Gibson Dark Fire

[Matt77]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/gibson-launches-dark-fire-182284

Just picked this up on musicradar.com
I'm sure it's useful for some, but I'm going to steer clear.
I'd spend all day tone tweaking rather than just playing

Anyway it's released / unleashed on the 15th of December

Full details are here:
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/DarkFire.aspx

[Ratrod]

Some kind of mariage between a robot guitar and one of those Line-6 guitars?

[Matt77]

More a sort of unholy alliance :D

[Nadz1lla]

It's all very swish but like Matt, even if I had the money I'd steer clear of it. Too many things in one guitar to go wrong, and I'm sure it's not something you can take to your local Axery to fix.

Give me a plain old nuts-and-bolts guitar any day over one of these.  :)

[ailean]

I imagin someone like 'The Edge' will have his on order already. I think you'd have to be a full time musician to have time to figure out how to best use something like this. But if i win the Lottery I'll get one :)

[Jonny]

I think they're going a bit too robotic/electronic to be honest. More wire than tone probably but I never liked Les Pauls or Gibson.

[AndyG]

I'd much prefer it if Gibson would trying to be so embarrassingly hip and stuck to doing what they do best; making great, unadulterated guitars.
Like the 'robot' I can see this having maybe a year's production and then sinking without trace.

[AndyR]

Never heard of Robot! (and their blurb says it set the world on fire last year!!)

I am a Line6 variax owner (less of a user since I discovered the joys of buying too many guitars and installing BKPs :lol:).

The variax is a fine idea, and if you don't/can't own the guitars modelled, it does a pretty good job. But there are too many mechanical things inside that can go wrong (loose or dirty connections, etc) for me ever to trust it enough to take it out live. And if you've got a real strat with ITs in, the "Spank" model turns out to be sh1te in the end, and if you've got a nice Love Rock with Mules in, the "Lester" models are sh1te, and... need I go on? :lol:

But basically I quite like the variaxes, they do a superb job for what they are, but I prefer my real guitars... (I still use it when I want to record "accoustic" or "Coral Sitar" parts - but I don't do any recording because I'm too busy playing blues licks and adjusting BKP pickup heights, trying different strings and plectrums, gassing about more guitars, etc, etc...)

But this Gibbo beastie doesn't appear to have modelling in it like Variaxes do, just the piezos and various blending with the magnetic pup configurations (Line6 could learn from that - stick a real pup on for when your onboard computer cuts out mid gig!!).

I can see uses for that configuration, and I can see some really going for it, but it's not for me. Feline's just built one hasn't he for one of our chaps here? (I even saw it before the hardware went on - very cute looking beastie). Not a bad idea at all, but how many people actually want that to warrant a production line? I can't see them competing with Line6's market, but Line6 seem to be losing their way a bit anyway...

But what about this robot tuning though??! It really made me laugh... Does it actually work? What happens when one of the servos breaks down and you've forgotten how to tune by ear? Or you're in the middle of a song, and you've no idea what tuning it's given you...! :lol:

[Matt77]

I agree 100%

[warpthrone]

I guess I'm old fashioned, but i never really like the idea of a robot guitar. It just doesn't appeal to me very much thats all.

[noodleplugerine]

At first I thought it was a gimmick, but now I'm getting more interested.

[ailean]

I find it slightly odd that the Robot and similar are encountering so much resistance. Electric guitars are a new technology full stop (in instrument terms 60 years is very new), we find new ways to play them and mess with the sound all the time, and we look up to those who find a new and creative way of playing, and yet here is a new technology that opens up new techniques and people resist it.  :?

Am I the only one that finds it odd?

[opprobrium_9]

looks teh super koolz!

[blue]

they say this mark two robot can now re-tune in one second, allowing you to use different tunings in the same song. some player somewhere is going to do wonderful things with that! if it'll catch on, i'm not sure. but i applaud gibson for continueing to try.  it is a pity that everything they do has to be Les Paul shaped, but that's what people will buy.

[AndyR]

I find it slightly odd that the Robot and similar are encountering so much resistance. Electric guitars are a new technology full stop (in instrument terms 60 years is very new), we find new ways to play them and mess with the sound all the time, and we look up to those who find a new and creative way of playing, and yet here is a new technology that opens up new techniques and people resist it.  :?

Am I the only one that finds it odd?

No, I find it odd too :D (Even though I don't use them at the moment, I do love my variaxes, but can I find any other guitarist that offers much more than a raised eyebrow?)

Having said that - I'm not sure it's "resistance" as such, just healthy scepticism as to whether an innovation adds something worthwhile for the price-tag.

And I have to admit that I've made the assumption that this guitar will roll in at "Gibson" prices - past my self-imposed "a guitar is not worth that to me!!!" limit. Or are they going to roll out around the £600 mark? - I might give it a go then :lol:

And it's very true what Blue says about the quick retuning and how someone could do amazing things with it... (btw, you can already do that on a Variax, but it's annoying at living-room volumes because the Variax does it, very well, in modelling but you can still hear the string accoustically as well...).

But if I wasn't after that instant retune capability, I don't think I'd ever be interested in something that aims at tuning my guitar for me. (Nice to see you can override it manually if you don't agree with it :lol:)

Let's see how they get on...