CHUG CHUG TWANG!Zoom G6
You don’t see many guitar multi-FX
units with touchscreens, perhaps
because such delicate tech isn’t
really compatible with spilled pints,
dropped microphones and the
boots of absent-minded sound
engineers. So a gig-drought is
probably the perfect time for Zoom
to be launching its new flagship,
with a 4.3in colour LCD that lets you
drag virtual pedals around with your
finger. It also has amp modelling,
a looper and an expression pedal.
Just don’t drop it on your phone.
£369 / zoomcorp.comVox Avena-1
Guitars with built-in amps have
been around for decades, on and
off. Usually off, to be honest,
because that’s how they tend
to sound best. But the world of
portable amplification has made
some major strides in recent years,
so it’s just possible that this latest
attempt from Vox – based on the
shape of its Apache model from
1964 – won’t sound like Hank
Marvin farting down a cardboard
tube. It has four effects and, God
help us, a drum machine.
£tbc / vox.comWalrus Audio ACS1
A digital ‘amp in a box’ for silent
recording and practice with
high-quality modelling of classic
amplifiers and built-in speaker
impulse responses? What a great
idea... that Strymon had when it
launched the Iridium back in 2019.
Ah, but Walrus had upped the
stakes by offering two independent
channels, so you can record through
a Marshall and a Fender at the same
time, and by letting you store three
onboard presets. Oh, and also by
making this thing sound incredible.
£365 / walrusaudio.comRed Panda Bitmap 2
Guitarists spend half their time
in restless pursuit of tonal purity,
agonising over why one 1959
Les Paul sounds 0.0001% better
than another... and the other half
mangling everything up with
increasingly extreme effects. Well,
they don’t get much more mangly
than Red Panda’s latest bitcrusher,
which will make any guitar – yes,
even a 1959 Les Paul – sound like
an arcade cabinet from the early
’80s that’s just about to overheat
and explode.
$299 / redpandalab.comNAMM 2021
Yes, we know, there wasn’t a NAMM show this year,
because of a bug or something. But music tech
makers launched loads of saucy new kit anyway...
Stuck in the
module with you
The smaller 2600
keeps all the features
of last year’s full-size
reissue, and comes in
its own anti-shock
suitcase.