A Tyneside musician and theatre technician has raised more than £30,000 to fund production of a special “plushie subwoofer” which helps the deaf and hard-of-hearing community experience music. Nick Tyler, 30, has created ‘bass turtle’, a device that converts music into vibrations using a subwoofer inside a soft-toy turtle which can be hugged to one’s chest.
As well as allowing deaf people to experience music in a new way, the product is also, Nick told ChronicleLive, useful to those who are neurodivergent. After an Instagram post about the invention went viral, interest in the idea has rocketed.
Funding and launch plans
Through start-up company Pisces Devices, he has so far raised more than £30,000 on Kickstarter, with plans to release the first batch of products by the end of 2026. Nick, who works part time at the Alphabetti Theatre, said: “I wasn’t trying to make a tech product or start a company. What happened was I had spent a lot of money on a fancy new pair of headphones - but I realised that you often do need that physical sensation to be part of listening to music, the vibration.
“Simultaneously, I was doing a lot of work within the deaf community, and learning lots about how they experience music and what their relationship with it is like. What you find is how much people ‘hear’ through touch.
“I just started experimenting, but when people would come around their reactions were amazing. Everything was really positive - and that made it clear to me I might be on to something good.”
Positive reactions and community impact
Nick explained that in tests so far the impact had been moving - and feedback had been incredibly positive. He described how a friend within the deaf community had tested it, and her reaction had been incredible. He said: “I watched her use it for the first time and I can see she was so absorbed in it. One of the most moving parts of this project was seeing that reaction of hers. We are now really excited to do more testing within the deaf community. I want this to be something fun that puts the deaf community central - and is created with them.”
“We hit our first target in the first five hours. I could never have dreamed of that when I came up with the idea,” he added. He said Newcastle - his adopted hometown - had played a key role in the product’s development. He added: “I had genuinely humble expectations. I thought finding 250 backers would be the hard part.
“Instead I’ve spent months reading comments from deaf and neurodivergent people telling me what this could mean for them. That’s been the most rewarding thing about the whole project.”
Newcastle’s role and next steps
He added: “Newcastle is why bass turtle exists in the shape it does. It’s an inclusive, progressive, diverse city with a genuine culture of making things. We feel at home here, and I want this project to add something to that, and to create opportunities in the area rather than somewhere else.”
The Kickstarter launched on August 4 and is to run for 30 days. The device’s initial price will be £180 - cheaper than anything else similar on the market - though Nick highlighted how his invention is “the only haptic audio device designed specifically for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community at an accessible price point, in a form factor that is intentionally warm rather than clinical”.
