yet, but word on the street is that it could land as early as this spring. To stay in the know, join our mailing list here.

Shop Bad Cat Amps

Our staff’s top NAMM 2026 picks

Our content team have nominated their own ‘Best in Show’ products too. Check out what really impressed them below:

Laney Billy Corgan Supergrace-Loudpedal

Elliot Stent – Digital Product Content Writer

I’m a huge Pumpkins fan, so I know Billy Corgan’s been working with Laney for a while. But launching an amp pedal that distils his massive live rig into a do‑it‑all box? That caught me totally off guard, not gonna lie!

I’ve been using the Laney Ironheart Loudpedal as my main gigging amp for the last couple of years and love it, but I’m sure I’ll be upgrading to the Supergrace soon. It mimics Billy’s iconic Siamese Dream/Mellon Collie tones perfectly with that high‑gain Carstens Grace channel, and the clean sounds are lush too.

It’s also got MIDI, so it’ll play nicely with my Boss MS‑3 for channel switching. And with Billy’s handpicked IRs onboard, it’ll sound even better going direct to FOH when I play live with my band. I can’t wait to try one out.

Buy the Laney Billy Corgan Supergrace

Korg Phase8 acoustic synth

Robin Tindill – Pro Audio, Keys & Drums Content Specialist

What I love about the Phase8 is that it’s actually doing something new. It’s an acoustic synth using eight physical steel resonators being driven by magnet hammers, sequenced and modulated like some electro-mechanical octopus. Instead of pretending to be a 40-year-old circuit, it fuses electronics with real, moving, misbehaving matter. You can tap it, feed it, abuse it, literally stick a stick you found in the park on it to change the timbre.

It’s got the power of modern sequencing with the chaos of physical vibration, which, as someone who collects synths, vintage and old, is actually exciting to see — control plus happy accidents.

And of course, it’s designed by the outrageously brilliant Tatsuya Takahashi. While everyone else is polishing the past, the Phase8 is busy inventing the future, and frankly, it’s about time.

A lifestyle photo of the Korg Phase 8 acoustic synth on a blue background

Buy the Korg Phase8

Strandberg N2 Tremolo with Arc TILT

Stuart Palmer – Digital Product Content Writer (Guitar)

I’m the very happy owner of Strandberg’s Plini neck‑through signature model, so I was super keen to see what they were bringing to NAMM this year. And they didn’t disappoint — their new N2 Tremolo looks like a wicked bit of kit!

It features their new Arc TILT (Twin Incline Lever Technology) trem system. The bridge follows the natural string angles of the multi‑scale layout, and there’s a redesigned trem arm attachment too. These, along with a couple of other tweaks, mean you can push those pitch bends further, get some lovely flutter action going, and still trust the guitar to snap right back into tune.

They’ve also equipped it with a titanium‑reinforced roasted Maple EndurNeck, which Strandberg are calling their most stable neck ever. I don’t think I’ll be trading in my Plini sig anytime soon, but you can bet I’ll be grabbing one of these off the wall for a test drive the second they land in store!

Shop All Strandberg Guitars

Friedman Phil X PX-20 valve amp head

Dennis Ralph – Digital Content Specialist

This was a surprise for even me, as my usual stance on amps is that it has to be valve, has to be point-to-point wired, no more than one channel and strictly — less is more. The fewer knobs, bells and whistles the better, but my top pick for this year’s NAMM is the Friedman Phil X PX20 head.

After years of working as a hired gun at studios and on stage, and being required to transport an unruly amount of ‘just in case’ equipment, I’ve often thought about what I “actually” need and what my real bread and butter setup would be to get 99.9% of things done to a standard I’m happy with. I’ve always concluded that my go-to would be a Dumble-esque American amp for cleans and edge of break-up, a British EL34-powered ‘70s-inspired no-nonsense amp for rock rhythm — and finally — a hot-rodded ‘80s voiced amp for high-gains and lead.  The PX20 does all of it and more in one unit, with a generous helping of Dave Friedman’s magic tone dust sprinkled all over for good measure.

Reading and watching the countless write-ups and videos from over the NAMM weekend, I’m genuinely excited to get to the store and try one out in the flesh when these come in. The thought of being able to get such a variety of classic tones from one genuine valve amp, without needing to go down the path of digital modellers or a ton of effects, really appeals to what I currently need. And to me, 20 watts is the perfect compromise between stage and studio ready, as well as being home and family friendly!

Shop All Friedman Amps

See ya next year, NAMM!

Yeah, the 2026 NAMM Show might be over, but we’ve still got more videos on the way — plus fresh products from the event landing on the site. Bookmark our blog to stay in the loop with everything happening in the music gear world. And join the Andertons mailing list for instant alerts as new releases drop, along with awesome deals and local event updates.

Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube and across our social channels too:

A photo of Lee Anderton playing guitar hero at NAMM Show 2026

There’s way more to NAMM 2026 than we could ever squeeze into one roundup. Dive into the full lineup below and explore hundreds more of the hottest new releases:

Shop All NAMM 2026 Releases

Elliot Stent
Elliot Stent
Elliot is a content writer at Andertons and plays guitar in a modern rock covers band called Midnight Memento. When he's not working or riffing, you'll find him on a tennis court or glued to an F1 race.
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