Matt Bellamy hints new pedal and whammy-guitar developments at Manson
Matt Bellamy has hinted at some recent developments in Manson Guitar Works – of which he’s a majority shareholder – including a potential dive into the pedal market, possible future guitar models, and of course, a guitar with a KAOSS pad-controllable Digitech Whammy built in.
“I have lots of ideas about how to try and develop the company further”, said Bellamy, giving his thoughts on how he’d like to see Manson’s guitar line expand. “I always felt the company has been aimed towards metal and hard rock, so I’d like to expand the range to encompass vintage-style guitars, classic-style as well as modern guitars.”
The Muse frontman revealed to MusicRadar that in his latest build project, he’s continued exploring “integrating technology into guitars”. A concept we’ve seen prior, in Bellamy’s guitars that incorporate KAOSS pads, Fuzz Factories, and more. This time, the guitarist sets his sights on a Digitech favourite.
“The main thing I’m focussing on right now is – my favourite effect to have built-into a guitar is the Whammy pedal. I have all the components of that built into the guitar itself, and then I also have the KAOSS Pad as well. So essentially instead of having the whammy bar, I’ve got the X/Y controller and I can set it to anything from a divebomb to just going up or down a tone, or entire octaves.”
Bellamy expressed interest in partnering up with Digitech to produce a mass market edition of the Whammy guitar, citing high component costs as the main setback thus far. “So at the moment that’s very expensive, it’s a custom job. You have to dismantle all the components and stuff like that. But we’re hoping to do a collaboration with DigiTech where we can maybe launch a guitar that has that built-in.”
“It’s like a £10,000 guitar, so I’d rather do more research where we can find a way to bring the cost of the components down. It’ll never be a 500-dollar guitar, but we might be able to get it down towards the 2000 range.”
Bellamy also hinted that the company might enter the pedal market, albeit taking things slow for now. He expressed that he would be interested in exploring fuzz effects. “We’re starting to talk about getting into effects pedals as well, so we might be developing some,” he said. “It’s a bit early to say what they’re going to be because it’s just research and development at the moment. It could be next year or something.”
“I think I’d do a couple of fuzzes, but fuzz sounds that are a bit more unique and unusual, and specifically recreating some of the sounds I use in the studio.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
