Gibson Ushers in Digital Guitars

[Panamark]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=5924

[Panamark]

Digital guitar set to rock and roll
13:59 AEST Tue May 4 2004


AP - As Gibson Guitar Corp launches a new digital model, company CEO Henry Juszkiewicz can close his eyes and almost hear the music.

"The defining moment will be when a certain lick in a popular song is out there, and it can't be done with anything else but a digital guitar," Juszkiewicz says.

"It only takes one example to really inspire people."

That, Juszkiewicz hopes, will usher in the age of the digital guitar - much the same way as the Beatles and Rolling Stones inspired a generation of young people to pick up a standard electric guitar in the 1960s.

"It opens a whole new palette of possibilities," Juszkiewicz says. "It's a little bit like hearing stereo as opposed to mono."

Juszkiewicz knows guitars. A Harvard MBA who played in garage rock bands, he bought Gibson with two buddies for $US5 million when it was struggling in 1986 and built it into a company with annual sales of $US250 million ($A347.08 million) in 2001. At one point, Gibson had fewer than 60 employees. Today, Juszkiewicz says it has 3,000 worldwide.

In the waiting room of his office at Gibson's Nashville headquarters, the walls are lined with guitars and photos of Sting, Neil Diamond, BB King, Madonna, Hank Williams Jr and Brooks & Dunn. His secretary answers the telephone wearing dark lingerie and black boots.

The advantages of the digital guitar come down to sound and control. For 70 years, the electric guitar pickup has translated string vibrations into an electrical signal fed to an amplifier. The player can control the tone and volume, but output is limited to a mono or stereo signal. The signal itself is noisy by today's standards, and stray frequencies often cause an annoying hum.

"Some of the guitar pickups popular today go back to the 1920s," Juszkiewicz said. "We have not changed a lot in terms of the instrument."

The digital guitar uses computer chips to clean up the signal - Juszkiewicz describes the new sound as traditional but "on steroids."

It also allows the player to control the sound of each string. For example, the guitarist can have a heavy metal crunch on the low strings, medium distortion on the middle strings and a clean sound on the high strings.

"You'll be able to record all these different sounds and textures. It's unbelievable, I think," said Dave Cleveland, a Nashville session guitarist who planned to buy one of the new instruments.

"It's going to revolutionise the whole recording part of guitar playing."

Cleveland said technology already exists to do some of the same things as the digital guitar, but it's bulky, inconvenient and limited.

"With this, you're getting the sound of the pickups and can run analog into a regular guitar amp, plus you can monitor everything through the guitar. It's like having a mini recording studio," he said.

[Panamark]

Fuck hey ?? What do you all think of that ??

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Panamark
His secretary answers the telephone wearing dark lingerie and black boots.

Interesting article.

So is she just wearing dark lingerie or did the reporter get her kit off or what?

[Mr Grimsdale]

that's my kind of secretary!

[Panamark]

So we are talking about a supposed history making change to guitar pickups, and Sesh is mainly worried about the secretaries lingerie !

LMAO !

[GAR]

There's always some stooge out there proposing their electromagnetic "string-to-digital" conversion solution as being the best, and I haven't seen any of them produce the claimed results yet.

Digital signal conversion involves a lag-time in the signal chain which is slower then your picking hand PLUS the slowdown of any string response sounds like a bad amp, or one with bad capacitors.

I haven't seen the "new" Gibson digital solution, but they're all pretty much based on the Roland hex pickup model which IMO sucks and is way too slow - I believe it's still a miserable 85millisecond delay, which to the normal untrained, unmusical ear is about the speed you hear a slammed-shut car door in a parking structure echo from the other side of the lot.

[Panamark]

Thanks GAR, I didnt know anything about them. That article made it sound exciting. 85 milliseconds is a big delay ! That would be very disconcerting when you are playing..

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Panamark
So we are talking about a supposed history making change to guitar pickups, and Sesh is mainly worried about the secretaries lingerie !

LMAO !

The essential difference between being a musician and being a rock guitarist...

[Panamark]

What if you like both the technology and the lingerie ?
Are you like a crossover artist ?? :p

[BITEYOASS]

FUCK ANYTHING DIGITAL! ANALOG RULES!!!

[Panamark]

I tend to Agree ..

[GAR]

I agree too, nothing beats a couple cabinets and heads full on.

But you know what I've always wanted?

I wished like a lot of people since the synth guitar systems came out, that you could have just one Universal standard for a MIDI pickup.

