ThorpyFX just made the world’s first braille pedal for blind guitarist Anthony Ferraro following his custom braille Victory amp
Earlier this year, boutique amp maker Victory made headlines by building a custom braille-equipped amp for blind guitarist and skateboarder Anthony Ferraro. Now, UK pedal wizards ThorpyFX have picked up the baton with what’s believed to be the first fully braille-labelled guitar pedal.
“Braille guitar pedal? It’s the first one in the world,” Ferraro exclaims in an Instagram video documenting the reveal. “Wouldn’t be possible without this man, [Thorpy founder and pedal designer Adrian] Thorpe. I just showed up to his factory in the UK and he surprised me with this.”
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The pedal in question is a customised version of ThorpyFX’s The Dane MKII, a dual-stage boost/overdrive developed in collaboration with Andertons demo star and session ace Peter Honoré, aka ‘Danish Pete’. Already a favourite among tone chasers for its amp-like drive and stacked boost section, The Dane now has a new trick: it can literally be read by touch.
Getting there, however, wasn’t as simple as swapping printed Gain and Boost labels for raised dots. Thorpe’s initial attempt to integrate braille into the standard control layout quickly hit a wall.
“He started by trying to put the braille in here but unless you have super dainty fingers, which I don’t have, you can’t read it,” Ferraro explains. The solution came in the form of a custom “cover plate” – a removable top layer featuring clearly spaced braille markings that map out every knob and switch without crowding the pedal.
Running his fingers across the enclosure, Ferraro reads aloud: “Let’s see if the braille’s right. Level, boost side, clip, gain, tone, lows, the Dane. And then it even tells you on each side
which each pedal does. Like, this is the drive side and this is the boost side. Not to mention, he actually made it so I know if it goes on or off.”
“When using guitar pedals, it can get really confusing and I can forget all the controls at once,” Ferraro continues. “And this makes it so I know exactly what I’m gonna dial in and this is pure freedom at its finest. Especially in an age where all these pedals are going digital with all these touch screens. Come on!”
Plugging in his Fender Stratocaster, Ferraro runs through the tones: “Here’s our clean signal. Add some drive. Add some boost.”
And the verdict’s clear: “I think this just became my favorite drive pedal,” says the guitarist. “Thanks for being the first one to ever do this with a pedal and making huge waves in the accessibility world, brother. Thank you.”
In the video’s caption, Ferraro – a longtime advocate for accessibility in music gear – also reflects on how far the conversation has come.
“I thought asking music equipment to be made accessible was an extreme request but why not dream big. Never did I think my advocacy for braille throughout my life would lead to such monumental waves,” he writes. “If playing music is the only thing I do in my life that doesn’t make me feel blind then why not make the gear accessible so other blind kids and people can experience freedom through music like I have.”
“Thank you ThorpyFX for making the world’s first braille pedal – of course it had to be The Dane by Peter Honoré – it was incredible to visit your factory where this braille pedal came to reality and gave us a new friendship.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
