Just to reiterate what has been talked about on countless websites, this is the first digital guitar from Gibson. Now, digital guitars have been available from a few different manufacturers for years, but I find the term Digital Guitar has been used to describe a wide variety of products. Line 6 for example has had the Variax digital modeling guitar for quite some time. So what exactly is the Gibson 6x.HD Les Paul?

The Guitar

To start, the guitar is a Les Paul. It has a body that is similar to a Les Paul Studio but with an all new finish. It has 490R/498T Humbucker pickups just like a Studio. For all effective purposes, this is a Les Paul just like we know and love. It can be plugged into an analog amp and played just like any other LP.

So what is different? Well in addition to all of the original LP components there is also a digital hex bridge pickup (Gibson Hex Pickup 681-2031). This pickup and the accompanying electronics are able to convert the analog sound from each string into 6 separate digital signals for output. This function right here is what makes the Gibson 6x.HD a digital guitar. It hears the sound, converts it to a digital signal, and outputs it as a digital signal. To do this Gibson has spent 10 years developing a brand new technology called MaGIC.

What is Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier (MaGIC)?

MaGIC is an open source audio/video transmission specification developed by Gibson and a few other technology companies. The spec allows up to 32 full-duplex (2-way) signals of up to 192 kHz digital audio to be transfered over great distances of standard cat-5 Ethernet cable. On top of the 64 audio channels there is also a control stream that is 100 times more powerful than MIDI. Basically what the standard aims to achieve is high quality digital audio over long distances with plug-and-play simplicity that can be applied to a variety of audio devices. If it works, it really is amazing. Now Gibson just has to get other companies to adopt it, which I am sure is easier said than done. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the standard includes power in the wire, so that eliminates the need for a battery in the guitar!

The Jackplate

On your average Les Paul the jack is simple, it’s just a 1/4″ analog output. You will find the jackplate on a HD.6x has a bit more, but also adds a lot of useful functionality. Like a normal LP it has the standard 1/4″ analog output that is auto-sensed. So if you use this jack to plug your guitar into an ordinary analog amp it will automatically know, no switching required. Second is the MaGIC Ethernet port for digital output to a Breakout Box. There are also two mini-plug jacks, one for a microphone input and one for headphone output. Finally there is a volume for the monitor level. It is all pretty straight forward, but like I said, I think the additional functionality is welcomed.

The Breakout Box (BoB)

When you use the 1/4″ analog jack on the guitar you can plug it into any analog amp and play away. However, if you want to utilize the digital pickup you need to use the digital MaGIC port and connect it to the included Breakout Box (BoB). Since there are no other MaGIC compatible devices on the market you have to convert your digital signal back into analog to do anything with it. The BoB is a box that converts the digital signal from the guitar back into analog and splits it into separate channels. There are three options for output. If you only hook an output to jack 1, you will get a mono output. If you use 1 and 2 on the BoB you will get stereo with the top three strings going right and the bottom three going left. Finally, if you hook six outputs you will get an individual channel for each string.

This right here is where Gibson hopes the HD.6x will be revolutionary. The ability to send each of your strings to a different amp or through a different effect loop adds a huge dimension to guitar playing and recording. The BoB also has stereo jacks to send a signal from a monitor mix back upstream to the guitar’s headphone jack. Also on the BoB is an output for the mic jack that is on the guitar so you can send the signal to the monitor.

What Gibson Did Right with the HD.6x

Gibson isn’t trying to force anything here. They took the tried and true Gibson Les Paul and built upon it. They are giving the guitarist the freedom to use the guitar as they like. They have invested a lot of time and money researching and developing the MaGIC technology. The important thing is they have kept in mind that most people just want to plug it in and play. It seems to me that Gibson has had this front and foremost in their design. For an example, they made sure that MaGIC means the guitar does not require a battery to operate the digital components. It’s little things like this that add to it’s simplicity.

The MaGIC technology is an open standard. This means any manufacturer can get a development board from Gibson and start building devices that support it. As of now Gibson is the only company doing it, but if this catches on the possibilities are limitless. Computing has been applied to so many areas of music and I think it is exciting to see more manufacturers like Gibson take another step towards bringing it to the guitar.

