CES 2014: Stefan Lindsay Demonstrates the gTar (Video)

It looks like an ordinary electric guitar, except for a little LED screen on its body and blinking lights up and down the fretboard that show you where your fingers should go. But the gTar, besides being "The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play," hooks to your iPhone. The gTar app includes "...a variety of classical guitar pieces, modern rock, pop, and everything in between." The gTar Kickstarter campaign in 2012 raised $353,392 even though it only asked for $100,000. The company that makes the gTar, Incident Technologies, started in a garage in Cupertino (Silicon Valley) and is now located in San Francisco after several moves caused by the company's rapid growth. On their Support page they say, "We don't have a brick-and-mortar location for you to try the gTar yet, but we're working on it. In the meantime, check us out at events like Maker Faire, TechCrunch Disrupt, and many others."

Comments

"First?"

[Jethro]

I remember seeing ads in Guitar Magazine and the like decades ago for guitars with LEDs in the fretboard that teach you how to play. I remember seeing an infomercial-type thing where they had Mark Knopfler play with one.

I find it fairly interesting how a lot of things labelled as the "first" to do something are really not.

Re:"First?"

[Anrego]

My view (as someone who learned guitar the old fashioned way (you know, through youtube videos..)) is this might act as a stepping stone (kinda like rocksmith and even rockband) to get someone through the dull and tedious part where you can't do anything besides make your fingertips really sore.

I kinda see two use cases for this thing:
-people who buy it, use it mostly like a toy for a while, then eventually put it in the closet
-people who play around with it, and gradually transition to a traditional guitar / traditional learning approach

One thing I find really interesting about these new learning aids is the focus on "just start playing, learn technique later" vice the approach I (and probably most people who currently play guitar) generally took of learning chords and scales first.

Does an unwillingness to grind things out the old way make one unworthy of music? Personally I think if this gets more people into music than it's a force of good.

Re:"First?"

[bobbied]

I find it fairly interesting how a lot of things labelled as the "first" to do something are really not.

Yet you get the award for "first post" on this thread... There has to be irony in this...

Anybody can play a normal guitar

[Threni]

if they practice. Perhaps this'll not sound awful it people play it without practicing. I guess if you load it with MP3s of somebody good, that'll do the trick.
Still, you can at least plug it into a computer, run linux on it, so it'll provide some fun before you shove it under the bed with your expensive digital cameras and electronic book readers.

Neat idea.

[Xoltri]

Kinda neat, but I've been using Rocksmith 2014 now and it's really improved my playing and most importantly given me the drive to play more, and on the plus side you use a regular electric guitar that is a real instrument.

Re:Neat idea.

[chesapeake]

I know what you mean in regards to developing muscle memory. Rocksmith 2014 seems to have improved in this way - after a few plays it seems to be more stable in terms of song difficulty. In other ways, Rocksmith 2014 is all around a big improvement from the perspective of someone who could already play bass (not particularly well, but ok), but not guitar. I suspect it's probably better for the absolute beginner as well, but seeing as I didn't choose that option when setting up my profile, I have no idea how it eases you into playing.

I really do wish that there was a way to show proper score instead of the 'tab' though. Another wish would be "half-master mode" where instead of hiding the tab completely, you just get lyrics + chords to work around (for bass).

Still, I'd strongly suggest buying a decent second-hand guitar or bass and a copy of Rocksmith rather than a probably quite poor quality guitar with flashy LEDs.

You lost me at...

[tedgyz]

"hooks to your iPhone"

Why is it everyone targets the iphone first, despite far more android phones in the market? Is it that iDiots more easily part with their money?

Re:You lost me at...

[Adult film producer]

He does mention in the video there are latency issues with Android that prevents them from writing useable software for the guitar.

Re:You lost me at...

[dbraden]

Apart from Android not providing the needed levels of latency, the iPhone has a marketshare of 42% in the U.S., which is a really big chunk. iPhone owners are also easier to monetize (they are more likely to actually buy stuff from the app store).

Rocksmith 2014

[Anonymous Coward]

Rocksmith 2014 will actually teach you to play guitar and songs. I'd go with that first where you can use any electric guitar with it.

Not to be confused with...

[ThatsDrDangerToYou]

... a gnu version of tar.

As A Guitarist...

[CanHasDIY]

As a person who's been a mediocre guitarist for over a decade, I both like and dislike this Slashvertised product.

Pros:
- The bridge looks kinda neat
- with the right software, music teachers would find it very useful for teaching scales and other basics
- $400 isn't *exceedingly* expensive

Cons:
- $400 for a specialty instrument is kinda expensive
- Ugly. As. Sin.
- HUGE, awkward body. I sure as hell won't be teaching anybody with short arms to play with this thing
- Light up fretboard only encourages you to stare at it while you play, which you're really not supposed to do (I do, but as I already implied, I'm not very good)
- More fancy electronics == more stuff to break
- WTF is that slotted thing at the end of the fretboard? A pickup? Some sort of crazy vibration arrestor?
- I can't see a 1/4" jack anywhere on that thing... how am I supposed to hook it into my Marshall?
- I don't have or want an iPhone
- from the website: "we have a free SDK that can be used to build all kinds of applications on the gTar" Oh, great, so my fucking geet-box is going to have proprietary software on it? No thanks.

I'm sure there are plenty more pros/cons, but that's what I've got so far.

Rocksmith or Bandfuse

[Bigbutt]

Both of these let you plug a real electric guitar in to your Xbox360 or PS3. Rocksmith also works on a Windows box and Rocksmith 2014 also works on a Mac platform.

BandFuse is TAB based where Rocksmith looks more like Guitar Hero (as I understand, I never played the plastic controller "guitar" games) with a note highway.

Rocksmith 2014 (newest) has 50+ songs available and 20 or 30 more DLC songs released since Oct 22nd 2013 when it was released. It's also capable of using any of the DLC and original content from Original Rocksmith ($9.99 transfer fee for the on disk content and if you're on a Windows or Mac platform, you must own the Original Rocksmith for access to the Original Rocksmith DLC).

For the $400 cost for a gTar you can get a real electric guitar that yes, you have to actually tune and start to play songs.

I did take lessons before the first Rocksmith came out so I have a year of some training first. I do like Rocksmith (I have a Windows and Mac system so don't have BandFuse) and have really enjoyed practice and playing the almost 1,000 arrangements available for the game.

[John]

Re:Looks pretty awful...

[craighansen]

There is NO pickup. The strings are not tuned. (Yes, I was surprised to read this too.)

Sometime the old methods are best.

[DeathElk]

I see no advantage to this.. thing over traditional blood, sweat and tears learning methods. The thing doesn't even tune. The most fundamental part of learning any instrument is feeling the natural acoustic harmonics generated when the instrument is slightly out of tune, compared to when it is in tune. This is ear training, and no shortcuts can be taken there. This device can not replicate that. Even an unplugged electric guitar generates audible harmonics that are fundamental to learning music.

The other issue I have is the requirement to concentrate wholly on the fretboard, not the score. This method may teach the student a few scales, licks or songs, but they will not develop the subconscious fingering accuracy required to truly advance. This will only come by throwing away this.. thing, and buying a proper guitar.

I already use gtar ...

[dbIII]

I already use gtar, because Solaris tar tends to bomb out at 2GB.

Re:I already use gtar ...

[dbIII]

... but.. does the compression go to 11

Yep - really zips along.