Fractal modelling guitar

Scoop

Scoop

Member
Apologies if this has been posted before,

With the axe fx2 at FW10 and sounding stellar, has Cliff and co thought about attacking the guitar modelling market the variax and vg99 are the current, surely with fractals vision on the future and there freakishly large brains and love for music they can design the guitar modeller that would end all others?
 
Well, I think it would be worthy to tackle something like the VG-99, i.e a specialised Fractal pickup that could isolate the signal on each string on the guitar so that the next generation of Pitch block, Synth etc. could be programmed to work on INDIVIDUAL strings. (Tuner too).

That, to me would be the next evolutionary step on this device - to not just process the OVERALL sound coming from the guitar but to be able to process each string separately.

Imagine having dropped tuning on the low 'E' string only and Wah only engaged on the top three strings etc. - all via software configuration and a specialised pickup !! :)
 
Scoop said:
Apologies if this has been posted before,

With the axe fx2 at FW10 and sounding stellar, has Cliff and co thought about attacking the guitar modelling market the variax and vg99 are the current, surely with fractals vision on the future and there freakishly large brains and love for music they can design the guitar modeller that would end all others?
Click to expand...

I'd be first in line to buy it!! I owned both a Korean and USA version of the Tyler Variax. Sounded great, but the reliability was terrible. At least Cliff would do things right!
 
(My opinion)
If I were in charge of a project like this at fractal, I would just go after creating a bridge/saddles along with electronics to add to your control cavity.
There are already enough smokin guitar makers. So why try to create another Anderson/Suhr level guitar.
Instead, just pay for the electronics to add to your existing (favorite) guitar.
 
BBN said:
(My opinion)
If I were in charge of a project like this at fractal, I would just go after creating a bridge/saddles along with electronics to add to your control cavity.
There are already enough smokin guitar makers. So why try to create another Anderson/Suhr level guitar.
Instead, just pay for the electronics to add to your existing (favorite) guitar.
Click to expand...


This has been my thought from the get go, give us something that we can easily drop in to ANY guitar and it's plug and play.
 
I think modeled guitars are a step too far, but I guess people said the same thing about modeling amps. I had a Variax 700, the sounds were nice enough but it just didn't feel right. If I want to play a Les Paul then I want to feel the weight of it in my hands, same goes for a strat, acoustic etc. It would be an awfully risky investment for FAS imo.
 
I think variex or the new fishman that's wireless and you would have to use a ghost saddle type bridge. The Vg-99 Roland based system you would be stuck with a multi-pin cable that would suck.I think were looking at the variex that's built in the guitar the fishman is wireless/pc based. I don't think its looking to good. I say based off of a variex .I DON'T want a multipin cable!
 
It's not even needed.
Just add midi note support to the Axe and it's on.

Piezo pickups with midi support are no witchcraft and not even expensive, so no real need for fractal to really venture there.
 
jyflorida said:
I'd be first in line to buy it!! I owned both a Korean and USA version of the Tyler Variax. Sounded great, but the reliability was terrible. At least Cliff would do things right!
Click to expand...

I've had a variax on spec for 24 hours now. I've treated it with kid gloves. The modeling knob no longer lights up (i.e. modeling no longer works). Sheesh - going back to Sweetwater. I KNOW Cliff would make it better - and he'd make a Caddy, probably with someone like Suhr in partnersship.
 
BBN said:
(My opinion)
If I were in charge of a project like this at fractal, I would just go after creating a bridge/saddles along with electronics to add to your control cavity.
There are already enough smokin guitar makers. So why try to create another Anderson/Suhr level guitar.
Instead, just pay for the electronics to add to your existing (favorite) guitar.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Right now the issue with the Variax is that the hardware takes a lot of space. I imagine something that can cram that kind of functionality in a space that fits into a regular guitar cavity (or is just a pedal-like outboard device though I suppose that might add latency) would be a win.

Zwiebelchen said:
It's not even needed.
Just add midi note support to the Axe and it's on.

Piezo pickups with midi support are no witchcraft and not even expensive, so no real need for fractal to really venture there.
Click to expand...

This is different from that. From what I understand Variax etc read the pickup signal and then alter that. Completely different from just making a MIDI note and running it thru some sort of synth block.
 
laxu said:
This is different from that. From what I understand Variax etc read the pickup signal and then alter that. Completely different from just making a MIDI note and running it thru some sort of synth block.
Click to expand...
It's basicly just combining a synth and a guitar with a hex pickup. Nothing else. However, why would you want to decrease flexibility by doing that? I'd rather use an ordinary guitar for the magnetic pickups and playability and then retrofit a piezo hex pickup system to feed an external device instead of having it onboard in one guitar. This way I can swap my guitars and still got all the possibility to switch sounds. All I'd need to do is put a hex pickup in each guitar.

Well, thinking about it, midi might not be the perfect solution, as it's slow as hell and doesn't allow IR bliss. Might aswell just go with USB or digital output in the first place.
 
I hope FAS returns to work on the effects section of the Axe. There have been some great request and some other nice units for inspiration.
I have many guitars and think a pickup modeling block could be great. Maybe we already have the basis with the TM block?
 
I love the Axe-Fx II, it's the best musical equipment purchase I've ever made. However, I can't see a Fractal Audio guitar being anything but impossibly cheesy.

Having said that... A pickup or something you can install in other guitars that isn't as visually obnoxious as that Roland system? Now that might be something worth buying! If it could do everything from emulating specific pickups in the installed guitar, all the way to emulating entire unique guitar/pickup combos themselves, along with cool utilitarian stuff like integration with the Axe-Fx so it could swap pickup positions automatically as controlled by the patch?

Yeah I'd buy that.
 
What about a modeling pickup rather than full guitar modeling? Active; passive; magnet type; adjust number of coil windings. Give it a USB hook up so that presets can be programed into the guitar. Have a preset knob with like 10 different presets that each have a bridge middle and neck pickup sound preset so the pickup selector switch is able to pick between each one.

It'd be cool if it could sorta' tone-match your existing pickups to treat them as neutral.
 
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