If you’re a guitar tone purist, I’d like you to suspend your puristic thinking for a moment. We all know that guitar amp simulators have taken the music world by storm mostly because of their practicality and the fact that many young players have never be exposed to the real thing. Hardware sims are great, but the problem is that they continue to be based on a classic guitar amp, with the same controls and switches that generations have gotten used to. There is another more modern approach though, and that’s what the Lava Studio touchscreen guitar amp tries to do.
First of all, it features a 13.3″ touchscreen (which is about the size of a laptop computer) in place of the usual tactile knobs, and comes with a suite of tones, a DAW, a looper, and jam tracks. As you would expect, there’s also a number of customization options to really zero in on the personal experience that we all demand today.
The amp (if you want to call it that) is actually a precisely-machined metal enclosure with a dual-driver woofer and two 2-inch tweeters, so the full-frequency playback system works for other material besides straight guitar. No word on the actual power output, but there is an 800 MHz processor driving everything for a seamless experience.
Obviously, the user experience is extremely important, and the Lava Studio appears to have a very iPad like operating system, making it easy to use.
It’s All In The Tone
Of course, none of this matters if the guitar tone isn’t there, but Lava Studio features 30 amp sims of Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Orange, Victory and more, as well as over 40 effects, like emulations of standard stomp boxes like a Tube Screamer or Pro Co Rat. Not only that, you can even change the order they sit in the virtual pedal-board.
It doesn’t stop there though. There’s a mini 8 track DAW (you can import your own track files if you want) and a looper, along with over 300 backing tracks included. Plus there’s also practice material and lessons. To make it better still, stem separation software is available so you can important a song, isolate the guitar track to learn it, then mute it against the track so you can play along.
There’s a lot more to this little box, but you can find out more in the video below.
Lava Studio will retail at $999, but there’s currently a $300 discount as part of its crowd-funding campaign. There also an optional variable-height stand available, which seems like a must-have. Click here to find out more.
