guitars

How Inventor Paul Vo Created A Little Box That Could Change Guitars Forever

The Vo-96 Acoustic Synthesiser is one of the most innovative musical instrument products created in years. Strap one onto any acoustic guitar and you can transform the way it sounds by breaking — or at least manipulating — the laws of physics. Here’s the story of how inventor Paul Vo made a device that sounds like magic.


The Easiest Guitar Tuner In The World

Guitar tuners aren’t always the simplest gadgets in the world, even if they’re mostly charged with an impossibly simple task. In fact, advanced features on more expensive tuners might confuse someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. This one, however, opts for simple and cheap. There’s something to be said for that.


This Orange Guitar Amp Is More Powerful Than Your Computer

This Orange amp, called the OPC, isn’t like other guitar amps. Instead of being little more than a jumped-up loudspeaker, this thing packs more computational grunt than your main computer.


This USB GarageBand Guitar Puts A Little Apple In Your Fender

It may not be the first USB guitar, but this USB version of the Squire Stratocaster is the first one you’re going to find available from the Apple Store. A joint effort between Fender and Apple, this guitar can get you you shredding in GarageBand.


Moog LEV-96: Forget Synths, Moog Is Making A Batshit Acoustic Guitar Or Something

Moog just showed the world a prototype of a component that could be used to make the world’s next wonder instrument. Here we see LEV-96 “sensoriactuator” concept installed on a acoustic guitar. Now what the hell does it sound like?


Behold The Spectacle Of 14 Guitars Played By An Arduino-Powered Army

Sound art is a term that’s almost always cause for concern, but this elegant installation by artist Ruben Dhers is gloriously captivating. In “Playa”, 14 guitars lying under a tangled canopy of wires are listlessly strummed by an orchestra of 31 fabric-clad DC motors conducted (in the musical sense) by an Arduino processor.


Amphones Help You Shred In Silence If Your Neighbours Are Jerks

“If it’s too loud,” the saying goes, “the neighbours are going to call the cops and screw up your late-night shred session.” In an attempt to solve this eternal conundrum, the guitar amplification specialists at Vox have teamed up with the headphone geniuses Audio Technica to create Amphones. Yes, guitar amplifier headphones. It’s a preposterous idea that’s just crazy enough to work.


Magnetic Guitar Picks Eliminate Free Rock Concert Souvenirs

Bad news for those of you who splurge on front row concert tickets in hopes of snagging a musician’s lost guitar pick. These plastic MagnetaPicks incorporate a thin magnetic neodymium disc that lets them securely stick to any metallic surface — from guitar strings to microphone stands — so they’re next to impossible to lose.


How To Shred On A Guitar With Your Foot

A group of students in Japan is trying to develop a machine that lets you pluck guitar strings with your foot. The technology could one day help people who only have one arm play guitar. Some day we might have a world of Rick Allen-like guitar players.


This Is The Factory Where Legendary Guitar Tone Is Made

Even if you’re not a guitar nerd, you know what Electro-Harmonix’s Big Muff guitar pedal sounds like. Since 1969 it has been the dirty fuzz coating for countless guitar solos and backing tracks on songs by everyone from Santana to Dinosaur Jr. Today, Electro-Harmonix hand-assembles and tests 75 different effects pedals in its New York headquarters.