Every yr, the NAMM Present in California brings the music business collectively beneath one very massive roof to take a look at the latest and most attention-grabbing devices. In 2025, one piece of drugs that turned an inordinate variety of heads was the newest creation from Verso Devices. And with good motive: it appears much less like a guitar than one thing yanked straight from the pages of a mid-century furnishings catalogue.

A glossy mixture of wooden and metallic, daring colors and minimalist method, the brand new Sine isn’t of any mainstream guitar-design lineage – however one spawned by a one-man firm in Germany that embraces the surprising. What’s Verso’s design philosophy? “Constructing funky stuff and never rejecting the errors is a giant a part of what I’m serious about,” says founder Robin Stummvoll.

Stummvoll’s path to constructing his personal devices beneath the Verso identify started as a deliberate leap away from custom. A lifelong guitarist who began his first punk band at 13, he’d discovered himself neglecting the instrument whereas learning for his diploma in industrial design. “I discovered it attention-grabbing to take a look at why I used to be abandoning it increasingly more, and learn how to make it extra interesting to me once more,” he explains. He determined to make use of his diploma’s ultimate venture to re-enter the world of guitar – his personal means.

“I began doing loads of analysis, and I discovered that the guitar – the electrical guitar particularly – is carrying this burden of the iconography of huge rock stars,” he explains. “And I completely get that. I’m a fanboy of many guitar heroes, Hendrix and so forth. However then again, I really feel it’s a giant distinction to, say, the violin or piano, the place you simply have this archetypal instrument: folks don’t actually count on you to play anybody particular factor.”

“Constructing funky stuff and never rejecting the errors is a giant a part of what I’m serious about” – Robin Stummvoll, founding father of Verso Devices

Stummvoll began to take a look at how that archetype may be expressed for the electrical guitar. “A ridiculous thought,” he says, “as that’s mainly what Leo Fender did with the Telecaster. However I assumed it will be attention-grabbing to begin with probably the most minimalist guitar that I may and go from there.”

The centerpiece of Verso Devices’ first three guitars is a curved sheet of metal, which takes the place of a conventional physique. The pickups, being magnetic, aren’t hooked up in anybody place. As a substitute, you’re free to maneuver them round beneath the strings as you see match. Moveable pickups usually are not completely new, however this method to reaching them definitely is.

This ever so barely bouncy bent metal physique was launched with Verso’s first guitar, Cosmo, launched in 2020. Two variations got here within the years following, the Gravis and Orbit, a bass and baritone respectively. However Sine redefines the method as soon as extra with the Sine Pad, a kind of uncommon real improvements on the electrical guitar’s design.

Completely satisfied accident

Sine’s important physique is now wooden, and the metal plate with moveable pickups is now unbiased from the neck and bridge. And so while you press down on this pad, you enhance the pickup-to-string distance for an interactive quantity discount. You may quantity swell, you are able to do handbook tremolo, and, due to a collaboration with famend utility pedal producer Lehle, you’ll be able to output this bending movement as expression, CV or MIDI to regulate synths and pedals. The chances rapidly begin to boggle the thoughts.

The versatile pickup pad was impressed by the slight springiness of Cosmo’s physique – one thing many would have thought of an issue. “Possibly somebody [else] would have screwed Cosmo collectively to maintain it nonetheless,” Stummvoll provides. However after he severely contemplated what use the springiness may convey, one man’s design flaw changed into Sine’s defining characteristic. “It was a high quality you might dive into extra. With Sine, that was the case – it was one other comfortable accident.”

“I assumed it will be attention-grabbing to begin with probably the most minimalist guitar that I may” – Robin Stummvoll, founding father of Verso Devices

Stummvoll beloved the concept for the Sine Pad from the start, however it wasn’t at all times going to be an precise Verso product. It was in 2024 when he really determined to make Sine official. One in every of its most intriguing options additionally happened comparatively late within the course of: the electronics module, a collaboration with Lehle. Utilizing a corridor impact sensor, the Sine Pad’s movement is translated to your alternative of CV, MIDI or expression – opening up countless management choices for pedals, synths and extra. “It’s such a flexible and attention-grabbing instrument due to it,” Stummvoll says admiringly.

