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Gittler Guitar/Is too much traditionalism a bad thing when it comes to guitars?


fraroc
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The Gittler guitar is essentially a stainless steel headless guitar built in an incredibly minimalist fashion. There is no fretboard, meaning the strings literally float above the frets, basically making it similar to playing a Malmsteen style scalloped guitar.

 

Personally, I think this instrument looks cool as hell and it's just begging to be played with all sorts of effects and MIDI systems.

 

However, not everybody shares my view, and one thing I noticed is that a lot of guitar players are very traditionalist when it comes to their views on instrument, which usually translate into being an asshole on Youtube comments sections about this instrument. I personally think this is just people whining because they don't like change.

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Ok, once you get beyond the guy's incessant hyping for nearly all of the video, you hear about 20 seconds of someone actually playing. It was like watching a porn movie when you wish they would just shut-up and get to it. Aaaaaaand...it sounds like any other guitar, so what's the point?

 

This was developed in the 70s, handful were made and none really in use. So just another egghead idea for a better mousetrap that never took off. Throw it on the pile with the keytars.

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Simply going against tradition isn't why these kinds of guitars fail to catch on. It's because the traditional wood guitar is something special. Wood is comfortable to play, it sounds good (and different woods give you different tonal characteristics), and it's beautiful to look at. For many players, how a guitar looks is a huge factor when choosing a guitar. With a choice of body and headstock shapes, color, wood grain, trim, inlays and other appointments -- wood guitars have been romanticized and collected for decades because every one of them is unique and beautiful in some way, and a guitar like the Gittler made of nothing but titanium rods and a little bit of plastic doesn't hold the same allure, except as a high tech conversation piece.

 

Same thing with Steinbergers, like the one Geddy used on the GUP tour. For him, the smaller and lighter headless Steinberger bass made negotiating around all those keyboards and mic stands a little less tricky, but it wasn't pretty, and it sounded kinda blah. There's a reason he used it for only one tour. And there's a reason he carted out twenty-something different vintage basses on the R40 tour -- because they were all unique and beautiful and he wanted to show them off.

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When it comes down to making and creating music, a guitar, like any other instrument, is just the tool ..

 

With that said, saying that is like saying a car is just a means of getting from one place to another ....

 

Philip Sayce talked about old guitars - in particular, Strats that were built in the 50s and 60s, and how the trees at that time were old trees - this was before guitar makers grew the trees and chopped them down when the wood was still green and wet .... Sayce talked about how the old trees retained something energetically from what was happening in the world ..

 

Wood was once alive, whereas stainless steel has a very different composition and is very different energetically and in terms of frequency ..

 

David Bowie once spoke of not liking new or expensive nice guitars - he said that he was hesitant to really dig into them, as they were just too nice ....

 

What it comes down to is personal preference and ultimately, what the artist does with the guitar

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I probably said enough already, but I'll say more anyway lol. To me if you're going to make a 'different' musical instrument, then it should provide a different sound or provide different tonal possibilities. I'm just not hearing that with this guitar....it seems all visually wizbang, but makes the same guitar sound.

 

Pat Metheny's Pikasso guitar is a good example of what I'm saying...

 

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I'd love it if it sounded unlike anything else. Instead I think it's interesting, but not particularly awesome. Probably a fair tool for learning how to not press the strings too hard on the fretboard. If I were a guitar teacher I'd want to own one. As a performer....meh.
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Personally, I think this instrument looks cool as hell and it's just begging to be played with all sorts of effects and MIDI systems.

 

Why does it lend itself to being played with lots of effects and MIDI systems? I don't understand that statement.

 

Well, the Gittler guitar does have a rather futuristic asthetic, and if the quality of wood does indeed make a difference in how the instrument sounds clean, then wouldn't it make sense that a guitar that is not made of wood isn't really meant for playing "clean" and more meant for effects and/or MIDI?

