Gibson "Digital" Guitar

[JOLLY]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Still........I think I'll stick with my old Paulys and Marshall's.

you're welcome

[JOLLY]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

im all for progress in guitar building. problem is, this thing has been vaporware for 2 years. plus, Gibson is not known as a foward thinking company- usually when they try, they screw it up (look at Opcode/Oberheim/Trace Elliot..3 divisions they couldn't keep open). Maybe if they sell the technology to Line6...

As much as I love Gibson, I'm gonna have to agree with all of that.

[Panzer]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

I think it would be a usefull tool for the recording studio. I am a Pianist of 10 years and I did ALOT of work with Synthesizers, I think its an amazing Idea for Gibson to finally break the ice in digital electric guitars, It would be a VERY usefull tool in any recording studio. I remember when I got my first Keyboard, (I was used to my 1911 Upright Piano, Hand built by a craftsman in toronto)
The keyboard was "unpure" to me at first. The sounds poorly imitated real instruments, it felt cheap and unstable...then about 5 years later I upgraded from a YAMAHA synthesizer to a Roland. It was the most exiting time of my musical life. I had my every recording desire at my finger tips. The point im trying to make here is the digital guitar wont replace the real analog Gibson guitar gods, It will simply add to the musical spectrum of modern music. Did the synthesizer ever replace the piano? No way in hell. No synthesizer/Electric Piano in the world can compare to a hand built grand piano. Or a Classic bellow organ.
I dont think theres any chance of the digital guitar replacing analog, it will just provide some people with more options in their musical careers. Imagine being able to use your guitar to create virtually any sound imaginable due to seperate outputs, digital feed. I think it would be very interesting. We are approaching the age of Musicians my friends. Embrace technology for it can make the impossible possible, it can make your dreams come true.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

I'm more willing to check this thing out than the Variax. I applaud Gibson for
keeping the LP intact, and simply adding the electronics in a way that's not
blatantly obvious. Smart.

The analog recording purists are just now starting to embrace digital recording...
well some of them. This guitar strikes me as a rich guy's guitar. I don't see
it being widely accepted till it's the same price as any Les Paul.
Line 6 succeeded by being within reach of the average musician. This Gibson
Digital Guitar isn't within many people's reach. Let me guess the Gibson Retail
Price. Since they pick their numbers out of a hat, I'll take a guess

Like Dr. Evil.......One Million Dollars? $15,000? $7,000? Let's try $8500? How bout
One Billion Dollars? LOL

[mrfjones]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

i think it will be used mostly for pop crap.

guitar players won't really use one too much, because it won't sound like them any more. It will be too computerized. like someone said earlier who wants a perfect recording? It adds so much to a record to hear the guitar or a well placed pick slide etc. It is the same thing as comparing line 6's interpretation of a matchless to the real thing. Some people will like it and others will only use it because they can afford it and it will b versitile. I used a line 6 because of that, i got good tones out of it but i still found my sound and upgraded to a tube amp.

I will use my "old" guitars and amp as long as they make tubes.

[Panzer]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Sometimes I honestly do wonder where Gibson gets the prices for their guitars, I was in the carpenter shop the other day and there was a nice black and gold gibson hanging from the wall. I was thinkin "wow, thats a REAL guitar" then I glanced over at the price of $4885 Canadian. If I had 5 grand in my pocket I would have a very hard time handing it over the the man behind the counter for that guitar. Despite it being the "best guitar" in general for the rock genre.

[Mincer]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

i think it will be used mostly for pop crap.

It adds so much to a record to hear the guitar or a well placed pick slide etc..

well guitar synths have been around 30 years and arent just used for pop. Guitar players are mostly conservative in their gear choices. This is for those that aren't.

[59paul]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

When I 1st read this in the paper today, I thought of kind of a New Age, Andy Summers type of deal. I'm pretty much old school, but I sure dig Andy's stuff.

[Oldslowhand]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

As often as not new products will only take off if someone does something amazing or cool Remeber it was the mid sixes before the Les Paul took of after Eric Clapton,Peter Green, Paul Kossoff etc took it up and then we all wanted to get those sounds so I suppose we'll have to hand on and see is someone does something cool or amazing

[Guitarist]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Like always - the newer models are promising more sustain.

[Norman_T]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Come on guys you are not thinking positively on this one.

Lets see you will be able to assign your six strings to different amps - so just think about those Marshall/Mesa/Laney stacks that you could use!! 6 of them right behind you and if you want to have that in stereo - that's 12 stacks

[garublador]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Maybe if they sell the technology to Line6...

They'd have to be pretty dumb to buy it...

From the MaGIC FAQ:

Is there a license fee for developers?

No. We are providing a ten year royalty free license on MaGIC

The MaGIC protocol is just a new interconnect system. People already pay a ton for cables to get less of an "analog" sound out of their guitars. I think the real killer app for this system is in live situations to simplify the setup of the amplification of the entire band and/or club. Lots of people are discounting the system, but there isn't anything that says you can't use regular ol' magnetic pickups and tube amps with it. Heck, you don't even have to change the interconnect from your guitar to your amp. You could just use the system for the PA and instead of having a super-expensive mixer with a ton of cables you could replace it with a laptop or PC and daisy chain all the stuff together making a much, much simpler setup that's a lot easier to troubleshoot.

The thing they're marketing isn't the pickup that separates each string into its own signal, that's only one appliction. What they defeloped is a new type of interconnect that can be used to carry more information than just the guitar signal. Who doesn't think it would be cool to be able to control the volume of your monitor from your guitar?

[Mincer]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

Well after reading the article, I am underwhelmed. The technology is a great idea- how Gibson implemented it in a guitar is the silly thing. Believe me- I am heavy into guitar synth and processing. Thing is, we already have devices to separate strings into separate signals (RMC Fanout box), and the ability to model pickups, amps, guitars etc (Roland VG88). The problem is that there are companies who already build hex pickups into the saddles of the bridge- I have no idea why Gibson is adding a separate pickup here. My guess is that they have no idea what other companies are doing. They can make a cleaner looking guitar...they could also not try to invent the wheel. There is no mention of midi conversion, or interfaces with synths. Oh i forgot, you can use Gibson's system with cables over 2000 meters long. Hello, is that ever a problem? Does anyone ever play almost a mile from their amp?
I think the technology is cool, just poorly implemented, like most of Gibson's forays into technology. Line6 was able to get a digital guitar to market in less than 2 years and it doesn't cost $2600.

[mrid]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

...but can it run Linux?

[tone4days]

Re: Gibson "Digital" Guitar

it uses tcp/ip over a cat5 (ethernet) cable ... sure would be funny to have a wifi enabled laptop ... imagine running a denial-of-service attack on a crappy guitarist's digi-LP ... ping the LP - ping the LP - ping the LP .. mwah hah hah hah hah hah </evil laff>

actually, i saw an article about this again today on cnn.com ... talked about the guy who is ceo of gibson .. the article was pretty straightforward until it mentioned that his secretary wears lingerie and boots .. i was hoping for a pic, but no dice ... maybe thats why gibbys cost so much :-)

cheers,
t4d