This has got to be one of the coolest guitars around if you’re not a rock star – the Misa Digital Guitar which boasts its very own touchpad. Lovingly constructed by Sydney-based designer Michael, the Misa Digital Guitar relies on your right hand to control the sound that you want instead of plucking strings. Here’s what he says about it in brief.
Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that.
Doesn’t look like it is going to go on sale anytime soon though, but you definitely can’t argue against the coolness of such a musical instrument.