“Set to completely change how guitars are played forever”: This bold new guitar innovation lets you control your volume with a whammy bar

Guitar gadget mastermind FOMOfx has rolled out its second innovation, which looks to “completely change how guitars are played forever”.

Back at NAMM 2016, FOMOfx won Best in Show for the Virtual Jeff, a fully digital whammy bar compatible with both acoustic guitars and electric guitars.

In 2021, the unit was updated, with the firm – headed up by Aussie rock veterans Peter Walker and Ian Moss – promising “luscious waggles, pitch-perfect bends, killer dive bombs and no tuning hassles” with the improved Virtual Jeff Pro (VJP).

Now, the company has issued its second tool, which looks to be even more innovative than its predecessor: the vOL PRO pedal.

The pedal itself works alongside the existing Virtual Jeff Pro setup, but switches up its functions. Instead of controlling pitch, the vOL PRO lets players use the whammy bar to dictate their volume. As a bonus, the pedal can also function as a clean boost pedal.

In practice, the VJP mounts onto guitars to digitally simulate the functionality of a whammy bar without being physically attached to the strings. Its functions are then controlled via the plastic tremolo arm.

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The vOL PRO ushers in a new functionality for the nifty gizmo. Now, the whammy can be used to curate dynamic volume swells that would otherwise need to be controlled by a dedicated volume pedal or control knob sleight-of-hand.

It’s a new functionality we imagine will capture the imagination of players. After all, controlling volume – and accessing a boost function – from the comfort of a whammy bar sounds very handy indeed.

In the company’s own words, “FOMOfx has once again brought legacy tools into the 21st century with vOL PRO, an innovation that eliminates the mechanical and analog limits of its predecessors. 

“And operation from the VJP arm on the guitar is much more intuitive than by foot, like the original devices.”

Now the precedent has been set, it makes us wonder how FOMOfx will further expand the VJP’s practical applications. 

Further rig integration would certainly be a big step forward for the firm. If the digital whammy can be configured to control the parameters of different effects or other legacy tools, that would open up even more avenues for sonic experimentation.

No official release date for the vOL PRO has been confirmed, but FOMOfx says it's launching “soon”.

Visit FOMOfx's website for more.