Best Recent Guitar Innovations?

[rhcole-fgn]

Most of my guitars are utterly traditional- they are big ol' jazz boxes. Love that woody sound.

But I've also had a running track of buying guitars outside of the box, so to speak. I owned a Les Paul Recording with low impedance pickups and a slew of controls, one of the few former guitars I wish I hadn't sold. I bought a Casio digital guitar back in the day. I've had various Roland guitar synths, and currently have a Carvin 13 pin with a VG-99. My wife calls me "Inspector Gadget", and I make up for my relatively conservative guitar choices with racks of pitch shifters and weirdo effects.

I've followed Gibson's digital Les Paul and Dark Fire, although I have never quite "gotten it". I tried a Robot guitar. I read with interest about the Moog Guitar, but was not moved to purchase. I guess the VG-99 and Variax are still the innovations within the last ten years that stand out the most to me.

What do you think are the real successes? The dismal failures?

And furthermore, do you really think that most guitar players are interested in new guitar technology? It seems like it's all Les Pauls, Strats, SGs, and Teles...

[Elantric-fgn]

The Dismal Failures ? - Largest one is the educational system that produces successive generations of new guitarists who can't / won't think for themselves.

Guitar owners tend to fall into these camps:

* 40%  = The Icon worshippers, who believe they have "arrived" after saving the funds to purchase a reasonable facsimile of the same axe and amp as their favorite guitarist. They tend to play too frequently at home in front of the mirror, playing the same learned riffs over and over, imagining they possess a portion of the same spirit as their inspirational guitar god they see on VH1


* 30% = The hobby guitarist , who just plays guitar for fun.


* 20%  = The gigging musician, who has discipline and talent to play many styles of music who understands the need for more effective / efficient tools to ply his trade.

* 9.99% = The collector, who quite often does not even play the guitar, but understands the statistics and $$ appreciation of the investment value of older instruments 


.001%  = The career working guitarist who makes a decent living just playing guitar on the road on tour  and in the studio.


Despite all the dumb drummer jokes, here where I live, I  know more "high tech" drummers than "high tech" guitarists. I would have to say today the percentage of guitarists who actively embrace and pursue the latest in technological innovation today is far far less than it was 25 years ago.
Today,  the technology has never been so capable and affordable - however there are fewer buyers and less demand for this technology - because the  general "Guitar Culture" has become so dumbed down.
Hang out at the Gibson Forum for a week and see what I mean.

http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=2

http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=3

The real Successes?  The music managers / attorneys / publishers who successfully package and sell to the masses "this years model" of Britney Spears, New kids on the block, Spice Girls, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus.

[Elantric-fgn]

The Beatles - A Hard Days Night (Dead Grotty)

[Elantric-fgn]

But hardware innovation success stories in the guitar world in the past 15 years?

Probably Line 6 ( POD, Vetta) , T.C Electronics (G-Major), Digitech (GSP-2101), Roland COSM family (VG-8,VG-88, VG-99, GT-10, and the current crop of Cube amps)

The rebirth of Vox - and their partnership with Korg to develop the Tonelab.

The Boss  / Fender partnership to develop near perfect emulations of vintage Tube Reverbs  and Amps - in the compact Boss pedal format. 


Cool technological innovations?

Line 6  - DSP developer kits

Maniac Music Sustainiac sustainer.

Tronical Alt tuning systems

Transperformance tuning system

Compact onboard active Notch EQ Piezo Acoustic Guitar preamps (antifeedback).

Stetsbar tremolos


The improved signal to noise ratio and improved dynamic range and headroom of all gear today.


and the internet, where specific information on any of life's details can be distributed and shared freely - without the need for gatekeeper magazine editors who restrict what we are able to experience.




Could simply use the Web Wayback machine

http://www.archive.org/index.php


and plug in Harmony-Central to see what the cool gadgets were announced over the years.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.harmony-central.com

Its curious to review the original press releases for gear that was either groundbreaking and eventually a runaway success, or just too much hype and for various reasons just failed in the marketplace. 

