Gibson Digital Guitar: The Art of Tech
Gibson has introduced a fully digital version of its legendary Les Paul electric model, and the potential boggles the imagination.
The guitar will function and sound like a normal analog guitar, courtesy of its two humbucking pickups, when connected to an amp via a regular quarter inch plug. But when you connect it via a Cat-5 ethernet cable to Gibson's special BoB (Breakout Box) interface, you instantly access more than a thousand new electronic components buried in the guitar's body and a whole new world of possibilities opens up. Analog outputs from BoB can be varied to provide (1) SUM output - all strings through one amplifier; (2) Stereo output - 3 strings through each of two amps; (3) HEX output - each string through a separate amplifier. And, of course, once you've captured those individual outputs in digital form, you can do anything with them your mind can imagine and your CPU can achieve.
It's all powered by Gibson Labs' MaGIC (Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier...a bit of a stretch to generate a cool acronym, and its website could really use some work), a bi-directional, 32-channel low-latency ethernet-based platform that may prove to be useful in many future applications beyond Gibson's digital guitar.
I don't know how Les Paul would have felt about a digital guitar, but I'd like to believe that it might have made a Gibson fan out of, say, Jimi Hendrix.
You're showing your age, Jeff! ;-)
Posted by: Eric at February 1, 2005 08:28 PMOnce again I sent your guitar discovery to Pat Simmons of the Doobie Brothers for his comments.
By the way...he had seen the Moto-Guitar that you have previously mentioned and I believe even had one at some point.
Posted by: Wallace-Midland, Texas at February 1, 2005 10:34 PMI'll be interested to hear his take on the Gibson. I'm just impressed from the technical perspective; I wonder how the creative community will receive it?
Posted by: Eric at February 1, 2005 10:36 PMOkay, I'll quibble. If it has two humbucking pickups and works with an analog amplifier, it's technically not a *fully digital* guitar. And if it *is* digital, it ceases to be a Les Paul in anything but name only. The unique quality of the LP is its sustain (and its ungainly weight). Full digital doesn't contain that quality, ergo, it's only a poseur! ;-)
The humbuckers are bypassed in digital mode, so, technically, it *is* fully digital, but with a "classic mode" option (hope Steve Jobs doesn't find out they appropriated his term!).
And, I suppose that since Gibson owns the Les Paul name, they can apply it to anything they want. But your point is well taken, and it remains to be seen how the professionals will view this creation. I suspect that there will be a distinct line between those who like it and those who don't, and that line will be drawn in terms of year of birth.
Posted by: Eric at February 2, 2005 06:27 PMEric,
Though they are *bypassed,* they are still *operational.* It would - at best - be a *bi-modal* guitar, not a fully digital guitar. A *fully* digital guitar would have *no* analog pickups whatsoever.
It really sounds like it's not so different from what's already being done with Line 6 (?) guitars, or any guitar that has a midi unit attached.
Further, with all of the thousands of components buried in the body, one wonders if there will be a noticeable effect on the analog sound.
I'm not saying I'd never play one, btw. It probably works a lot better with "GarageBand." ;-)
Posted by: bryan at February 2, 2005 07:14 PMAnd besides, everyone knows that a *real* les paul is has a sunburst finish, not that candy apple blue paint job they have on that website. :-P
Posted by: bryan at February 2, 2005 07:18 PMAbout the publisher
Random Abbye photos...
Angry Clouds
I am Curious Llama
Ganglia & Brain Cloud
Cabeza del Diablo
Aurora Moreorless
Be careful Who you plagiarize
Coming Attractions
All Thorns, All the Time
Hitchin' a Ride
"...the flower fades..."
Finding meaning in random events
Random Thursday: The Thanksgiving Edition
A Matter of Perception
Reason #21 to wear shoes in West Texas
The Neighborhood:
West Texas Blogs:
[Midland unless otherwise indicated]
Other Texas Blogs:
The Business:
The Church:
The World:
Well, yeah, but can you smash it on the stage, then set it on fire?
Posted by: Jeff at February 1, 2005 05:11 PM