Is my idea better than Henry's?

[-=[Shifty]=-]

Meh...give me a guitar, an amp, some pedals or a multiFX unit and I'm good.
Don't need that high-tech bull.
Wanna play multiple tunings? That's why I have more than 1 guitar.

 

[Ermghoti]

I didn't read the OP, but can confidently state it's a better idea than Henry's, unless it was to invade mainland China.

 

[loneguitar]

Although a unique idea, unfortunately it's Henry's company and you're falling on deaf ears.

 

[dspelman]

... opening myself up for criticism here but I figured, if I'm gonna knock Henry's attempts at innovation, I should at least be prepared to say what I would do.

So - I would:

Build the Robot tech into a bolt on replacement for the Nashville Bridge and Tailpiece. This would look - as much as possible - like a Bigsby B7

SOLO
Solo boost - exactly what it says on the tin! Controls function normally except the Volume controls are now Active types with 1 being full 'un-boosted' volume and 10 being a 10db boost. This mode is deliberately last so you can just whack the varitone control around to it without looking!

First, the Robot Tech was originally bolt on until Gibson bought an exclusive on it. The boys that put it out even had an inline setup that worked with a Fender. There was no need for any of the stuff you're thinking; the battery went into the control cavity. No physical alterations to the guitar (except that you had to attach the Robot Tuners). There's no need to redesign it -- it's already set up for bolt-on use. For the poster who wanted to build the technology into the bridge, you should also know that this has already been done, and ON a Gibson Les Paul, back in '95. Here's a picture of what that looked like:

it was the Transperformance bridge, if I'm not mistaken. Expensive and required a huge rout in the back of the guitar. The top is, if I'm not mistaken, a photo top.

Carvin makes an active preamp that works with any passive humbucking pickups that turns the four-pot setup into a Master Volume, Master Bass, Master Treble and a Blend knob. The "5" position on the master treble and bass is the same as "dimed" on a standard tone knob, and you can dial in a Plus or Minus 15 dB boost or cut. There's also a phase switch and a pair of coil taps. Runs about $120. There's also the Chandler Tone-X, which is an active 16 dB sweepable mid boost. $49.

Any current piezo bridge can be used as a MIDI bridge. Not only can you have each individual string controlling separate instruments, etc., but you can also (with something like the Axon 100) have different areas of a single string controlling separate instruments, tones, etc. Any current piezo bridge can give you an "acoustic" sound. Any current piezo bridge can power a Variax, which not only gives you 25 different instrument models (unlike the gibson, which mostly gives you analog variations on serial, parallel, single coil and phase options with EQ). The Variax will also allow you to set alternate tunings, with a much wider range than any Robot setup and no change in tension on the strings. You can also edit almost everything

ALL of this is currently (and has been, for years) available.

Gibson's innovated absolutely nothing, save, perhaps the pretty light-up switch.

Oh, and the iguitar (iguitar.com) has an optional USB-direct recording output (I think they charge you $200 to add it to your options list on that guitar).

Carvin has had a fairly wide range of models that are MIDI-capable piezo-bridge guitars for several years now, complete with controls that will allow you to step through presets, etc.

 

[tolm]

First, the Robot Tech was originally bolt on until Gibson bought an exclusive on it. The boys that put it out even had an inline setup that worked with a Fender. There was no need for any of the stuff you're thinking; the battery went into the control cavity. No physical alterations to the guitar (except that you had to attach the Robot Tuners). There's no need to redesign it -- it's already set up for bolt-on use. For the poster who wanted to build the technology into the bridge, you should also know that this has already been done, and ON a Gibson Les Paul, back in '95. Here's a picture of what that looked like:

it was the Transperformance bridge, if I'm not mistaken. Expensive and required a huge rout in the back of the guitar. The top is, if I'm not mistaken, a photo top.

Carvin makes an active preamp that works with any passive humbucking pickups that turns the four-pot setup into a Master Volume, Master Bass, Master Treble and a Blend knob. The "5" position on the master treble and bass is the same as "dimed" on a standard tone knob, and you can dial in a Plus or Minus 15 dB boost or cut. There's also a phase switch and a pair of coil taps. Runs about $120. There's also the Chandler Tone-X, which is an active 16 dB sweepable mid boost. $49.

