From: 9054537p@lux.levels.unisa.edu.au (Norpo)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: MIDI guitar, Digitech RP-1, custom guitar
Date: 1 Oct 1992 02:30:07 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


I was offered a Roland GR50 Guitar Synthesiser, with 9K2 pickup.
Any idea of what this is like? I'm not that interested in it,
since I have somewhat of a phobia about computer gumpf in music.
Hell, I even loathe electronic keyboards.

What I really am interested in is the Digitech RP-1. I notice
there was a thread about the RP-1, but I missed it, since I'd
been away. If there were any reviews or pertinent points that
could be useful, could someone please repost this? My own
opinion on trying one out is that it was very quiet, the effects
were quite good (better than Quadverb GT), and that it was well
made. On the downside, none of the effects were really wild
and the distortion lacked balls and growl. Very much a smooth
synthesis. The compression on the RP-1 is quite weak, not
managing to extend the sustain a terrible lot, though my
guitar has a long sustain.

The RP-1 seems to be more for subtle tone variations (when you
ignore the wanky effects like the delays, reverse reverb, and
flanging). It basically appears to be a fairly good jack of all
trades, with no excellent or astounding effects. This is fine
with me, as I play clean all the time, and just wanted a good
all-purpose effects box for experimenting with.

That reminds me; I was the one that posted that article describing
a custom guitar that I was having made for me. It is now finished,
and I was asked to post a review of the guitar. For a memory
refresh, here are the weird customised things about my guitar:

   o Body of guitar made of Blackwood with Queensland Maple center.

   o A zero fret, rather than an open nut. Will avoid nut
     mistunings.

   o A fixed bridge, instead of a tremelo (vibrato) bar.

   o Three EMG89 humbucker/single pickups, low impedance/actives.

   o Normal output jack, plus a DIN output so I can access the
     output of each pickup seperately. This seemed a better idea
     than building a mixer on the guitar like some have done.

The blackwood has quite a significant effect on the guitar sound.
It is actually possible to tell which wood is resonating with the
strings to create the distinctive character. Blackwood is a wood
normally used for bass guitars, and when the lower notes are being
played, a warm, rich, and tight bass is the result. The Queensland
Maple predominates in the high end and in the harmonics, making
a cool crisp sound.

The two woods work together well also. The blackwood appears to
"hold" the fundamental note in place longer, unlike pure maple
guitars which tend to shoot off into harmonics soon after the
initial note was plucked. However, the harmonics on this guitar
are still excellent.

All in all, the experiment in mixing woods appears to have been
an overwhelming success. The only possible problem involves the
"A" note, (on 2nd fret of 3rd (G) string) which seems to lie
halfway between the two woods area of tonal dominance. It sounds
a little dead to me, exhibiting a bit of a "bong" characteristic.
However, I seem to be the only one that can hear this. Nobody
else can. It isn't a dead spot on the guitar, since when I repeat
the "A" on the 4th and 5th strings, it has the same "problem".

The zero fret is excellent. It has more sustain than a regular
nut, and the same tonal qualities as a fretted note. It is
not subject to the problems of a badly cut nut, nor will it
wear down like a nut would.

The three EMG89 humbucker/single (active/low impedance) work well,
allowing me 26 different types of sounds without coming near a
rack unit. :)

I haven't been able to try out the individual outputs from each
pickup yet, not having access to a mixer.


Hell, I've made it pretty obvious I really like my guitar!

You can wake up now! I'll let your long suffering eyes get to the
next message. :)



                                    Stephen White