By Andrew Liszewski
Though more capable and flexible than their analog brethren, digital-based instruments (besides keyboards) haven’t really managed to find a solid foothold with musicians. But that hasn’t stopped companies from trying. The Kitara is a digital guitar featuring a touch screen where you’d normally strum the strings, and 6 buttons on every fret along the neck. It’s played exactly like a real electric guitar since it has the same look, feel and weight thanks to the model pictured above being machined from a solid block of aluminum.
Like any digital instrument worth its weight in silicon the Kitara can be used as a midi controller and be upgraded with new sample libraries for producing different sounds when playing. It’s completely open source too, with an SDK, so developer/musicians are encouraged to do whatever they want with the hardware, including uploading and sharing their modifications to a public portal operated by Misa Digital Instruments. The aluminum Kitara pictured above will sell for $2,899 when it becomes available mid-April, but a black plastic version, which is weighted to feel the same as this one does, will be considerably cheaper at $849.
