If there is one thing musicians and models have in common, it’s that they love to accessorize.

Whether the scruffier of those two groups is gathering effects for an instrumental rig, replacing an old tuner or electrifying the acoustic that has always sounded great unplugged, it’s good to keep an eye on the latest trends and know the options. We’ll look at some new spins on old ideas as well as innovative stage and studio tools that reflect how far our toys have come.

The evolution of the electronic tuner continually generates surprises. Originally you had to play into a tiny, grilled microphone on a tuner and watch a needle jump. Next you could plug in a ¼” cable and get more accurate readings. Then LED-lit tuners were placed in stomps and acoustic-electric pickup systems. Now with Gibson’s self-tuning Robot Guitar, the cycle nears completion. Gibson has an exclusive agreement with German company Tronical to use their PowerTune System in a new line of instruments and upgrade kits. PowerTune makes automatic corrections to the guitar’s standard tuning, and even stores and recalls alternate tunings as presets. Piezo mics in the bridge listen to the pitches of the open strings, and when the tuning is sour, smart motors turn the machine heads and tune them perfectly. With the push of a button and a few open strums, you’re all tuned up in five seconds.

Another exciting development in onboard tuning comes from N-Tune—a chromatic tuner that communicates via lights in the volume knob. Just pull up on the volume knob, tune up silently, and push it back down to play. The onboard approach to tuning saves users the risk of losing a handheld tuner, compromising tone through a stompbox or sacrificing accuracy with a clip-on. Our only beef with the new school of tuning hardware is that ear training suffers if you’re trusting an automated system exclusively. Even with N-Tune or the hyper-accurate strobe tuners from Peterson, Korg and Planet Waves, musicians need to hear pitches rather than just see them to learn how to tune.

In fact, a lot of metronomes are not just for rhythmic training but include tuners, as well. “Metro-tuners” will usually have a chromatic tuner section, a tone generator (for those who prefer to tune completely by ear) and a metronome with basic straight and swing subdivisions. Check out Peterson’s V-SAM, Sabine’s MT9000 MetroTune or the Barcus-Berry Pulse Metro Tuner. If you’ve got tuning covered and just need a metronome, check out the BOSS Dr. Beat line or Peterson’s new BodyBeat BB-1 Pulsing Metronome. The BodyBeat includes a Vibe Clip that pulses the beat against your body. This tactile metronome actually sends messages to the brain faster than listening to clicks or staring at LEDs.

Killer pickups are essential to an electric guitar or bass rig, but why should electric players have all the fun? Fishman Acoustic Amplification has some interesting pickup systems that will have acoustic string players going electric in no time. At around $200, the Matrix Infinity “picks up” where the popular Acoustic Matrix system left off. Matrix Infinity includes rotary volume and tone controls that live just inside the sound hole, an endpin-mounted preamp with ¼” input, and switchable voicings to handle all guitars. Fishman’s Rare Earth pickups have also undergone a redesign—they are now less invasive and available in plug-and-play single coil or Humbucking models.

L.R. Baggs offers a pickup that can turn any unplugged bluegrass player into a member of the electric army. The Radius can be mounted to the outside surface or inside of any small, higher-voiced instrument like mandolin or violin and amplify its natural voice. A thin film sensor suspended by opposing magnets floats freely within the Radius transducer and responds to every musical nuance the instrument transmits. Plug into the L.R. Baggs Acoustic Reference Amplifier (see our spotlight in this year’s Jan./Feb. issue), and let all 200 tube watts rip!

Plugging in takes more than just quality instruments, effects and amps. Players need cables they can trust. Cheap-o instrument cables are easy to come by, but ask other working players which of the pricier ones last longest and are free from interference. Leaders of the pack include Mogami, Planet Waves and now, Elixir. These cables have very sophisticated shielding and connector jacks, and are cleaner-sounding than most.

Instrumentalists appreciate any shortcut to recording with their hands full. The pok, from X-Tempo Designs (also reviewed in Jan./Feb.), is a remote foot controller to help guitarists, keyboardists and drummers control their DAW software. A wireless USB receiver takes prescribed directions (quick keys and macro commands) from the eight-button pedal, allowing musicians to arm tracks, record, undo, play, stop, rewind, etc. A pok is the perfect tool for a solo home-recording session and has interesting potential on stage, as well. Guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour) uses it as a controller for Ableton Live, whereas a producer like Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, Pink) can run the software from a distance and remain in the live room with an artist.

Musicians often leave the mics up to the producer or front-of-house engineer, but knowing about mic categories and qualities can be handy whether you’re planning a tour, a recording session or simply trying to sound your best at a one-off performance. Dynamic mics (like the trusty Shure SM57 and many drum mics) can take a lot of sound pressure before clipping and distorting, so they’re best placed in front of an amplifier. Condenser mics, on the other hand, provide very faithful reproduction of voices, acoustic strings and horns but are less useful to electric instrumentalists as they are more sensitive to high volumes. Trust Audix, Audio-Technica, Shure, Heil Sound, AKG and Sennheiser on amps whether recording or playing shows.

For more, get the latest Issue of Performing Songwriter, ISSUE No. 109