Digital pickups - Just plain silly or is it?

[Pablo]

OK we have seen POD's with digital amp modlelers and Digiatl fx emulators.

I wonder if you will get a pickup that can have different settings. eg put a bios in it with a battery and a few chips and hey presto digital PUP.

You could even rig it to your PC to down load different sounds.


Can I have a job, Line 6 guys?


Anyon try the shadow PUPs with the adjustable EQ?

[ellsobrien]

too bad pickups are magnets and would wipe and chip put near them.

[J Todd Beachler]

I'm sure someone will come up with this. *An A/D convertor in the guitar to a fiber cable back to the rack then processed in the digital domain and back through a D/A convertor to be passed to the amp.
It might sound odd now, but you can't limit your thinking when it comes to new and different technology. *Where would we be today without the 'strange' inventors of the past?

[Josh Blagg]

Pickups don't have to have magnets. *There are other ways of transferring string vibration. *They make optical pickups, which use optical sensors to detect vibration, but I can't remember the URL. *Who would want digital pickups though? *Digital may be new technology, but it is not appropriate for replacing traditionally analog equipment. *Point in case being the POD. *Inorganic may be what you are looking for, in which case I would suggest a MIDI pickup, which is almost exactly what you are talking about anyway.

[darren wilson]

Have you guys seen Roland's V-Guitar system demonstrated?

I've seen demos on a guitar that had no conventional magnetic pickups, just the Roland GK pickup, and it was truly astounding. Roland's VG-88 system not only models amps, speakers and microphone placement, but pickup type and position, body type (solid, semi-hollow, hollow) etc. You can also choose between 6- and 12-string or completely change tunings based on the patch you're using. It's an incredible system, and it works pretty well from what i've seen. That's about as digital as you can get.

By the way, magnets don't really affect chips all that much. My monitor has a whole bunch of electronics in it and a big-ass magnet at the back as well. EMG's also have on-board preamps right in the pickups.

[Redeye2]

Actually magnets don't mess electronic boards up... they mess Hard drives or disquettes, because they use magnets to order the information, when you put a magnet near, everything gets moved and it wipes info.
Computer speakers are shielded to protect discs, not the video card or sound card for example.

[bob oakman]

Why don’t we just eliminate the guitar and put on a pair of virtual reality gloves that manipulate a digital guitar and amp model. Do you think Darren would swirl the gloves for us? :biggrin:

There are the MIDI guitars… I won’t even get into what this would all mean for individual expression.

On a serious note; they make digital microphone models. They are very impressive. A guitar pickup model can’t be that much harder. However, I don’t think I’m ready to subscribe yet.

[Rich]

Ibanez had 2 RG J Customs with full MIDI capabilities at NAMM, both set necks

[J Todd Beachler]

Quote: from bob oakman on 12:46 pm on Feb. 1, 2001
Why don’t we just eliminate the guitar and put on a pair of virtual reality gloves that manipulate a digital guitar and amp model. Do you think Darren would swirl the gloves for us? :biggrin:

To hell with that. *I'm having an S/PDIF jack installed into the back of my skull tomorrow along with a BW/D* convertor. *I'll be running fiber to an A/D convertor and into my JMP-1. *

*[size=-4:8d3d7a9ca9]BrainWave to Digital[/size:8d3d7a9ca9]

[J Todd Beachler]

Oh, yeah forgot to mention. *The Roland synth stuff does sound good. *I played with a strat once that had the pickup in it and had the fx unit set to a piano sound. *It sounded very good. I thought it would fail my next test. *I did a slide from fret one all the way up the neck. *It sounded just like someone was playing a chromatic scale on a piano. *Now the actual piano sound didn't sound like it was coming out of a $3k keyboard, but it did sound good. *I thought that if I did the slide it would do pitch bend in between each not, but it didn't. *Each note sounded seperately as I slid from fret to fret. *Very nice.

[Pablo]

Yeah but what if you actually do bends what does it sound like then.

i do think that the system is too complicated (Foe me anyway)

and as Satch says "If someone invented a guitar replicator for a Sax. Kenny g is putting us all out of a job now what do you think about that" *or something like that.

[dwswift]

I know that Kenny G remark was supposed to be a joke but...

They have midi instruments available for just about anything. Saxamaphones included. *The problem is that all midi guitar sounds suck!

Straight ahead guitars and amps will never go away... that's for sure. *It's too much fun.

[J Todd Beachler]

Quote: from Pablo on 12:59 am on Feb. 2, 2001
Yeah but what if you actually do bends what does it sound like then.

it would then play the next higher note. *It doesn't do pitch bends with a piano preset. *Can you pitch bend a note on a real piano? *I think not. *Once that bend on the guitar reaches a certain frequency then the roland box plays the next note up from before the bend even though the bent note is quite that next note. *(still with me)

and as Satch says "If someone invented a guitar replicator for a Sax. Kenny g is putting us all out of a job now what do you think about that" *or something like that.

Yeah, but he would still be playing sharp!

[Pablo]

Yeah but it's this "close enough" attittude that irritates me

And the fact that I'm guilty too with my POD

We all think that guitar synth sounds are bad since we're biased but what do Violin players think about the rolands sound.

More way out
Why not replace the strings with an electrically charged strip which can have the amount of strings or scale length altered



Sorry i'll stop now

[J Todd Beachler]

Quote: from Pablo on 1:42 am on Feb. 2, 2001

More way out
Why not replace the strings with an electrically charged strip which can have the amount of strings or scale length altered

Um, electrically charged strip? *I'm not playing that one. *You go right ahead, Toasty.