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Radial Tonebone Bumper

Conveniently switch between multiple instruments (up to four), with the new Radial Tonebone Bumper.

Radial Tonebone Bumper

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Radial JDI Stereo

This pedal provides a simple and reliable solution if you want to switch instruments around during performance or recording, and since everything is already connected, you don’t have to worry about unplugging and plugging cables.

I for one know the hassle of manually switching guitars when performing, so most of the time I end up carrying a maximum of two guitars (an acoustic and an electric). But with the Radial Bumper, you can now setup up to four different instruments and have them plugged into your rig all at the same time, and it lets you switch between your guitars in realtime.

More than just merely letting you connect multiple instruments into your guitar rig, the Tonebone Bumper has some interesting features that make switching even more convenient. First of, it has Radial’s Class-A buffer circuit, the same one found on many of their popular preamps, switches and DI boxes. This ensures sound quality is kept high and not degraded.

In addition, the Tonebone Bumper has a built-in load correction circuit which you can adjust via the “Drag” control. This lets you compensate for the buffer so you get the tone and feel closest to that of a guitar plugged in directly to an amp, as if the pedal itself is not there.

There’s also a nifty “Trim” control which lets you adjust sensitivity of the unit, useful for balancing the sound of high output active pickup guitars with passive ones. This means that you can switch from an active pickup shred machine to a single coil equipped Strat and vice versa, without massive volume jumps. This way, you don’t have to adjust stage amp volumes, or PA/monitor settings when your switching between different types of instruments.

In addition to the above mentioned features, this switch pedal has a stage amp out and a dedicated and buffered tuner output for quick on-the-fly tuning adjustments. The Tonebone Bumper is especially built to work well with acoustic and electric guitars, as well as bass guitars. It can also be used with other instruments like dobro, violin, mandolin, or even keyboards by using the appropriate DI Box.

Radial’s Jay Porter concludes: “Today, playing music is all about options. One song may require a Les Paul, the next a Strat or even a Dobro. This is the beauty of the world we live in. Music lovers are enjoying so many styles and they are merging together like never before. The Bumper is a tool that we developed specifically for those who must quickly change between instruments on stage. It works with electric guitar, bass and of course all kinds of acoustic instruments too! You plug in, advance the selector footswitch to the desired input and you are set to go! Super bright LEDs follow your every move to let you know which input is ready for use. The Bumper is super compact to fit on any pedalboard and automatically self-configures for the number of instruments you are using.

Radial Engineering has announced that the new Tonebone Bumper is expected to ship soon with an MAP price of $169.99. More information will soon be available at Tonebone.

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