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Would that be the Gibson Guitars with the 13 thousand square metre factory in downtown Memphis, Tennesee?

The very same Gibson guitar foundation that was raided found to have used illegally logged Madagascan Ebony?

Twice?

Protip: If you have to make shit up to support your position, your position is very probably wrong.

This is about as original as you're going to get:
http://www.gibson.com/absolutenm/templates/featuretemplatepressrelease_rss.aspx?articleid=1340&zoneid=6

I don't know what you're talking about when you say "original sources", unless you mean the DOJ court filings. You're not going to find "original sources" for everything else, including the way the raids were conducted, etc., unless you go to Gibson's plant and interview the people there yourself. Of course, this is the job of the media, but obviously they're not doing it, because they're too busy reporting on the latest activities of the Kardashians. So you're stuck with getting the real news wherever you can find it.

The only "proof" I have is news articles like that one. Google for "Gibson DOJ" and you'll see much more, though a lot of them point to the same sources. If you're looking for something on cnn.com or whatever, forget it, it doesn't exist. The MSM doesn't cover a lot of things, as they have an agenda to protect.

It's amazing the kind of things you'll find on both right-wing and left-wing sources like this one. Obviously, you'll find different things on the two sources, and it'll be biased in different ways, but whether it's left-wing or right-wing, there's a ton of things going on that simply are not being covered in the MSM. And no, Fox News is NOT right-wing; they're "corporate-wing" just like the rest of the MSM.

There is, however, a press release on Gibson's web site:
http://www.gibson.com/absolutenm/templates/featuretemplatepressrelease_rss.aspx?articleid=1340&zoneid=6

If this isn't good enough for you, I suggest you complain to your favorite MSM source about them not covering this, and instead spending their time covering the Kardashians or whatever.

Sounds crazy but it is documented:

Gibson Guitar Corp. Responds to Federal Raid

âoeThe Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Departmentâ(TM)s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.â
Gibson Guitar tangled in Madagascar wood law

Gibson has now become the first company in the world to be investigated, though not yet charged, with violating new provisions of a 100-year-old law called the Lacy Act. It says a plant can't be taken or a tree cut in another country against its own laws, and secondly, that illegal plant can't be taken into the United States.
  But was the wood found at Gibson cut or traded illegally?
  "Historically and currently, the laws of Madagascar have allowed for the exportation of ebony and rosewood in certain finished forms, fingerboards being one," said Bruce Mitchell, Gibson's attorney.
  Guitar components called fingerboards were taken in the raid. The inlay and fret lines were added in Nashville, but Gibson said even what appeared to be bare pieces were not unfinished.
  "Finished isn't an English dictionary term; it's a legal term in Madagascar. It's defined, and the law specifically defines a fingerboard blank as a finished good," said Juszkiewicz. "It's not illegal. It's not illegal under Madagascar law. You can't argue with the facts."

To further clarify, here's a copy/paste from a /. post of mine on this topic a couple days ago. The links near the bottom are particularly enlightening.

I actually called the Indian Embassy. They say they did not file any complaints to anyone about the rosewood, and do not support the raid on Gibson.

Further, the rosewood in question *is* finished into pre-cut & polished fingerboard slabs, was inspected & OK'd for export by Indian authorities, and for import by US Customs (Gibson ain't sneaking this stuff into the country in jungle-built subs, after all, like cocaine!).

AFAICT, Gibson is also the only major US guitar maker that's in a "right-to-work" state. Gibson has also contributed to Republican campaigns. All major US guitar makers that I know of use Indian rosewood and other CITES regulated materials, yet Gibson is the only maker that's been raided (twice since '09!) and had guitars and wood seized.

Gibson is in trouble because the DOJ, in it's infinite wisdom, thinks that the finished fretboard pieces they got from India, although they were deemed OK for export by India and OK'd for import by US Customs aren't, in the F&W's/DOJ's opinion, "finished enough" according to the *F&W'sDOJ's interpretation* of Indian export laws (NOT India's interpretation of THEIR OWN LAW!!...they filed no complaint and don't support the F&W's/DOJ's actions)...and therefor in violation of the amended-in-2008 Lacey Act despite all statements and evidence to the contrary, even from India.

