Is it still possible to make a name / money with a new Analog Guitar pedal ?

[Ripthorn]

I also think there could be room for things like multi-band processing. Use of hexaphonic pickups would only serve to increase that. It could allow for all kinds of different textures and sounds for a single guitarist in real time.

[FiveseveN]

What if we made a hand control interface [...] like an expression pedal?

Source Audio have this covered for 14 years and I've yet to see one on a stage. Presumably because hands are busy when playing the guitar, while the feet are free.
I'm surprised there's so few that thought about using a breath controller to play the guitar like a sax:

[vigilante397]

Source Audio have this covered for 14 years and I've yet to see one on a stage. Presumably because hands are busy when playing the guitar, while the feet are free.
I'm surprised there's so few that thought about using a breath controller to play the guitar like a sax:

I 100% do not need this and would probably only use it as a novelty toy, but I WANT IT SO BAD.

[Ice-9]

Success is 99% marketing not innovation, marketing bullshit can be responsible for success over new ideas but I would have to add any new comer and small business in the pedal world would have a good start with designs which are more than just a distortion or overdrive.

[marcelomd]

Call me jaded, but apart from varieties of noise and glitchiness (something that often falls into the same bin as the "how-much-ghost-pepper-can-you-take" approach to cuisine), there's not a lot of new sounds to be had.  Or rather, categories of new sounds.  The new frontier consists largely of performance features and control, IMHO, that allow one to manipulate how those traditional categories of sounds/effects are produced.  I suppose, at some very basic level, that can consist of throwing a 3-band EQ at a distortion that was traditionally a humble 2-knobber.  But I'm thinking of something more complex and adventurous.  A lot of it leans in the direction of what used to be post-production tricks, that can now be achieved at a gig, on demand.

I think there is a market for that.

Agree 100%. My point about adding an extra knob was "at least make it yours". Pure cloning is so meh.

This kind of device to me, is an innovation enabler, even if today they are used to emulate old things. But I can imagine it doing a lot more.

https://moddevices.com/

On a related note, I once saw Living Colour. One of my top 5 shows. Each musician (maybe not the singer) had one Apple notebook running some plugin. Drummer included.

[ThermionicScott]

What if we made a hand control interface similar to a whammy bar, but instead of changing tension on the springs, it changed a control voltage like an expression pedal? That could be really fun.

You mean like a Guitar Hero controller?   

[Mark Hammer]

What if we made a hand control interface [...] like an expression pedal?

Source Audio have this covered for 14 years and I've yet to see one on a stage. Presumably because hands are busy when playing the guitar, while the feet are free.
I'm surprised there's so few that thought about using a breath controller to play the guitar like a sax:

I've had a Source Audio Hot Hand for a few years, and my little Yamaha CS-01 synth has an input jack for a breath controller that I keep meaning to build.

There are all manner of alternate forms of control, like gestural, that have yet to be explored.  Many are familiar with B-Benders on Telecasters that provide selective retuning of the B-string by push down on the upper-bout strap peg.  But why couldn't that strap peg be freed up for string-bending duties and used as a controller?

In past, I've mentioned the TruVTremolo that allows for lateral (side to side) movement of the arm on a Strat tremolo to control volume, while still permitting vertical movement to do the usual pitch-changing.  https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=24825.0  Well, why stop at volume?  Why not use it to control modulation rate and/or depth, or filter frequency?

A couple years ago, I wrote up a comprehensive piece for Premier Guitar magazine on expression control for guitar, that covered a wide swathe of the industry and changes in expression control over time.  I contacted people at the various companies to get permission to use pics.  Initially, Shawn the editor expressed interest, but his interest quickly evaporated.  Don't know why.  It just did.

[garcho]

I'm waiting on a guitar pedal format for eurorack modular stuff, that'll keep us swimming in sexed-up clones of old designs for years

[Phend]

I am not promoting this, I don't even have a smartphone,  but this might be the future,  of which I certainly don't like, but sounds like we are all becoming old farts,  on another note who doesn't want a classic corvette, ta hell with new technology , keep building vintage effects ! .....
Or start writing Apps....Deplike? Boo

[Mark Hammer]

I'm waiting on a guitar pedal format for eurorack modular stuff, that'll keep us swimming in sexed-up clones of old designs for years

Well, this comes pretty darn close.  Expensive for a pedal/module, but then it does pretty much everything, limited only by your imagination.  Of course, the original question was regarding an *analog* pedal, so I guess this kind of strays past the boundaries.

[any]

This is innovative !!!

Chase Bliss Audio Preamp MKII

Which part  ? The automated faders? I recall Yamaha already had amps years ago with motorized potentiometers.....

