What would Christmas be without a bit of a sing-song? Actually, don't answer that.
From technohead nerds to leather-loving rock gods, bedroom DJs to Beach Boys tribute acts, we've got a Christmas gift idea here for every musical gadget lover.
Teenage Engineering PO-20 Arcade (£55)
Teenage Engineering’s calculator-like mini-synths charmed the undercrackers off us last year, and now there are three more models to choose from.
The Arcade pumps lo-fi ’80s gaming sounds through its titchy built-in speaker, while also new for 2016 are the Robot and Office models. If you’re tempted by all three, you can save £38 by going for the £229 bundle, which includes protective silicone cases and 3.5mm output cables. Splatch, chirrup, squawk.
Technology Will Save Us DIY Synth Kit (£25)
We knocked one of these up over the summer and it took us half an hour. Then we decided the Atari Punk Console wasn’t quite what we were after, so we took it apart and built a different synth (the wild and whooshy Dub Siren) from the same kit. That took even less than half an hour.
You make up the circuit by pushing colour-coded wires into a breadboard – no soldering required – and the instructions are so clear even a bassist could follow them.
Looking for something different? Our full Christmas Gift Guide 2016 hub page has categories to suit every taste, budget and interest.
Mogees Play (£49)
If everyone’s a musician nowadays, it’s probably just as well that every inanimate object is a musical instrument… potentially.
The Mogees Play is an app-connected sensor that can be stuck to pretty much anything – toasters, floors, the foreheads of people who don’t mind being lightly clonked in the name of art – and will turn them all into rhythmic music-makers. We can’t vouch for its claimed educational value, but it does look great on a watermelon.
The ‘Jam’ Jar (£25)
The problem with jam is that, while it tastes great on toast, it’s a hopeless medium for soldering. So the makers of The ‘Jam’ Jar had the revolutionary idea of removing all the jam from the jar before converting it into a miniature guitar amp.
The two-inch speaker built into the lid sounds pretty brutal, but plug this thing into a full-size cabinet and you’ll be amazed by its smooth and powerful overdriven sound. You can even clean it up (just about) by backing off on your guitar’s volume control.
We’d take one of these over the old Smokey fag-packet amp any day. Partly because it’s louder, but also because you don’t have to worry about what the makers did with the original contents. Bit of toast never harmed anyone, did it?