The first raid on Gibson in '09, as far as I can determine, was based upon statements made by either F&W and/or the DOJ to a judge, asserting that they believed some portion/part of the chain-of-custody paperwork was forged, in order to obtain a warrant to raid & search Gibson facilities. So far, NO CHARGES have been filed regarding the '09 raid & seizure, and the DOJ has had the judge delay indefinitely any further court proceedings, leaving some $500K-$1M in guitars & materials seized from Gibson in limbo.

Not necessarily that *Gibson* forged, had forged, or knew of any forging of any documents (could have been any of the suppliers/warehousers/transporters in the chain), but according to the letter of the amended portion of the Lacey Act, *who* forged them, why, or who had knowledge of any irregularity was immaterial, and the Act as written didn't protect Gibson (or any other US company or individual) for criminal or civil liability for acts outside their knowledge or control...called "strict liability"...which was one of the things those opposed to passage of the amendment to the Lacey Act were against due to it's unfairness.

Here's just one example of Lacey Act injustice that put an innocent man in jail for 8 years!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHvJ6ld_Mic

Here's a piece on the difficulties that individual musicians now face in traveling with guitars and other wood instruments because of CITES: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/magazine/guitar-lover%E2%80%99s-guide-cites-conservation-treaty

Here's a couple of links to Gibson regarding the raids:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/ceo-outrage-0826-2011/

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/

I'm not against conservation at all. However, the jack-booted ham-handedness with which the laws are written, interpreted, and enforced should be an outrage to anyone.

Strat

To further clarify, here's a copy/paste from a /. post of mine on this topic a couple days ago. The links near the bottom are particularly enlightening.

I actually called the Indian Embassy. They say they did not file any complaints to anyone about the rosewood, and do not support the raid on Gibson.

Further, the rosewood in question *is* finished into pre-cut & polished fingerboard slabs, was inspected & OK'd for export by Indian authorities, and for import by US Customs (Gibson ain't sneaking this stuff into the country in jungle-built subs, after all, like cocaine!).

AFAICT, Gibson is also the only major US guitar maker that's in a "right-to-work" state. Gibson has also contributed to Republican campaigns. All major US guitar makers that I know of use Indian rosewood and other CITES regulated materials, yet Gibson is the only maker that's been raided (twice since '09!) and had guitars and wood seized.

Gibson is in trouble because the DOJ, in it's infinite wisdom, thinks that the finished fretboard pieces they got from India, although they were deemed OK for export by India and OK'd for import by US Customs aren't, in the F&W's/DOJ's opinion, "finished enough" according to the *F&W'sDOJ's interpretation* of Indian export laws (NOT India's interpretation of THEIR OWN LAW!!...they filed no complaint and don't support the F&W's/DOJ's actions)...and therefor in violation of the amended-in-2008 Lacey Act despite all statements and evidence to the contrary, even from India.

The first raid on Gibson in '09, as far as I can determine, was based upon statements made by either F&W and/or the DOJ to a judge, asserting that they believed some portion/part of the chain-of-custody paperwork was forged, in order to obtain a warrant to raid & search Gibson facilities. So far, NO CHARGES have been filed regarding the '09 raid & seizure, and the DOJ has had the judge delay indefinitely any further court proceedings, leaving some $500K-$1M in guitars & materials seized from Gibson in limbo.

Not necessarily that *Gibson* forged, had forged, or knew of any forging of any documents (could have been any of the suppliers/warehousers/transporters in the chain), but according to the letter of the amended portion of the Lacey Act, *who* forged them, why, or who had knowledge of any irregularity was immaterial, and the Act as written didn't protect Gibson (or any other US company or individual) for criminal or civil liability for acts outside their knowledge or control...called "strict liability"...which was one of the things those opposed to passage of the amendment to the Lacey Act were against due to it's unfairness.

