The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

billymagnum

New member
Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on these? There is a guitar version and a bass version. I'm pretty excited about them myself. I'm not exactly thrilled about the whole "EDM" tie-in, i'm more excited about waht else it can potentially do and the fact you can just use the Kaoss Pad by iteself if you want. Also, built in distortion and headphone jack? YES.

I've been playing with the thought of installing a Kaoss Pad on a project guitar ever since I built my NES-tar. (https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?279285-My-NES-tar-project)

This would save me a lot of time and effort. They are looking decent, maybe some room for slight upgrades, but should be better than a cheap-o-guitar I would have installed one in anyway. The price is also reasonably friendly imho.

Also take a look at their "specially designed" pup. Looks familiar...hot rails swappable anyone?

here's the guitar:
Post_Image_Kaoss-550x280.jpg

so....thoughts?
 
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Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

If Gibson had made this guitar, the universe would have come to an end from all the internet negativity
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

After having to put up with a Kaoss pad that a former lead singer used for "sound effects" in my old band, I have a universal and complete hatred for anything involving a Kaoss pad.

I'll pass. ;)
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

Hasn't Matt Bellamy been doing something like this for years?

In any case, I do want to try one.
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

Hasn't Matt Bellamy been doing something like this for years?

In any case, I do want to try one.

ive seen people on youtube playing around with that idea years before i saw him doing it but yeah he has and he probably is the most notable user. someone posted a link to his guitars above but im pretty sure those x/y pads are just remote input and the effect generator is elsewhere, not on the guitar itself. in my research last spring i found there are a couple places that sell the kit to install fro a couple hundred but thats only for the remote pad doesnt include the price of your guitar nor the price of an effects unit like the kaoss. not to mention the time and effort to route the body.

today sweetwater offered me a prices break to good to pass up so hopefully this freak of a guitar will be here next tuesday. I'll post updates accordingly if everyone is interested.
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

I could put my IPhone 6+ in there instead..............if I had one
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

ive seen people on youtube playing around with that idea years before i saw him doing it but yeah he has and he probably is the most notable user. someone posted a link to his guitars above but im pretty sure those x/y pads are just remote input and the effect generator is elsewhere, not on the guitar itself. in my research last spring i found there are a couple places that sell the kit to install fro a couple hundred but thats only for the remote pad doesnt include the price of your guitar nor the price of an effects unit like the kaoss. not to mention the time and effort to route the body.

today sweetwater offered me a prices break to good to pass up so hopefully this freak of a guitar will be here next tuesday. I'll post updates accordingly if everyone is interested.

Matt's original guitars with the pads had the entire Kaoss electronics built in. After they made it big and he could afford bigger rack setups he started having just the controller put in and a midi line that goes and controls the effects. I believe he can control everything that he wants, most notably him Whammy and Wah pedals. I agree that I don't like that the guitar was marketed almost exclusively towards dubsteppers and EDM'ers. I also wish there was more pickup combinations than the one single coil sized humbucker and the single soapbar bass pickup, but I think that choice was made because dubsteppers don't focus on tone of the note per say, but rather the effect of the note.
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

so it came today and i had all of about ten minutes to play with it before i had to leave for work. UGH. i took it out plugged in my headphones and didnt even tune properly before i started messing around. long story short, it instantly put a smile on my face and i cant wait to get back to it! thankfully it doesnt feel like a super cheap guitar and im sure it will hold up pretty well with what i throw at it. i was pleased to find out that you get a clean single through the headphone jack when distortion is switched off. it wasn't clear to me before hand if thats how it would be but luckily it is. ill be back with more of an in depth review-ish kind of thing when i get more time alone with it.

10523718_10152749562607789_3773179956130112854_n.jpg

Matt's original guitars with the pads had the entire Kaoss electronics built in. After they made it big and he could afford bigger rack setups he started having just the controller put in and a midi line that goes and controls the effects. I believe he can control everything that he wants, most notably him Whammy and Wah pedals. I agree that I don't like that the guitar was marketed almost exclusively towards dubsteppers and EDM'ers. I also wish there was more pickup combinations than the one single coil sized humbucker and the single soapbar bass pickup, but I think that choice was made because dubsteppers don't focus on tone of the note per say, but rather the effect of the note.
thanks for that info!

yeah, the edm thing is a turn off but thats what the kids are into these days and you gotta know who to market to i guess...

as far as pickup options go, there isnt much to stop you from modding and putting in anything you want.
 
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Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

played around for hours last night. man this guitar is fun. still getting used to it all. ive only used it with headphones up until this point. the only negative i can think of might be how it plays with my usual practice setup via Guitar Rig. I'm pretty sure the on-board distortion is in line before the kaoss pad, then it all goes to the output. I don't know what will happen to the sound/effects if i feed the output to GR's distortion. I'll have to experiment with that tonight.

now im not 100% sure on this because i haven't opened it up yet, bu i think when you disengage the distortion, the pickup automatically splits itself. the clean sounds too clean/good for what it sounds like with distortion.
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

a thread about plugging a touch-pad guitar into a computerized amp simulator... man.

I'm gona go plug a fuzz pedal into a tube amp and weep for my dying art form.
 
Re: The New Ibanez Kaoss Guitars...

a thread about plugging a touch-pad guitar into a computerized amp simulator... man.

I'm gona go plug a fuzz pedal into a tube amp and weep for my dying art form.
Now that's a bit mellow dramatic. I think that method is alive and well :)
 
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