Ha! I remember those Yamaha amps! On my recommendation a friend of mine (session player from Germany) once converted one of those to a system
that screwed on to the pots of analog effects so you could have midi presets for up to 8 pots from memory. (It was all build into a rack drawer) with flex
shafts going from the motorised pots to the effects in the drawer. It was pretty useful and clever really, He tried to market it to the pro scene but it never quite took off.

[Vivek]

On "Just got paid today" at Albert Hall by Bonamassa

He uses his guitar headstock to control a Theremin

[Vivek]

https://youtu.be/eOV4JXXky1I

Not analog and not guitar

But is this how music instruments will look in the future ?

[jatalahd]

I think a lot of it is playing style. And obviously this can vary by genre, but how often do you need to change the depth of your chorus in the middle of a song? Does it make sense to have that foot-controllable? What about the tone knob on your overdrive? How often do you adjust that? I'm a fairly simple player that plays fairly simple alt-rock music, but as a musician all the controls of my pedals are set at the beginning of a gig and aren't touched at all during the gig, so having more convenient control doesn't appeal to me at all. I turn them on and off depending on what I need, but I don't adjust things on the fly during a performance.

Yes, but I would not call it innovation to just put bigger knobs or more control options on existing pedals. When the design perspective of pedals is viewed from the control interface point of view, you don't design the same overdrive with bigger knobs that you can twist with your toes. If you don't need the tone knob on your overdrive, it can be removed? When letting the ideas flow while not thinking the historical payload of the 1 million cloned effect boxes, there will become new effect types (most likely combination of 2 or more traditional effects types, with blending possibilities) depending how you control them. To accomplish this, you should not think of the constraints what kind of components are currently in production, but taking the measures to design new components (for example a physical potentiometer does not need to be rotational or slider type).

[Vivek]

The stomp switches that can also be potentiometers on the Neural QC were an innovation.

[ThermionicScott]

On "Just got paid today" at Albert Hall by Bonamassa

He uses his guitar headstock to control a Theremin

How retro of him -- theremins predate electric guitars. 

[Bunkey]

A bit late to the party..

Can I take a step back to the realm of objectivity and pose the concept that there is no such thing as a new idea?

Everything we do and everything there is is referenced from pre-existing material. Whether it's guitar pedals, genetic DNA, physical properties of energy transfer, artistic inspiration, whatever. Life is like a fractal; the same algebraic expression copied and pasted onto a new set of variables sourced from the previous set to create a 'new' outcome.

The classic pedals we revere weren't conjured out of thin air; they're based on application notes of the time and the technology which came before them just the same as pedals are today.

As far as coming up with something new:
If you look within the box of what's already available then no there is nothing new to explore there - Innovation is really the ability to connect and apply, laterally, concepts which exist outside the pre-existing frame of reference. So in this sense YES, there is an infinite universe of innovation and new possibilities for guitar pedals but it's not possible to simply place your finger on that or pull it out of thin air; you might just have to study a completely unrelated field and be able to relate those concepts to electronic design.

I always like to remember that we are a naturally occurring thing and everything we know is derived from copying nature around us, thus the idea of standing on the shoulders of giants.

I'd also like to point out that profitability and innovation are two completely different things.
Honestly if you adopt this quantitative way of thinking which relies on monetising something, or fame, to validate yourself/your ideas and appreciate their value then your innovation is bound by a limited set of variables from the outset - largely governed by what is already expected - and you're painting yourself into a very small box indeed.

[Vivek]

Can I take a step back to the realm of objectivity and pose the concept that there is no such thing as a new idea?

All that you touch and all that you see
All that you taste, all you feel
And all that you love and all that you hate
All you distrust, all you save
And all that you give and all that you deal
And all that you buy, beg, borrow, or steal
And all you create and all you destroy
And all that you do and all that you say
And all that you eat and everyone you meet (Everyone you meet)
And all that you slight and everyone you fight
And all that is now and all that is gone
And all that's to come and everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon

[Mark Hammer]

The stomp switches that can also be potentiometers on the Neural QC were an innovation.

I gather this was another use of the "MASH" switches on the TC pedals.  They use Hall effect sensors.

Lest we diverge farther from the topic of the thread, the focus is not on what is and isn't innovative or"original", but rather what, if anything, might lead a consumer to purchase an analog pedal of some kind that allows a new company to "make a name" for themselves, and the money that normally accompanies it.  My own point, perhaps buried a little too deep, is that if a player sees a product that provides a sufficient range of control and performance features that makes them think "Hmmm, that's really helpful/convenient.  Nothing else like it on the market.  I could use that...and I can afford it.", there's a good chance the company/developer can do well.

[Phend]

Not sure what percent is in the Packaging, Cover art, Cool looking that sells "anything" for that matter. Why did my gal buy those cool looking shoes for $200 that are two sizes to small ?  Maybe sometimes it is not what is in the box, but the box itself !