Perfect your guitar playing and if you’re lucky to find yourself gigging in front of fellow musicians, you’ll receive hushed silence. Hopefully a bout of rapturous applause at the end too. For all other gigs if you want to fill out a venue and make some decent gig money, it can pay to get some subtle gadgetry. It’s no longer just a trick for rock and electro bands either, as long as you’re not a hardcore folker – acoustic musicians can join in too.

Stomp Boxes should not be a cop out for shoddy musicianship though; the best effects are usually subtle and have to be used sparingly. Often gadgets like these need to be “learned” as an instrument in their own right.

The Voice Box by Electro Harmonics while not unique, is an intriguing and low cost addition to onstage effects. The box takes an input from any instrument your playing and uses the signal to find a the key your playing in. You then send your vocals through another input and the box will generate a range of harmonies to accompany you.
It also has a vocoder which works also uses both inputs, so you can alter the pitch of your vocal according to the notes you play on your guitar or keyboard.

I’m all for interesting blends of electronic and acoustic music, but pitch shifting/vocoding is becoming a bit of a mainstream trend at the moment, so bear that in mind before you end up sounding like Ross in Friends.