Anthony Ferraro had a problem and no guitar tuner on the market could help him. As a blind guitarist, tuning his own guitar (typically a PRS Silver Sky, since you asked) is not easy.
Okay, he could do it by ear, but that’s not always so exact. Also, that’s doubly impractical for live shows, and triply so, say, if he ever wanted to deploy an alternate tuning.
But Ferraro was not without hope. He did what any other self-respecting guitar influencer (and martial artists, skateboarder, all-round polymath) would do with 449,000-odd people following him on Instagram. He asked if anyone could help, either with advice or, even better, a product.
“Lots of people commented and I got on various phone calls but nothing came of it,” he writes. He was no further forward. Or so he thought. Because sometimes the most genius stompbox modifications take some time. Ferraro was to be rewarded for his patience when a digital programming whiz from Canada, Kieran Eglin, shipped him the answer to his prayers.
And demoing it in his reel, Ferraro describes it as a life-changing piece of tech, which is probably the first time any player has said that about a $33 Donner DT-1 chromatic guitar tuner before.
Thanks to Eglin, this one vibrates, and the haptics let Ferraro know when the string is in tune. “In the background, Kieran was programming a tuning pedal and shipping it to me,” says Ferraro. “The only person who just went through with it and did it and literally made a product that changed my life.”
Also, being a mini pedal, it doesn’t even take up that much space on Ferraro’s pedalboard. Win-win.
“It’s wild how it vibrates under my foot and I can tell exactly when my guitar is in tune without asking for help,” he says. “We’re in tune, baby. It’s literally a dream come true.”
It would be interesting to see if the big pedal companies consider incorporating haptics in tuner pedal design in the months to come. As Ferraro has proved, it is an easy win for accessibility.
Earlier in January, Ferraro took receipt of a custom tube amp from Victory Amps that had been modified with braille on the control panel – a small tweak that made a massive difference to the amp’s usability, and it had moved him to tears.
“Around the end of last year, I was looking to switch up some of the sound on my electric, and Victory Amps offered to make me something special,” said Ferraro. “I had no idea what I was about to open. Quite truly one of the greatest things I have ever been given. To say I cried when I opened it wouldn’t be a lie.”
As with the tuner, Ferraro often had to ask for help when dialing in a sound. This tube amp was a game-changer.
“When I felt the Braille on this amp, my whole world changed instantly,” he said. “I was free to do it on my own for the first time, ever. Advocating for Braille has become one of my biggest passions in life. I can’t believe this is real. Someone pinch me.”
