The Endless AI guitar pedal has potential

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Entertainment EntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Entertainment Tech TechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All TechThe Endless AI guitar pedal has potentialI don’t hate Polyend’s Endless, but I’m not putting it on my pedalboard. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Technical Details

by Terrence O'Brien Terrence O'BrienWeekend EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Terrence O'BrienMay 21, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

You can buy physical plates to pair with your AI effects. | Photo: Terrence O’Brien / The VergePart OfAll the latest in AI ‘music’see all updates Terrence O'Brien Terrence O'BrienPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Terrence O'Brien is the Verge’s weekend editor.

He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget. I’m not sure anyone was really asking for an AI guitar pedal. But it was inevitable that someone would build one.

Industry Implications

One of the first to take the plunge is Polyend, a well-respected music gear maker with a reputation for building niche, idiosyncratic devices. The company has built grooveboxes around old-school trackers and a multi-effect pedal that you can step sequence. So there was at least some hope that if anyone could do an AI effect pedal right, it would be Polyend.

Polyend’s Endless is a $299 programmable guitar pedal running an ARM processor. It’s paired with Playground, a number of interconnected AI agents that turn any text prompt into a functioning guitar effect. If you have an idea, you don’t have to hope that someone’s already built that pedal; you can simply prompt it.

Maybe there’s a specific combination of effects that you’ve always wanted, but no company sells it because there’s no demand for a combination ring modulator / auto-wah. I’m not convinced this is what guitarists are yearning for, but it’s a well-intentioned first attempt to marry an effect pedal to an LLM. 6Verge ScorePolyend Endless$ 299$ 299The GoodDozens of free effectsUser-friendly AI PlaygroundReasonably pricedHonest effort at “ethical” AIThe BadIterating and testing effects takes timeFirmware quirksOther custom effects pedals offer more control$299 at Polyend$299 at Perfect Circuit$299 at SweetwaterHow we rate and review productsTo be clear, the AI isn’t actually in the pedal.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.