Gibson Dark Fire?

[gunshow86de]

I don't really like all this Robot stuff they going on. It's a fairly cool gimmick, but to me it seems quite useless. My LP stays in tune just fine without it.

It has nothing to do with staying in tune. The guitar tunes itself to different tunings with the switch on the guitar. You can go to open tunings or drop-d in a few seconds.

 

[auxioluck]

For the money, I would say get an Agile LP style with a red quilt top. I mean, really, for as much money as Gibson is going to charge for that....

Yet another attempt by a washed-up company to desperately try to look different by doing more of the same.

 

[HamBungler]

What I see this as though, for the most part, is for other manufacturers to get on the ball and make more affordable clones with awesome systems like this. I mean, with the push of a button you can set up your entire rig for a certain song, and even change tunings AND tone settings in the middle of the songs if you want, that's just plain awesome. I'm not agreeing with the price point that Gibson will most likely set, but if it were semi-affordable, I'd buy something like this up.

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

its kind of funny. gibson has done the same things for years and years, now, they try to do someting a little innovative(which is what most of us guitarist are looking for guitar compaines to do) and we start to chastize them???

personally, i dont think they are over priced for what they can do, but the thing that interest me most is i saw a few youtube vids where the guys would play a chord, then change the tunning while the chord was ringing out and it would transform it into another chord. it was very cool sounding and a great application for something that isnt possible other wise.

Is there a button that extends that pussy 24 3/4" mandolin scale to a 28 5/8" length that I can string up some serious subsonic tunings onto?

this is gibson, they are a more old fashion, traditional guitar maker, they are steping out on a limb here doing THIS. If their goal was to cater to erg guys, then yea they dropped the ball. But they are making something that people who actually buy gibsons might be interested in. just because everyguitar isnt a baritone doesnt mean that it sucks or whatever

 

[killiansguitar]

Well said 7 strings of hate!

 

[Variant]

its kind of funny. gibson has done the same things for years and years, now, they try to do someting a little innovative(which is what most of us guitarist are looking for guitar compaines to do) and we start to chastize them???

Are they innovating?

 

[auxioluck]

its kind of funny. gibson has done the same things for years and years, now, they try to do someting a little innovative(which is what most of us guitarist are looking for guitar compaines to do) and we start to chastize them???

this is gibson, they are a more old fashion, traditional guitar maker, they are steping out on a limb here doing THIS. If their goal was to cater to erg guys, then yea they dropped the ball. But they are making something that people who actually buy gibsons might be interested in. just because everyguitar isnt a baritone doesnt mean that it sucks or whatever

Gibson is still doing the same thing, they are just making the guitar lazier. I mean really, I really can't see any application for using this onstage even if I was changing tunings. If someone is using different tunings, they typically have multiple guitars, because when the tunings change, they typically use different pickups. And to be honest, most people that play Les Pauls use either E standard, E flat standard, or drop D. Does that really require a guitar that tunes itself for you?

Gibson USED to go out on a limb, when they created the V and the Explorer. All they have done this time is taken a guitar they have relied on for far too long, added electronics, called it a "cool" name, and packaged it in the same shit way they have every other time.

When I started playing guitar (like most other people), there was a pride in knowing how to maintain and handle the instrument. When I learned to tune solely by ear, it was a really cool thing. This guitar takes all the pride and accomplishment out of a key element to playing. This is nothing more than Gibson saying, "Hey! We know we've been a little lazy lately, so now it's time for our players to join in on the laziness! Now look, you don't have to tune your guitar again! .....But, if you don't know how to tune your guitar, you probably don't know how to restring it either, so just take it to a tech whenever you want to spend more of your money on something useless!"

No offense to the people that buy it, but really....spend your money on quality, not "tradition." And by tradition, I mean overpriced materials milled by a series of machines in Gibson's USA "Custom" Shop. It's 2008, there's a much bigger abundance of quality guitars and guitar makers, and I can't understand why you would want to buy a guitar that you could've bought 50 years ago JUST because it tunes itself.

 

[Scali]

Gibson actually did have 28" baritone Les Pauls a few years back.

Epiphone had one aswell, not sure if they discontinued it.

 

[lobee]

^ The video...

 

[Drew]

Honestly, the Robot stuff strikes me as pretty stupid, though I could see where (if it tuned fast enough) someone into say The Tea Party could get some cool results out of it. I just don't do much outside of standard, and wouldn't really get a lot of mileage out of it (or, more importantly, be willing to sacrifice a trem).

What makes this guitar interesting? It's visual beauty, for one, and the idea of a piezo-equipped LP.

What will make it suck? I'm betting it'll cost more than some cars.

 

[Scali]

I guess it can go either way. The current Robot series are based on the Studio, and as such are pretty affordable, they go slightly for more than a regular studio, but less than a Standard.

Either this is just a slightly more high-end version of it, comparable to the Studio Premium series for example, with a fancier top, but still cheaper than a Standard...
Or they're going way overboard, and this will be a super high-end customshop version of the Robot.

I'm very sad that they went the customshop road with the Axcess (Floyd-equipped LP), because if they had a Studio with Floyd, at about the same price as the Studio Robots, I would have picked one up long ago. But the Axcess is pricy, REALLY pricy... Or well... if you look at it as a customshop Les Paul, it's pretty cheap (compared to VOS and all that)... But if you look at it as a LP Standard with a Floyd added, you pay quite a premium for just one feature really.

 

[sami]

I haven't seen the Gibson bari's as of late. If Musician's Friend stopped selling them, it would only have been a few months ago.

