The Gibson Dusk tiger was a controversial 3rd generation example of Gibson's groundbreaking super guitars. It brings a lot of technology to the guitar world that challenges what we know about guitars. We typically think of guitars as a pretty simple instrument with 6 strings, and frets. Well on the Gibson dusk tiger it still has 6 strings and frets, but the technology on the guitar is what makes it such a game changer. Performers everywhere will soon be saved a lot of effort on stage, and have more fluid, better sounding, and more customizable performances because of the technology this guitar has. Some of these technologies include Robot tuning, Chamilion Tone, and a combination of magnetic and piezo pickups.
The Dusk Tiger
Robot Tuning Sick and tired of tuning your guitar? Well no more!
Robot Tuning technology allows a guitarist to press a button, strum his strings, and watch as his guitar tunes itself. It's battery powered tuner allows for over 100 tunings before it needs to be charged. The prosses is relatively fast! There are also many different guitar tunings set as presets that can be switched between quickly to allow guitarists to have multiple tunings with the same guitar in a set. Many guitarists spend a lot of money and time acquiring and tuning multiple guitars so that they can switch tunings on stage, but this process is so quick and smooth it allows you to switch tunings, or fix your tuning in the middle of a set, or if you have a quiet moment, even in the middle of a song.
One of the more tedious things about being a guitarist is changing your strings. It takes a long time to remove your strings, put them back on, and tune them. They also have to have time to sit and then be returned. That's a lot of work with your tuning pegs. The Robot tuning technology that was improved on the Dusk Tiger will unwind your strings for you! It will even wind them back up and tune them. This will save guitarist hours used on changing strings. Som performers swap strings between every show they play, and every time they record so it's pretty clear that this is a useful feature.
Chameleon Tone with magnetic and piezo pickupsWant that classic orange amplifier sound? Well now you can match it without the amplifier!
Chameleon Tone is named after a chameleon for its ability to match any tone. You're Gibson Les Paul style Dusk Tiger can match the tone of a Fender Stratocaster, a flying V guitar, or even a Semi-Hollow Body. This eliminates the need to change out guitars constantly and allow you to play with the tone of multiple guitars in the same song. This is a unique feature to the dusk tiger because the process happens before the sound signal leaves the guitar. The usual way that you change a guitar's tone is with pedals. Normally a guitarist will have a pedal board with dozens of pedals! These pedals are not easy to use and they are very expensive. A guitarist will have to take a lot of time and set them up before a show, to make sure that he has all of the pedals that he needs for every song in his set, and if he's missing one he is out of luck. The chameleon tone allows a guitarist to adjust his guitar tone to match any guitar he would have used during his set, and to add many of the effects that he would get from pedals by using the tuning knobs on his guitar. The guitarist can save tones as preset's and switch between them quickly. These features can change the nature of the guitar.
Another feature of this so-called 'Super Guitar is that you can use the pick up selecting switch, not only to select the brindge pickup, the neck pickup, or both, but you can actually blend between two different types of pickups. The magnetic pickups are the typical electric guitar pickup. Almost every rock star who has ever played uses Magnetic pickups in their electric guitars. Magnetic pickups sound really good with distortion, and allow you to make your guitar 'scream'. Piezo pickups are typically used in acoustic guitars. They have a rich warm sound and you also don't need nickel wound strings to use them. Other strings such as bronze and silver can also add some richness and depth to your sound. However many guitarists say that piezo guitars don't sound good with distortion. So there is a benefit to both kind of pickups, and the Dusk Tiger allows you to blend between the two. You can even hear the guitar do a half and half sound.
Is this technology cheating?
When the Gibson Dusk tiger was released there were a lot of mixed feelings about the guitar. Many guitarists felt that the guitar was "cheating". In a forum on www.lespaulforum.com called 'So whatever happened to the Gibson Dusk Tiger?' people said things like 'A friend of mine bought one when they came out... what a piece of s***!! Needless to say, he won't be getting many visits from me anymore'. I think these people feel that the guitar is something that demonstrates skill, and precision. They fear that as guitars become more computerized people with less skill and precision will be able to do the same things as people who have worked hard to acquire the skills to do things with the guitar.
