Instruments: The Current Scene

Click. Hummmm. Is everybody in the band plugged in? Everybody can be, for nowadays nearly every standard instrument from the violin to the tuba is getting wired for sound. So pervasively is electric current spreading through the music industry that amplified and amplifying devices made by far the loudest noises in Chicago last week at the annual trade show of the National Association of Music Merchants. One manufacturer alone (Vox, a subsidiary of Thomas Organ Co.) displayed 64 electronic instruments and gadgets. Some of the most notable—or at least most audible—new products...