Barry Is A Dangerous Man

[billroper]

So after reading this post from min0taur here, I'm now studying the Godin guitars with synth access. This looks really interesting.

Of course, for a new guitar to enter the house -- according to daisy_knotwise -- another guitar must leave. If so, I'm going to have to find something to do with the Gibson Les Paul. *sigh*

Comments

[cary-lee.livejournal.com]

Greg and I have the same rules about vehicles. Only one extra one at a time. Of course they take up way more room then a guitar.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

...

...

...

How much you thinkin' of asking? And can you bring it to a con (most likely Windy, but we're also both at 'Clave and OVFF) so I can try it?

[billroper]

Haven't even gotten that far yet in my thinking, to be honest. But if I do, I'll let you know. :)

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Translation: He's trying not to think about that, and is hoping [Bad username or site: daisy knotwise @ livejournal.com] will relent, or not notice the extra body.

[(Anonymous)]

The midi-able Godins all have a Roland guitar2midi compatible pickup, so you'll need the Roland box anyway.

I have a Shadow SH75 guitar2midi system which was comparable to Roland's back then - and found it quite lacking after some time. The tracking lag is quite noticable and irritating - especially when (as trained classic guitar player) being used to the direct response of an acoustic guitar.

While it is nice to play shlow/mellow sounds (strings, pads, ...) I found it nearly impossible to play percussive instruments with it. The timing always was a little but unnerving off beat.

So do try the guitar2midi stuff before sinking money into it. My Shadow pickup is gathering dust since a few years. Even if I cannot play keyboard (I do find the keys, but you cannot call that playing), I prefer the small, cheap MIDI "master" keybuard (49 keys) over the guitar2midi thingie...

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I remember that Mark, a musician musician whose day job was electronics tech at a previous job, had a synth guitar. He'd strung all 6 strings with high E's because the heavier strings responded too slowly for proper timing as a MIDI controller. But I dunno if the usual synth pickup can be programmed to do that, or if he had a special one. (He was certainly capable of hacking his own electronics, and he had a bad case of instrument acquisition syndrome too.)

[billroper]

Apparently the Godin is set up so you can play it properly with normal strings.

It's not at all bad ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... I played with one a few years ago and just failed to buy it (which I still regret).

There are some things that guitar synths have problems with, one of which is pitch bend (e.g. tremolo/vibrato and standard solo pitch bends) though you can get some lovely/weird effects by playing such into a piano patch as each note will be quantised to the closest whole semitone)

Another problem is harmonics, particularly as a note decays you may find that at higher order harmonic is grabbed rather than the fundamental.

Also, since most work by picking up the "pitch" from the string vibration, it takes a number of cycles of string vibration to pick up the note, therefore lower notes take longer to track than higher pitched ones. One of the Yamaha guitar synth controllers did indeed use 6 high E strings for that reason (which meant you *really* couldn't take the standard pickup output from that guitar or play it acoustically, you had to remember where the notes were!)

The problem with the standard retro-fit Roland pickups are that positioning can be extremely critical, something you don't have to worry about with the Godin.

Oh, and it can be very confusing feeding a six channel "midi" pickup through some outboard boxes because I remember at least one where you could pitch shift each string separately (so going from standard to DADGAD to drop-D tuning by clicking on footpedal or other midi control) so the "audio out" of the guitar would be in a different tuning to the one coming out of the midi/synth!

Have fun!

p.s. I'll let TWO guitars out of my house to get a good Gibson Les Paul! Let me know if you're willing to sell it to me and we'll figure out how to get it to the UK :-) Of course Tom has first dibs on it I reckon ...

[bardling.livejournal.com]

You might want to wave that Les Paul under fleetfootmike's nose...

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

You might.
I might get divorced if it's too tempting, though :)

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

Just for the record, I'd be very happy to take your Gibson Les Paul off your hands. Just sayin'

(grin)

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

Oh money! You want *my* money! That's different, what if George Washington's troops had asked for money!?

ahem.

nevermind. ;-)

Les Paul

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Please add me to the list of people who would like to see the Les Paul and ask you what the price is.

Nate

[billroper]

Will do.

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

You know, I think the criterion of whether an instrument has just sat in the case for a long time is well worth mulling over, though I have to admit that sometimes my old guitar friends (the Guild 12 and the Hofner classical) have slumbered there for too long, and when I do take 'em out, I always wonder why it's been so long. Then I think: Okay, seventeen guitars is probably too many. In my defense, I can claim that it isn't a "collection" of sacrosanct artifacts or (shudder) "investment pieces." They're a player's toolkit (I tell myself) -- some have specific purposes, others are family artifacts, and still others are dream projects, experiments, emblems of musical aspirations. But they do take up space, time, attention, and maintenance resources. And my stable has been "hardening" as I get down to instruments that are increasingly hard to part with. I actually can't imagine getting down to only one (my two oldest guitars are with me for the duration). Oh well. Someday it'll be a hell of an estate sale.