2006 Gibson Les Paul HD.6X Pro Electric Guitar - Blue

Our Take:

While we are certainly more of a traditional guitar shop, we have been known to take on more unconventional axes - especially if they come from a brand that we know and love. This HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul is the best kind of "robo-guitar": one that actually facilitates freedom of expression with its technologies, as opposed to just being all flash and no real function. The addition of the Hex pickup allows for a much more intimate connection to the studio than before, with the ability to mix and match routing settings from your guitar as you see fit. And the best part? It's still a Les Paul through and through, with a pair of 490R & 498T Humbucking pickups and a solid Mahogany body. 

Gibson's Take:

Nominated for prominent awards in musical-instrument innovation almost immediately upon its release in 2007, the HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul is the most advanced guitar-based digital controller ever produced. In addition to its two traditional magnetic humbucking pickups, the HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul carries a unique new Hex pickup, mounted between the traditional “lead” position humbucking pickup and the bridge, which is made up of six individual humbucking-type pickups (one for each string), and forms the link between analog and digital in the system. Each of these six pickups in the Hex sends a signal from its individual string to the guitar’s onboard, studio-grade preamps and converters, where it is converted from analog to digital and sent down a standard Ethernet cable to a proprietary Break out Box (BoB for short, included). From here, the player can route the output to be processed externally in mono, stereo (splitting the three lower and three upper strings), or as six individual signals—one to each of six amps, one to each of six channels on a mixing desk, or wherever your imagination takes you. The HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul’s onboard preamp system also includes a headphone output for in-ear monitoring, and a facility to return a monitor feed from an external mixer via the BoB and Ethernet cable, so you can play along to other sources.
All in all, the HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul presents sky’s-the-limit possibilities that are maximized by its ability to tap outboard digital systems, rather than being restricted to inherently limited onboard tone-producing systems, as with other digital guitars. All this, and you still have an exquisitely crafted, traditional Les Paul with two of the world’s most popular PAF-style magnetic humbucking pickups to boot. The HD.6X Pro Digital Les Paul comes with a Gibson Digital hardshell case, BoB, Ethernet cable, and TRS cable.