For this newest entry in our Shreddage series, we’re thrilled to bring you Shreddage 3 Hollomatic, a hollowbody electric guitar from a guitar family that has played a legendary role in rock & roll and country music history. The choice of early legends like Chet Atkins and George Harrison, classic rockers like Pete Townshend, and even modern visionaries like Jack White, this family of versatile guitars has shaped the sound of rock, country, blues, and more for over half a century.

While their roots were in country and rockabilly, these guitars expanded their reach as musicians and bands embraced their powerful sound and versatility. It’s a rich, deep, and full-bodied sound, with a much-loved signature twang — and it works amazingly well in clean, low and high gain settings. It can be heard in everything from the impassioned songs of CSN&Y to the soaring sound of The Who to Duane Eddy’s ultra cool cover of the Peter Gunn theme to the exhilarating virtuosity of Brian Setzer.

For Shreddage 3 Hollomatic, we turned once again to L.A.-based jazz, rock, and blues guitarist Josh Workman, who also recorded Shreddage 3 Archtop. Josh captured the depth and richness of this iconic instrument with his precise playing and impeccable technique. We prioritized getting a clean sound that is mellow and smooth, one which lends itself well to clean playing and lower gain. We think you’ll find that it can excel in anything from rock to country to blues to jazz.

Realism

Combining virtual and live instruments in a track can be a challenge. We get it. That’s why we’ve worked to bring the highest possible realism to Shreddage 3 Hollomatic. You can be sure that it will blend in seamlessly and hold its own even in the company of live instruments.

We’ve sampled deeply — every fret on every string, with up to four round robins per note. We’ve also included a full array of articulations, conveniently mapped and completely editable. And you can feel confident that you’ll get realistic performances right out of the box, without ever having to dive into the editing windows. The default settings in our Shreddage 3.5 engine give you natural and musical fret movements and picking styles which capture all the nuances, variations, and expressiveness found in live performances.

The Sound

Shreddage 3 Hollomatic is our second hollowbody virtual guitar, with a warm sound distinguished by a slight retro twang that can be heard in both the neck and bridge pickups, making it a perfect fit for classic rock & roll, rockabilly, and country. The bridge pickup is also distinctive, with an upper range that brings a fatter, mellow tone. If you’re familiar with Shreddage 3 Archtop, our other hollowbody guitar, you’ll notice that the sound of these guitars differs in important ways, even if they have some similarities: Archtop’s neck pickup is rounder, warmer, and more suited for jazz over rock, and its bridge pickup is more biting than Hollomatic’s mellow tone.

While Shreddage 3 Hollomatic naturally excels in certain styles, once you start exploring the extensive presets we’ve included, you’ll discover the sheer breadth of sound this virtual guitar is capable of. You’ll find everything from classic rock and metal leads to round, warm jazz tones to 60’s surfer sounds to ambient tones that would be right at home in cinematic cues.

If you’re looking to build a custom tone from the ground up, the Console section gives you everything you need. Create your own signal chain for each of the pickups and the master channel with over 35 effects, including dynamics, EQs, pedals, reverbs, phasing effects, and others. Alternately, use a separate amp sim such as our Shreddage Amp XTC.

Articulations

Our array of articulations have you covered for a full, realistic performance and include sustains, with hammer-ons and pull-offs when appropriate; mutes; staccato; power chord sustains, mutes, and staccato; natural, artificial, and pinch harmonics; chokes; tremolo; tapping; rakes; legato slides and power chord slides; pitched, power chord pitched, and unpitched releases; and FX. Articulations are easy to adjust and remap with the TACT 3.0 articulation system, and NKS is supported for more parameters.

The Engine

As with the entire Shreddage series, and especially with the updated Shreddage 3.5 engine, Shreddage 3 Hollomatic offers fast and intuitive editing. Want a more aggressive performance, or a specific style of picking or fret movements, or a different tone? The controls on the main page let you handle this customization easily and quickly. Controls for the bridge / neck pickups, tone, bite, extra attack, pitch bend, vibrato, and multi-tracking options let you shape the sound. Use the controls on the Console page to blend seamlessly between the two pickups to get exactly the sound you need. The Performance Style and the Fretting and Picking modes let you dial in just the right playing style, and the force string and hand position parameters give you even deeper control of tone and variation.

Our meticulous attention to detail, exhaustive sampling, thoughtfully designed UI and advanced Shreddage 3.5 capabilities all work together to bring you a guitar that is faithful to the original and both powerful and easy to use in your own productions.

Console: Modular FX Rack and Mixer

Console is our mixer, modular effects rack, and pedal board, designed to give you full control over your virtual guitar tone. Unlike our previous FX racks, which were limited to a small amount of preset modules, Console gives you 30 effects modules to choose from!

These include multiple EQs (digital and analog-style), compressors, spatial FX, modulation FX, amps, distortion pedals, reverbs, and a selection of over 30 custom cabinet IRs recorded just for Shreddage 3! These cabs cover all the most important sounds you would want, with both dynamic & condenser mics in multiple positions plus a ribbon mic for certain models.

Using Console, you can easily save and load FX chains or presets between projects or even different Shreddage 3 products. It also allows you to mix and blend between guitar pickups, with custom inserts on each if you’d like.

Download the Console manual here to learn more!

Total Articulation Control Technology (TACT) 3.0

Shreddage 3 Hollomatic includes an updated version of TACT allowing you to customize how all articulations are mapped and triggered! Everyone has their own preferences for how to perform or write for virtual guitar, and with TACT you can create the perfect setup for your DAW.