Acoustics

Scientists in Japan have broken new ground when it comes to using sound waves for levitation, by demonstrating for the first time how the technology can be used to lift small polystyrene balls off of a rigid surface.

If you're going to check how fish are affected by hydroelectric dams, it's particularly important to monitor tiny, delicate individuals. That's why US scientists have developed what is claimed to be the world's smallest fish-tracking tag.

Lava Music's Me 2 pushes the acoustic guitar into uncharted waters, with a strong, lightweight carbon fiber body, and a built-in body-shaking speaker with reverb, chorus and delay effects. It's an ultra-portable travel axe with tricks up its sleeve.

This graphene-based aerogel is the lightest sound insulation material ever manufactured, say researchers at the University of Bath, who have demonstrated its ability to damp down noise by up to 16 dB despite weighing just 2.1 kg per cubic meter.

Late last year, we caught up with accomplished Italian guitar player Luca Stricagnoli to take a closer look at his novel slide guitar attachment prototype. Now the Reversed Slide Neck has undergone some modification ahead of upcoming production.

Last month, Fender launched its third Acoustasonic hybrid acoustic, and we got to play with the Jazzmaster and interview the company's R&D chief. Now Master Builder Ron Thorn has given the Custom Shop treatment to the guitar, and it's a beaut.

10 guitars in one; that's the promise with Fender's groundbreaking digitally-enhanced Acoustasonic range, and the new Jazzmaster flavor pushes things further and harder than ever before. We've spent two weeks with Fender's brave leap into the future.

French sound design firm HyVibe hit Indiegogo in late 2017 with an acoustic guitar infused with digital smarts. Now the company has announced a kit that can turn pretty much any acoustic into a hybrid smart guitar.

Fungus already shows promise as a "green" form of leather and protective packaging. Thanks to new research, it has now also found use in an environmentally-friendly sound-absorbing material.

Every so often we stumble across something truly awesome on platforms like YouTube. In this case it was a beautiful rendition of the George Harrison composition, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, on a custom acoustic with a novel slide guitar attachment.

MIT scientists have developed an acoustic system that acts like an underwater GPS, yet doesn't need batteries to operate. The system is instead powered by modulated audio signals reflected from the environment to provide net-zero energy positioning info.

Last year, Yamaha's range of excellent desktop modeling amps went wireless thanks to a built-in Line 6 receiver. Now the company has launched a new model called the THR-30IIA Wireless that's dedicated to acoustic players.