No holds barred here. Even if it's the craziest idea ever, assume here that anything is possible. After the Synth AXE in 1984, those weird guitars that Daryl Steurmer and Mike Rutherford had in Genesis with the hot swap-ready neck and electronics, and Steinburger removing the headstocks, we have seen a lot, but there has to be more.
I would want a Tele style body. Rosewood neck. But the neck would have E-D-D-I-E fret markers on 9-7-5-3 and 1. And the electronics would be extremely difficult, but in this age, difficult doesn't mean impossible. I would want a series of buttons on the bottom left of the body by the cutaway that when I find a tonal combination I like I can double press a button and the electronics would store the location of the volume, tone and pickup selection. The buttons would have an LED so I know which is selected. There would also be one button that turns off any selected preset. Then to clear the setting for reuse, just tap and hold. I haven't worked out yet how I would preserve the memory when the batteries went dead, but since it can't happen anyway, let that be assumed. Maybe on a stick of RAM. I dunno.
A long time ago I took an old guitar and on the bottom half I used velcro to put a mini one octave MIDI controller so I could stop playing guitar, hold the pick in my teeth, play a string or horn part via MIDI, then go back to guitar. So I had a REAL key-tar!! That didn't last long because not only are my fingers too fat to play chords on that tiny keyboard, I also had to run a MIDI cable to use it. Much later on I had an M-Audio MidAir, which was a wireless MIDI transmitter. I stuck that on the back of a 49 key M-Audio controller that I rigged with strap pins so I could wear it around my neck like Edgar Winter used to do before such things were built. I now have an Alesis Vortex, but it was cool back then to have one I made myself.
when I retired I had my dream guitar custom made by STATUS in the UK. Its a solid carbon fiber build, so it's impervious to humidity and temperature for the most part. I had them swap out the bridge pickup for sustainer pickups because it's nice to get infinite sustain at the flip of a switch. Then I recently added a Roland GK-3 to it so I can switch between regular guitar and MIDI. Since adding the GK-3 I haven't experimented yet, but I'm hoping the sustainer pickup will add realism to MIDI patches like cello, that would naturally consist of long bowed/sustained notes.
My dream guitar use to be my posted BIAB avatar. A vintage, custom built Gibson double neck guitar originally owned by my mother. It was really her dream guitar more than mine I guess but it would meet a lot of people's definition of a 'dream' guitar.
It now resides and is on display at Songbirds Vintage Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, TN.
...It now resides and is on display at Songbirds Vintage Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, TN.
Charlie, for people who might/will never have the opportunity to visit, pleased send a photo. I really like understanding where we are now based on where we came from. Great story, and it's appreciated.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Light weight (5lb), balanced (no neck dive), comfortable contoured body. It feels like I'm wearing it instead of holding it
Great upper fret access
Hardened stainless steel frets on a 14" radius 25.5"scale neck
Straight string path, Sperzel locking tuners, and a vibrato system that keeps the guitar in tune all night
Master volume knob near the picking hand
Duncan P-Rail pickups so I can get P90, Rail, Series humbucker and Parallel humbucker sounds
Piezo pickup under the bridge that can be played independently or blended with the magnetic pickups
I had it built in the custom shop before Parker bit the dust. It's the Parker DF522NN (the NN is for Notes Norton). The only problem I have is that I no longer have GAS. I can look at other beautiful guitars and appreciate their looks, but I'm so happy playing this one that I have no urge to buy another.
...It now resides and is on display at Songbirds Vintage Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, TN.
Charlie, for people who might/will never have the opportunity to visit, pleased send a photo. I really like understanding where we are now based on where we came from. Great story, and it's appreciated.
Here you go. Thanks for your interest. It's the white guitar that's third in from the right.
If I could get those unique electronics I listed I would like to have Paul Reed Smith build it. In that blue moonstone color like the Santana model. I have always liked PRS guitars and he'd be the guy I would have confidence in to be able to design those electronics that allowed tonal setting memory.
There was a guy in the Cleveland area that touted himself to be this luthier at a level where his guitars would be the next Les Paul. He built about 20 guitars. I knew the owners of 8 of them. They all said the electronics were (they used words like) "sloppy" and the necks constantly needed adjustments. When I think that I almost bought one.....
I was also taken by the Variax for a while, but of the half dozen people I know that have them, at least 5 report that the motherboard does not hold up well to humidity and they were very prone to erratic behavior, where in the middle of a song 2 or 3 strings just stopped responding. One of the others has a newer James Tyler model and he has had no issues, so maybe that was just a story of growing pains. I can say in their favor that the acoustic sounds were great on it and the ability to switch tuning in mid song by turning a knob is great. You can suddenly be in dropped D or open G just by selecting that setting. I like that.
That's a take on an old IT joke. A user comes back to their desk and the tech says "Well, I fixed 2 things but I broke 3. But the good news is, if it WAS working it would be really fast!!"
I had my dream guitar built in the early nineties. It's a Custom Martin so it doesn't have a model number. It just says Custom on the internal heel.
It's essentially an HD 28 with a cutaway, scalloped bracing in the style of the 1940's Martins, oversized soundhole similar to the Clarence White models and a double herringbone rosette around the soundhole.
