New Music Gear Monday: PLUS Pedal Instrument Sustainer

Pedals, pedals everywhere. Guitar players have tons of them and are always buying more. The majority of new pedals are derivative of a few trailblazers that have come before however, and it’s hard to find something that’s truly new. It seems there was a new idea for a pedal right before our eyes all along and we failed to see it in the piano sustain pedal though. Now the PLUS Pedal from Gamechanger Audio brings that ability to sustain a note or chord to any electric instrument.

The PLUS Pedal is basically a smart looper that only catches the second half of each note or chord you play and samples that short snippet of sound into a seamless, continuous loop. As a result, it allows multiple layers of stacking so you can have up to 5 notes or chords simultaneously sustaining.

It’s built and looks just like the sustain pedal on a piano, and has 4 controls to let you modify the parameters of the sustain – Blend, Sustain, Rise, and Tail. It’s built into a steel case that looks like it will last for a long time, and has two outputs that will allow you to use the PLUS with a two amplifier setup or split your effects chain. There’s also an effects loop that allows you to link the PLUS Pedal with any other effects unit and use it to modify the wet or the dry signal separately.

Just as the the wah is a standard pedal in every guitarist’s setup, I can see that happening with the PLUS as well. If you’re a solo player or play in a power trio, it’s the perfect item to fill in the gap when you’re not playing chords. The ability to just place effects on the sustain also opens up tons of tonal possibilities that are yet untapped.

The Gamechanger Audio PLUS Pedal should be shipping soon and it’s price is $279. You can read more about it on its website, but just a quick listen to the video below will show you all you need to know about its possibilities. This is a product that really excites me, and I can’t wait to hear what players of all instruments do with it.