Guitar Effects
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Music gear maker Boss has announced a new effects pedal that puts a massive 121 synth sounds at the feet for guitarists and bass players, without them needing to install special pickups or understand complex programming. -
In 2013, David Packouz sampled some beats played by a top drummer and put realistic percussion at the feet of guitarists. That drummer-in-a-pedal got a baby brother a couple of years later, and now Singular Sound is aiming to shake up the looper space with the Aeros Loop Studio.
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Three years ago, Yamaha launched a new line of acoustic guitars sporting technology originally developed for its pianos. The TransAcoustic guitars could breathe concert hall warmth into the driest of rooms. A bunch of new models were released in January, and we snagged one of them to try out.
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Pedal Pods are standalone modules that sit under a stomp, with built-in cabling and adjustable power. Pods lock with other Pods to form bigger and bigger pedalboards.
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Earlier this month we had a look at some of the music gear highpoints of 2018. Though this showed that hardware and software innovation continues apace, there's nothing like a taste of oddness to serve as a reminder that gear makers can still think way outside of the box.
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Singular Sound has updated the BeatBuddy Mini, a little stomp that puts a realistic sounding virtual drummer at your feet. The Mini 2 now has a new button designed for comfort when playing barefoot.
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Vibrato systems are designed to temporarily change the tension of guitar strings to create subtle pitch variations or monster dives and sweeps. The Pitch Pilot gives players pitch control of individual strings instead of having to divebomb all of them simultaneously.
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We've seen a number of strange stomps over the years, but nothing compares to the Plasma Pedal, a fuzz box that routes a guitar's signal through a gas-filled tube, turning it into high-voltage discharges, then transforms it back to wicked distorted analog crunch for output to an amp or desk.
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Acoustic players who want to add effects can pop in a soundhole pickup and cable it up to pedals and an amp or route sounds captured by a microphone through and effects loop. With the Pulse, they can tap into such things from the instrument itself – no cables, no pedals, no amps.
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Emulating the tones of iconic guitars is not exactly new, we've seen a number of amps, instruments and apps giving players access to legendary sounds. Italy's Sim1 is aiming to stand out from the crowd by not only cramming classic tones into a stomp, but doing so without any sampling or MIDI help.
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The OneManBand technology from OMB Guitars essentially combines aspects of BeatBuddy, DigiTech's Trio stomp and Fishman's TriplePlay into one package, allowing guitarists to play along to a real-time backing band, solo using different instrument sounds or use the six string as a MIDI controller.
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Earlier this year, Dave Auld launched his digital/analog Fusion guitar in the US, after a successful crowdfunding campaign helped bring it into production. France's HyVibe Audio is banking for similar success for its own hybrid, which turns an acoustic dreadnought into a connected smart guitar.