10 years ago today:

http://web.archive.org/web/19991103003825/http://harmony-central.com/index.html

[shawnb-fgn]

The Dismal Failures ? - Largest one is the educational system that produces successive generations of new guitarists who can't / won't think for themselves.    ...

Despite all the dumb drummer jokes, here where I live, I  know more "high tech" drummers than "high tech" guitarists. I would have to say today the percentage of guitarists who actively embrace and pursue the latest in technological innovation today is far far less than it was 25 years ago.
Today,  the technology has never been so capable and affordable - however there are fewer buyers and less demand for this technology - because the  general "Guitar Culture" has become so dumbed down.

Wow, that's harsh! 

I agree with the trend to-date, & I'm not so sure I agree with the underlying reasons you note.  I'd break the technology down into 3 major areas: tone/pickups, FX, and MIDI translation.   

Regarding tone/pickup advances, it seems to me that is still moving fairly slow.  You've highlighted wonderful coil switching technology elsewhere in this forum, but the number & variety of pickups is, I feel, still very limited.   I believe that most guitar purists want pure tone - maybe modified slightly - but they want warm analog tone.  NOT DSP. 

FX, there have been many major advances, everybody uses them, I wouldn't agree anybody is slow to pick these up.  Above you note Roland, Digitech, TC Electronics, POD, etc.   Also, I'm fairly impressed with what NI has done with the GR series, though I still think it's still a bit sterile, I love the direction & I'm using it more & more.  I'll probably go for GR4 once I'm past a few current projects. 

MIDI, is a completely different deal.   For many many years now, the latency is just too much to get past.  I think you have to be a truly gifted artist to 'play ahead' and compensate for the latency.  Sure, I've seen John Goodsall do it at a BrandX concert.   But we're not all John Goodsall.   Hence, there's an awkward realization that if I want a synth sound, it might make sense to play a keyboard.  (Or, as I normally do, write a computer program to write the MIDI notes...   I'll post one of these later...)

Yes, y'all may question my sanity for choosing to disagree with Elantric on guitar technology adoption - he is by far the most knowledgeable person I know of!      But I do think if you deconstruct the technology, some of it leads & is adopted quite well, and some of it lags and is still somewhat in a niche market.   

As for people not thinking for themselves, this is not unique to guitarists, eh?   

Shawn

[Elantric-fgn]

Shawn,

Thanks for the reply! and dialog!

Hey - the last thing i want is to "kill debate" here at FGN. I do realize many times when others read my posts I can come off as "the final word" on Guitar.

I'm far from it!
I'm still learning too!

and you are correct  - the dumbing down aspect of life today impacts all disciplines!

[rhcole-fgn]

Good comments on the modeling, etc.

I think an under-appreciated area over the last ten years or so is the development of acceptable sounding pitch shifters, especially when used with 13 pin guitars. This opens the door to creating complex harmonics with guitars that can then be filtered and changed to taste. In other words, the creation of an additive synthesis paradigm for guitar that is workable.

Only an old analog synth hambone like myself would appreciate this, but hey, it matters to me!

[vanceg-fgn]

I'd have to say:

- Modeling technology.

- Hex processing and individual string outputs (VG-99 combines Hex processing and Modeling so it fits in here as a doubleplusgood). I personally feel that this is where a lot of the really neat advances will come in electric guitar in the next several years.

- Magnetic Sustain technologies (Such as Moog guitar and Sustainiac, ebow...though these have been around for quite some time, the Sustainiac and Moog take these to another level and allow somethign that the electric guitar couldn't do previously...without insane volume, at least...heheehe)

I'd also agree that acceptable pitch shifting coming to "the masses" is a big deal for electric guitar, and that the most dramatic examples of this are when it's combined with hex output instruments (13 pin guitars).

Elantric - Even when you may sound "absolute" about your statements, I'm happy to read them because 1) they are  very well informed and well thought out 2) I know you are always willing to elaborate and clarify 3) you clearly, clearly, CLEARLY care about the future of electric guitar!

