new guitar? would you buy this ? wash post 7july page b2

[whomper]

washpost 7 july 2009 page b2
chuck berry of the engineering world

new guitar allows customised sound (sic)

u md professor bruce jacob invents new guitar
made in korea
electronics designed at u of md

new company called COIL
makes new guitar designed with little pegs on the circuit board
in the back tha tcan configure the coils to "just the right sound" and then changed again to a completely different tone another time. can be done in seconds.

sounds like an expensive way to do what you can do with outboard hardware and the guitar you ahve.

would you buy this thing?

you have to buy their guitar to get the tone change system.

estimated price about 1000 usd.

i am skeptical.

this chuck barry of the engineering world is not the billygates of the computer world.

see the video at washingtonpost.com
(not sure if there is sound - no speakers on my pc)

what do you think of this things potential sales ??

[cakewalkgg]

I am using modeling stuff and am totally into the technology aspect of home recording.. but I draw the line somewhere. I want the guitar itself to act and feel like the guitars Im used to. Maybe its the remnaints of old fashionedness in me but my guitars will always be made of wood, have magnetic pickups, and a pickup switch and a volume and tone knob.... whether I like it or not!!

I wouldn't buy it, I don't want major innovations in the guitar. I am seriously depressed that the 7 string guitars are now an afterthought and really hard to find.

Major innovations are for the software, mics, amps etc. The actual piece that I hold in my hands I want to be the same old organic electric guitar (that may be an oxymoron)

Of course this is just my opinion.. there may be many folks itching for the carbon nanotube quantum gluon, guitar of scalular probability... but I'm too old for that

[mindundermatter]

Okay, I watched the video. They don't show anything about the circuit. So that's a bit disappointing. This kind of reminds me of the Moog Guitar though. I was there when the debuted it last summer at NAMM. Pretty cool, but at the same time, uhhh...yeah. Just give me one with six strings, two or three pickups, a tone and volume knob, and a 1/4" jack thank you very much. Seriously, I'm picturing next year's big release: The all new M-Audio Guitar with built-in USB interface, a mic input with phantom power, headphone output, and bundled with Guitar Rig 4000 and Cubase LSRQNEJ 5.364.

[mindundermatter]

I blame Korn for making the 7-strings seem like a gimmick, Staind for at the same time switching to baritone guitars, and the overall tendency of bands to have a "who can tune the lowest" competition.

[whomper]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

Okay, I watched the video. They don't show anything about the circuit. So that's a bit disappointing. This kind of reminds me of the Moog Guitar though. I was there when the debuted it last summer at NAMM. Pretty cool, but at the same time, uhhh...yeah. Just give me one with six strings, two or three pickups, a tone and volume knob, and a 1/4" jack thank you very much. Seriously, I'm picturing next year's big release: The all new M-Audio Guitar with built-in USB interface, a mic input with phantom power, headphone output, and bundled with Guitar Rig 4000 and Cubase LSRQNEJ 5.364.

i was disappointed about the lack of detail

the guy may be the chuck berry of engineering
but he needs to be the billygates of music
if he expects to make money

think he has totally missed the market
there is stuff out there that can do this already
and cheaper

who is going to buy a new guitar for this feature
if it was outboard he could sell a bunch
but not at a 1000usd per box

[Meelo]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

Okay, I watched the video. They don't show anything about the circuit. So that's a bit disappointing. This kind of reminds me of the Moog Guitar though. I was there when the debuted it last summer at NAMM. Pretty cool, but at the same time, uhhh...yeah. Just give me one with six strings, two or three pickups, a tone and volume knob, and a 1/4" jack thank you very much. Seriously, I'm picturing next year's big release: The all new M-Audio Guitar with built-in USB interface, a mic input with phantom power, headphone output, and bundled with Guitar Rig 4000 and Cubase LSRQNEJ 5.364.

Hmm...
Built in usb - check. Input and phantom power - check (not a mic input, though).
Headphone out - check. Bundled with some software, dunno if it was cubase.
If it were, though, i'm sure it would have been LSRQNEJ 5.364.

The Line6 guitars alone fill most of the criteria.
I suppose we're fucked, ne?

Besides, how about a robo-guitar that tunes itself?..

[mindundermatter]

I wasn't aware the Line 6 guitar (I assume you're talking about the Variax) had USB, headphone outs, or an input. I'll have to look into that. And yes, Gibson makes a RoboGuitar that tunes itself and can switch to alternate tunings at the push of a button. But man, I bet it's a pain in the ass to change strings!

[Meelo]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

I wasn't aware the Line 6 guitar (I assume you're talking about the Variax) had USB, headphone outs, or an input. I'll have to look into that. And yes, Gibson makes a RoboGuitar that tunes itself and can switch to alternate tunings at the push of a button. But man, I bet it's a pain in the ass to change strings!

I'm pretty sure it had a usb out. I know some of their amps work alongside the guitar via usb, and that there's some kind of preset system working via a computer based editing software. Same for the headphone out, i think -
though the input might be stretching it a bit. An usb is I/O, right?

Never occured to me about restringing a robo-guitar. Should prove interesting.
I do see your original point, though. This is gross excess.

[leonAzul]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

Okay, I watched the video. They don't show anything about the circuit. So that's a bit disappointing. This kind of reminds me of the Moog Guitar though. I was there when the debuted it last summer at NAMM. Pretty cool, but at the same time, uhhh...yeah. Just give me one with six strings, two or three pickups, a tone and volume knob, and a 1/4" jack thank you very much.

Are we on the same page? Link That's exactly what the Coil guitars are, in the base model.

As an option, they offer to pre-configure the 5-way switch so you can have have the combinations of coil and polarity that you find are most useful -- that's what those "pins" in the back are for. There's also an option to add a second 3-way switch to give you 15 combinations instead of just 5.

Additionally, active electronics are available for a single band parametric eq, instead of the passive tone knob, and circuitry to adjust the level of each switch position so they can be even -- or not.

[Odla]

Sorry guys; no usb on the Variax, no headphones either and also no line-in.
Yes, it has a digital out (and a normal out) for connecting it to a POD; the digital output makes changing models on the Variax possible when changing presets, and there is no D/A/D conversion.
I own a Variax 700 and really love this thing; plays like a dream and sounds great. I owned a Music man Axis; I once compared them in a shop (before I bought the Variax)... Could not believe it but the Variax sounded better (well, to me at least).

Aldo

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