It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here—I’ll spare you the boring details, but I’m finally back, and there will be a lot more action in this blog and on the Ember After site in general from now on.

I thought I’d restart the Geartalk blog by mentioning a forthcoming guitar from Gibson that has really fired up—pardon the pun—my imagination: the Dark Fire Les Paul Guitar.

Gibson Dark Fire

I play guitar synth, and I love piezos mixed with electric pickups.  This guitar has piezos and 13-pin MIDI-ready capability.  I’d love to be able to record a really clean direct guitar, but the current crop of USB guitar cables aren’t really up to professional use.  This guitar has FireWire.  It’s got automatic electronic tuners for instant tuning or alternate tuning.  Read Gibson’s teaser text, this guitar looks like it’s got the goods.  And like Fender’s VG Strat, when push comes to shove, this is a Les Paul, so you can just play it like an LP and forget about the technology if you want to.

I’m willing to bet that this beautiful guitar will come with a really ugly price.  Of course, as a left-handed guitar player, I have nothing to worry about—they won’t make a lefty anyway.  Still, its great to see a major manufacturer developing a guitar that tries to push the envelope and offer guitarists some modern technology in a classic package.  I hope this guitar does incredibly well for Gibson, and takes the instrument that much further.  I’ll definitely be watching how it is received when its officially on the market.