Gibson's new HD.6X-Pro digital guitar hits the market

This one has been in the cooker for quite a while now, but Gibson has finally released its HD.6X-Pro Guitar System, known as the HD Les Paul amongst the cool kids. The new guitar marks quite a shift for Gibson, featuring an all digital setup, and uses a Cat5 cable instead of a regular guitar cord to transfer your musics to an amp or computer. Gibson calls this technology MaGIC, and it allows you to transfer string data from all six strings individually, along with a mic signal and a full-on six string signal (the normal kind). MaGIC also supports two channels of upstream, to offer a stereo monitor to the player. Most of the "MaGIC" happens inside "BoB" the Breakout Box, which converts the digital info into analog, and can send each string or combinations of strings to different amps. You can also plug the guitar straight into your computer, to record the digital signal directly, for which all necessary plugins are included, and the eventual plan is to allow for jamming over the internets in a low-latency form. Lastly, if you get bored of all this digital voodoo, you always switch the guitar to all analog mode, which bypasses the digital circuitry entirely and outputs a signal via a traditional 1/4-inch plug. The guitar is currently going for $4000, with 100 signed-by-Les-Paul models available for $8k. Sounds a bit steep, but that's the price you have to be willing to pay for the privilege of unadulterated face melting.

[Via gizmag]

[KushCash @ Dec 5th 2006 3:08PM]

Oh my. Must need now. Or when I can afford it...meaning never.

[Matt B @ Dec 5th 2006 3:16PM]

Freakin sweet!!! Unfortunately, now that I have 3 young ones around, I find that I have no time to play anymore. :(
But when they get older, I fully intend to hijack a bedroom for my own personal studio. :)

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Dec 5th 2006 3:22PM]

I cannot play the guitar, yet I still want one... drooling.

[blakwyte @ Dec 5th 2006 3:27PM]

it's actually going for 5000 ... i thought 4000 was a little to good to be true :)

way too expensive for me ... hopefully this will become more ubiquitous later ... of course then we'll all be drooling over wireless electrics XD

[Metaspherz @ Jul 10th 2007 5:38PM]

Sweetwater has it going for $3999.97. Go for it. I'm a keyboardist but this baby makes me want one too. Each string can be recorded individually and that's like a keyboard synth. Just imagine the possibilities...

[Sarmaran @ Dec 5th 2006 3:31PM]

Yep....this is exactly how it feels to want!!!

[gid @ Dec 5th 2006 3:37PM]

Now they just need one that can tune itself... or change to different tunings with a flick of the switch...

but this is cool

[audioreviewer @ Dec 5th 2006 5:29PM]

Both of these features have already been done, although not both on a digital guitar to my knowledge. Line 6's Variax does the alternate tunings though.

[Kauz @ Dec 5th 2006 9:32PM]

I second his comments, there are automatic tuning drop setups you can put on your guitar, and much less crude than say, an upright bassist's ablity to use his extention to get to a low C. Autotune I believe is also avaliable but neither are completely reliable because of environmental factors.

[escargot @ Dec 5th 2006 3:41PM]

Nice ... but does it play Guitar Hero? Huh? Huh? Didn't think so.

[kyle Garchar @ Dec 5th 2006 3:44PM]

they really need to throw in some 802.11G

[Enzo @ Dec 5th 2006 3:44PM]

Frankly, it probably sounds like shit (my 70s LPs are all I need) but it would sure be fun to route each string to a seperate amp.

[andy @ Dec 5th 2006 3:47PM]

I don't see a level 11. pfft.

[Kauz @ Dec 5th 2006 10:05PM]

The amp I use for jazz at school goes up to 12. Me and my amp just pwnd you and your mom.

[Ben @ Dec 5th 2006 3:51PM]

Now they need to add optical pickups and make it pure digital.

[Dustin @ Dec 5th 2006 3:53PM]

What could be better than hexaphonic output (already avialable through MIDI)? Why, propreitary, Gibson-branded hexaphonic output, of course! This is a neat concept and the demo video I saw looked like it has some cool potential, I'm not sure how useful the whole system is - I'm just not sure how many guitarists need this sort of routing and processing power live (since what this guitar does can be done in the studio with multiple takes).

Oh, and they already make a guitar that tunes itself. Again, it's a neat concept that I'm not sure has too much use for many/most guitarists. I, for one, have never needed to go from standard to DADGAD to Nashville and back to standard in the middle of a song.

Also, the tube-amp loving quasi-troglodyte guitar community may not take to this too kindly now that the modeling amp thing has died down since the turn of the century (man, that phrase makes me sound like I'm old and actually might know what I'm talking about!)

YMMV, of course. - Dustin

[JCA @ Dec 5th 2006 4:00PM]

Gid, they do have aftermarket bridges that can change string tunings at the press of a button.....I'm not 100% sure but you'd think it should be trivially easy for that system to self tune as well.

As far as jamming over the interwebs.....it won't happen until Internet2 is somehow mainstream. Its been tried before but with the current networks we have now, you just can't get the latency down enough for it to be usable, not to mention the additional problems caused by packet loss. I saw a senior design engineering project that tried and failed because of this.

[PDubNYC @ Dec 5th 2006 4:12PM]

This looks very cool. Now I just need some skills and a whole lot of expendable income.

I'd love to just play around with this for a while.

[asher @ Dec 5th 2006 4:12PM]

I find it hard to read an article like this when you use the term "internets." If it's a joke, it's misplaced and not funny. If it's not a joke then the author should not be writing for the net community, ever.

