Sneak Peak at new Gibson Dusk Tiger Guitar - Gear-Monkey Guitar Community

MrSandMan · **Sneak Peak at new Gibson Dusk Tiger Guitar -** 11-15-2009, 02:41 PM

Looks like Gibson Guitars are trying to keep their innovation trend going. We all know Roland are responsible is the trend for the first midi guitar. Fender made the roland-ready midi Stratocaster and Line 6 is building the (not-midi) modelling guitars named Variax. Guitar innovations continue at Gibson Guitars with the new Dusk Tiger. The Dusk Tiger is a Les Paul -style bodied axe with a chambered back. The colors are beautiful with its exotic hardwood beaming with golden, amber, and dark chocolate hues.
See images of the Gibson Dusk Tiger (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Make no mistake, the Gibson Dusk Tiger is not a MIDI or modeling guitar. If it works like Dark Fire, the way it achieves various tones is solely through analog means (coil switching, EQ, etc.) However, I believe (from doing online research) it is like Dark Fire in that the output can feed into an interface that connects to your computer so you can access the multiple outputs in a DAW. The Dark Fire interface does have a 13-pin connector on the back for driving MIDI modules like the Axon. I use mine to drive an old Roland VG-8, which had gone unused for quite some time...but it worked really well with the Dark Fire, so I've been doing things like layering Dark Fire and VG-8 sounds. Source from Craig Anderton - Craig had his hands on this guitar.

Read: Gibson Dusk Tiger Press Release.

Here's some inside - Craig Anderton wrote>
As many of you know, I've been a big fan of both the Gibson Digital Guitar and of course, the Dark Fire. I was involved with Dark Fire in terms of doing presets for Guitar Rig, beta-testing the guitar itself, and working on the documentation; as that worked out well, I've become a sort of "outside objective person" for Gibson's high-tech guitar efforts.

Well, I was invited to Los Angeles at the beginning of October to be part of a focus group consisting of a bunch of guitar players like Zakk Wylde, Dean Parks, Steve Lukather, Alison from the Donnas, Rich Fortus and DJ Ashba from Guns 'n' Roses, etc., to check out what Gibson was going to do next. The guitar is called Dusk Tiger and while I don't have a ton of firm info on it yet, I do have some pictures (see attached) and Gibson is okay with me posting them here as a "sneak preview" to all you high-tech axe slingers.

It's still under development and I don't want to say too much, as features and specs are always subject to change. But basically, it builds on Dark Fire with many of the same features (Robot tuning, hex outs, RIP interface for use with computers, Chameleon analog tone technology, no digital modeling, bundled software, etc.) but with a simplified user interface. It has a different look compared to Dark Fire - reflective pickguard, somewhat different body shape, and an overall less "traditional" vibe than the DF. I played a prototype and it feels great. The electronics are a bit more streamlined compared to Dark Fire (e.g., less current consumption, replaceable battery) but the functionality is pretty much the same. Some of these changes may allow bringing in Dusk Tiger at a somewhat lower price than Dark Fire, but we'll see...lots can happen between design and production.

If you have questions I'll try to answer them but don't want to violate any confidentiality issues ("What?!? You told them about the anti-gravity flux transformator?!?") so please understand if I have to say "no comment" from time to time. I guess one obvious question is "So does this make Dark Fire obsolete?" to which I would say no. I have a great Dark Fire setup, the hex patches are tweaked for it, it plays like a charm, and I can't see giving that up. Dusk Tiger has some tweaks to the electronics that give different sounds, so I'll probably come up with a tweaked set of patches for it as well. What I expect based on what I've seen so far is that I'll use both guitars, but for different applications. I'm assuming that as time goes on, for some projects I'll reach for the Dark Fire, and for others, I'll reach for the Dusk Tiger...we'll see.

I'll keep you posted as much as I can, but it took a little arm-twisting to be able to post this info so I don't want to overstep my bounds . However, I really do appreciate that Gibson understands the importance of this forum enough to let me break the news here. These high-tech guitars have really changed how I play, the way I record, everything...it'll be interesting to see how Dusk Tiger progresses over the coming weeks.