We first got acquainted with Noatronic’s Onboard Expression system at NAMM, but it’s now available. Designed to free you from having to stand over your pedalboard, this offers MIDI, Expression and Switch control from a dedicated guitar tone knob.
There are two elements in play here: a controller and receiver. The controller is a replacement tone potentiometer for your guitar that has a centre detent and push-push switch.
This is connected via a stereo TRS cable to the receiver, which reads the controller position and push-push switch status. This receiver is true bypass and can connect to your pedals, amps and amp modellers via the following outputs:
- MIDI Out: Expression CC, Bypass CC, Preset PC and Snapshot/Scene CC
- Expression out: Simulates an expression pedal when turning the controller
- Switch out: Simulates a footswitch when pressing the controller
It seems a pretty elegant system, giving you plenty of tone-changing options from just a single controller.
You can find out more and order the Noatronic Onboard Expression from the Noatronic website. It’s available now priced at $249/€249.
“A unique octave bass fuzz with a built-in, 2-voice ring modulator”: The Maestro BB-1 Brassmaster is a super-rare bass octave fuzz from the ‘70s that sounds great on guitar, sells for $2,000+, and Behringer just made a $69 clone of it
“The same hand soldered through-hole construction and super rare military spec germanium transistors that were used in the original”: EarthQuaker Devices celebrates two decades of stompbox design with the Hoof Fuzz 20th Anniversary Edition
