The Vox is a very early electric guitar with electronic organ components. It uses the basics of a fretboard scanner with each guitar fret separated into six segments, creating independent contact switches for each string. The organ notes are keyed when a string touches a specific segment. Guitar and Organ sounds can be played at the same time.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles were presented with an early prototype of the Vox V251 during their Christmas shows in 1964. It's inventor, Dick Denney, hoped that with the Beatles use of his invention he would revolutionise music. While Lennon kept his V251 prototype, he ultimately did not take to this unusual instrument and eventually it ended up in the possession of the Beatles roadie Mal Evans.
The Phantom V251 Guitar Organ was one of the most complicated and innovative products designed by Denney. The Guitar Organ added a miniaturized version of the solid-state organ circuitry (oscillators) from their Continental Organ to their Phantom guitar model. This allowed the V251 to be played either as a guitar, an organ, or in compination as two instruments in one.
A selector switch chose between sounds. On one setting, by holding down strings to a fret, the equivalent sound of an organ can be heard. Another setting gave the conventional guitar sound heard throught the pick-ups. An electronic pick was also provided that, when connected, triggered only the note on the string contacted by it allowing arpeggio 'organ' chord playing.
Its steel neck housed dozens of smal guage wires which connected to its first 14 frets. The Guitar Organ initially attracted attention for it's progressive technology although the instrument itself was heavy and cumbersome and rarely worked correctly.
The Vox V251 was a piece Dick Denney innovative genius. However, the extremely complicated production process and unreliable performance hindered its commercial success. Although it was not endorsed by any significant musicians, it is still a sought after collectors piece and a great piece of guitar history.
The GR-500 is a true piece of guitar-synth history and a fantastic collectors instrument. It was introduced in 1977, 5 years before MIDI technology was even standardised! The synthesizer module produced bass, solo synth and string sounds which were based on Roland's previous Orchestral and analog mono-synths.
Jeff Beck was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and has spanned genres ranging from blues-rock to jazz fusion and even blends of rock-electronica. Jeff appears with his GR-500 in the front cover of his unofficially released double album "A Battle Without Honor & Humanity" which was recorded live in Japan in November 1978.
Jeff Baxter, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, used the GR-500 for both studio and some live works.
The GR-500 has also been used by Tangerine Dream, Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Alex Lifeson of Rush.
Early 'Pitch-to-MIDI' technology is at the heart of the GR500. A special pickup listens to the string sounds and sends signals to the synth module via Roland's own 24-pin interface cable. Magnets under the face of the guitar gives increased sustain. Sliders and knobs control CO, VCF, VCA, and LFO. Although performance and tracking was 'iffy', the GR500 offered a truly unique guitar playing experience for 1977.
]]>
The Manson MB-1 was one of the first 'real' guitars to incorporate touch pad technology. It sends MIDI control changes from the XY Pad dynamically effecting its sounds using a Korg Kaoss Pad.
Matthew Bellamy from Muse designed the MB-1 in close collaboration with Manson Guitars and uses it extensively for live performance.
The MB-1 has a onboard XY touchpad which sends control changes via MIDI. Matthew often uses a MIDI Jet to wirelessly transmits MIDI control changes to his Korg Kaoss pad applying dynamic effects like delays, filters and phasers. The XY touchpad also controls Kaoss Pad synthesizers in a 'random' spacey sort of a way.
The custom Manson MBK-2 humbucker bridge pick-up produces the high gain crunch heard on tracks like “Hysteria” and “Super Massive Black Hole.” The live/kill toggle allows rhythmic type stutter while an onboard Fernando Sustainer can continuously resonate the strings giving an infinite sustain.
The MB-1 offers amazing possibilities clearly showcased by Matthew Bellamy's outstanding performances. While it has very limited synthesizer control capabilities, it is a beautiful statement that brings multiple dimensions of sonic capabilities.
The G-707 is the flashy guitar controller which connects to the Roland GR-700 synthesizer via a 24 pin cable. The 707 guitar features cut-off, LFO modulation and edit knobs. It also operates like a standard guitar with standard guitar pickups.
Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin used the G-707 while composing the soundtrack for the 1982 film Death Wish II. Jimmy said in the 1986 interview with Steven Rosen "I didn’t purposely just want to use the guitar synthesizer but in certain places it just worked. With that I must admit that I went with Tim [Marten, guitar tech] to a demonstration of the SynthAxe and it was just absolutely terrifying. It was great, it was fantastic. I knew that the Roland didn’t track properly but you can adapt to it in a way."
Andy Summers of the Police used the Roland system for many years, although varying between the Roland 303 guitar.
"My favorite sounds are the high, spacey ones that are very ambient. They’re the most distinctive. They don’t sound like other instruments, like second-rate keyboard sounds. I’ve been into guitar synthesis for about five years now. By the second album [the Police’s Regatta De Blanc, A&M, SP-4792]1 had bought the original Roland GR-500. We were working so hard on the road, though, that I didn’t really get a chance to get into it. Later on, I used a Roland GR-300 for a couple of numbers every night in the Police show - "Don’t Stand So Close to Me," as well as material from the fourth album [Ghost In The Machine].