 

Also Geddy's steiny was used for three tours, it was used for some songs during Signals, and all of the GUP and Power Windows tours.

Edited by fraroc
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Personally, I think this instrument looks cool as hell and it's just begging to be played with all sorts of effects and MIDI systems.

 

Why does it lend itself to being played with lots of effects and MIDI systems? I don't understand that statement.

 

Well, the Gittler guitar does have a rather futuristic asthetic, and if the quality of wood does indeed make a difference in how the instrument sounds clean, then wouldn't it make sense that a guitar that is not made of wood isn't really meant for playing "clean" and more meant for effects and/or MIDI?

 

Not necessarily. The playing at the end of that YouTube clip was pretty clean, and it sounded okay.

 

And just so you know, as far as guitar goes, MIDI is just a way to control different effects units. It doesn't make any sounds by itself. So this titanium guitar isn't more MIDI-friendly than any other type of guitar.

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I think as an aesthetic experiment, or to satisfy curiosity about whether it could be done, it's kind of interesting. It's unique looking, or like something out of science fiction. But with respect to the design of guitars, I don't see any need to reinvent the wheel.

 

Also, to have one model of guitar that is so precision tooled they will all sound the same kind of takes the fun out of listening for those unique tonal qualities that different guitars have.

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The whole video is suspicious if you ask me......they are making a guitar which retails for a lot of money and they spend virtually no time on letting us hear what it can do tonally and sound-wise....don't you think that if it was really special in that department then a lot more of the vid would have been devoted to that?...after all, it's what us musicians really care about.

 

 

Oh, I nearly forgot.......it looks f***ing hideous.

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All you guys are doing are reinforcing my point about guitarists being too traditionalist.

 

I thought there were some very good responses as to why this was A) overpriced, and 2) inferior.

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All you guys are doing are reinforcing my point about guitarists being too traditionalist.

 

Not really. I don't give a damn if anyone wants to play one of these things. I think a lot of us are just saying that, at least so far, there's been no evidence to show that these Gittler things are worth the price tag, or any better sounding than anything else.

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And just so you know, as far as guitar goes, MIDI is just a way to control different effects units. It doesn't make any sounds by itself. So this titanium guitar isn't more MIDI-friendly than any other type of guitar.

 

I don't think this can be stressed enough. It's nice they built-in the interface, but that alone isn't anything special. Any decent local guitar shop can install it into any traditional guitar as well.

 

Godin makes a bunch of good guitars with midi built-in.

 

I'd also say that the overall idea of the gittler is 99% hype, 1% evolutionary necessity for the instrument. It's intended to be gimmicky, its primary reason to exist started as art after all.

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All you guys are doing are reinforcing my point about guitarists being too traditionalist.

 

How much traditionalist is too traditionalist?

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All you guys are doing are reinforcing my point about guitarists being too traditionalist.

 

The Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster were invented in the 1950s, and those original designs are still being used on those guitars today. There's a reason for that. When you get it right, there's no reason to mess with it. Being a traditionalist is not a bad thing.

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All you guys are doing are reinforcing my point about guitarists being too traditionalist.

are you going to dog keyboardists as well because keyboard keys have been the same pattern for the past 500 years or so?
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Here's why I would have no interest:

 

Much of my personal attack and style playing is helped by leverage and balance, and how I hold the guitar ..

 

I am most comfortable with a Les Paul or a V .. and I do most of my practicing sitting down, with the guitar more vertical, so leverage is very important .. I dig in hard, as early in when I first began, I allowed the guitar to play me, instead of me playing the guitar .... switching positions helped me tremendously

 

You can see during certain moments in their songs, guys like EVH, Slash and Michael Schenker hold the guitar in a different position for leverage, as this helps with the way they attack it .. Schenker actually would get the V between his legs ... Not all of this is for looking cool - it actually provides leverage is a big part of the style of playing ..

 

There is no possibility for that with this Gittler guitar ..... I just cannot imagine digging in to that thing

Edited by Lucas
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