A Little Thunder in action |
The chances are that if you are reading this article, you're already fully aware of A Little Thunder, and why so much excitement has built up around it.
But on the off chance that you haven't, it's a new guitar pickup, which uses DSP to add a bass signal to the first two strings of your guitar. This means with almost no modification to your natural playing, you get the effect of a bass player playing root notes alongside you.
We caught up with Andy Alt, the brains behind A Little Thunder, who revealed 10 things we didn't know about the innovative new product...
1) Andy got the idea for A Little Thunder (a pickup that adds bass to electric guitars) after jamming with a drummer. Having a full, deep sound was always desirable in a duo setting but octave pedals couldn't precisely be limited to just the lowest strings... A short while later, Andy had prototyped the first A Little Thunder pickup and started using it in Swimming in Trees (a duo).
2) Even the humbucker for the guitar portion of A Little Thunder is reimagined... using an array of coils and a specific winding technique, fretted notes produce 25% more sustain than the same magnets, amount of coil and materials found in a standard PAF.
3) None of the artists in the A Little Thunder's Kickstarter video (below) were told what the pickup did before they arrived to Andy's apartment in Echo Park/Los Angeles. The reactions of their surprise are real and the first time they heard the pickup's functionality.
4) As an unplanned coincidence, A Little Thunder officially started shipping on what would have been Les Paul's 100th birthday.
5) You can send the guitar and bass signals from A Little Thunder to one single amp or two, perfectly splitting the guitar and bass signals through the 'smart detect' jack it ships with.
6) A Little Thunder has a sale on their site for $20 off in celebration of the recent shipping announcement they've made (www.facebook.com/alittlethunder).
7) Zane Carney, John Mayer's band, is A Little Thunder's first official artist. Zane's residency at Hotel Café was nothing short of spectacular and the YouTube videos outline his truly exceptional musical abilities.
8) Several celebrity guitar players ordered A Little Thunder with fake names. Only upon receiving payment and address information did the reveal take place. Some pretty heavy hitters on the list (Editor's note: Sonic State also has one on order)!
9) A Little Thunder holds 4 patents on their design, utility, technology and concept. After completing what founder Andy Alt calls "a mountain of paperwork" they are very strict about protecting their IP. They also have over 40,000 parts in their warehouse--with 100% of it being made in the USA.
10) Andy works with Steve Vai as online marketing director. Throughout the last 5 years, Andy has learned by example of Steve's supremely efficient work ethic. In some sense, Andy compares it to Mickey grabbing the broom in the movie "Fantasia."
Bonus fact! A Little Thunder is prototyping a 7-string version, an 8-string version and an acoustic guitar version & even a single coil version. Stay tuned!
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