guitar
Latest
Positive Grid Spark Pearl review: A high-tech guitar amp that's easy on the eyes
The Positive Grid Spark is one of, if not the most high-tech practice amp out there and packs a lot of versatility for $299.
Fender's Mustang Micro packs impressive amp modelling in a tiny package
Fender brings its amp modeling chops to a headphone guitar amp.
Fender's hybrid Acoustasonic guitar is more than an experiment
The hybrid acoustic-electric guitar line from Fender grows to become more than an experiment.
Poly Effects Beebo review: A versatile and complex touchscreen guitar pedal
Poly Effects Beebo is one of the most versatile guitar pedals on the market. It’s basically a modular synth in a pedal format with an easy-to-use touchscreen.
Poly Effects fully merges Digit and Beebo into one super pedal
The Poly Effects Digit and Beebo are two of the more interesting guitar pedals to come out in the last few years. They were built on the exact same platform and their firmware are completely interchangeable. Now the company is taking the next logical step, and combining them into a single firmware and single pedal under the Beebo name.
Fender packs Mustang tones inside its new personal guitar amplifier
It's a step above your regular personal guitar amplifier.
Hologram Electronics Microcosm: A cheat code for making ambient music
The Microcosm can be a rhythmic glitch machine, a top-notch loop pedal or a straightforward delay. It’s more than just a one-trick pony, which is important given the $449 price.
Yamaha's THR30IIA is a wireless amp for acoustic guitar players
Yamaha is expanding its THR ‘desktop’ amplifier lineup to add a dedicated model for acoustic guitar players.
Cooper FX Arcades review: Plumbing the depths of lo-fi guitar effects
Cooper FX Arcades takes what could be a mere gimmick -- game cartridge-like swappable sound cards -- and uses them to plumb the depths of lo-fi guitar effects.
Jamstik Studio is the MIDI guitar you might actually want to use
Guitar MIDI controllers are usually giant disappointments. But Jamstik seems to have broken the code. The Studio MIDI Guitar has fast and accurate pitch detection, and even does an impressive job of recreating bends, hammer-ons and to a lesser degree slides. MIDI wasn’t designed with stringed instruments in mind, so it’s never going to be perfect, and the $800 asking price is steep. But, this is probably the best guitar-style MIDI controller on the market right now. Plus, it’s actually a guitar.
This self-strumming guitar can shred like no other
The Circle Guitar can potentially strum the strings 32,000 times a minute.
Beebo is basically a modular synth in guitar pedal form
It’s, in theory, a “multi modulation pedal” for your guitar. But, Beebo also has a secret. It’s the same exact hardware as Poly Effects’ last pedal, Digit. It’s just running different firmware.
Bias FX 2 turns your iOS device into a portable guitar rig
Positive Grid's Bias FX 2 Mobile iOS app lets you shape your tone with a variety of guitars, amps, speaker cabs and effects.
Jammy's new MIDI guitar can control all your virtual instruments
The original Jammy had several problems. The Jammy Evo rethinks the original’s formula, and was designed as a MIDI controller first and foremost.
Cooper FX's multi-effect guitar pedal uses tiny cartridges
Get 32 different effects from just four cartridges.
ZOIA review: A complex and rewarding modular effects pedal
Empress Effects ZOIA is unquestionably a one-of-a-kind effects pedal. Its interface can be daunting at times, but it puts an almost limitless number of sounds at your feet.
Yamaha’s tiny wireless guitar amp gets everything right but the price
With the original THR line of guitar amps, Yamaha basically invented a new product category: the connected desktop amplifier. It filled a need that honestly many guitar players didn't even realize they had. These amplifiers are small enough to sit on a table or desk, they sound great even at low volumes and they're stylish enough that you won't feel compelled to hide them when company comes over. You don't have to search long or hard to find people singing their praises. I bought one a couple years ago and have zero regrets. But the THR amps weren't without flaws. And in the nine years since they were introduced, the competition has caught up. The highly revered Roland Katana line made a play for the space with the Air. And the iconic Vox brand introduced Adio. So Yamaha announced the THR II in September with new features, new amp models and a rich new app in the hopes of not only keeping pace but also showing the competition it's still the benchmark for tiny amps.
Finally: A guitar pedal you’re supposed to spill beer on
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the history of guitar pedals. But, I'm fairly confident in saying there has never been a pedal quite like Rainger FX's Minibar. It's an overdrive pedal, but one that requires a little something extra to work -- a liquid. There's a small container on the top that says "pour liquid here" and, until you put something in there it simply wont make a sound.
Gamechanger Audio introduces an optical spring reverb pedal
Gamechanger may have only released two guitar pedals so far, but the company has shown that it can live up to its lofty name. Its Plasma Pedal, for one, stands out in an ocean of distortion effects, thanks to both a staticky, lo-fi timbre and its astounding visual presentation -- xenon plasma shoots around a vacuum tube as you play. The Light Pedal, the company's latest creation, rethinks the traditional engineering behind spring reverb effects, replacing the electromechanical components with optical sensors. The result is a vintage-sounding echo that sits somewhere between the snappy guitar sounds of the '60s and the atmospheric squeals heard in classic rock tracks from the '70s.
Boss’ guitar amp headphones are clever but pricey
There are very few objective truths out there that everyone can seem to agree on. But one of them is most certainly the fact that playing guitar through headphones sucks. Whether you're using a dedicated headphone amp (which often look like relics from the 1980s) or just plugging your trusty over-ears into a tube amp that would wake the neighbors even at the lowest settings, the experience is underwhelming at best. A number of companies have tried different things to try to improve the situation, but Boss' Waza Air are probably the most novel I've seen. For one, this is the first time I know of that a company built a guitar amp directly into a set of headphones. And secondly, the Waza Air includes some pretty unique features that make it feel more like you're listening to an actual amp in a room, rather than just blasting a raw guitar signal into your ears.
