FAD GADGETS

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

IBANEZ HYDRA

Isn’t there an old prog rock proverb that goes, “The more necks a guitar has, the better the music”? If there is, it’s of course balderdash, but fair play to Ibanez for constructing this cyberpunk monster of an instrument, which appears on Steve Vai’s album, Inviolate. Looking more like a weapon you’d use to vanquish orcs in World Of Warcraft, it has three vacuum tubes, wheels, pulleys, cogs, multiple pickups and an ethernet port. Vai probably hasn’t had this much fun since he got rid of his Fisher Price Activity Centre. Oh, and you can’t buy one, because only one exists, and Vai’s got it, and probably wants to keep hold of it. www.bit.ly/ibanez-hydra

LINKBUDS

Some people prefer headphones which block out the outside world. Others like to be able to hear what’s going on around them, particularly when they’re trying to cross two lanes of fast-moving traffic on the Chelmsford ring road. These new Sony earbuds are for the latter, with – would you believe – a hole in the middle to allow ambient noise to pass through. This so-called ‘open ring’ technology is said not to compromise the listening experience, although nearby juggernauts, ambulances and pneumatic drills will, of course, be louder. www.bit.ly/linkbudssony

SPARK MINI

Back in the day, the smaller the guitar amplifier, the worse it sounded. I speak as someone who, at his first concert performance at the age of 17, turned up to the venue with a tiny Yamaha practice amp and was openly laughed at by the sound man. More than 30 years later, Spark have managed to pack a 40-watt combo into something even smaller, and they describe its sound as ‘room filling’. Of course that depends on the size of the room, but with 33 amp models and 43 effects built in, who’s arguing? positivegrid.com