People who liked the guitar said that it was revolutionary and would give guitarists a whole new toolbelt on stage. They believe that it will allow the skilled guitarists to do things that no one could have ever done before, therefore breaking new ground and developing new musical ideas. A review by Wired said the guitar was 'A mind-boggling amount of customization in a well-designed, easy-to-use knob and software combo. All without sacrificing the classic Gibson, analog signal. Watching the guitar tune itself never gets old.' I think that the guitar has some potential if Gibson will keep coming out with new and creative ways to improve the guitar. I think the technology they have used has given us a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to as the technology develops, becomes better, faster, and smarter.
Music Radar Review
Music Radar had these comments about the guitar
In many ways, this is the 'eureka' moment with the Dusk Tiger. Playing it through a regular guitar amp it's all too easy to be underwhelmed and even annoyed by the slightly temperamental operation and occasional extraneous noise of the MCK. Yet, in the digital domain, the ability to design tunings and sounds in Chameleon Tone, sync them onto the guitar and then create utterly original soundscapes limited only by the complement of plug-ins available to you is truly inspiring. As there are only 1,000 Dusk Tigers being manufactured, it's already an endangered species, so conjecture about mass appeal is academic. Having tested the water with a limited edition run, we'd like to see Gibson make the Robot Tuning, additional electronic gubbins and editing software available as options on more traditional production models. While you're at it, Mr Gibson, please replace the MCK with more live-friendly controls. Until then, despite Gibson's assertions, this is anything but "easy and intuitive" to use onstage. But if you're tech-savvy with an experimental mindset and are prepared to put in the hours required in order to tap into the potential on offer, you might be able to overlook its idiosyncrasies.
Gibson Dusk Tiger
The Gibson Dusk tiger was a controversial 3rd generation example of Gibson's groundbreaking super guitars. It brings a lot of technology to the guitar world that challenges what we know about guitars. We typically think of guitars as a pretty simple instrument with 6 strings, and frets. Well on the Gibson dusk tiger it still has 6 strings and frets, but the technology on the guitar is what makes it such a game changer. Performers everywhere will soon be saved a lot of effort on stage, and have more fluid, better sounding, and more customizable performances because of the technology this guitar has. Some of these technologies include Robot tuning, Chamilion Tone, and a combination of magnetic and piezo pickups.
The Dusk Tiger
Robot Tuning
Sick and tired of tuning your guitar? Well no more!
Robot Tuning technology allows a guitarist to press a button, strum his strings, and watch as his guitar tunes itself. It's battery powered tuner allows for over 100 tunings before it needs to be charged. The prosses is relatively fast! There are also many different guitar tunings set as presets that can be switched between quickly to allow guitarists to have multiple tunings with the same guitar in a set. Many guitarists spend a lot of money and time acquiring and tuning multiple guitars so that they can switch tunings on stage, but this process is so quick and smooth it allows you to switch tunings, or fix your tuning in the middle of a set, or if you have a quiet moment, even in the middle of a song.
One of the more tedious things about being a guitarist is changing your strings. It takes a long time to remove your strings, put them back on, and tune them. They also have to have time to sit and then be returned. That's a lot of work with your tuning pegs. The Robot tuning technology that was improved on the Dusk Tiger will unwind your strings for you! It will even wind them back up and tune them. This will save guitarist hours used on changing strings. Som performers swap strings between every show they play, and every time they record so it's pretty clear that this is a useful feature.