Here's just one example of Lacey Act injustice that put an innocent man in jail for 8 years!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHvJ6ld_Mic

Here's a piece on the difficulties that individual musicians now face in traveling with guitars and other wood instruments because of CITES: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/magazine/guitar-lover%E2%80%99s-guide-cites-conservation-treaty

Here's a couple of links to Gibson regarding the raids:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/ceo-outrage-0826-2011/

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/

I'm not against conservation at all. However, the jack-booted ham-handedness with which the laws are written, interpreted, and enforced should be an outrage to anyone.

Strat

Maybe you can say "for suspicion of lying"... This is the second such raid. The first raid produced no evidence of lying or any malfeasance.

Have a look at what Juszkiewicz (CEO of Gibson) has to say about the raids and what is being charged:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/Michelle-Obama-French-406/

Of course, since it's a Gibson press release, it's obviously biased and will be easily dismissed by all correct-thinking people.

The wood isn't illegal. India is protesting because they insist that the wood be processesed, in India, by Indian workers, before Gibson gets it. The state department is enforcing India's claim.

This isn't a matter of ecology, it's just business as usual.

I'm a semi-pro guitarist/musician. This stuff impacts me directly.

I actually called the Indian Embassy. They say they did not file any complaints to anyone about the rosewood, and do not support the raid on Gibson.

Further, the rosewood in question *is* finished into pre-cut & polished fingerboard slabs, was inspected & OK'd for export by Indian authorities, and for import by US Customs (Gibson ain't sneaking this stuff into the country in jungle-built subs, after all, like cocaine!).

AFAICT, Gibson is also the only major US guitar maker that's in a "right-to-work" state. Gibson has also contributed to Republican campaigns. All major US guitar makers that I know of use Indian rosewood and other CITES regulated materials, yet Gibson is the only maker that's been raided (twice since '09!) and had guitars and wood seized.

Gibson is in trouble because the DOJ, in it's infinite wisdom, thinks that the finished fretboard pieces they got from India, although they were deemed OK for export by India and OK'd for import by US Customs aren't, in the F&W's/DOJ's opinion, "finished enough" according to the *F&W'sDOJ's interpretation* of Indian export laws (NOT India's interpretation of THEIR OWN LAW!!...they filed no complaint and don't support the F&W's/DOJ's actions)...and therefor in violation of the amended-in-2008 Lacey Act despite all statements and evidence to the contrary, even from India.

The first raid on Gibson in '09, as far as I can determine, was based upon statements made by either F&W and/or the DOJ to a judge, asserting that they believed some portion/part of the chain-of-custody paperwork was forged, in order to obtain a warrant to raid & search Gibson facilities. So far, NO CHARGES have been filed regarding the '09 raid & seizure, and the DOJ has had the judge delay indefinitely any further court proceedings, leaving some $500K-$1M in guitars & materials seized from Gibson in limbo.

Not necessarily that *Gibson* forged, had forged, or knew of any forging of any documents (could have been any of the suppliers/warehousers/transporters in the chain), but according to the letter of the amended portion of the Lacey Act, *who* forged them, why, or who had knowledge of any irregularity was immaterial, and the Act as written didn't protect Gibson (or any other US company or individual) for criminal or civil liability for acts outside their knowledge or control...called "strict liability"...which was one of the things those opposed to passage of the amendment to the Lacey Act were against due to it's unfairness.

Here's just one example of Lacey Act injustice that put an innocent man in jail for 8 years!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHvJ6ld_Mic

Here's a piece on the difficulties that individual musicians now face in traveling with guitars and other wood instruments because of CITES: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/magazine/guitar-lover%E2%80%99s-guide-cites-conservation-treaty

Here's a couple of links to Gibson regarding the raids:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/ceo-outrage-0826-2011/

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/

I'm not against conservation at all. However, the jack-booted ham-handedness with which the laws are written, interpreted, and enforced should be an outrage to anyone.

Strat

The wood isn't illegal. India is protesting because they insist that the wood be processesed, in India, by Indian workers, before Gibson gets it. The state department is enforcing India's claim.

This isn't a matter of ecology, it's just business as usual.

I'm a semi-pro guitarist/musician. This stuff impacts me directly.