What is great about MaGIC is it is a broad based standard. Not only does it bring innovation to guitars, but it could be used to replace snakes of cable that carry the analog signal from a stage to the mixing board. Since 32 channels can be carried through 1 cable (both directions), that basically combines 64 cables into one small Ethernet cable. On top of that, the Ethernet cable is less susceptible to interference and noise, making the sound higher quality.

Where Gibson Fell Short

Although a good idea in concept, Gibson fell short in their execution. It’s a great idea, and it has many applications and lots of potential. However, as of now the only thing you can do with that digital signal from the guitar is hook it into Gibson’s BoB and convert it back into analog. Here we have an analog signal (vibration of a string) that is converted to digital, sent to the BoB, converted back into analog, then if you send it to a computer converted back into digital again. Wow. Analog to digital to analog and back to digital. Basically in the end, the fact that it is a digital guitar is redundant.

What Gibson really needed to do was release this guitar with a line of digital products that it could be connected to. They needed to be working with at least one other manufacturer from day one to develop some kind of multi-effect or modeling unit that could be released with the guitar, or maybe even as a replacement for the BoB. In the VERY least the BoB should have provided for some form of digital output that could be connected to a computer. It sort of defeats the purpose of MaGIC to have USB or FireWire on the BoB, but if they didn’t like that then they should have developed a computer based MaGIC interface in conjunction with the guitar.

The mini-plug jacks on the guitar for the microphone and headphones really should have been either 1/4″ or XLR if they are to be used in a professional environment. As it stands now, the whole feature is sort of gimmicky.

The BoB should have had some sort of digital output. I realize that MaGIC is not MIDI, but it makes me wonder how much work really would have had to be done to include a MIDI output on the BoB. I know MIDI on the guitar is nothing new, but any way that you can utilize the digital in a digital guitar is a plus.

Coming in at $4000USD to pick this guitar up, you are paying a premium to get the technology first. Considering you can get a comparable digital-free Les Paul for about $1600USD this isn’t good for Gibson. Right now, the guitar is the first product to utilize MaGIC and there is no sure sign that MaGIC will take off. In two years you might find you paid $4000 for a guitar and the technology has died due to lack of support.

The Bottom Line

Being a computer geek and a guitar geek I am really excited about the expanding fusion of computers and music. There are already a few options out there for digital guitars and I always like to hear more big manufacturers are jumping on board. That being said, I am not very impressed with Gibson’s initial offering. It almost seems as though they didn’t talk to any, you know, guitar players before designing it. Having a digital guitar is great, but the fact that once the signal leaves the guitar it instantly has to be converted back to analog really voids the fact that it was digital in the first place. Obviously Gibson is pushing MaGIC and with the guitar they are just trying to get a shoe in as soon as they could. None the less, right now the incentive to buy this guitar just really isn’t there. I just don’t think 6-channel audio is enough for the average person to shell out $4000. I guess at this point we will have to wait and see where MaGIC goes. I think the HD.6x is awesome in concept, but I am hesitant to run out and buy one myself.

For those of you not in the loop, NAMM used to stand for “National Association of Music Merchants”. These days they have dropped the full name and just go by the acronym. Basically they are a global organization for the musical equipment industry. Each year they hold a trade show that exhibits all the great new music making products from every company. It is not open to the public, you have to be a NAMM member to attend and to be a NAMM member you have to make, buy, and/or sell musical instruments and products. Right now I am just playing a little catch-up, so lets see what I can find about this years show.

On the official NAMM Show website they have a recap of each day including pictures.

Play Guitar Now has a load of great pictures from each day of the show.

Cary at Electric Guitar Review linked to another NAMM 2007 picture gallery at Modern Guitars Magazine that also has a whole bunch of great shots.

Line 6 unveiled the Floor POD Plus basically combining a POD 2.0 with a huge list of premium effects in a portable stomp box floor set.

Gibson announced 11 new guitar models including the digital HD.6X-Pro. Modern Guitars Magazine has all of the details.

Fender showed off the VG Stratocaster, a modeling guitar. It is equipped with a digital pickup, a modeling dial with 37 different models, and a tuning knob that allows you to select from 5 alternate tunings.

Eddie Van Halen and Fender announced a signature EVH Frankenstein replica. The replicas play like a dream but physically feature every nick and mark the original has.

Man, I could probably go all day reading up on all the great stuff to come out of the show… I guess I still have a lot of reading to do.