"Feasible" guitars of the future

VellaJ

I think we've all at some point realized that, in the world of guitars, we aren't exactly moving forward technologically speaking. We all want guitars that replicate looks and sounds of guitars that have been around for decades. This post is not about the reasons for this, but instead I'd like to see what you guys think about some possible guitars of the future, and what you can find in that vein... For example Gibson recently gave us the Firebird X, which seems to be a bit of a love/hate thing, so what do you reckon would be great?

I came across this this evening, and I'm really interested. I's called the Misa Digital Kitara. Here, they haven't tried adding electronic effects to a normal guitar, as displayed by some other companies. They've gone completely digital. They say it's not a replacement for the electric guitar, it's essentially a guitar synth. While I think one or two things could be tweaked, I reckon it's pretty impressive...

I'll work on finding a full-on demo, but in the meantime:

This is one demonstrating non-standard guitar sounds... Obviously ?

And standard sounds with effects...

guidothepimmp

man anyone remember the show "beyond 2000"?

they had an episode once where they were looking at electric guitars and there was a really interesting take on one.. alas, cant find anything on the www

AlanRatcliffe

The Starr Labs Ztar has been doing this for well over a decade. Not really a guitar, but a guitar shaped synth controller.

If you want to look at futuristic instruments in the guitar family, look at the Stick, Warr guitar, ZenTapper and Mobius Megatar.

Highway-Chile

I have had a You Rock Guitar for a while now. In fact I used it to trigger samples just recently and it sits in a stand ready to go in my studio and I go for it now before I do my regular Ghost Modular equipped Godin MIDI guitar and an Axon AX-100 MkII converter that cost 10X as much.

http://www.yourockguitar.com/

The owner of the company and the designer, is actually a South African. I was so surprised to find that out when I met him at a manufacturer clinic at audiomidi.com. Tripped me out. He is around my age also so we had a giggle reminiscing about the SA music scene back in the day.

Anyway, it is an amazing little unit with tons of potential. I hope it takes off so he can take it to new heights.

Bob-Dubery

VellaJ wrote: I think we've all at some point realized that, in the world of guitars, we aren't exactly moving forward technologically speaking. We all want guitars that replicate looks and sounds of guitars that have been around for decades.

I'm less sure about the world of electrics, but certainly as regard acoustics there are a lot of newer makers around right now that have built a reputation on their own visual style and their own sound. An egregious example would be the Smoothtalker (made in Broederstroom), but brands like Flyde and Lowden have their own visual signature and are not trying to sound like pre-war Martins. Less obviously there are brands like Taylor, Breedlove and Larrivee that make high quality instruments that still do not seek to replicate what has gone before (unless you buy from the specific tribute or revival series that Larrivee and Breedlove offer).

For me the current age is a golden age for acoustic guitar players BECAUSE there are so many high quality options.

Bob-Dubery

The biggest challenge for me is that at some point the traditional materials will grow scarcer and so builders will have to look for alternatives and players will have to learn to accept them.

This will start with different woods being used, but at some point non-wood materials are going to become a viable option. Maybe they already are, there are 2 or 3 brands of carbon-fiber acoustics available already. There is a brand of solid-body electrics (can't recally the name, IIRC a Scandinavian brand) that uses a material made from wood chips recovered from carpentry shops and compressed into a solid material. IIRC there wasn't much wood on the Steinbergers.