Chameleon Tone with magnetic and piezo pickupsWant that classic orange amplifier sound? Well now you can match it without the amplifier!Chameleon Tone is named after a chameleon for its ability to match any tone. You're Gibson Les Paul style Dusk Tiger can match the tone of a Fender Stratocaster, a flying V guitar, or even a Semi-Hollow Body. This eliminates the need to change out guitars constantly and allow you to play with the tone of multiple guitars in the same song. This is a unique feature to the dusk tiger because the process happens before the sound signal leaves the guitar. The usual way that you change a guitar's tone is with pedals. Normally a guitarist will have a pedal board with dozens of pedals! These pedals are not easy to use and they are very expensive. A guitarist will have to take a lot of time and set them up before a show, to make sure that he has all of the pedals that he needs for every song in his set, and if he's missing one he is out of luck. The chameleon tone allows a guitarist to adjust his guitar tone to match any guitar he would have used during his set, and to add many of the effects that he would get from pedals by using the tuning knobs on his guitar. The guitarist can save tones as preset's and switch between them quickly. These features can change the nature of the guitar.
Another feature of this so-called 'Super Guitar is that you can use the pick up selecting switch, not only to select the brindge pickup, the neck pickup, or both, but you can actually blend between two different types of pickups. The magnetic pickups are the typical electric guitar pickup. Almost every rock star who has ever played uses Magnetic pickups in their electric guitars. Magnetic pickups sound really good with distortion, and allow you to make your guitar 'scream'. Piezo pickups are typically used in acoustic guitars. They have a rich warm sound and you also don't need nickel wound strings to use them. Other strings such as bronze and silver can also add some richness and depth to your sound. However many guitarists say that piezo guitars don't sound good with distortion. So there is a benefit to both kind of pickups, and the Dusk Tiger allows you to blend between the two. You can even hear the guitar do a half and half sound.
Is this technology cheating?
When the Gibson Dusk tiger was released there were a lot of mixed feelings about the guitar. Many guitarists felt that the guitar was "cheating". In a forum on www.lespaulforum.com called 'So whatever happened to the Gibson Dusk Tiger?' people said things like 'A friend of mine bought one when they came out... what a piece of s***!! Needless to say, he won't be getting many visits from me anymore'. I think these people feel that the guitar is something that demonstrates skill, and precision. They fear that as guitars become more computerized people with less skill and precision will be able to do the same things as people who have worked hard to acquire the skills to do things with the guitar.
People who liked the guitar said that it was revolutionary and would give guitarists a whole new toolbelt on stage. They believe that it will allow the skilled guitarists to do things that no one could have ever done before, therefore breaking new ground and developing new musical ideas. A review by Wired said the guitar was 'A mind-boggling amount of customization in a well-designed, easy-to-use knob and software combo. All without sacrificing the classic Gibson, analog signal. Watching the guitar tune itself never gets old.' I think that the guitar has some potential if Gibson will keep coming out with new and creative ways to improve the guitar. I think the technology they have used has given us a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to as the technology develops, becomes better, faster, and smarter.
Music Radar Review
Music Radar had these comments about the guitar
In many ways, this is the 'eureka' moment with the Dusk Tiger. Playing it through a regular guitar amp it's all too easy to be underwhelmed and even annoyed by the slightly temperamental operation and occasional extraneous noise of the MCK. Yet, in the digital domain, the ability to design tunings and sounds in Chameleon Tone, sync them onto the guitar and then create utterly original soundscapes limited only by the complement of plug-ins available to you is truly inspiring.As there are only 1,000 Dusk Tigers being manufactured, it's already an endangered species, so conjecture about mass appeal is academic. Having tested the water with a limited edition run, we'd like to see Gibson make the Robot Tuning, additional electronic gubbins and editing software available as options on more traditional production models.
While you're at it, Mr Gibson, please replace the MCK with more live-friendly controls. Until then, despite Gibson's assertions, this is anything but "easy and intuitive" to use onstage. But if you're tech-savvy with an experimental mindset and are prepared to put in the hours required in order to tap into the potential on offer, you might be able to overlook its idiosyncrasies.
References
1. http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?178937-So-what-ever-happened-to-the-Gibson-Dusk-Tiger
2. http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Dusk-Tiger/Next-Generation.aspx
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUSnlDeKvfw
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2la9jMRNYSU
5. http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/gibson-dusk-tiger-241518