TC Electronic pull 'sexist' guitar pedal following outrage in the musical community

The brand TC Electronic have been forced to pull a 'sexist' guitar pedal that they created in collaboration with a member of the band Steel Panther, following outrage among the musical community.

The pedal, which has since been deleted from the retailer's website, was listed as a 'Pussy Melter', and was a collaboration with the comedy glam rock band's guitarist Satchel.

This isn't the first time the comedy band have been embroiled in a sexism row. Speaking to NME in 2017 about Donald Trump, the band was quoted as saying: "We've been grabbing pussies for a real long-time."

They've also released songs called 'Gloryhole', 'Fat Girl' and 'It Won't Suck Itself'.

According to Billboard.com, the statement issued with the 'Pussy Melter' pedal, which has since been deleted from the company's website, read:

Wanna make a physical impact on your audiences, with an epic delay tone?

Then Satchel’s got you covered!

When we met up with Steel Panther’s oh-so-humble guitarist, he had only one condition: that the tone be as wet as the ladies on the front row!

With 'Pussy Melter' that’s exactly what you get: a delay tone, which perfectly nails that heavy metal lead tone, whilst simultaneously ensuring that the janitor ain’t going home early!

So if glam rock guitar solos and wet floor signs are your idea of a good time, then 'Pussy Melter' for Flashback Delay is definitely the TonePrint for you!

Many musicians have come out against the 'sexist' marketing, and have voiced their outrage on social media.

Female guitarist Jessica Fennelly started an iPetition to get the product removed, writing:

Not only is this description extremely vulgar and unnecessary, but TC Electronic went out of their way to actually pay someone to write a marketing description for this.

The Montreal-based band Braids shared the petition via Twitter, expressing their disgust and disappointment at the sexist marketing.

Many other artists also called out the casual sexism.

Korean female musician Japanese Breakfast took to Twitter to express her outrage:

This is f****** disgusting.

In a string of tweets, she expressed how she viewed the imagery as 'violent language'.

Musician Ted Leo also expressed his outrage, highlighting that the guitar pedal world is 'disgusting', that it includes 'bros marketing for bros' and that it excludes women.

Other female musicians expressed how 'disappointing' the whole thing was to them:

Since the uproar, TC Electronic have issued an apology and removed the product from their website.

Issuing a statement to Music Radar, the company said:

It’s become clear that a number of people have been offended by the title and description of a delay TonePrint that we created over a year ago with Steel Panther’s Satchel.

Steel Panther is an American comedic glam metal band from Los Angeles, California, mostly known for their profane and humorous lyrics, as well as their exaggerated on-stage personae that reenact the stereotypical 1980s "glam metal" lifestyle (from Wikipedia).

It has never been our intention to offend anyone but simply to provide fans of Steel Panther with guitar presets made by Satchel. We recognise that the material was inappropriate and we have removed the TonePrint in question from the app and we will take it down from our website as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise.

HT Billboard.com

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