Musicman Game Changer

[Spudman***]

This is a pretty good explanation of the new Musicman Game Changer. Pretty cool idea.

[deeaa*]

Well yeah, seems like an ingenious system indeed! If I needed more than one tone out of my guitars, I'd be all over that :-) I have a buddy who plays a Line6 guitar exactly because he needs dozens of sounds as he plays in dance/cover band that goes from Metallica to Madonna on one gig, and knowing he much prefers analog systems and only uses the Line6 thingy because he needs the variety, this must be extremely interesting to him.

[Spudman***]

This one goes a little more in depth. This really is exciting.
The player will get to decide at any time what their bank of switches will do, what sound will go into which switch position is totally decided by the user.

[pedalbuilder***]

That's pretty cool. I'd like to get a look inside and see how they're making it all work, as my only concern about a system like this would be longevity - will this be functioning the same way in 10 years?

[DeanEVO_Dude]

The bigest problems I see with this are:
1. No indicators with anything... especially with the "z" presets. How do you know when you are on preset 1 or 12?
2. What happens to the switching unit and the sound from the guitar when the battery dies?

Other than those two issues, great idea. Electronic switching takes up so much less space than mechanical switching. Can you imagine the bank of mechanical switches need to get all the combos of split coils, in phase, out of phase, and pickup selectors that would be required to do this?! Especially on a 3 pickup guitar.

[vroomery]

Yeah they would be smart to put a small led readout that tells you the bank. It would fit well on the top side so you can say it, but it's not visible from the front. The ability to quickly and easily change batteries would be important for sure. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to include a battery level readout in the led.

[deeaa*]

I dunno if you really need to know the patches. Just find out what sounds good, save to the knobs you want to use and you'll have the sounds you need to have useable just as with any switch.

I mean, despite the multitude of options, the idea is anyway that you use only a few at a time, right? NOT to go thru the presets live but instead just use the guitar the way you have previously configured it to be. Like make the first three be your favorite strat sounds and the last ones Gibson sounds? Not harder to remember than a regular 5-pos switch?

[Spudman***]

I dunno if you really need to know the patches. Just find out what sounds good, save to the knobs you want to use and you'll have the sounds you need to have useable just as with any switch.

I mean, despite the multitude of options, the idea is anyway that you use only a few at a time, right? NOT to go thru the presets live but instead just use the guitar the way you have previously configured it to be. Like make the first three be your favorite strat sounds and the last ones Gibson sounds? Not harder to remember than a regular 5-pos switch?

Exactly. It seems that a lot of folks don't grasp the simplicity of it. You don't have LEDs in your current guitar and the switches in them are mechanical too so you'd have the same longevity. No big mystery, not too complex, just functional.

I'll bet by the end of the year other companies are doing something similar.

[FrankenFretter***]

I'm a little baffled at how that's all possible with no digital circuitry. They claim it's all analog, but how can that be possible when you have a USB port and the ability to download tones for the tone bank? I don't see how that could be all analog. Perhaps I'm just ignorant of what they consider analog?

[deeaa*]

I gathered the digital portion is just the controller. The guitar sound goes thru all analog path anyway. It simply uses digital to drive the 'relays' or whatnot to select the desired pickup combos and phasings. Simple, really, and a great idea.

[DeanEVO_Dude]

I dunno if you really need to know the patches. Just find out what sounds good, save to the knobs you want to use and you'll have the sounds you need to have useable just as with any switch.

I mean, despite the multitude of options, the idea is anyway that you use only a few at a time, right? NOT to go thru the presets live but instead just use the guitar the way you have previously configured it to be. Like make the first three be your favorite strat sounds and the last ones Gibson sounds? Not harder to remember than a regular 5-pos switch?

Well, if you are just using what "sounds good," then why make them programmable? I understand the bank A and bank B, that makes complete sense to me, even without indicator, the switch and the knob are indicators by themselves. What I am talking about are the 15 programmable presets in bank Z (the momentary switch on the upper horn). How are you supposed to know what preset you are on, and what preset that "special setting" for that super-duper, Jimmy Page, totally out-of-phase, parallel/series pickup combo is stored in? Lets say, you have your Gary Moore bridge setting in bank Z, setting 1, and then you have a Peter Green (out of phase bridge/neck combo) in bank Z, setting 2, and a Jimmy Page out-of-phase bridge/neck-tele setting in bank z, #3, if you put some Strat-single coil stuff in bank A and some straight humbucker stuff in bank B... then you do your set, first is a couple of good solid 80's numbers hot and heavy on the bridge pickup with lots of distortion, then you do a Peter Green number, then a SRV number then a few other strat-inspired numbers, then a high gain guitar solo (show off!), and to close the set, you got Gary Moore/Led Zeppelin medley at the end... How do you know what is set up in bank Z and where you are amongst the 15 programmable settings? Everything else makes total and complete sense to me. Am I just over-thinking this?

[Spudman***]

Am I just over-thinking this?

Yup.

Go to a dealer and check one out.

[vroomery]

I guess the point is that if you are going to make 15 extra presets available, you need a reasonable way of knowing which one you're on. I understand that the rest of it is simple like a normal guitar, but you can't expect people to want to use the "z" presets when they don't know what they are.

[Spudman***]

You'll know what preset you are on because you set it up. It's really not that hard. Go try one and then come back and tell us how easy it was.

[Spudman***]

This is cool. A demo of the midi and wireless function of the game changer.