The Smrt Roadie is one of those pieces of gear you didn’t even know you needed. If you’ve ever had a piece of gear stolen (or anything stolen, for that matter), you’re probably aware of just how goddamn invasive and horrible the feeling is. And unfortunately, far too many independent touring musicians have experienced this feeling—the van or trailer gets broken into, and thousands of dollars of equipment vanish into the night. Lame.
GPS is not only used in navigation in today’s world, there have been many applications that proved very useful using the technology. There is a guide to GPS runners watches and smartphones out there, but nothing yet for this new marvel of a GPS application. Well, a team from St. Louis, Missouri has proposed an interesting product to help track down stolen equipment: the world’s first GPS-enabled tuner pedal, dubbed the Smrt Roadie. You hook it up to your rig like any other ordinary tuner, but what scumbag thieves don’t know is you can track their ass should they steal the wrong person’s pedalboard one night. Now, vigilante justice probably isn’t the wisest option, but you can give the police the coordinates and go from there.
I think the Smrt Roadie is a pretty novel idea and hope to see it gain some traction in the coming weeks. While I don’t tour myself, I could see how invaluable this might be for a young band that doesn’t have the luxury of a large crew and fancy locks or whatever. The beta models are also going for a decent rate at the moment, which is extra cool. Maybe this is for you?
