Mattoverse Solar Sound – Solar powered drive tones?
A solar powered overdrive pedal?
The Mattoverse Solar Sound is a light-powered effect pedal; the more light the better it works! How does it perform when you are on a darkened stage though?
Mattoverse Solar Sound
This Solar Sound pedal draws its power from either natural or artificial light sources, then puts out an audio signal that varies, depending on how much light the solar panel receives. Mattoverse makes some interesting effects, but this latest one might be a step too far, especially if you normally play on darkened stages.
It has two control knobs, one that adjusts the master volume, and another sets the amount of gain you want; additionally, you’ll find an input and output jack mounted at the top, and a footswitch to bypass the effect completely. The pedal itself is said to do light gain through to smooth distortion and uses a simple transistor circuit to achieve its tones.
Mattoverse Electronics’ solar-powered Solar Sound drive pedal · Source: Instagram/Mattoverse
Light Simplicity
Mattoverse builds the Solar Sound into a bare aluminium enclosure, with a neat minimal wooden faceplate and a clear acrylic protective shell for the pedals solar panel. It looks very nice, but I’m not sure I am in love with the drive tones that it produces, though I am sure many will like it.
However, it comes across as a little bit of a gimmick, and I’m not sure exactly how practical it will be to use in real-world scenarios, especially where light may not be in abundance. It is admirable that they are attempting to harness the power of light though; I wonder if it could possibly be developed further once solar panels become more efficient? I’m interested to see how this technology could be developed; self-charging FX pedals anyone?
More Mattoverse Information
- Product Page
- More Mattoverse Electronics news
- RRP – USD 229
Solar Sound Demo Video
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