Let’s face it: the electric guitar hasn’t changed much because most of the players of said instrument are very conservative in what they think the sound should be (I mean come on, do I REALLY want my guitar to sound “just like Jimi Hendrix?” and I LIKE Hendrix!) and the guitar manufacturers have figured out that those are the folks who are buying the instruments.

Until we see wide-spread acceptance of the ability to easily make the guitar sound radically different, there is no “revolution” only the vaguest of evolution. Brian Moore’s is the bolder step…by actually being able to plug directly into the computer and offload the signal processing to the computer via USB connection does border on the revolutionary (though I can do that now with an iMic and Garage Band and I’d REALLY rather be doing this with Firewire).

I would welcome string-level control over the aural qualities of my instrument and in some ways that is precisely what Godin, Washburn, Moore, and others are offering me by linking the guitar via hexaphonic pickups to the Roland, Yamaha, and Axxon MIIDI-interfaces. At least the output STAYS digital, unlike the Gibson process.

Digital Revolution, indeed!