The SUBMARINE – A Mini Pickup To Make One Guitar Sound Like Two!

Here’s a cool, simple invention that could have oodles of uses – The Submarine guitar pickup is a tiny magnetic pickup that fits under two strings on your acoustic or electric guitar to add another dimension to your sound. The Submarine is the brainchild of singer/songwriter/engineer Pete Roe, whose story goes like this:

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During a long tour with a band that had only one space on board for Roe on their bus, he could not bring along his bassist. Being stuck without the sound to convey his songs the way they were intended, Roe experimented with various effects pedals and finally made his own one string pickups in dingy dressing rooms and budget hotels. Used with an octave pedal, Pete found his homemade pickup could give the effect of a bass guitar accompaniment. The first prototypes paved the way for further development and, two years of hard work later, this first concept resulted in The Submarine!

I can see this as being extremely useful for many styles, not least of all metal, where it could be really handy (like in a two piece band situation such as Tempel). Adding bass to your two lowest strings seems also very useful for making demos or playing solo at a coffee shop. It’s similar to the A Little Thunder pickup but without replacing one of your precious pickup spots. Also, it can be easily put on and taken off.

Now the bad news – because of someone else’s patent, the Submarine will not be available in the USA. Womp womp. But if you live in Europe, you can contribute to the crowdfunding campaign  and get one of their pickups before everyone else.

Written by

As Editor-in-Chief of Gear Gods, I've been feeding your sick instrument fetishism and trying unsuccessfully to hide my own since 2013. I studied music on both coasts (Berklee and SSU) and now I'm just trying to put my degree to some use. That's a music degree, not an English one. I'm sure you noticed.

Latest comments
  • I think somebody named Andy invented a similar product called A Little Thunder. I believe that product to be superior.

    • Is he the same guy who hired lawyers to send demand letters to the creator of The Submarine guitar pickup featured in this article, presumably threatening to sue him for patent infringement if The Submarine was sold in the United States?

      http://www.submarinepickup.com/usa

      If that’s the case, then I would be interested to see Andy’s patent claims for his particular pickup, or at least a patent number so I can look them up. Having compared how those two products purport to work, I find any argument that The Submarine infringes on the Little Thunder a little questionable.

  • now everyone can be local H.

  • I’m doing something similar with my 8 string. Using two single noiseless duncan pickups in one humbacker sized hole. The low strings pickup goes to bass amp and the higher strings to guitar amp. Also, I have humbacker in brige position. With looper, you can do anything, not only generic djent..

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