FretPen: One-string pen-sized guitar now a real thing

They’re not as awkward to transport as a piano or a cello, but guitars are far from being the easiest instrument to travel with. Currently trying to raise $35,000 on Kickstarter, the FretPen is to your guitar what the Game Boy was to your home gaming console.

A compact portable alternative that can surprisingly be played just like a full-sized guitar. The fretboard — made from real maple wood — can detect multiple finger placements, while the limited selection of notes you can play can be adjusted using a four-way controller on the bottom part of the tiny guitar. There doesn’t appear to be any strumming required to play it — you just tap the frets — but the single guitar string is still a nice touch.

The actual sounds produced by the FretPen don’t come from the pen itself. With the guitar body attached to the bottom, it connects to an accompanying smartphone app over Bluetooth which is responsible for turning the player’s finger taps into actual guitar sounds — either acoustic or electric. And the sounds can be tweaked, with reverb and other effects, all within the app.

It won’t sound like a giant Fender speaker on stage, but the sound produced by your smartphone’s speaker should suitably match the diminutive FretPen.