I actually called the Indian Embassy. They say they did not file any complaints to anyone about the rosewood, and do not support the raid on Gibson.

Further, the rosewood in question *is* finished into pre-cut & polished fingerboard slabs, was inspected & OK'd for export by Indian authorities, and for import by US Customs (Gibson ain't sneaking this stuff into the country in jungle-built subs, after all, like cocaine!).

AFAICT, Gibson is also the only major US guitar maker that's in a "right-to-work" state. Gibson has also contributed to Republican campaigns. All major US guitar makers that I know of use Indian rosewood and other CITES regulated materials, yet Gibson is the only maker that's been raided (twice since '09!) and had guitars and wood seized.

Gibson is in trouble because the DOJ, in it's infinite wisdom, thinks that the finished fretboard pieces they got from India, although they were deemed OK for export by India and OK'd for import by US Customs aren't, in the F&W's/DOJ's opinion, "finished enough" according to the *F&W'sDOJ's interpretation* of Indian export laws (NOT India's interpretation of THEIR OWN LAW!!...they filed no complaint and don't support the F&W's/DOJ's actions)...and therefor in violation of the amended-in-2008 Lacey Act despite all statements and evidence to the contrary, even from India.

The first raid on Gibson in '09, as far as I can determine, was based upon statements made by either F&W and/or the DOJ to a judge, asserting that they believed some portion/part of the chain-of-custody paperwork was forged, in order to obtain a warrant to raid & search Gibson facilities. So far, NO CHARGES have been filed regarding the '09 raid & seizure, and the DOJ has had the judge delay indefinitely any further court proceedings, leaving some $500K-$1M in guitars & materials seized from Gibson in limbo.

Not necessarily that *Gibson* forged, had forged, or knew of any forging of any documents (could have been any of the suppliers/warehousers/transporters in the chain), but according to the letter of the amended portion of the Lacey Act, *who* forged them, why, or who had knowledge of any irregularity was immaterial, and the Act as written didn't protect Gibson (or any other US company or individual) for criminal or civil liability for acts outside their knowledge or control...called "strict liability"...which was one of the things those opposed to passage of the amendment to the Lacey Act were against due to it's unfairness.

Here's just one example of Lacey Act injustice that put an innocent man in jail for 8 years!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHvJ6ld_Mic

Here's a piece on the difficulties that individual musicians now face in traveling with guitars and other wood instruments because of CITES: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/magazine/guitar-lover%E2%80%99s-guide-cites-conservation-treaty

Here's a couple of links to Gibson regarding the raids:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/ceo-outrage-0826-2011/

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/

I'm not against conservation at all. However, the jack-booted ham-handedness with which the laws are written, interpreted, and enforced should be an outrage to anyone.

Strat

Look into which guitar company contributes to which candidate(s) and which party.

And then consider this happened two years ago, and no cases were filed from that incident, nor were the confiscated materials returned

Here's the conversation on the Gibson forums if anyone is interested...

...because I've been offered a guitar, I'm pissed off to the point I'll do something tangible in my life.

Just a slight edit: Drop the line above and use this snippet below.
<snip>
I'm pissed off to the point I'll do something tangible with my life, so i have bought a pair of leather pants and a CASIO keyboard.
</snip>

That will really fuck them.

Dear SACEM and record companies selling stuff in France,

Because of the HADOPI law and the way you treated your potential customers for the past years, because of the fact that I have to pay a "copyright" tax on every blank media I buy, and because I've been offered a guitar, I'm pissed off to the point I'll do something tangible in my life.

TV has already been replaced mostly by books, tabletop games, and a few YouTube videos every other week. As for music, I'm learning the guitar, I don't need you anymore, I won't give you my money anymore, it's over, I'll make my own music and entertain my family by myself.

Also, fuck you...

Sure he did. See here

Pete Townsend did play a Les Paul, but only from 1972 to 1979. If you are looking for an iconic posterboy for the Gibson Les Paul, try Jimmy Page. Other notables include Slash, Joe Perry, and Ace Frehley. Here is a list of of 15 iconic Les Paul players from Gibson.

