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Submarine Pickup

The Submarine pickup just hit its fundraising target earlier than planned, and is now confirmed to go into production.

Submarine Pickup

Because enough funds were raised one week before the due date, the company behind this unique pickup has stretched the target to £20,000 to give more time for others to pre-order the Submarine before the campaign ends.

The Submarine is essentially a bass pickup that easily attaches to both acoustic and electric guitars, capturing the lower two strings to produce a separate output that can then be mixed to your original sound. While this pickup will not replace your trusted bassist, it will surely be handy in times when he is absent. More importantly, it is an interesting musical tool that one-man-band artists can put to good use.

The pickup is designed by singer-songwriter Pete Roe, and the story goes that he conceived the idea to build this pickup during one of his tours. The story goes, ” During a long tour with a band that had only one space on board for Roe on their bus, he could not bring along his bassist. Being stuck without the sound to convey his songs the way they were intended, Roe experimented with various effects pedals and finally made his own one string pickups in dingy dressing rooms and budget hotels. Used with an octave pedal, Pete found his homemade pickup could give the effect of a bass guitar accompaniment. The first prototypes paved the way for further development and, two years of hard work later, this first concept resulted in The Submarine. Roe is a ‘one man band’ entrepreneur who has created a pickup that allows musicians to be a one man band on the road.

Artists like Laura Marling, Royal Blood and Bon Iver were among the first adopters of Submarine’s production prototypes, they helped spark even more interest for the product. It was launched on European crowdfunding platform Ulule.com and caught the attention and interest of many guitarists. So much so that the campaign quickly hit its fund raising target, with much time to spare. The press release mentions that early bird discounts were sold out within an hour of the campaign launch, resulting in them having lots of inquiries right at the start.

To make better use of the remaining campaign time, a new target has been set, which when achieved will result in the Submarine being bundled with an embossed linen carry case along and an attachment kit for making it compatible with more guitar types.

Submarine Pickup

The Submarine attaches to the guitar body via a specially designed nano-material suction pad that operates much like that of the gecko’s feet, and it is designed to fit on most acoustic and electric guitars. This means that it can serve both as an acoustic guitar pickup or an electric guitar pickup. Once properly positioned and engaged, this pickup will be capturing the top or bottom two strings, which you can then output into a guitar rig, effects or other amps. More importantly, it attaches and detaches without the need for any modification, and without damaging your instrument.

The Submarine pickup will continue to raise funds on the European crowdfunding platform Ulule until 24 July 2015. Check them out if you want to avail yourself of their early production models and to help them in their campaign. Visit Submarine Pickup for more information.

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