Gibson's Programmable 'Dark Fire' Guitar Tunes Itself
Saturday, hoping to give our aching heads a brief respite from the more complex tech items on display at CES, we headed on over to the Gibson tent, looking forward to idly strumming a few digital-ready guitars and spacing out. Really, what could be all that complicated about a guitar?
In the case of the new Gibson Dark Fire, a whole hell of a lot, apparently.
We had the chance to sit down with the guitar's inventor Chris Adams, who -- in a thick German accent -- proceeded to describe the guitar's nearly innumerable functions and, in so doing, totally boggle our minds. The long and short of it is this: the Dark Fire is an all-analog Les Paul model equipped with digital controls that enable the guitar to tune itself (to myriad tunings) with the push of a button, to inhabit a wide range of tones, and to function at the command of downloadable settings.
Fortunately, we've already reviewed the Dark Fire's predecessor, called, aptly, the Robot Guitar, so we'll spare you the nitty-gritty details, and just tell you about what's new.
First off, and most impressively, the guitar's Master Control Knob -- an LED-equipped knob in the place of a regular tone knob -- offers three functions: controlling plain, old-fashioned tone; controlling the automated tuners; and controlling the guitar's 'Chameleon Tone' function. The latter function, new to the model, allows the user to dial in preset, custom and downloadable guitar tones that are shaped by manipulating the volume and tone, splitting the pickups' coils and blending the bridge's new piezo pickups. Those piezo pickups can also be blended by rotating the pickup selector switch.
Altogether, with all of those pickups and opportunities to blend them, the Dark Fire really does offer an impressive range of tones, summoning the sounds of Telecasters, Stratocasters, Gibson hollow-bodies and, of course, Les Pauls, with surprising accuracy. Most remarkable is the fact that, while the guitar's controls are obviously digital, its electronics are completely analog. No digital modeling here.
In addition, the guitar comes packaged with Guitar Rig and Ableton Live, which together serve as amp modelers and recording programs, while controlling the guitar's 'Chameleon Tone' functioning. An interface, connecting the guitar to your computer is also included.
In addition, some of our readers' complaints of string breakage on the Robot Guitar have been addressed with the Dark Horse's new Teflon nut. According to Adams, the synthetic material sounds close enough to the conventional bone, but applies much less friction to the strings. Similarly responding to popular concerns with the Robot Guitar, the Dark Fire enables manual tuning without any of the popping and pulling necessitated in the prior model.
Altogether, we were pleasantly surprised by the ease with which the guitar switched tunings and tones, although the Master Control Knob did take some time to figure out. Our surprise at the instrument's price, though, was not so pleasant; the Dark Fire is currently shipping in a limited run of 2,000, carrying a $3,499 price tag.
With that price, the instrument will probably be relegated to the music rooms of collectors and well-to-do professional guitarists. That being said, if we had the dough, we'd warmly welcome one.
Keep an eye out for a more in-depth, hands-on review in coming months.
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