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.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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 & RB2024 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
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.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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 am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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.
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.
How about some out of box ideas?
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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.
Now, what else do I want on my dream guitar?
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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."
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!
For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.
Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.
Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!
Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.
Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
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