NAMM 2014: Touchmark Touch Sensitive Pickup Switching - Video Demo of a Genius Idea In Action

Exclusive video of a potentially VERY useful new guitar accessory   22-Jan-14

Well we've only been at NAMM 2014 for a day and we've already said the words "Why didn't I think of that" after filming this exclusive demo of the new Touchmark pickup switching system.

The Touchmark is a set of two touch sensitive pads which replace your tone/volume pots and your pickup selector.

Using the pads, you can either tap in certain places to select certain pickups, or you can swipe your finger to switch from bridge to neck in and instant.

The clever part is by using software supplied alongside the Touchmark, you can tweak the output volumes of your pickups so that when you switch between each one, there is no big jump in volume.

Despite the ability to connect the system to a computer via USB, the signal chain is all analog, so the signal from your pickups will be just the same as it was when you had your original volume and tone pots.

The best thing? The company's slogan is - "Quit the pot, and make the real switch."

Superb tagline, and an impressive product.

The company's plan for NAMM is to find guitar companies to pal up with, so that this technology can be implemented into guitars on the shelf.

Obviously, the plan is to sell the Touchmark as a standalone product so you can upgrade your guitar yourself. The only problem is that fitting it onto guitars which don't have scratchplates as large as a Stratocaster could potentially be tricky, just because you don't want to go carving holes in the body of your Les Paul (for example).

But this is a new product, it hasn't even be released yet, so perhaps Touchmark will find a workaround for that.

The retail price for the standalone kit is likely to be around $250, which seems pretty fair from where we're standing. And if you're wondering - it works with any set of pickups in any configuration.

For more info - go to www.touchmarkguitars.com