There have been many very cool pieces of gear at NAMM 2026 that integrate new technology like machine learning and AI. How appealing these will be to musicians once the shine fades a bit remains to be seen, but the Polyend Endless is definitely one of the coolest ideas at the show.
Endless possibilities
You probably never thought you’d hear the terms “guitar pedal” and “open source” in the same breath, right?
Endless is an effects pedal with sounds that can be totally customized through a number of methods. The easiest is to select from their standing library, a community-created collection of sounds that gets larger every day. It’s got some very creative sounds, like looping arpeggiators, granular time effects, multi-mode distortions, and more.
The coolest feature is how users can create their own effects from scratch via two methods. The first is to load custom effects that are coded in C++. Polyend created a GitHub SDK with some examples to help anyone this adventurous get going.
Second is to use Polyend’s Playground system. Currently in beta, it’s a “no code” text-based generator where users input descriptions and it compiles them into usable effects. Then just download the file and fly it into the pedal. You can workshop it from there and ask the engine for modifications.
If you look into it, they’re very deliberate to not throw around buzzwords like “AI” even though the Playground system is very similar to the prompting with the technology.
The crowd-sourced sound library is free, but Playground works on a token system if you want to create custom effects. When you buy Endless you get $20 in free tokens.
The future of guitar pedals?
Polish manufacturer Polyend is pretty new to the scene, but they brought some of the coolest, most innovative ideas to NAMM 2026.
Learn more about the Polyend Endless.
