Gibson's Digital Guitar Finally Released

tdiman writes "The world's first digital guitar, using Gibson's MaGIC digital transport standard, was introduced February 20th at the Intel Developers Forum." We've been following this one for awhile, I'm really curious to see what something like this can do.

Does this mean....

[levik]

Does this mean that roadies will now need a Batchelors degree in Information Systems?

My guitar gently weeps

[corebreech]

It just won't be the same. No way.

Damnit!

[DaPhoenix]

What I really wanted was an ethernet port on my toaster...

Oh well... Imagine a beowulf... No no... i'm not going there. :)

It goes to 11!

[aiabx]

but since it's digital, that means it really only goes to 3.
-aiabx

Re:Does this mean....

[roseblood]

This guitar uses Cat-5 cable to plug in. Imnagine that. Just plug this into your router and DOS the entire network with some speed-metal riffs!

Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

The "digital guitar" can not actually be used for making music, as new legislation prevents the exact duplication of music ("digital copies").

I can hear the sound checks

[apeleg]

Roadie - "I can't ping the guitar! Better reboot."
Guitarist - "Man, that's kill my uptime."

insert...

[huhmz]

..."hack-the-gibson-joke-here"

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

How well does it work?

[1nv4d3r]

Here's hoping it fares better than their website!

Why do we punish the ones we love??

Top 5 reasons to use a new digital guitar

[Amsterdam Vallon]

5 -- For some reason, you think rock music isn't dead yet

4 -- It's something to do in between your Frost Pists!!1

3 -- Utilize the all new one-click recording feature of the GNU Radio software

2 -- Jam along wirelessly in front of the TV during the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker commercial

1 -- Gives you the chance to play along with the hottest radio songs of the day, such as the punk-rock classic "All I Have" by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, the arena rock classic "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, and country song "Mesmerize" by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti.

Does this mean

[Tri0de]

That Green Day can finally play in tune?

That was quick...

[mooniejohnson]

Slashdotted Gibson.com pretty fast... anyone want to bet they only had one guitar serving the site?

;-)

Re:Damnit!

[FCAdcock]

Wouldn't that be called a band?

Re:Wireless ?

[pyrote]

I can see one, a fan with a palmPC shows up to a stones concert and starts broadcasting Kenny G on the guitar channel.

On the otherhand, a fan can show up to a kenny G concert and broadcast stones music on the Mic channel....

Dilemma

[nakaduct]

It's a Gibson, and it's an axe. Do I hack it, or use it to hack?

Re: My guitar gently weeps

[Black Parrot]

> It just won't be the same. No way.

Now guitars will console themselves by downloading p0rn off the internet.

Digital guitar with DRM support

[arvindn]

In related news, Intel, Microsoft and the RIAA have announced the formation of the trusted music playing alliance (TMPA). "We are very concerned with people playing copyrighted music on their digital guitars", a spokesman for the alliance said today. "It is a heinous crime which will drive down profits for the music industry".

The alliance is working on the trusted music platform which is expeced to be implemented on all digital guitars by 2006. Microsoft corporation (MSFT) will provide the software which will verify that the musician has renewed their subscription with the RIAA before allowing him or her to play the guitar. It will also constantly compare the notes being played on the guitar with a database provided by the RIAA. If a copyright violation is found, the guitar will immediately self-destruct and the musician's license will be revoked. A spokesman for Intel corporation (INTC) has assured slashdot.org that the guitar cannot be used without digitally signed software.

"This is a great step forward for digital music", RIAA CEO Hillary Rosen was quoted as saying. Now we will be able to protect misuse of intellectual property at the source instead of at the destination. The next step in the battle would be the development of the PTC - the platform for trusted cognition. Essentially, we will be able to monitor people's thought for intellectual property violations.

EFF director Cindy John was not immediately available for comment, but is widely rumoured to have commited suicide.

Re:Does this mean....

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean that Yngwie Malmsteen will be uber-1337 now? Oh, wait, he still plays Fenders.

Re:I can hear the sound checks

[Chocolate Teapot]

Testing ... one zero one one one zero...

Re:Linux?

[Scaba]

I'm in. I'll take care of abandoning the Sourceforge site.

Re:Does this mean....

[Pharmboy]

Found on ZDNET....

Symantic released its first verions of Norton Anti-Virus for Guitar today, due to the recent flood of attacks by Fender users. The latest virus, "Head Banger" delivered a payload that caused the guitars to play John Tesh music, and spread through the PA to infect other instruments. It was estimated that within 10 minutes of its initial release into the wild, over 10,000 band's were infected....

Re:Does this mean....

[Lord_Slepnir]

Just wait until Lord_Nikron Hacks your Gibson.

Hack a concert?`

[sethadam1]

If the guitar outputs IP over cat5, how long until it's wireless. And that will usher in a whole new era of hacking/cracking.

Imagine when you can smuggle your 802.11 handheld into a concert and hack guitar feed, playing your favorite music intead of the guitar track!?

Re:Wireless ?

[mshultz]

Have you guys watched Spinal Tap lately? There's that scene where the guys are playing a gig at a military base, and Nigel Tufnel's (a.k.a. Christopher Guest) wireless RF guitar system starts picking up the military base's radio broadcasts...

Re:Benefits?

[darien]

They need to get it up to three if they want to compete with the Fender Strat though. That, or start publicising "the pickups myth."

It just means that...

[Nick Driver]

...this one goes to 11Mbps

what this can do

[Chris Burkhardt]

We've been following this one for awhile, I'm really curious to see what something like this can do.

I'm really curious also, though I do have an idea as to what it might be used for: making music. or something like that.

Smoke on the Water & Stairway to Heaven

[xixax]

The world would be a safer place if guitars had a "reasonable use" provision built into the DRM that would: Only let the riff to "Smoke on the Water" be played up to 3 times without a licence; Never allow "Stairway to Heaven" be played within the confines of a music shop (add Bluetooth so the guitar can detect that there are many other guitars nearby).

Actually, Bluetooth would be cool, there'd be no excuse for instruments not to be in tune with each other.

Xix.