Is Polyend's open-source effects generator, Endless good or bad news for the guitar industry?

The ChatGPT-inspired stompbox can create effects and simulate amps from prompts without any coding required – but is it ethical?

Over an exhaustive seven days, I was on Gutiar World’s frontline, covering all the biggest stories from NAMM 2026. And there were plenty of them. But few left me as conflicted as Polyend’s new pedal, Endless.

There’s a part of me that ‘s dying to get one in my hands to put through its paces, because it’s potential at least is staggering. But there’s another part of me that fears – or perhaps knows – this is generative AI, the likes of which I’ve passionately spoken against in creative spheres before.

So what is Polyend’s Endless – and is it a bold step into a new era of guitar pedal manufacturing, or a passing fad that will come and go like migrating bird?

Open-source effects

The Endless is being billed as an open-source effects pedal, with users able to generate their ideas with and without coding knowledge.

It has a stereo 48 kHz / 24-bit audio path and a robust aluminium enclosure with a swappable faceplate for user's to aesthetically deck out as they please. But the real trick here is its ability to muster up user-generated effects from ChatGPT-like prompts. It arrives with examples of what it's capable of, from overdrive pedals to lo-fi tape delays and an amplifier simulation called 65’ Sparkle, and there's an ever-growing database of patches, which can be injected into the pedal via USB. 

These effects aren’t free however. They’re usually priced around $19.99, with users getting a $20 voucher with the pedal itself, to get started.

The thing is amp modellers have seen players get greedy. Be that a good or bad thing, we're now used to having one unit capable of crazy amounts of heavy lifting; they're one-stop shops. So, why can't pedals do the same?

We've already seen Boss's Plugout FX cramming 16 effects into one standard-sized enclosure, with TC Electronic doing similar with the Plethora X1. The floodgates have already been opened, so who can blame Poland-based Polyend for waltzing though?

It costs $299 / €299 per unit, with overall outlay rising the more players dig into its library of possibilities, which is being billed as a veritable tonal candy store. So, considering it's supposed limitless, it's not an awful price at all. As I say, on one hand, there's a lot to love about the concept. 

If anything, a pedal like this was always inevitable. But now it’s here, how do we feel about it?

A moral dilemma

Now, it must be noted that nowhere in the provided PR material was the love-or-hate buzzword of ‘AI’ muttered. This is a tactful move from Polyend. It knows how divisive it can be, how likely some are to stop listening as soon as that evil acronym mentioned.  

But let’s not beat around the bush: AI is what is doing the dirty work behind-the-scenes. If it wasn’t Polyend would be championing some ingenious algorithm that its conjured up – possibly after doing a deal with the Devil. So, for me at least, it begs the question: Where are these effects coming from?

One of the biggest issues that generative AI faces is how it operates. If you asked it to create a pop punk song about flowers, it would trawl through all the content its been fed – in many cases, copyrighted content, and in all cases, the hard work of real humans feeding off of real emotions, thoughts, and knowledge – to scalp everything it needs from it. What it essentially does is regurgitates pre-existing information into a new guise.

Ask ChatGPT for the best way to cook roast potatoes, and it will look at a myriad of recipes already online, and condense the information down. That’s all well and good, but when it comes to creative generation, there are far more ethical question marks falling around the scene like hail.

If I asked the Endless to create a classic ‘80s-style phaser pedal, how is it going from A to B? Is it listening to Van Halen at blinding speeds to extract the polyphonic information it needs, has Polyend’s AI machine been fed hundreds and thousands of pre-existing pedals for it to leech off of?

Indeed, this is essentially how amp modelling works, so it wouldn’t be alone in that methodology, but there’s a part of me that, if that is the case, feels wrong for doing so. You’re almost cheating someone out of money they deserve for genuine effort and innovation.  

For now, Polyend’s methodologies remain locked behind closed doors, so all we can do is speculate.  But hopefully you’re starting to see why I’m so conflicted right now.

Bad habits?

The other debate is whether generative effects creation like this is a good or a bad thing long-term. Positive Grid’s AI-powered amp sim, BIAS-X, for instance, can create very specific guitar tones from prompts. Be that ‘Black Sabbath’s Paranoid tone,’ ‘Thick, stoner rock fuzz,’ or whatever else, the concept is that whatever is generated should be H-O-T-T-O-G-O.  

Sure, there might be some minor tweaking to make sure the overall EQ compliments the specific guitar it’s being used with, but generally speaking, the hard work is done at the click of a button. Does that encourage bad habits in players?  

There’s an art form in dialing in a guitar tone, it takes a little nous to understand how to get the characteristics of amp and guitar to marry in a way that works for you, and that’s before you add in an overdrive or compressor into the signal chain, and so on. With all those middle steps all but eradicated, are players shooting themselves in the foot, because they aren’t taking the time to learn how things work?

Some friends I spoke to argued that such a concept would never catch on because most players genuinely love getting tacticle with their gear and dialling it in, exhaustingly, to their tastes. Initial response to the Endless and other products like BIAS-X make a point for flip side: people, whatever they are doing, like to take shortcuts. Why walk when you can take a taxi?

Long-term, that can be damaging, as a player isn’t learning, isn’t developing and understanding of how things work, why that tone appeals to you versus another one. And that’s before you talk about the happy accidents that can come from experimenting with gear along the way.

With all that said, I would still like a few hours with the Endless, to see what it’s capable of. But there is a part of me that sees the negatives, in amongst the exciting, supposedly limitless plus sides.

What do you think?