Guitar Effects

Boss has added a new desktop model to its impressive Katana range of app-enhanced modeling amplifiers for electric guitar and bass. The 35-W Air EX allows for wireless connection between instrument and combo amp, and can also run on batteries.

For more than 35 years the NS-2 stomp has been an effective set-and-forget solution to background noise in an electric guitarist's signal chain. Now it's being joined by a "highly tunable" next-gen noise suppressor and gate called the NS-1X.

Back in 2017, HyVibe launched an Indiegogo for a hybrid acoustic with built-in digital smarts. This was followed by a kit to give such superpowers to any acoustic. Now the company is back with an Essential system that players can install themselves.

Back in 2019, Positive Grid launched an impressively flexible and affordable tone master called the Spark amp. The company downsized the format for the Mini last year, and has now done it again for the ultra-portable Spark Go.

Some 20 years ago, IK Multimedia gathered a complete guitar rig into a software platform and named it AmpliTube. After infusing it with AI power last year, the company has now launched an all-you-can-eat tone box called the ToneX Pedal.

We have to admit that being able to plug a guitar cable into a vinyl record to tap into onboard effects hasn't really been on our wishlist. But now that Romanus Records and ADD Pedals have actually built such a thing, we so want one.

Travel guitars are a great way to maintain your calluses while on the road, but some designs can lack modern features. That's certainly not true of the Nexg, which packs a bunch of useful tech into a carbon fiber smart guitar that weighs under 7 lb.

If you can get past the strange looks, the Lava Me 3 has a carbon fiber sound all its own, and some wicked new digital smarts. A touchscreen interface gives you access to stackable effects, loopers, tuners, high-quality portable recording and more.

Startup Modal Effects has spent the last five years developing a 100-percent analog guitar stomp that allows players to tweak tone on the fly using interchangeable FX modules. Up to three modules can be used at the same time, in any stack order.

Back in 2016, Australian startup Fomofx launched a digital whammy bar called the Virtual Jeff that could be mounted to just about any guitar, without having to modify the host instrument. Now the novel vibrato arm has gone Pro.

IK Multimedia has finally released the four X-Gear effects units announced earlier this year. Each of the floor stomps is packed with digital effects drawn from the company's powerful AmpliTube modeling software.

Back at the NAMM 2019 music gear expo, Denmark's Noatronic took Best In Show for a box that allowed players to control stomps on a board directly from an electric guitar. Now the company has teamed up with RTX to take the system wireless.