All the roland systems use pitch to MIDI versus systems such as the Synth Axe which use polyphonic fretboard scanners. The GR-700 is a six voice polyphonic with two DCO's per voice which means analog oscillators and sounds with digital stability and control. The typical assortment of a resonant lowpass filter, ADSR envelope, LFO and oscillator sections are here with easy and straight-forward programming.
The pitch to MIDI technology in the Roland G-707 and accompanying GR-700, although produced unique synthesizer sounds, had spurious glitchy note detection. The guitar itself is a statement and much desired piece of MIDI guitar history!
]]>
Kitara is a non-fretted guitar like MIDI Controller that uses internal or external electronic synthesizers to produce sound. Kitara does not have any strings. It has a neck that resembles the layout of a stringed guitar, but has buttons in place of the strings and frets. Its most striking feature is the large touch pad and interactive light effects which allows the musician to trigger synthesizer notes while simultaneously changing and effecting note parameters such as cutoff, pitch bend, modulation or other assignable parameters.
Chris Wolstenholme of Muse most notably played alongside Matt Bellamy in their 2012 single - Madness. Chris played Kitara live with his real bass in a striking custom built hybrid instrument.
Kitara combines the use of touch buttons for strings and frets with an 8 inch multi-touch screen. The player controls sound effects and parameters through this display, as opposed to strumming strings like on a traditional guitar. The note pitch is detected through 144 buttons on the neck while the note parameters and effects are controlled from the touch screen. Notes can be triggered when the touch screen is pressed. A second playing mode resembling guitar like 'tapping' triggers notes instantly when any button on the neck is pressed.
Along with internal wavetable synthesizer, kitara sends a MIDI signal allowing control over external synthesizers. Kitara is powered by an open-sourced Linux based CPU.
Kitara was designed by Michael Zarimis and produced for a short period between 2011 and 2012. It featured in NAMM 2011.
Kitara was a highly innovative controller that brought new playing dimensions to musicians with a guitar skill set. It was very reasonably priced but it's lack of real strings made commercial success difficult.
]]>
The SynthAxe is a fretted guitar-like MIDI controller that uses electronic synthesizers to produce sound.
The SynthAxe itself has no internal sound source. It is purely a controller and needs synthesizers to produce sound. There are two independent sets of strings. One set on the fretboard and another set for picking.
Allan Holdsworth, the phenomenally talented Fusion Jazz guitar player, was the most prominent user of the Synth Axe. He used it for both live performance and extensively on his 1986 album Atavachron and his 1987 album Sand.
Michael Jacksons Bad tour famously featured Christopher Currell performing with a Synth Axe. Chris used it to control sounds on the Synclavier which was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system and music workstation.
Chuck Hammer who worked with artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed and Lee Ritenour used the SynthAze on his album Earth Run. The SynthAxe famously featured on the front cover of the album.
Jimmy Page said in an 1986 interview with Steve Rosen: "I went with Tim [Marten, guitar tech] to a demonstration of the SynthAxe and it was just absolutely terrifying. It was great, it was fantastic. I was so impressed with the demonstration of the SynthAxe that it’s difficult to even see what faults it might have. You need to have one to know."
The synth axe was created by Bill Aitken, Mike Dixon, and Tony Sedivy in 1985. The system was developed as a joint venture funded by Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
The fretboard is continuously scanned and sends signals to accurately detect which notes are playing. The string set on the fretboard determine the pitch played, through contact with the frets on the neck and by sensing the side-to-side bending of the string. The body set of strings are velocity sensitive; these strings can be plucked, strummed or damped in the same manner as a guitar. A keyboard made up of nine keys can also be used to trigger notes instead of the strings.
An electronic whammy bar can be used for pitch bend or can be redefined to produce different MIDI output such as filter cut-off and volume.
The synthaxe tracked the notes extremely quickly and accurately. However, at a cost of $13,000, it was far from a mainstream instrument. Fewer than 100 instruments were built before production stopped around 1988.
The synth axe was produced in England.
The Synth Axe was an phenomenal leap to the synthesizer guitar world. Although a commercial failure, it is still considered a high-performance musical tool and is desired by world class musicians even today!
]]>
MIDI is an electronic language that allows musical instruments to talk to each other with a digital signal.
MIDI is most often used to allow a digital instrument to control a synthesiser - hence the name MIDI Controller! A synthesiser can be considered any electronic sound producing module.
In the 1970’s, various instrument manufacturers had different music languages. In 1983, a team of industry representatives standardised one digital language and named MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). MIDI now allows all digital instruments from different manufacturers to communicate together in the same language.
A MIDI controller is connected to a synthesiser (which can include and Digital Audio Workstation) with a USB or 5pin MIDI cable. Press a C key in a MIDI keyboard and it will tell the connected synthesiser with a digital signal to ‘switch on’ a C note. Release the C key, and it will tell the synthesiser to ‘switch off’ the C note.
MIDI is great for music for 2 main reasons:
The full power of MIDI has been available to keyboard controllers since its first introduction back in the 70’s and 80’s. However, guitar based MIDI controllers have lagged behind for a decades due to technical difficulty of accurate synthesiser control.
Expressiv MIDI Guitars incorporate a fretboard scanner which instantly detects which note the musician plays through the electrical contact of the string and fret - much like pressing a key in a keyboard. This removes the technical difficulty of listening to the guitar sound and figuring out which notes are played.
Now, guitar players can have the full power of MIDI at their finger tips bringing new dimensions to creating music
]]>