[Johnnyurq-fgn]

Speaking as an early adopter and tech/gadget fiend I would say the likes of the 13 pin GK, Variax (and line 6 in general) and various modelling FX units are the highlights of the last 15 to 20 years. Not forgetting the software side of things which have ramped up and become more usable in the last 5 or so years.

There is a wealth of sounds, tones and creativity to be had.

I have also embraced and love guitar synthesis even with it's many flaws, and controlling hardware and software synths & samplers help boost creativity as well as add fun.

I think in terms of failures I would cite the lack of user and peer support and R & D as the killer of many promising music technology ideas and innovations. I believe that this has worsened in recent years as innovations are only developed if there is sufficient profit in it and/or there is a large enough market to make the R & D costs bearable. There is no R & D for its own sake or to prove it can be done and we did it first attitude any more.

I guess it is another symptom of the new risk averse society we are breeding and developing, and this is across all spheres of modern life.

Based on modern ideas you can only conclude that it is a minor miracle that anyone over the age of 30 is actually still living due to the daily danger we were apparently subjected to.

To tie in with Elantrics point of view the lower end conservative musicians and the higher end of "cork sniffers", who believe anything past the usual suspects guitars put through the usual suspect amps with nowt but a 1960's or 1970's era cable or equivalent is the devils work. They are helping to stifle innovation by very loudly denouncing new ideas and innovations.

They forget that most of their idols tones and sound is from their fingers, they sound like themselves through even humble setups.

I like other discovered this after chasing the elusive kit my idols used and gues what I still didn't sound or play like them, no mojo to be had there. In the end I always sounded like me (good or bad) through whatever I played. Of course with the correct use of FX and other tech I can get in the ballpark for covers gigs but as I say no mojo in either old school or high tech kit just different ways of being creative.

I realise this sounds harsh but bear me out as I too enjoy the sound and feel of a vintage guitar through a vintage amp with analogue pedals and a good set of leads, but there is no reason why you cannot have this basic approach and also try and at least give new innovations a fair hearing if not a try out.

I personally have been on forums where venomous replies with threats have been slung about by these guys/gals just because someone asked about the VG Strat or some such. In many cases these people have not even researched the kit and certainly have never played it. So how can you denounce something as crap until you gave at least had a tinker and read up on it. I believe you cannot really say something is rubbish until you have tried it, if not it is merely a biased opinion, at least be constructive and say why it does not appeal instead of just because it is crap and because I say it is.

If you try it and hate it then fair enough you earned the right to slag it off, but you cannot then assume and preach that everyone should hate it too.

The point is that a lot of these type of forums tend to be in the majority (another reason I like it here) so young up and coming musicians are faced with this and are swayed to conform or get shouted and sworn at. We all have seen this and witnessed some nasty people behaving very badly.

Anyway my rant over and to get back on topic I belive that the lack of peer support in the world of music means that things like GK 13 pin kit and guitar synthesis etc do not get the development they deserve and for the foreseeable future I reckon this will oly get worse.

I am sure from a technical standpoint that most of all our tech and innovation wish lists would be fulfilled if more people got involved and bought. Instead it is an almost niche market where us the early adopters pay high don't get the development we seek, despite being unofficial beta testers. The best parts of the tech then end up neutered as part of some other cheaper venture.

For the record I did not intend to offend those who prefer a more traditional approach as I have already said I like the tones and playability of old school and will always have at least one old school rig. But an open mind and not hating on people who like innovation and maybe giving an opinion based on knowledge and experience would be a better way ahead. Even constructive criticism if it is not for you as there are no rights and wrongs there are merely differences in opinion which at all times should at the very least be civilised.

Sorry for the long post but it is a particular bugbear of mine that the guitar and wider community feels that you have to polarise and be on one side and never the other on pain of death.

The flip side is that if we were all the same it would be very boring world and I say vive la difference and bring on healthy debate.

Loads more open minded-ness please.