Make one guitar sound like two

The Submarine

Singer-songwriter, Pete Roe announces worldwide release of a new guitar pickup, The Submarine, that applies doubling effects to two strings

oday sees the launch of The Submarine, a new guitar pickup that was conceived, designed and developed by Pete Roe. Pete is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, and former member of Laura Marling’s band, who has toured with Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Lucy Rose, and Willy Mason. During a long tour with a band that had only one space on board for him on their bus, he could not bring along his bassist. Being stuck without the sound to convey his songs the way they were intended, Pete experimented with various effects pedals and finally made his own one string pickups in dingy dressing rooms and budget hotels.

Used with an octave pedal, the homemade pickup could give the effect of a bass guitar accompaniment and the first prototypes paved the way for further development. The Submarine fits most acoustic and electric guitars and is held in place by a nano-material suction pad. It requires no alteration and causes no damage to the guitar. The signal it picks up from two strings gives a second output to the guitar, to which various effects can then be applied. Alongside adding octave bass to the low strings, it is now possible to add overdrive, delay or atmospheric effects to the two high strings.

A number of production prototypes were made in order to refine the assembly process earlier in the year, and these were picked up by artists such as Bon Iver, Royal Blood and, of course, Laura Marling. The Submarine launched on European crowdfunding platform Ulule on Wednesday 24 June, with the first 25 Submarines offered with 40% discount. Further information can be found at www.submarinepickup.com/crowdfunding

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