The results of utilizing the expression outputs solely get extra complicated when mixed with the bodily results of utilizing the Sine Pad. It’s in some methods a quantity management, however the impact it creates isn’t only a linear drop in sign. All kinds of tonal interactions occur as you progress the pickups in the direction of and away from the strings, together with a slight sign created by the motion itself. Mix this with the MIDI and expression outputs and the guitar is ideal for tone-chasing far past the standard.

Fittingly, then, one participant who has been testing Sine out is Scott Harper, AKA Knobs, who chances are you’ll know from his personal wonderful demos of outré pedals and his collaborative design work with Chase Bliss. “I feel he’s the proper particular person for it,” Stummvoll says. “He actually dove deep into what’s potential – he’s nonetheless not discovered all the things, however he positively stunned me with sure mixtures.”

Components of shock

An attention-grabbing consequence of attaching pickups to a giant metal plate is that it finally ends up creating a reasonably large microphone. “Whenever you knock on the physique, you actually hear it,” Stummvoll says. “And if you happen to file one thing and there’s a drummer in the identical room, you’ll be able to hear the drums within the guitar observe.”

Whereas because of this Sine isn’t technically really helpful for high-gain, high-volume enjoying, Stummvoll doesn’t rule something out. “Individuals have proved me unsuitable earlier than. I’ve gamers who use Cosmo for demise metallic. I don’t restrict my guitars anymore, they’re actually open for something.”

The full of life, microphonic sound was, like many different facets of Sine, another “comfortable little accident” that ended up informing a big a part of the guitar’s character. “It contributes to the sound of the guitar – the microphonic character is what I like about it,” says Stummvoll. “It’s humorous, it sounds very picket, sarcastically, and really open. And it’s actually a shapeshifter in sound, in fact, due to the moveable pickups.”

“It’s humorous that we consider ‘play’ as one thing infantile” – Robin Stummvoll, founding father of Verso Devices

However maybe that woody, open sound isn’t so ironic. Regardless of the metal being a central ingredient, Verso guitars characteristic picket necks and, within the case of Sine, a largely picket physique beneath that metal Sine Pad. “The heat and really feel of an instrument is essential,” Stummvoll says. “You don’t wish to do away with the guts of the guitar! If the physique is sheet metallic, you’ve received to watch out to not make it headless, or add an aluminium neck and make it too alien.”

And so Verso Devices guitars do nonetheless show loads of conventional guitar-making methods, regardless of their out-there look. “The combination of custom after which one thing completely different is what’s interesting to me. That’s why I’m utilizing very very conventional floor finishes for the necks, like oil and shellac polish.”

Time to play

Stummvoll needed to take care of the odd cynical web remark dismissing Sine as a “toy” or a “gimmick” – such is the lot of anybody who makes one thing new and bizarre, in fact. However this sentiment will be notably potent on this planet of electrical guitar, the place 70-year-old designs are nonetheless broadly held up because the gold customary.

“It’s humorous, as the electrical guitar is an emblem of freedom and for breaking out of restrictions,” Stummvoll muses. “However in some methods it’s not that open. It may be conservative. Not all guitarists are conservative – however I discover it very humorous after I see some folks touch upon the work I do who’re offended by sure guitars.”

Stummvoll isn’t insulted by comparisons to toys, both. “It’s humorous that we consider ‘play’ as one thing infantile,” he says. “Enjoying an instrument is an ideal instance of how one can ‘play’ very severely. I’m at all times questioning once we begin to not play anymore and change into adults. I strive myself to maintain that spark alive – and I feel many artists try this.”

What’s going to Verso do subsequent to maintain that spark alive, now that Sine is out? “I’ve an concept for a lap-steel guitar,” Stummvoll says. “I’m actually unsure the place it can lead me – perhaps it’s extra like a tabletop instrument for synthesiser geeks, perhaps it’s extra like a conventional lap metal. What I’m inquisitive about is making one thing a bit extra industrial, one thing I can assemble a bit extra rapidly and a bit extra inexpensive. I haven’t constructed a prototype but, so I’m curious if it can work!”

Whether or not it really works or not is maybe moreover the purpose – as an alternative, it’s Robin Stummvoll’s never-ending curiosity that continues to be the engine of Verso Devices. Sine is a testomony to what you’ll be able to obtain while you flip custom on its head and take that leap into the unknown.

This story appeared within the Guitar.com Journal Might/June 2025 subject.

Phrases: Cillian Breathnach
Pictures: Rachel Billings