Tuesday November 11th, 2003

TIME Magazine Names Gibson's Digital Guitar One of 2003's Coolest Inventions

TIME Magazine has named Gibson's Digital Guitar one of the top "Coolest Inventions of 2003" in its fourth annual "Inventions" section, on newsstands Monday (11/10). In an article entitled "Digital Jamming," TIME asks the digital question: "We've already got digital music files like MP3s and digital music players like the iPod, so why not create music with a digital instrument in the first place?"

The Gibson Digital Guitar is the answer, as the article explains: "The resulting sound is much clearer and less susceptible to all sorts of distortion. Rock on!"

The digi guitar was one of the winners in TIMEs Music and Fashion category, along with such inventions as a bikini made of fish leather, a snorkel with a built-in radio, and Apples iTunes music store. Winners in other categories ranged from the human genome gene chip to a CD ROM shredder to "invisible technology" (no joke).

The Gibson Digital Guitar brings the 1930s technology of today's electric guitar into the Digital Age opening a virtually unlimited array of musical possibilities for guitarists. The Gibson Digital Guitar system features a genuine Gibson guitar equipped with Gibson's patented HEX pick up which senses up-and-down motion and side-to-side motion for each string. It also features MaGIC-enabled digital transport, which carries multiple channels in both directions over standard Ethernet cable, and Gibson's BreakOut Box with eight outputs.

The technology that enables the Gibson digital guitar is an Ethernet media delivery system called MaGIC, developed by Gibson Labs. MaGIC stands for Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier and is designed to replace all wiring systems in the musical instrument field and in consumer electronic applications.

"It has always been my passion and desire to take creativity and musical expression to a new level, to give musicians a bigger canvas on which to paint, without detracting from the intimate connection between the musician and the instrument," said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp. "The Gibson Digital Guitar opens up a virtually unlimited world of possibilities to guitarists by removing some of the limitations that have been inherent in electric guitar design throughout its history."

To view TIME Magazine's Coolest Inventions of 2003 section visit TIME's What's Next special report. The Gibson Digital Guitar will be available in early 2004; for more information go to www.gibsonmagic.com.