Teenage Engineering’s portable amp produces fantastic guitar and microphone effects

Known for their distinctive product design and whimsical approach to making musical equipment, Sweden’s Teenage Engineering (TE) is back with a multi-instrument amplifier that has a fun side.

The EP-35 KO-Amp is, as the name suggests, a 35W combo amp with guitar and microphone inputs, and a bunch of preset effects for each. It’ll also connect wirelessly to your phone to play backing tracks, and you can even load more tracks and drum loops with a USB stick.

The amp also works well with a wireless pedal that features two large buttons: these can turn effects on and off, activate the amp’s looper functionality, and control backing track playback.

This is not a conventional guitar amplifier per se, but rather a tool to explore your creativity and experiment with different sounds. By this I mean that this is not necessarily made for experienced guitarists looking for a particular tone or something powerful to connect their extensive pedalboards to. There are plenty of other options for that sort of thing, including this compact portable option from Blackstar that we recently covered.

There’s an interesting range of guitar effects that you can turn up to 11: Twang gives you a surf rock type sound with delay, chorus and tremolo; The blues adds an overdriven retro overdrive; Indie features a space phaser and surround triggers an automatic wah, along with a slapback delay as you dial it all the way up.

Meanwhile, for the microphone, you can activate a lo-fi radio sound, a lush ambient echo, and a vocoder sound with pitch adjustments. My favorite, however, is the one that turns your voice into a full bass synth.

TE hasn’t posted a video of the EP-35 in action yet, but you can hear these effects in B&H’s video below (starts at 6:08):

As a rock guitarist who has owned a few amps and played a lot with pedals and effects processors, I’m not particularly excited about what I hear. It’s just not for someone like me who likes classic amp sounds, heavy distortion, and complete control over every aspect of their tones. Here you cannot modify the individual parameters of each effect separately, nor shape the sound with an equalizer. I also haven’t seen any demos of the amp at the end of an effects chain, so it’s hard to say how it will perform when you plug in old-school pedals or a modern multi-effects box.

That’s not to say the amplifier is a bad product. It’s designed in the true TE spirit of allowing musicians to have fun and try new things, so it serves a completely different purpose. I can see more experimental artists like Ariathome doing this. With its compact size, 12-hour playtime on a full charge, and the ability to run six inputs simultaneously, it could be a good choice for buskers and impromptu outdoor performances.

There are even more interesting tricks up the EP-35’s sleeve. It can connect to your computer via USB and act as a sound card to record your performance; Bluetooth connectivity allows it to function simply as a wireless speaker; There’s even a port to connect an FM radio antenna and tune into local stations.

You can also purchase and plug in a USB flash drive loaded with two sets of files on side A and side B, like a cassette. The first includes backing tracks to play, while the other has drum loops to sample. Of course, it will also support your own files and you will be able to shuffle tracks using the pedal.

The EP-35 can be paired wirelessly with a second amplifier for stereo sound, or daisy-chain multiple amplifiers and expand your sound for a wider audience.

While it’s not for everyone, it could very well be a blast for the right kind of inventive musician. I also like how it can be paired with a variety of TE accessories almost natively, from the multifunction pedal ($99) to the EP-133 KO II sampler that can be placed on top of the amp with jacks to hold it in place.

Find the EP-35 on TE’s site as well as in the B&H store for $399.

Source: Teenage Engineering