Any current piezo bridge can be used as a MIDI bridge. Not only can you have each individual string controlling separate instruments, etc., but you can also (with something like the Axon 100) have different areas of a single string controlling separate instruments, tones, etc. Any current piezo bridge can give you an "acoustic" sound. Any current piezo bridge can power a Variax, which not only gives you 25 different instrument models (unlike the gibson, which mostly gives you analog variations on serial, parallel, single coil and phase options with EQ). The Variax will also allow you to set alternate tunings, with a much wider range than any Robot setup and no change in tension on the strings. You can also edit almost everything

ALL of this is currently (and has been, for years) available.

Gibson's innovated absolutely nothing, save, perhaps the pretty light-up switch.

Oh, and the iguitar (iguitar.com) has an optional USB-direct recording output (I think they charge you $200 to add it to your options list on that guitar).

Carvin has had a fairly wide range of models that are MIDI-capable piezo-bridge guitars for several years now, complete with controls that will allow you to step through presets, etc.

Cool research job, man, that was a great read - thanks!

However:

- My point with building it into a unit that replaces the bridge/tailpiece was precisely to avoid needing a special rout for the unit, unlike the Transperformance Bridge

- I agree, Gibson hasn't innovated 'new' features and neither has my suggestion. My aim was more of an Apple approach whereby you take some existing ideas but do them smarter and more user friendly. I was trying to propose a Robot / Effects guitar that did sensible things for a guitar to do and was intuitive to use with minimal controls.


That Carvin active pre-amp set-up sounds very intriguing ...

 

[dspelman]

- I agree, Gibson hasn't innovated 'new' features and neither has my suggestion. My aim was more of an Apple approach whereby you take some existing ideas but do them smarter and more user friendly. I was trying to propose a Robot / Effects guitar that did sensible things for a guitar to do and was intuitive to use with minimal controls.


That Carvin active pre-amp set-up sounds very intriguing ...

I think your approach is good.

Part of what's needed is that Steven Jobs encyclopedic knowledge of "what's out there" (because there are a TON of things that most people haven't seen because the builders are simply not doing them in the kind of volumes that would make it to GC shelves). Then you need that Steven Jobs mentality that combines things to make a "greater than the sum of the parts". And finally, you need that absolute, dogged devotion to industrial design that makes everything slick.

I don't think we need a Swiss Army Knife of guitars. Next post.

 

[dspelman]

If I were Gibson (and concerned only with the LP at the moment), I'd leave the traditional LP where it is. It's a dead-end product that has a life of its own; the closer you can come to making it a '59, the better, for the purists.

But rather than simply paint LP bodies different colors and put endorser stickers on it, I'd consider branching a bit.

For example, I'd build a neckthrough version with an Axcess neck heel, a deep tummy cut, a Spanish Cedar body, a straight-through 3+3 headstock (the custom shop LP DC's have had one like that on occasion), a 24-fret 25.5" scale and maybe make it wider at the nut (1 3/4"), with a flatter radius and a thinner neck. Lightweight locking tuners would be standard. I'd put an active/passive preamp in it like the one on the Carvin, but with five knobs instead of four. There'd be a Master Volume, but moved up to between the bridge and the bridge pickup (see the Neal Schon sig guitars). There'd be active boost/cut master Treble, master Bass and master Mids controls with a dentent in the "5" position. The fifth knob would be the Blend, also detented in the middle position. Two of the three miniswitches would be three-ways and would control pickups. Some guitars would come stock with a version of the P-Rail, and the switches would select serial (standard humbucker), P90 or Rail coils. On non-P-Rail equipped guitars, they'd select serial/parallel/single coil. And the other miniswitch would select Phase (when both pickups are selected). Dead Battery would leave you with standard passive versions of everything. A push-push pot could also turn off the Active stuff and leave you with the Dead Battery Passives version.

This guitar would start a mini-revolution at Gibson by being the first to have a very thin UV-catalyzed polyester finish. It would have an ebony fretboard and any inlays would be real shell. I'd break away from blocks here and have something more delicate in the inlay department.

That'd be the base model. From out front it would look pretty Les Paul-ish in body shape, but that'd be about it.