A gadget to play guitar and make songs

Neko is a pocket-sized AI multi-tool for guitarists. It replaces your cable, amp modeler, effects processor, recorder, DAW, and stem splitter — all in one device. Plug in wirelessly and start playing in seconds, with pro-level tone and AI-powered music creation built in.

Anyone with an electric guitar. Whether it's been hanging on your wall for months or you tour every weekend — Neko makes playing more fun, more instant, and more creative. It's designed so you can grab your guitar after work and enjoy real musical joy without any setup hassle.

Most processors just shape your tone. Neko is also a wireless system, a multi-track recorder, an AI arranger that turns your riffs into full songs, a stem splitter for learning and jamming along to any track, and a practice journal that remembers every idea you ever played. And it fits in your pocket.

Neko comes with two radio jacks — tiny transmitters shaped like a regular 6.3mm guitar jack. One plugs into your guitar, the other into your amp (or mixer). They connect wirelessly to the main unit. Think AirPods, but for your guitar.

End-to-end latency is about 10–12 ms including the wireless link and effects processing. The radio link itself is around 4 ms. That's like standing 3–4 meters (10–13 ft) from your amp — most guitarists feel very comfortable at this range.

We spent months reverse-engineering and benchmarking wireless systems from Sennheiser, NUX, Xvive, and others. Most compress dynamics, clip peaks, and make the sound thin and "plasticky." Neko's radio was built from scratch with a hi-end signal chain, managed gain control, and film capacitors to preserve the full 100 dB dynamic range of your guitar. In blind tests, it outperforms systems costing 3–5× more.

Yes. Neko's input stage has adaptive gain control that works with everything — from quiet single-coil pickups to hot active humbuckers and bass guitars.

Absolutely. Neko has a standard 6.3mm wired input and output, so you can use it with a cable if you prefer — or mix wireless and wired.

Yes. Neko works as a full signal chain — from your guitar through effects to your amp, PA, or headphones. The battery lasts 3+ hours, enough for a standard rehearsal.

The stem splitter runs offline on Neko's built-in NPU (neural processing unit) in real time. AI arrangement and audio-to-tab transcription run in the cloud and require Wi-Fi.

We're currently in the DVT (Design Validation Test) stage and preparing for production tooling. We plan to launch on Kickstarter in Q3 2026 — sign up at neko.engineering to get notified. And then ship the devices to backers in Q3 2027.

We're targeting 3+ hours of active play on a single charge — enough for a full rehearsal. The radio jacks charge magnetically from the main unit.

Yes — and you might be exactly who we built it for. Neko removes all the barriers that kill motivation: no cables to untangle, no complex setups. Plug the jack into your guitar, pick a great-sounding amp profile, and play. The AI arranger lets you hear your simple ideas as real music from day one. That feeling is what keeps people playing.

Yes. It works with any guitar that has a pickup with a 6.3mm output — including electro-acoustics. A purely acoustic guitar without a pickup will work using Neko's built-in microphones.