digital guitar?

[death by chandelier]

thoughts?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118752,00.html

[Auxillary]

I think Casio did that back in the 80's


When was the last time you heard someone playing a casio guitar?

I think i've made my point.

[dr.ona]

hey!!!...i own a casio guitar! and a variave line 6 and a roland g707! i admit that i barely use these for recording though...the casio does play real nice and it tracks excellent.

[Quest Poetics]

Damn, I'm 28 and perhaps I'm old in my ways already but I dont ever see myself leaving a good ol magnetic pickup into a tube amp for some computerized guitar...Not to say I wont try it, but the sound of a real guitar through real tubes is a thing of beauty...

[jca83]

a bit like neumann's digital mic, eh?

i've played a casio MIDI guitar. it's silly.

[wayne kerr]

I want to kill...

S_H

[inhumentor]

Anybody in the Olympia WA area want a Roland GR700 pedal board? I'll sell it for a measly 20 bucks. I don't have the guitar to play through it. It's huge and looks all kinds of cool.

[wing]

I think Casio did that back in the 80's

Yeah, Casio DG20...



I have one. It's awesomely awesome and amazing in every way. Very fun and strange sounding, very glitchy in a nice sort of way.

[mingus2112]

My old high school had one of those Casio MIDI guitars. COMPLETELY different concept. That was a guitar that could be used as a regular guitar OR as a MIDI controller for a sound module or keyboard. It didn't track very well (as some of today's MIDI pickups do), but it was a cool little instrument. I think the reason it never took off is. . .well. . .the guitar was made by Casio!! They should have stuck with some kind of pickup system. They would have went further.

Now with this Gibson idea. Man. . .i don't know what to think. (excuse the comparison for all those who have no interest in camera equipment) It may be one of those thinks like when Minolta made the first autofocus SLR camera. Sure it kicked ass, but none of their old manual lenses fit. What the hell am I talking about? Well it all starts with this guitar ($1500 more then a Les Paul??. . .Les Pauls are ALREADY overpriced!! I got a Les Paul Studio in 1993 for $700 NEW. It's TWICE the guitar the Les Paul Studio is today and HALF the price!!), then you're going to have to buy a new amp? No? Maybe they'll have some fancy $800 converter box. Same thing with your pedals.

After saying all that. . .here's what I think and why. It will NEVER catch on. EVER. All of us old players are too much in love with our current instruments to switch to a new "system." All the NEW players are NEVER going to pay $2500 for their first guitar when they can get a Squre for $99 at guitarget. So unless they introduce a "budget line" for $400, there's no way it will take off.

Sorry for the open rant. . .but that's just the way things come out!!

-James

[death by chandelier]

Yeah, I think it's kind of a lame idea. To me, rock and roll is all about noise. Why take the noise out with some clean digital electronics. I don't know - I like noise. I like old tube amps and finicky guitars.

[JGriffin]

I saw a prototype digital Gibson at AES in 1999...my first thought was "what's gonna happen when somebody spills a beer on this thing in a bar?"

[apropos of nothing]

Its fantastic. Now they just need an amp with an ethernet port! Fuckin great!

[exit2studios]

sean kelly of the samples plays the casios...has for years. and it sounds fine.

www.thesamples.com

[rimbaud234]

It's basically taking off with the Line6 Variax concept (definitely not a MIDI "guitar").
I have a Variax and really like it. I also have plenty of "real" guitars.

[marqueemoon]

Yeah. It sounds like an overpriced version of what Line 6 is already doing. I fooled around with the Line 6 guitar in a shop when it first came out. It's pretty cool I guess. It would be great for someone cranking out soundtrack music and jingles all day, but I just prefer a little less sanitized tone.