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

Are they innovating?

when i said innovative i didnt say invented, sure something like that exists, but to give consumers a 1100 dollar base price is part of the innovation, the system pictured is quite expensive if i remember, so now your everyday common man can afford one. once again, i didnt say they invented it, but it IS quite innovative for gibson to release these guitars at such an afforadable price when they easily could have tryed to rape you for another 1000 bucks

Gibson is still doing the same thing, they are just making the guitar lazier. I mean really, I really can't see any application for using this onstage even if I was changing tunings.

this is what i was talking about if you watch that video, you'll see how you could morph chords in the middle of holding them, i cant find the video i saw rignt now, but there are some killer videos of entire songs made up of the guy hitting chords and morphing them and it sounded fucking awesome, you clearly couldnt do that on a standard guitar

now i dont know how the gibby version excatly works, if it does the morph acuratlly, but to say there are no good applications besides just being lazy is plain wrong

 

[HamBungler]

Gibson is still doing the same thing, they are just making the guitar lazier. I mean really, I really can't see any application for using this onstage even if I was changing tunings. If someone is using different tunings, they typically have multiple guitars, because when the tunings change, they typically use different pickups. And to be honest, most people that play Les Pauls use either E standard, E flat standard, or drop D. Does that really require a guitar that tunes itself for you?

Gibson USED to go out on a limb, when they created the V and the Explorer. All they have done this time is taken a guitar they have relied on for far too long, added electronics, called it a "cool" name, and packaged it in the same shit way they have every other time.

When I started playing guitar (like most other people), there was a pride in knowing how to maintain and handle the instrument. When I learned to tune solely by ear, it was a really cool thing. This guitar takes all the pride and accomplishment out of a key element to playing. This is nothing more than Gibson saying, "Hey! We know we've been a little lazy lately, so now it's time for our players to join in on the laziness! Now look, you don't have to tune your guitar again! .....But, if you don't know how to tune your guitar, you probably don't know how to restring it either, so just take it to a tech whenever you want to spend more of your money on something useless!"

No offense to the people that buy it, but really....spend your money on quality, not "tradition." And by tradition, I mean overpriced materials milled by a series of machines in Gibson's USA "Custom" Shop. It's 2008, there's a much bigger abundance of quality guitars and guitar makers, and I can't understand why you would want to buy a guitar that you could've bought 50 years ago JUST because it tunes itself.

^ By this, I'm guessing you didn't read what the thing can actually do.

Its not just another iteration of the Robot, its a whole guitar rig system built into one guitar for ease of use. Sometimes musicians don't like lugging a bunch of guitars around, especially if they have prized instruments around, only having to rely on one can be a good thing. Next to this, it has an entire rig system built into the electronics, so you can set up many different rig patches and recall them on the guitar from your PC, and eventually you'll even be able to do this wirelessly through Bluetooth. What isn't cool about that? Its not making guitarists lazier, and if you don't want to buy it no one's forcing you, you shouldn't get angry at a company for wanting to maybe, y'know, provide for their customers who may get a kick out of it.

By the way, with this series, you can choose to tune up with the tuning machines or with the robot system, totally up to you

 

[auxioluck]

I'm not trying to hurt anyone's dick here, but by a guitar storing tuning banks allowing you to morph chords....that kind of eliminates the need to actually play the chords. I find that to be lazy. Playing 6 open strings that are F# minor, then changing to E major, still playing 6 open strings....not really any effort being put out there. I'm sure that there are lots of chord formations that can be used while you switch stored tunings, and it could definitely be used as a capo, which would be much easier than clipping a capo on in the middle of a song. That is a useful application.

It does sound cool. I've played one, and it was kinda fun to mess around with. I'm not hating on the people that use them, I'm just, as always, underimpressed by Gibson. It seems like when they can't innovate a new guitar, they innovate a way to make the same old guitar operate different. And when they do innovate a guitar, lately, they just reverse the fucking thing.

Here's what I would like to see: A guitar with this kind of capability should have a different look to it. Something aesthetically innovative to go along with what they are doing electronically.

 

[HamBungler]

Here's what I would like to see: A guitar with this kind of capability should have a different look to it. Something aesthetically innovative to go along with what they are doing electronically.

That's what I was saying about other companies making something similar but with a different look and maybe a better price haha. I'd imagine something like this on a Parker or Ibanez would be pretty cool, though Parkers are pretty expensive, and this sorta system would skyrocket the price further, and Ibanez don't like to be innovative nowadays for some reason

 

[Metal Ken]

Its a cool looking guitar, but i'd rather have guitar companies trying other innovations.. new body materials, new pickup methods, ways to better intonate them, better bridges. THat kind of thing. Stuff like steinberger does.

 

[Variant]

Honestly, the Robot stuff strikes me as pretty stupid, though I could see where (if it tuned fast enough) someone into say The Tea Party could get some cool results out of it. I just don't do much outside of standard, and wouldn't really get a lot of mileage out of it (or, more importantly, be willing to sacrifice a trem).

Actually, there was a band a while back called Fourth Estate that used the TransPerformance (I'll reiterate: GIBSON DID NOT INTRODUCE THIS TECHNOLOGY, TRANSPERFORMANCE DID!!! ) that used the TransPerfomace system to do exactly that, "morph" between chords while playing, and it was indeed fast enough (and slow enough for that matter) to make the effect work.

Also, The Tea Party rules, go buy their music.

 

[Scali]

Stuff like steinberger does.

Ironically enough Steinberger is owned by Gibson, and you'll find things like gearless tuners on some Gibson models from time to time (like the tuners on the 50th anniversary Explorer). The Gibson M3/M4 had a Steinberger trem aswell.

Speaking of Gibson M3/M3, I guess that shows why Gibson doesn't bother with new models... Those were great guitars, and some of the most soulful and fast Superstrats I ever played... They were even quite affordable. But people just bought Ibanez, Jackson and that sort of stuff, and the M3/M4 were ignored by the public.
I finally got my hands on an M3 after years of playing Ibanez.