FAD GADGETS

Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress.

SKULPT SE

If there’s anyone reading who’d like to play an instrument that looks a bit like a Stylophone but doesn’t sound like four bees fighting in a biscuit tin, we’ve got just the thing. Modal Electronics already made a tiny-but-mighty synthesiser, the Skulpt, but it’s now launching its even tinier little brother, replete with quality filters, oscillators and arpeggiators. It might not have the dramatic visual impact of Keith Emerson’s Moog Modular, but hey, at least it’s affordable. (£170, we’re led to believe.)

NUVO JHORN

Most of us will be familiar with the many barriers – financial, social, philosophical – that have prevented us from taking up the euphonium. These are now, thankfully, being broken down. Instruments made out of ABS plastic are giving kids and adults the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument without a massive cash outlay, and this is one of the cutest. Some might say that it resembles a collection of pipes under your kitchen sink, but you’d never get a decent rendition of the William Tell Overture out of something from the Screwfix catalogue. Believe me. www.nuvoinstrumental.com

TABLEAMP

Hot on the heels of tablespoons and tablecloths, we now have the TableAmp, a perfect amplification solution for the dining room. Ideal, says the blurb, for electric and acoustic guitar players, ukulele players and singers who’d like to practise at home. As an added bonus, it’ll blend perfectly with your 1960s interior design choices, which is more than can be said for a Marshall stack. It neatly doubles up as a Bluetooth speaker (doesn’t everything, these days?), while being smart, tasteful and cheap (a nudge over £50). www.harleybenton.com