1985 called. They want their guitar synth back. What could be more wonderful than Starr Labs, a tiny little company based in San Diego who have been producing weird, semi-one-off guitar MIDI controllers in the long defunkt line of the Synthaxe, and Stepp DG1 for decades? Their Ztar guitars have buttons/keys along the neck, touch sensitive strings you can strum, and a few other buttons and controllers. Most interestingly, the buttons on the neck are polyphonic, so you can play multiple notes on one 'string', which must make for a bit of mental adjustment for most guitarists. Starr Labs just put out a press release about their new model Z7-S, which looks like a Steinberger and seems pretty much the same as all the others, including this previous post. It costs $1,495. Of course, for $1,300 less you could buy a Yamaha EZ-AG teaching guitar, which works in a similar way, and - according to one review - is "easy to wipe clean"...
4/12/2007
Starr Labs: Still trying to make MIDI guitars after all these years
1985 called. They want their guitar synth back. What could be more wonderful than Starr Labs, a tiny little company based in San Diego who have been producing weird, semi-one-off guitar MIDI controllers in the long defunkt line of the Synthaxe, and Stepp DG1 for decades? Their Ztar guitars have buttons/keys along the neck, touch sensitive strings you can strum, and a few other buttons and controllers. Most interestingly, the buttons on the neck are polyphonic, so you can play multiple notes on one 'string', which must make for a bit of mental adjustment for most guitarists. Starr Labs just put out a press release about their new model Z7-S, which looks like a Steinberger and seems pretty much the same as all the others, including this previous post. It costs $1,495. Of course, for $1,300 less you could buy a Yamaha EZ-AG teaching guitar, which works in a similar way, and - according to one review - is "easy to wipe clean"...
Starr Labs Guitars may have a very limited audience, but they are pretty neat and all of the gear I have seen come out of Starr Labs (including some custom stuff made for us) was really nicely built. Glad they are going strong.
ReplyDelete-Vance
I never knew about the Yamaha EZ-AG "guitar"... It does seem to have MIDI in/out -- looks like a totally fun controller. But then, I like keytars, too...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gibson.com/DigitalGuitarNew/gibsonDigital.html
ReplyDelete"Still trying"...does that mean they have failed?
ReplyDeleteErgonomic Nightmare
ReplyDeleteAnyone played the Yamaha? It might be good for recording bass guitar as midi.
ReplyDeleteStarr's other controllers are more ergonomic, maybe, but I like this shape and hope to have one somday, or at least try one out. Every thing I"ve heard from Starr owners had been good reviews.
ReplyDeletethe ez-ag is great. search kvr for a 80 page thread on it, as well as pc-midi software to make it easier still. apparently yamaha have just stopped making them, so they're getting hard to find.
ReplyDeleteSaw this post and bought an EG-AG from Amazon uk - it's fantastic, ta for the tip!
ReplyDelete"Still trying" to make MIDI guitars? Hardly! They have succeeded, and brilliantly, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am not a guitarist, I have certainly appreciated working with musicians who have instruments crafted by Harvey Starr.
I would like to recommend a visit to the website for anyone who's interested:
http://www.starrlabs.com/
I've had a Ztar for ten years. They are excellent. What other guitar-style instrument allows you to play above and below the nut (not that that's the main reason for getting one).
ReplyDelete