This exists…
Posted: January 10, 2009 at 1:43
This is the Gibson Dark Fire Les Paul. Gibson says that it’s the most technologically advanced guitar that they’ve ever built. It features their “Robot Guitar” autotuning technology, as well as the new “Chameleon Tone Technology,” which is supposed to let you get any tone possible with a single guitar.
It’s a sign of how far behind I am on guitar technology that I’ve only just recently heard about this. I used to keep pretty up to date on the newest stuff, especially when I used to work for a guitar company. First Act came out with some cool stuff while I was there, especially a couple of eco-friendly green guitars, one of which was made largely out of bamboo. Those were still traditional guitars though. This Dark Fire business is something else entirely, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
A little background: I’ve been playing guitar for about nine years, and I probably own as many guitars. I’ve opened up all of my electrics and customized the wiring and pickups to my liking. I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert, but I know enough about this stuff to get me by.
I have to appreciate this Dark Fire guitar on one level because it’s a true extension of the work Les Paul did with the electric guitar. Paul was one of the biggest innovators in the history of music technology (he invented mutli-track recording, among other things) and I’m sure he appreciates the way Gibson is carrying on his legacy. From a design perspective, I also have to say that the carbon-fiber pickup covers are a nice touch, and you really can’t go wrong with the Les Paul.
The auto-tune technology is also a great idea, as easy as it may make it to joke about kids not being able to tune their guitars. Tuning is just one of those hassles that you learn to deal with, but I definitely can’t say that I wouldn’t be excited about never having to tune my guitar again.
I guess my problem with this is the whole Chamelon Tone Technology business. I can’t find an exact list of the different tones available, or a solid explanation of how it works. All Gibson says is that it “allows you to change your guitar’s tone to match countless environments and to recreate any guitar sound you ever lusted after,” and that doesn’t really say anything. I’m going to assume that most of the tone changes you’d be able to make would involve coil-tapping, series-parallel switching, phase switching and/or pickup blending, combined with some kind of active EQ system. If that’s the case, I guess it’ll be kind of like the old Fender Jaguars, or Gibson’s own Les Paul Recording, which was only in production for two years (although apparently it’s the preferred model of Mr. Paul).
Until I hear and play one for myself (which will probably be a while, seeing as the first run has already been delayed and they’re likely to get snatched up as soon as they become available) I’m treating their claim to get “any guitar sound” as suspect. I’m sure you’ll be able to get a serviceable impersonation of any sound you want, but I can’t think of any way they could completely alter the tone enough to make a Les Paul sound like Strat, Danelectro or hollow body.
With any guitar, the pickups and circuitry are only going to do so much. The construction and design have a lot more to do with the real character and “tone” of the guitar. Take a strat, for instance. The classic sound that’s associated with the guitar is partially from the pickup arrangement and the wiring, but you can put that same wiring into a different guitar and it’ll sound (surprise surprise) completely different. The sound that comes out of the guitar does come from the pickups, but the pickups can only interpret the vibrations of the guitar strings. Everything that affects the string vibrations is going to have some impact, even how you hold the neck and fret the notes, to some extent (hence the phrase “tone is in your fingers”). Since the strings are connected to the body and the neck, the type of wood that each is made out of is going to affect the tone. The type of connection they have to the body is going to affect it. The size and shape of the body are going to affect it. That’s just physics, and there’s not a lot that Gibson can do about it.
Of course, I am a little obsessive about stuff like this. I don’t think the average person is going to care if it doesn’t sound exactly like another guitar. In a typical live situation, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. All the same, I’d just as soon have a nice Les Paul Standard (or Explorer, Firebird, Telecaster Deluxe, etc.) without all the technology and put the extra cash towards an amp.
But like I said, it is refreshing to see some serious innovation in guitar technology. Relatively little has changed since the first electric guitars were developed, but this has to be one of the few industries where it’s almost impossible for new technology to be widely adopted. There are so many wonky little things about guitars that we stick with just for the sake of tone (vacuum tubes? 60-cycle hum?), but they’re still around because they work. Blame it on Occam’s Razor, but I don’t see this Dark Fire being anything more than a niche market.
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