A tube amp driven to distortion compresses the waveform rather than hard clipping. This results in a waveform rich in harmonic overtones - the classic distorted guitar sound.

Especially when it's one of these played through one of these.

Actually, you should RTFA. The Gibson solution "PHYSICALLY" tunes the strings, not virtually like the Line 6.

The new Fender VG Strat has a virtual mode that acts as you describe.

From all the press, this new Gibson is the real deal.

Hopefully my wife will "approve" another "investment".

http://www.gibson.com/DigitalGuitarNew/gibsonDigital.html

yes, let's all say it together, "imagine a Beowulf cluster of these..."

The Gibson Pure Audio 500GB Hard Drive

The Signature Series Les Paul Standard 1GB Flash Drive

The Les Paul Standard Flash Drive

and finally...a mirror copy of this??

The Gibson Pure Audio 500GB Hard Drive

The Signature Series Les Paul Standard 1GB Flash Drive

The Les Paul Standard Flash Drive

and finally...a mirror copy of this??

The Gibson Pure Audio 500GB Hard Drive

The Signature Series Les Paul Standard 1GB Flash Drive

The Les Paul Standard Flash Drive

and finally...a mirror copy of this??

The Gibson Pure Audio 500GB Hard Drive

The Signature Series Les Paul Standard 1GB Flash Drive

The Les Paul Standard Flash Drive

and finally...a mirror copy of this??

I agree, the guitar is looking sweet. It lends itself to customization through stickers or paint. I think they referenced the design from an existing Gibson model.

"He would smash his guitar to pieces because he felt he'd played so badly and find the crowd loving it all the more." No, I mean Jimi Hendrix, although I know Pete's been doing it, too. I have no idea who was first, though.

Can it be networked with the Gibson guitar with built-in ethernet?

...and a TV Show, and a bass guitar, and an MBA school (?!), a civilised (cough cough) 'fortified wine' ...not to mention a religious icon of the People Who Were Here First Before You Came, Took Away Our Land and Tried to Kill Our Culture .

Probably a lot of prior art.

I thought they were named after the brother/sister guitar and bass made by Gibson.

The Firebird is a 6-string guitar, and the Thunderbird is a 4-string bass - both made by the Gibson guitar company.

Below are links to the respective instruments:
Gibson Firebird guitar.

Gibson Thunderbird bass guitar.

I thought they were named after the brother/sister guitar and bass made by Gibson.

The Firebird is a 6-string guitar, and the Thunderbird is a 4-string bass - both made by the Gibson guitar company.

Below are links to the respective instruments:
Gibson Firebird guitar.

Gibson Thunderbird bass guitar.

I thought they were named after the brother/sister guitar and bass made by Gibson.

The Firebird is a 6-string guitar, and the Thunderbird is a 4-string bass - both made by the Gibson guitar company.

Below are links to the respective instruments:
Gibson Firebird guitar.

Gibson Thunderbird bass guitar.

The Gibson Magic spec included 802.3af support - that's how they're getting the power to their new Les Paul guitar that sends out an 24/96 audio per string. Makes sense - it's bad enough having an RJ-45 socket on your guitar, even if ruggedized, you don't want extra power cables too...

The Gibson Magic spec included 802.3af support - that's how they're getting the power to their new Les Paul guitar that sends out an 24/96 audio per string. Makes sense - it's bad enough having an RJ-45 socket on your guitar, even if ruggedized, you don't want extra power cables too...

Have you checked out this before?

http://magic.gibson.com/index.html

Firebird and Thunderbird were strangely shaped Lead and Bass guitars made by Gibson during the 60s. Perhaps they're going to name the IRC client 'Pearl' and form a band.

A guitarist can run a cable over 2000 meters with no loss of audio quality. (http://magic.gibson.com/digitalguitar.html)

That looks like regular Cat-5 UTP to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't UTP supposed to be limited to 100m unrepeated? Regardless, what would the use be for a 2km guitar cable?

Here is a more relevant link than the one listed in the article. But since Gibson's site seems to be taking a good slashdotting, here's a mirror of that page and one of the original, too (sorry, no graphics...site went down before I could get them).

