Amp modellers and guitars.

Devil#20

On the back of another discussion. If an amp/FX modeller can model pretty much and amp. cab plus effects pedals under the Sun then it can also extend to model any guitar/pickup combination. So what's the point buying that custom shop Fender or Gibson or even Martin/Taylor acoustic if the electronics can pick up the slack. Apart from the playability aspects of a well sorted guitar (and even a cheap guitar can be made to feel nice to play) then shouldn't we all be selling our amps and guitars and buying a Fractal Axe 3 and Harley Benton or Squier tele and a motor home or yacht? This, btw, is a serious question. Seems DSP is negating the need for particular well tried and tested amp and guitar combinations. 

monquixote

I think the Variax is supposed to sound good, but playing a guitar is a physical experience.

You can't model the difference between playing a 50's neck Tele and a Jem.

TheBigDipper

I'd like to wish the boffins good luck in trying to capture me playing my Brook acoustic, yet letting me hear a Martin D series in the room. 

Devil#20

monquixote said:

I think the Variax is supposed to sound good, but playing a guitar is a physical experience.

You can't model the difference between playing a 50's neck Tele and a Jem.

I did mention the playability aspects in the OP. Obviously you can't simulate that. 

Cirrus

There's an assumption being made in the OP that the technology and strategy needed to mimic the distortion of a guitar signal is the same as the technology needed to synthesise one.

I don't think that's right. They're different things. One can do all kinds of things to mimic an amp or effect - measure the real thing, tweak it to behave dynamically with accuracy, use convolution, component modelling etc... But synthesising the sound of an instrument based on the signal coming from a different instrument?

The big hurdle there is that you need to know exactly what the instrument is doing so you know what to do to transform it into something else. You don't have the starting point, you just have the result - the guitar output.