I got rhythm, I got music, I got an Ellis Stomp Box?
Quick poll. How many of you acoustic guitar players play solo and more importantly find yourselves tapping your foot as you play? Follow up question. How many of you acoustic players find yourselves, if only for a second, staring longingly at the pedals and gadgets that the electric player that went on first had before them?
There is no denying the magic that happens when one sets out to make music on six strings and wood but as much as we enjoy the music of our solitude, there is no denying that done well, music is at its best when it is a choir of many voices, so to speak. As an acoustic guitar player we are limited in our options of ways to add voices to that choir, and certainly as solo players, we have fewer options.
Coming back around to the poll you took earlier, Ellis Guitars, out of Australia, has created a tool, that if you have not seen yet, you should definitely take a few minutes and give it a listen.
What is it? Do you find yourself wishing you could add some percussion to your live set? Well now you can and the best part is that you are merely amplifying a natural reflex that you probably all ready have in your show. Tapping your foot. Think of it as an amplified floor.
Ellis Acoustic Stompbox
The Ellis Stomp Box is hand crafted from two pieces of wood, a pick up inside, and a standard 1/4 inch output jack. Finished it is about the width of a CD case. Plugged into an amp or a PA the Stomp Box, will produce a variety of sounds depending on where you tap the box. Want to add some deep, low percussion, run it into a bass amp, want to play with your tone, hook into a PA and play with the EQ until you find the sound the fits you. Pair the Stomp Box with say a Larrivee LV-03RE and you are ready to make some music. Want to go even further? Check out Kaki King and her Stomp Box.
That is correct, Kaki King, Ash Grunwald, Pete Lockett and Phil Keaggy are counted amongst the artists who use a Stomp Box both in the studio and live. If that seems like name dropping, it totally is, but only to serve the purpose of making a point. That point is that as we all become masters of our craft, we should be open to expanding the tools we use to reach our audience.
The Ellis Stomp Box is not some cutting edge piece of electronic wizardry, and that is the true beauty of it. It is what we as acoustic players love the most. It is wood, is simple in mechanics yet complex in sound, it a chance to add a pedal to our road cases and say, “how you like me now, Mr. Electric Pedal Guy”.
I think you will find them saying, “ I like it.”