I mean, you can interchange the thing from guitar to guitar, its active enough to track the string response fast enough like analog, and until a new system comes out and its an OPEN standard much the way some computer OS's are, its never gonna happen the same way you can just take ONE universal guitar cord and plug into any universal guitar amp.

Its been a standard now that way for analog pickups for over 60 years. You'd think someone would have figured this shit out by now in the digital age. Fucking LAME.

[Panamark]

MIDI and guitar. Two words that should *NOT* be used in the same sentence..

[Cathedral]

I'm against all this bullshit from the start. Just pick up the guitar and play the sum bitch.

Now, back to the lingerie thing......I'll forego calling the office and just drop in on them and offer her a job with a future.

[Panamark]

Fender better get some topless bitches happening at their reception desk, before its too late !!

[BrownSound1]

Think about all of the great guitar tones in history for a moment and what is used to get them. From my point of view, electric guitar tones are this....you got the Les Paul tone, and the Strat and Tele tone. Throw in the odd Gretsch and Rickenbacker and that pretty much sums up the electric guitar. I got the big three covered, so why in the hell would I plop down X thousand dollars for a guitar that will just emulate my real shit?

Amps ever even simpler, you either want a Marshall Tone, a Fender Tone, or a Vox tone. All other amps made are trying to either do these tones or a variation of those. What else do you really need? I've got a Marshall, owned a couple of Twins, never had the Vox...Big fuckin' deal.

The point? This is just another marketing thing. Digital technology is great in the right setting, but there are some things it just can't do....yet. I'm sure there will be a point where all of these emulations will be impossible to tell from the real thing, but we aren't there at this point in time.

[BITEYOASS]

If I wanted something Digital, I'd get a damn synthesiser.

[Panamark]

I Agree with everyone, although I think the interesting aspect of this technology is being able to setup a different tone/distortion for each string.

Possibilities there !

[ELVIS]

What do you geeks have against pictures ??


AMD CEO Hector de J. Ruiz jams with Slash and Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz on the Gibson digital guitar

[ELVIS]

[Panamark]

Originally posted by ELVIS
What do you geeks have against pictures ??

We much prefer them, Uncle Elvis ! Saves us having to read and all.. :p

[Panamark]

Thats tripping me out looking at an RJ45 socket on a guitar !!!!!!
Whoah ! My two worlds colliding !!!!

[Panamark]

Maybe You can connect them to a HUB and network the whole band !!

[BITEYOASS]

I still think all this digital crap ain't gonna last. 6 strings each having a different amp sound? Won't work, it'll sound like a big mess! Like trying to mix salsa and hershey's syrup.

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by BITEYOASS
I still think all this digital crap ain't gonna last. 6 strings each having a different amp sound? Won't work, it'll sound like a big mess! Like trying to mix salsa and hershey's syrup.

Dude, that just sounds like i'm gonna puke, Fuckin Yuk, man...
I see your point and agree whole heartedly.

[Panamark]

It might be good from an EQ perspective...

[BrownSound1]

Let's see what they have in 5 years....the new shit never works right. Plus it could go the way of the Dodo....kind of like guitar synths did. (thank God!)

[freak]

Originally posted by BITEYOASS
FUCK ANYTHING DIGITAL! ANALOG RULES!!!

Tubes and magnetic pickups...

The way God meant it.

[gslinger]

Originally posted by BITEYOASS
I still think all this digital crap ain't gonna last. 6 strings each having a different amp sound? Won't work, it'll sound like a big mess! Like trying to mix salsa and hershey's syrup.

Panamark thx for article. Very interesting. I get a kick out of the "just for commerce", "just for change" waves that roll through the industry with much fanfare only to die out later. This will be no exception.

Has anyone else noticed how the large venue concerts continue to sound worse each year, instead of better,.....despite the hugh increase in signal management technology, "zillion knob" soundboards, and sound engineer formal training?

Anyone else find an increasing # of times you want to go back and kick the concert's sound engineer's arse between his shoulders?

I suggest that is the present state of the industry.......

[gslinger]

Originally posted by freak
Tubes and magnetic pickups...

The way God meant it.

Well stated bro!!!

For me.....What I love about my '59 Fender Custom Vintage Re-Issue SRV Stage Tube Amp's, is not only do they sound unbelievable with unmatched tone, in any blues rock concert hall or stadium configuration,..but after finishing a long fatiguing show, it's great to be able to cook up a hot and fulfilling meal on them before quickly departing to "bed down" the groupies the rest of the night......The way God meant it!

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