Also, from what I'm inferring, this is kind of a ripoff of line6's guitars, which also use a hex pickup and do analog->digital conversion on chip inside the guitar (there's even some OSS software people have developed for the amps). So not really a new idea by any means, but certainly one that could stand to be made a bit more widespread.

Personally, I'd rather see the guitar be something that is a purely acoustic/analog instrument (who the hell wants to 'upgrade' a Gibson when the computing hardware becomes obsolete), and do all the digital effects on an actual computer, which will probably generate better sound given the greater amount of processing power.

But the question is - will it change anything?

Better link here

Some of the highlights:
A guitarist can run a cable over 2000 meters with no loss of audio quality.
and
The best part of the Gibson Digital Guitar system is its delivery of signal processing on a string-by-string basis, providing increased quality and flexibility.

In simple terms, you can do more stuff better. Reminds me of S-Video.
My mind is spinning.

Anyone who's ever owned a les paul or tele can attest to that (strats have a slightly better cord placement).

As for the usefullness of this? I don't know if having each string routed to a different amp is going to make better music or be useful at all. For one thing, I don't have SIX amps! Something tells me that a les paul wired through a marshall half stack at 11+ is still the way to go. ;)

SUMMARY: GIBSON GUITAR CORPORATION vs. D.N. CROWE
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/summary.html

REPORTS OF THESE DEATHS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/reports.html

A SETTLEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/

It is also useful to see how Gibson handled the acquisition of Opcode.

Gibson vs. Opcode
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/645 4/

Somewhere on the Harmony Central website are some sobering remarks on Gibson's rebranding of third-party products as Opcode. I can't find the links at the moment, but the bottom line is that the goodwill associated with Opcode trademark has been squandered; one hopes that the same fate will not befall Gibson's efforts with the Magic platform.

If only they had open-sourced Opcode's software!

SUMMARY: GIBSON GUITAR CORPORATION vs. D.N. CROWE
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/summary.html

REPORTS OF THESE DEATHS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/reports.html

A SETTLEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/

It is also useful to see how Gibson handled the acquisition of Opcode.

Gibson vs. Opcode
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/645 4/

Somewhere on the Harmony Central website are some sobering remarks on Gibson's rebranding of third-party products as Opcode. I can't find the links at the moment, but the bottom line is that the goodwill associated with Opcode trademark has been squandered; one hopes that the same fate will not befall Gibson's efforts with the Magic platform.

If only they had open-sourced Opcode's software!

SUMMARY: GIBSON GUITAR CORPORATION vs. D.N. CROWE
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/summary.html

REPORTS OF THESE DEATHS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/reports.html

A SETTLEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/

It is also useful to see how Gibson handled the acquisition of Opcode.

Gibson vs. Opcode
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/645 4/

Somewhere on the Harmony Central website are some sobering remarks on Gibson's rebranding of third-party products as Opcode. I can't find the links at the moment, but the bottom line is that the goodwill associated with Opcode trademark has been squandered; one hopes that the same fate will not befall Gibson's efforts with the Magic platform.

If only they had open-sourced Opcode's software!

SUMMARY: GIBSON GUITAR CORPORATION vs. D.N. CROWE
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/summary.html

REPORTS OF THESE DEATHS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/reports.html

A SETTLEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED http://stephengoldin.com/gibson/

It is also useful to see how Gibson handled the acquisition of Opcode.

Gibson vs. Opcode
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/645 4/

Somewhere on the Harmony Central website are some sobering remarks on Gibson's rebranding of third-party products as Opcode. I can't find the links at the moment, but the bottom line is that the goodwill associated with Opcode trademark has been squandered; one hopes that the same fate will not befall Gibson's efforts with the Magic platform.

If only they had open-sourced Opcode's software!

Just because Ethernet is used PRIMARILY for networking doesn't mean that it can't be used for other purposes. It is just a data transfer medium.

Look at what Gibson Guitars is doing with it in their MaGIC technology.

Clearly it COULD be used as a hard drive interface. In fact, the whole Network Attached Storage (NAS) business basically uses it that way.

