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

By Paul Miller | December 5, 2006

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]

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