I gave it to my son about a year ago.
I ordered it through my old friend since passed Joe Dobbs at Fret 'n Fiddle. I asked Joe how much it would cost and he asked "how much can you afford to pay?" I told him I was selling my motorcycle to pay for it and what I expected to get for the bike.
He then told me that would be the price of the guitar. It was well below the price of even a regular HD 28, much less a custom job.
This is Janice's 1943 D-18 Martin that has been customized by 77 years of playing
It's a cannon.
J&B
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Missing the point, guys. Fantasize here. Features you have never had. Maybe some that don't exist. This is your DREAM guitar, not one you have had and liked.
How about a bridge that when you push down it sends you into complete open G tuning? Think about that. You'd throw a lever and it changes from standard to open E. But think about that for a second. You would have to have a bridge that changes strings by different intervals, and some go up and some go down, so some would be tuning up and some would be tuning down.
3rd string would have to come up a half step, the 4th would have to come up a whole step, and the 5th string would have to go down a half step. Does such a bridge exist?
I briefly referenced this in the original, but I would love to have a guitar body that incorporated a one octave midi controller so I could go from guitar to synth without moving a step or doing it from behind the keyboard stack.
I would also like to have someone build me a 9 string guitar, where 1-2-3 were normal but 4-5-6 had an octave doubler string like a 12 string. I know I could get a 12 string and leave those 3 strings off, but that'd look stupid. I would wonder about the tension on the next with 6 strings on one side of it and 3 on the other. That might take some engineering.
I would also like a guitar with the wireless built in and hard wired to the output jack. All the user ever has to do is change batteries and remember to turn it off when you are done playing.
Like the Relish or Somnium guitars with the hot swap-able pickups!!! You can literally swap pickups between songs! Brilliant!
Now, add that swapping pickup concept to the built in wireless concept, and you could go from Tele to Strat to Paul and be wireless with one guitar. One that likely would cost more to make than a small house, but this is all conceptual anyway.
If people didn't think outside the norm we wouldn't have the B bender or G bender, whichever you'd prefer. I would like a Telecaster with a B bender on the neck strap pin and a G bender on the bottom strap pin. Pull down on the neck to bend the B, push down on the body to bend the G. Imagine building THAT bridge.
Well, there it is. Already built. Waiting for it. You may was well have it if it will make you happy. You may have to go into debt to get it but it's not like anybody will take it back when your croak. I am at that age now where once some immediate things are over with I will not need to be prudent financially anymore so I will then buy EVERYTHING I want and my executor can worry about the debt when I'm dead. I have known SO MANY PEOPLE who strive to be the richest corpse in the graveyard and not one yet has hitched a U-Haul to their hearse. Why do people think if they die with a fortune in the bank they have somehow won? You scrimp and save so someone else can spend the fruits of that scrimping and saving? Not me! I plan to die with 25 bucks in the bank but a house full of GREAT toys that I got to use without paying for completely.
You asked for our dream guitar. I've had 1 flat top and 2 archtops custom built.
A dream guitar doesn't need to have gadgets, buttons or levers to be someones dream guitar. Adding those would just make it more of a curiosity than an instrument. It might survive your passing but it would never be played, ... although it might be displayed.
Bob, a "dream" is something that isn't real! Something that doesn't exist. Something that's never been seen before. I have "dream" things in almost every area of life. Like my dream car stereo. It would have bluetooth at such a high level of complexity that I could sit here in my office and update the thumbdrive in it.
The world we are in is a lot of The Jetsons come true. Zoom and Skype are nothing more than George Jetson's video calls with Mr Spacely. Rosey the Robot? Roomba and the robotic butler/concierge available at some swanky hotels around the world. Elroy went to school in his version of what is now a drone. Holograms? You have heard of Michael Jackson's show done all with holograms, right? Jetpacks? We have them now. How about Dick Tracy's 2 way radio watch? There are a half dozen smart watches out there now.
Remember. Somebody told Michelangelo that his machine wouldn't fly.
Also consider that for everybody who is considered to be at the top of their field, that can also mean that they have reached the limitations of the equipment that is available. If not for Emmett Chapman saying "I can take the guitar further" there would be no Chapman Stick. And that's what is at the root of this exercise. I hate the idea of being locked in a box of "now" with no look toward "what if."
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® Special Offers Extended Until January 15, 2026!
Good news! You still have time to upgrade to the latest version of Band-in-a-Box® for Windows® and save. Our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® special now runs through January 15, 2025!
We've packed Band-in-a-Box® 2026 with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can process an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
When you order purchase Band-in-a-Box® 2026 before 11:59 PM PST on January 15th, you'll also receive a Free Bonus PAK packed with exciting new add-ons.
Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® today! Check out the Band-in-a-Box® packages page for all the purchase options available.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®
With your version 2026 for Windows Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new user interface in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®! This modern GUI redesign offers a sleek new look with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, and a smoother workflow. The brand-new side toolbar puts track selection, the MultiPicker Library, and other essential tools right at your fingertips. Plus, our upgraded Multi-View lets you layer multiple windows without overlap, giving you a highly flexible workspace. Many windows—including Tracks, Piano Roll, and more—have been redesigned for improved usability and a cleaner, more intuitive interface, and more!
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