Say your playing in a big band, and every song in your 20 song set has different volume, tone, and pickup combinations. Well you set this all up ahead of time in a computer, and it can automatically send tone, volume, and pickup combo settings to the guitar.

This can further be extended by a prototype guitar by a man in Sonoma, CA. Steve Klein (helped design the Taylor Bass.. very cool), has a new guitar which can tune itself. Imagine one of these babies with ethernet capability. You could have time, or manually cued changes to a great combination of options; volume, tone, tuning, and pickup combination. This would leave the guitar player free to play, rather than have to futz around with tunings, volume, and all that stuff.

Also, throw some sort of sensor on each string and you may be able to detect string breaks before they happen. Red light pops up on the guitar tech's station and signals that the lead guitarist is about to blow a b-string. That can get swapped out before that moment when you break it in the middle of the Freebird solo.

Heck, in the future, every effect pedal could have this on it, hook it all up to a small touch screen clamped onto the mic stand, and voila, all the effects controls magically at your fingertips, rather than at your feet. The additional benefit of this is that it allows the sound or instrument technician to see the settings at his station as well for any person on such a system

Yet another idea, why not put this onto amps. Have feedback sensing, and cut the volume level when you surpass a preferred level. Hook the amp up to the touchscreen and have all the controls for it availible to the player.

Personally I would rather use this a a control mechanism rather than a sound transfer system, because I just have my doubts that they can accurately reproduce the spectrum accurately enough to satisfy me. I could see a system where you have two or more inputs into the guitar, the first being the ethernet, and the additional being a 1/4" jack and possibly and XLR jack on the guitar also. Package a system that contains a 802.11, and wireless, spread spectrum audio into a belt sized system, and I bet you would be able to rake in the cash from tech-savy guitarists(which believe it or not, is a lot of them)

Of course, you'd never see me using this stuff, I have come to rather dislike playing my electric guitar. Give me a Martin HD-35 miced into a California Blonde, and I'll play all day. I personally prefer the ability to control every little nuance of my performance by adjusting not the effects, but the way I play the instrument.

Steve

For such a historic guitar company, Gibson has put out so much crap in the last ten years it's not funny. I used to work ina guitar store and have to deal with these idiots all the time. some of what they think are good marketing ideas include:

this

and also

this!

And no, i won't be putting ethernet on my Gibson. Experience and simple physics dictates that the cord itself from the high-impedance guitar electronics to the amplifier input also colors the tone, and i'm not going to give up that coloration. Digitizing at 16bit/44.1khz "CD quality" commits absolute horrors on the subtleties of good tone (this can be mostly defeated with sufficient bandwidth, ie 24bit/96khz, but the Philips/Sony "Perfect Sound Forever" format is a crime against music).


The spec claims 32 channels of high fidelity (32 bit, up to 192 kHz) audio. So, that should be "sufficient".

If you want the coloration of your audio chord, then don't use this.

And of course, you can plug this into a DAC and then into an amp if you want the tubes to massage the signal.

This is just a clean way to transmit digital audio around a stage or studio. That's good, not bad.

From the MaGIC spec:

4.1 IEEE 802.3 Compatibility

MaGIC shares a common physical layer with Ethernet. It is UDP compatible and is
similar to UDP in that it has no handshaking protocol or retransmission ability.

Each individual link occupies the entire bandwidth of a discrete 100baseT link in full
duplex mode. This is necessary to provide the bandwidth needed for live synchronous
audio.

Therefore, MaGIC may only be said to be compatible with Ethernet at its lowest physical
layer of abstraction.


So, that explains MaGIC's relationship to ethernet. And as to why "people keep reinventing the wheel", they do that when they need a wheel to do something novel, as in this case.

Maybe they could have used exactly RS-232. No, wait, what they did is better.

So, no, it's not "ethernet" in the sense that it complies fully across all layers and clauses of the 802.3 standard for some application. It's simply the same physical and link layers to permit use of standard connectors, media, and other physical-layer hardware.

The actual MaGIC spec is available from Gibson's site.