Most valve amps need to be run loud to get a good tone out of them, which often makes it difficult when performing in intimate settings, playing late at night or if you have picky neighbours. An attenuator is an electronics device that reduces the amplitude of a signal without appreciably distorting its waveform – [...]

A killswitch can be a handy thing to have, as it allows a guitarist to immediately mute sounds coming from the guitar, as opposed to a messy cutoff using a volume knob or foot pedal. It can make for some interesting guitar effects, as demonstrated by Eddie Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me”. If you’re [...]

According to GuitarSite, the VoiceTone Harmony-G, the vocal harmony and effects pedal is now shipping.   VoiceTone Harmony-G is a studio-quality vocal harmony and effects pedal for singing guitarists that takes the programming completely out of the equation, since the guitar playing tells Harmony-G what notes to harmonize. Adaptive harmony arrangement algorithms follow the guitar and [...]

The world of DIY effects has become even flashier with the introduction of two different kits for creating your custom effects. The Beavis Board from Beavis Audio is a kit consisting of a breakout box, breadboards and a collection of components that enables you build a huge array of stompbox circuits including overdrives, distortions, fuzzes, [...]

VOX has come up JamVOX, with a brilliant integrated monitor and software system that extracts the guitar parts from any MP3, and allows you to jam along to your favourite tunes!  Now guitarists can enjoy what karaoke systems have been doing for wanna-be singers for years. The JamVOX system consists of two parts:   Software [...]

Retro-Sonic has announced a new addition to its line-up of boutique effects pedals – the Retro-Sonic Distortion Pedal. The vintage pedal is based on a LM308 op-amp design, and features true bypass with Distortion, Tone and level controls, providing a wide range from subtly distorted blues tones through to classic rock and metal. The Distortion effect [...]

Introduction Tim Jauernig is the creator of the ‘Luxury Drive’ and the hilariously named ‘Diabolic Gristle Tone Manipulator’ a.k.a. DGTM (a phrase coined by zany guitarist and Fender clinician Greg Koch). According to his website the Luxury Drive is closer to a booster, while the DGTM is an overdrive pedal. Both pedals have received such [...]