Looking for a way to add more presence to his solo performances, singer/songwriter Pete Roe invented the Submarine. It's a pickup for two strings that, much like A Little Thunder, can be used to add some extra low end wallop to an electric or acoustic guitar or the signal could be routed through an effects pedal chain or separate amp for some out there sonic melding.
Critically-acclaimed musician, and former Mechanical Engineering student, Pete Roe says the inspiration for the Submarine hit when he was booked as the solo support act for a band and found that the audience was louder than he was. So he began a quest to make his sound bigger, experimenting in dingy dressing rooms and budget hotels until he'd managed to create a one string pickup that added more bass to his sound. His tinkering continued and 2 years later he fashioned some production prototypes of a micro pickup that gave one or two strings another voice.
The Submarine is essentially a pair of single coil pickups placed together in a shiny metal jacket. There's one pickup each for the bottom E and A strings of an electric or acoustic guitar (or the top E and B strings) and a switch up top to choose between one string, two strings or off. The signals picked up serve to give the guitar a second output, to which an octave bass can be added for bass runs or two high strings treated to some delayed distortion for memorable soloing.
The shiny electromagnetic pickup is held in place using a new micro-suction pad that's said to cause no damage to the instrument, and a hex key is used to adjust the height of the Submarine to suit the setup of a guitar.
The Submarine has launched on European crowdfunding platform Ulule (sorry folks, it's not being made available in the US at this time). As all of the early specials have been quickly snapped up, backers will now need to stump up at least €140 for one pickup. If all goes to plan, Roe hopes to start shipping out Submarines to backers in December.
You can see Roe himself demonstrating the Submarine pickup in the video below.
