More on the synth.

Played the guitar synth last night, and after a false start I really enjoyed it. Some sounds are silly, some develop too slowly for guitar use and some are abrasive in the way that only synth can be.

But some sounds are wonderful, and I'd love to use this live. Flute was brilliant - with a light touch on the fretboard it can be made to soar and trill just like the real thing. Trumpet was great, and both solo and harmonised trumpets sounded realistic, particularly when carefully punctuated and playing riffs. Some of the organ sounds are monstrous: they make the guitar *feel* just like it does when you have a really huge, crunchy and thunderous overdrive going on - I can see why Jon Lord fitted into Deep Purple so well. Sax was OK, but nothing special. Banjo was reasonably authentic, but lacked sustain a little. Piano would be usable, sounding particularly authentic with picked arpeggios, but doesn't set the world alight. There's also a tremendous bass patch that sounds much better than my bass rig!

The guitar tracks well with relatively few glitches, particularly when playing single notes, but even chords were fully acceptable for some patches. It needs a little care not to fret notes that aren't intentional, since even though they'd normally be un-noticeable, the synth picks them up and responds. But it was really fun to try to get into character for each instrument. It seems my natural playing is probably much less rock-guitar oriented and much more toward a wider musicality that I'd expected.

Would I buy one? At the right price, certainly.