How Inventor Paul Vo Created a Little Black Box That Could Change Guitars Forever
The Vo-96 Acoustic Synthesizer is one of the most innovative musical instrument products created in years. Strap one onto any acoustic guitar and you can transform the way it sounds by breaking—or at least manipulating—the laws of physics. Here’s the story of how inventor Paul Vo made a device that sounds like magic.
Vo is best known as the inventor of the infinite sustain technology inside the Moog Guitar. In one of its settings, if you strum the strings of that beauty, they’ll keep vibrating forever. It’s a hugely impressive technical accomplishment, but that’s just a fraction of what Vo’s acoustic synthesis technology is capable of.The Vo-96 builds on those concepts and explodes them; it’s a hugely sophisticated add-on for an acoustic guitar that basically transforms that old wooden box into an entirely new instrument. Depending which setting you’re using, the Vo-96 can sound like everything from a violin to a woodwind to an analog synth.