Gibson Firebird X review: A digital guitar for the 21st century Not all digital guitars are game controllers. Gibson’s Firebird X is a real guitar with a chameleon-like ability to drastically alter its sound with digital effects, and even automatically tune itself with the flick of a string. In rock music, innovations take a long time. The first electric guitars that actually stayed in tune and worked well for stage performance were produced in the 1950s, and the basic design – fretboard, pick-ups, tuning knobs, a quarter-inch jack – has not changed much in the last 60 years. The Gibson …

First Gibson’s new Firebird X has found favor in the guitar press, and now the technology media have given the revolutionary guitar the thumbs up with TechCrunch proclaiming, “from a tech standpoint – it’s pretty darn wild.” Elsewhere in the tech community, CNET.com says: “I have a Gibson guitar. I have to tune it myself. It doesn’t have onboard effects. I can’t load third-party apps onto it. My guitar is so old-fashioned, it has a hole in the top for the sound to get out. In short, it’s no Firebird X.” Gizmodo.com’s headline announces that the guitar is: “Packed with Loads …

Let’s face it: carrying gear on the road is a pain. Anything that minimizes the load of guitars, effects and amps that needs to be piled in the van by Joe Roaddog and his bandmates before he hits the highway for Hackensack is a positive. And for the working road warrior, that’s Job One for the Firebird X. It’s great to rave about the revolutionary guitar’s on-board effects, its fast neck, the lightweight body, its electro-acoustic properties and lightning speed microprocessor technology. But what really counts for a working musician is practicality. What the Firebird X offers in all those functions …