Gibson is set to release a digital guitar. The pick-ups will go right into a D/A convertor and from there travel over ethernet. Kind of interesting that no one's done it yet. A Wired Magazine article has the usual quotes from people saying "this is a solution looking for a problem." There's some cool things you can do once you've got digital signals coming out of guitars.

In a concert hall, this means a bulky analog snake of cables could be replaced by a single Cat-5. It also means real-time collaboration. Stanford staged a concert last fall that linked several musicians at different locations who improvised with each other over a system developed by NetworkSound, the first company to build a business plan around Magic. The school was so pleased that its Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics will also tap the technology for its recording facilities. "We're dividing our studios across 2 kilometers, and we can just grab a fiber on the campus network and make remote studios with zero delay," explains music professor Chris Chafe. "It's foolproof."

From Wired 12.01: The 100-Megabit Guitar
Referenced Tue Dec 30 2003 09:36:37 GMT-0700

I bought my 15-year old son a guitar modeler for Christmas. If you haven't seen these things, they're amazing. The article talks about those as well:

More recently, advances in sound modeling, using complex algorithms that simulate other instruments, have created a sort of identity crisis in the guitar world. In 2002, California-based Line 6 unveiled its Variax, which mimics 26 classic guitars - everything from a 1935 Dobro Alumilite to a 1968 Rickenbacker - with remarkable precision. Juszkiewicz is taking Gibson in the opposite direction. "We're not synthesizing sound," he says. "We're putting out a much better original signal." His claim, in essence, is that Magic makes the Les Paul sound more like itself.

From Wired 12.01: The 100-Megabit Guitar
Referenced Tue Dec 30 2003 09:38:09 GMT-0700

The modeler I bought for my son is built by a company called DigiTech in Salt Lake City. For only $70 I've been incredibly impressed with the sound; it even has a drum machine built-in for solo practice. A good modeler and a powerful PA system is a much better set up than and guitar amp I've heard.