Guitar Technology

These audio examples accompany our Kemper Profiler Stage review from SOS December 2019.

Kemper finally have a floorboard version of their groundbreaking Profiling Amplifier. Has it been worth the wait?

Vox's hybrid approach to electronics has yielded a natural–sounding amp that won't break your back.

Given its affordable price and compact format, is the Mini now the perfect choice tuner?

There are plenty of very heavily distorted examples already out there to be heard, but I’ve gone for some tones that I think challenge the technology a little more.

Widely touted as Boss's response to UA's popular OX, the Tube Amp Expander actually offers a contrasting approach. Will one of them be a clear winner?

Struggling to make amp modelling work on stage? Something just 'not quite right' in the feel? Maybe Celestion's new speaker will make all the difference.

The ODR‑Mini is essentially a slightly tweaked version of Nobels' ODR‑1 overdive pedal (by all accounts extremely popular with Nashville musicians), with true bypass and a tightened low end, but squeezed into a mini‑format case.

The Gigboard crams the processing power of Headrush's flagship Pedalboard into a compact and easy to use format.

This four-stage analogue phase-shifter pedal delivers the kind of chewy swirl that we all know and love...

We get up to speed with the latest leaps in Line 6’s guitar-modelling technology.

Ever wanted to tailor your own software amp in a plug-in, and pack the result into a box to take on stage with a real speaker?

Don’t have a great-sounding room? Can’t turn your amp up to get the sounds you want? Want to turn down your speaker without sacrificing your tube amp’s tonality? Maybe this changes everything...

Celestion have made available impulse responses for a wide range of their classic speakers mounted in 1x12, 2x12 and 4x12 cabinets, and miked with appropriate single or double mic arrays.

We’re used to seeing convolution technology in plug-ins, but recent years have seen this increasingly appearing in hardware form. DigiTech’s take on this is a compact stompbox-format dual-channel cabinet emulator.

Lawing Musical Products have been building their own take on noiseless replacement pickups for Stratocasters for some years...

With an all-analogue preamp stage, combining solid-state components with Korg’s new ‘flat’ 6P1 Nutube triode valve, these diminutive 50W lunchbox amps are ideal in the studio.

The Strum Buddy is a miniature solid-state guitar amp with built-in speaker.

We check out Boss' Katana series of affordable modelling guitar amplifiers, all of which include a USB recording output.

Electro-Harmonix’s Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive is a slightly unusual overdrive pedal, in that it has full stereo capability.

Building on Avid’s Eleven Rack technology, this new hardware amp modeller promises to combine great sound with ease of use.