[Ken @ Dec 5th 2006 6:32PM]

It's light hearted humor that is commonly used in blogs that don't take themselves too sreiously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internets_(colloquialism)

lighten up

[asher @ Dec 5th 2006 6:37PM]

thanks for the skooling

[Victor Cornelius @ Dec 5th 2006 4:57PM]

I am a sick troll, and I sincerely deserve to be spammed: [e-mail]

[Guthrie @ Dec 5th 2006 4:59PM]

Anyone excited over this should check out the Line 6 Variax. I own an electric and an acoustic, and for way less $$, they walk all over this in functionality.

[David @ Dec 5th 2006 5:34PM]

Anyone else think a Cat5 cable will have a hard time staying plugged in if you're rockin out?!? Neat idea, but the digital part is only going to be usual in the studio or for someone sitting on a stool for a show.

[kevin @ Dec 5th 2006 5:48PM]

no. i dont.

i have thought of moding my current guitar to support cat5 so that i can have effects sends controllable by nobs on the guitar itself. if you're into "rocking out" and you haven't figured out the cable-through-the-strap method yet, you're really not into rocking out very much.

having this much control over each of the strings I find to be particularly useless, unless you are the type who likes to lug 6 amps to a gig. it may provide some benefits to studio use, but it will make your studio-time bill much larger, as you could potentially spend 6x as much time tracking guitars. blech.

[cMoo92 @ Dec 10th 2006 2:56PM]

I would imagine that the Cat5 would click in--thus making it pretty darn hard for it to come unplugged whilst "rocking out".

[Kalmusky @ Dec 5th 2006 5:47PM]

Make this Whole Rig WiFi - and I'll buy one tomorrow.

[kevin @ Dec 5th 2006 6:14PM]

also, if you look at gibson's website for this guitar, it appears they have a custom cat5 jack that's got more than your standard clip to keep the cable plugged in.

[sparrow @ Dec 5th 2006 10:37PM]

Kevin: "...it appears they have a custom cat5 jack that's got more than your standard clip to keep the cable plugged in."

That's a Neutrik EtherCon connector.

[Matt B. @ Dec 5th 2006 6:31PM]

there's nothing I'd love more than to throw the top 3 or 4 strings on my Orange and run the low end through my Boogie Rectifier, but I just can't justify another $4k when I already am addicted to my SG, Explorer, and LP Studio... plus this kinda seems like a knockoff of a Variax to me (even though it has MORE features than the Variax). yes, this is eventually the way all guitars will end up, but until then I want my EMGs, my hand sanded set necks, and my VACUUM TUBES!!!!

[Matt @ Dec 5th 2006 6:33PM]

The Cat5 port is actually used for firmware upgrades. The guitar still uses a standard audio jack for the signal. Line6 has been making modeling guitars like this for several years. Its great to see Gibson make one too, what a beauty!

[Ken @ Dec 5th 2006 6:34PM]

...seriously

Still waiting on the ability to edit comments Engadget!!

[DerekPowell @ Dec 5th 2006 6:35PM]

so explain to my why I'd want to introduce another digital/analog conversion into my recording process? Why not, if you need to transmit data from each string individually, just have a proprietary analog connector that contains this extra information? This just seems like totally unnecessary technology, another example of something made only so it's makers can call it "digital," which apparently means GOOD all the time. ugh. All his ranting makes me hungry, I think I'm gonna go have a digital burger king hamburger, they're way better than those out-dated mcdonalds ones

[BrianM @ Dec 5th 2006 7:08PM]

----
Now they just need one that can tune itself... or change to different tunings with a flick of the switch...

but this is cool
---

Don't worry, it's been done, Check out Trans Performance guitars at www.selftuning.com

I just wish they would include a Bigsby Tremolo, and maybe a Baritone Model too... someday...

[Brendan @ Dec 5th 2006 7:48PM]

I'm all for new music, but after spending 6 years wanting to get away from circuit boards, I think I'll stick with my Paul Reed Smith and Peavey Classic 50.

[Chazboski @ Dec 6th 2006 1:20AM]

If you want a guitar that can switch tunings at the flick of a switch, check out the Variax. Been around alot longer, and the 700 model is a really bad ass axe. It's cool that Gibson went that route for that cheap (for them at least) but Line 6 started the whole shebang. Now if only they could officially put the variax guts in a LP or maybe a PRS

[DraXXXen @ Dec 6th 2006 11:00AM]

Tell you what, toss all these digital goodies into a Fernandes ravelle elite so I can have my digital-cake and sustain it too...then perhaps i'll throw money at it.

[Morgan @ Dec 6th 2006 2:19PM]

So here's where this product falls flat:

the strings vibrate (analog) and the guitar converts each strings output to a digital signal. Then the Guitar, that sends those digital signals to the Breakout Box, where they're converted back to analog.... So you can load them into a computer and Digitize them into cakewalk, or some other program.

WOW.

Analog -> Digital -> Analog -> Digital. Wonderful sounds quality no doubt. How much more would it have cost to put a Digital output on the BoB? ADAT? Someone going to write a plugin so you can plug the CAT5 cable directly into the computer?

The mic and headphone plugs are interesting though.. But why go with a mini-plug? Thats just a gimmick. No XLR?

Nice toy Gibson.

[Dobbs @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:14PM]

*hugs my G&L strat and Fender Twin, and gives thanks to the analog gods for an assortment of stomp boxes*