Very pretty but if it doesn't use any tools to put it together... what's the sustain and tone like?

Doubt somehow that sustain and tone are important for the buyer of this type guitar. Am sure he will have pedals to take care of these issues. The website is not to clear on what tome and sounds it can produce. Most of these will again come from pedals or modellers.
I would think that one prefers a specific guitar, whatever make it is, because you like that model, the contour or the neck etc. a specific tone or sound should come from effects modules or pedals. Somehow I think that's a better options.
But hey I'm a bass player and I would like a good pedal that produce a good fretless/double bass sound from my preferred bass.

I'm kinda digging the extruded flyng V he's demo'ing in the video (no audio clips)... 8)



I reckon this could work...though I'd think about:

1. Scale length is a big factor in the feel of a guitar, though you apparently can change the neck on this, it seems to be a major module. I'd think you'd have one in a LP scale (24.5), strat/tele (25.5) and maybe a extended range for 7/8 stringers and a shorter scale for the mustang/jaguar players. I'm not convinced I'd be happy with just one 'core' (nut to bridge) module.

2. Piezo, my hacking around with the pimpocaster and a Line 6 variax has turned my onto piezo as a pickup source - mainly for the modelling you can do on the piezo, it's a pretttyy useful audio source in comparison to a traditional pickup. If you could find a way that the piezo pups could be transferred when you change the bridge - you'd be winning. It crossed my mind to embed them in the nut and run the output down the neck - dunno how feasible that would be.

A mate has a 3D printer and we were debating how to extrude a guitar - kinda like the flying V he's got there. There's few guys 3D printing things and I wouldn't be surprised if prototypes he has were all printed.

I could imagine this being a big win amongst metal guitarists?

Whaaaat! ?

What will they think of next...

Ok, so I guess the idea is that you don't need more than one guitar (which for the life of me I can't understand why you would want only one) when on the road or into a lot of gigging.

The concept is pretty cool, but I'll hold onto my cash for the moment - until they make em prettier...or until I have every dream guitar I've ever wanted.

Ta.

Those are hideous ?

Here are some modular guitars that aren't gut wrenchingly ugly ?

Marconi Labs Ego Guitar



Michael Spalt Hybrid





Ulrich Teuffel Birdfish



These are not aesthetically modular, they're functional ?

yeh. so the idea behind a 'modular' guitar - for me at any rate - would be more to emulate a range of different guitars. yes? you'd want something like a les paul, something like a strat, something like a tele, and so on, and you'd want something that can change from the one to the other quickly (so to speak, because you're using this thing in a gigging situation), all in one, neat package that's relatively aesthetically not vomitous.

can these do that? is that the intention?

i ask from a purely dof point of view
dh|

ps - what was that line 6 guitar emulator; the variax? did anyone ever play one of those? i heard those were pretty ok? what's the difference between that concept and this?

sheesh, talk about an evolution...

Maann, I love the look of the Micheal Spalt guitars. Wizard is also a fan, maybe this means he might try and incorporate some of the design cues into a build someday...

Dunno about the ego or birdfish - like the tech and the innovation. Not the look so much, but the somnium will be about 1/4 of the cost (or less) so apples and oranges to compare them to this three highend beauties.

domhatch wrote: ps - what was that line 6 guitar emulator; the variax? did anyone ever play one of those? i heard those were pretty ok? what's the difference between that concept and this?

Played the Line6 variax electric guitar (think it was a 300), the bass version and the acoustic steel string version. I really liked the Line6 variax bass, that felt real good and a lot of the emulations were good. The electric one was okay, I didn't like the feel, sounds were pretty decent. I disliked the acoustic one, but every pub muso LOVED it.

The Line6 stuff is piezo modelling based - the saddles had the piezo elements (graphtech ghosts or the RMC equivalent) and there was some nifty hardware onboard to give you the emulated sounds. This isn't new tech, Roland have been doing it for a long time wiht offboard pedals - but innovative to have it all onboard the guitar.

The three Chad posted could all have piezo's installed - but like my pimpocaster, you'd have to get your modelling done offboard (pedals, etc). The Somnium doesn't mention piezo's at all.

domhatch wrote: yeh. so the idea behind a 'modular' guitar - for me at any rate - would be more to emulate a range of different guitars. yes? you'd want something like a les paul, something like a strat, something like a tele, and so on, and you'd want something that can change from the one to the other quickly (so to speak, because you're using this thing in a gigging situation), all in one, neat package that's relatively aesthetically not vomitous.

can these do that? is that the intention?

Aesthetically I guess they can, but if we were to look at say two options 1 being a tele style and 2 being a les paul, that means that you'd have to buy two seperate pickup modules, 2 seperate bridge modules, 2 seperate body modules, 2 seperate fretboard modules and even then I would have questions like how exactly do they change scale length? How can you switch radius that easily without the action just being shit to start with? How have they attached the neck?

I mean I don't personally think that body wood has a huge influence on tone, or at least that the influence it has is greatly misplayed in the media and by guitar companies alike but I doubt that these "frame" style bodies will give us the transfer of energy we're looking for.

So after you've purchased all these extra modules that'll be proprietary to this product and given that the manufacturer is an upstart you'll probably have spent enough to just get a decent les paul and tele individually instead.

domhatch wrote: ps - what was that line 6 guitar emulator; the variax? did anyone ever play one of those? i heard those were pretty ok? what's the difference between that concept and this?

The Variax has come very close to achieving what it's set out to do, I don't think the technology will ever be common place because guitar players seem to shy away from technologically like it's the plague or something, but the biggest problem with the original Variax was that the tech was cool but the guitar to the majority of people, myself included, felt like shit. The newer Variax models were redesigned by James Tyler and they are much better playing and feeling guitars and the technology has improved so hopefully they're gaining more market traction with that ? and there's also this:

=

Meron Rigas wrote: Maann, I love the look of the Micheal Spalt guitars. Wizard is also a fan, maybe this means he might try and incorporate some of the design cues into a build someday...

Dunno about the ego or birdfish - like the tech and the innovation. Not the look so much, but the somnium will be about 1/4 of the cost (or less) so apples and oranges to compare them to this three highend beauties.

I just think the three I posted are more modular in a purposeful and more useful way, like if you don't like the forearm contour on the Spalt or the Ego you can adjust it's location or get a new piece made to be deeper or shallower etc till you find exactly what you're looking for, I think given the inherent disparities in construction methods the Somniums will never really be anything more than a jack of all trades but master of none. If the Somnium is a 1/4 of the cost of the Birdfish it'll still probably be about $1800 and I'm pretty sure I can find a hell of a lot more guitar in that price range than it will be ?