well, it looks like Gibson has come out with something pretty nice, don't see much(if anything) to complain about this one
 
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Designer/Gibson-USA/Nighthawk-Standard-2010.aspx
 
price isn't too bad to be on Gibson's website and considering that it'll cost much less from a store
 
~Taylor

Now that Nighthawk is much more like it.  Different, with a distinctive feature set, but fitting nicely in the classic Gibson tradition.

Those do look pretty sweet.  I'm especially curious what the middle pick up sounds like.  The price is very generous for a Gibson with those sorts of features.  It's nice to see the melody makers and juniors at lower prices as well.

I saw bluesman Joe Louis Walker playing one of these nighthawk  guitars at Ronnie Scotts in Birmingham years back and it sounded great. In fact his had a fanned fretboard.
 
Jazzyvee

Sorry folks, I do not like modeling; when the amps get turned up to gig levels, they sound like like bad transistor amps, and I would bet the guitars do too...the corvus made me chuckle;when I worked at a music store Jon and I used to joke that Corvus sounded like an Ozark kinda name of an inbred guy with no thumbs...he later wrote a tune with his band Flophouse jr. called 'ode to corvus'...
 
So many times when these instrument companies try to innovate they fail and they lose sight of what was good in the first place...most new Fenders are bad, those formica Martins-I wouldn't take one for free! and Gibson when they stick to making guitars with nitro finishes and normal stuff are still ok; in other words, when they get out of their own way and just do what they're good at...anyway, just my 2 cents...Tony.

Here's another one - I know there was a Gibson Custom version as well.  I'll try to find the link.
 
Here's the Epiphone version:
 
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Flying-V/Epiphone/Zakk-Wylde-ZV-Custom.aspx

All of these things, regardless of what I think, are just waiting for the right person to find them and change my perception, finding as usual, my thinking was (ahem!) perhaps a bit short-sighted and sinking into curmdugeonry.
 
I must admit:  In the mid-70's, I'd have thought 4 grand for a bass with funny pickups and a pointy shape was a goofy idea.  So what the hell do I know?  Maybe the modelling business is off-putting as I'm old enough to remember all the originals !  
 
J o e y

Here's another!
 
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Designer/Epiphone/Zakk-Wylde-Graveyard-Disciple.aspx
 
I particularly like the line,...block position markers on an ebony fingerboard add a menacing touch of class...
 
Somebody over there needs to be fired.

I sometimes wonder what age group Gibson is trying to target.  These seem like the sort of guitars that would appeal to adolescent boys more interested in style than substance.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  
 
Cut your hair and turn down that damn racket!

I agree.  They're clearly targeted towards a younger market.  Hey, if it sells...best of luck.

I'm guessing that Gibson is banking on the idea that someday the teens who are buying these guitars are going to develop a brand loyalty, and someday they will move into Les Pauls, 335's, and SG's.  I think it's a reasonable bet, and who has more disposable income than a teenager living at home?  
 
These types of guitars (to their credit) were never marketed as innovative.  That is the difference between them and the Robot guitars that Gibson is trying to sell to professional musicians.  One of my favorite things about old fashioned analogue effects is that they require a learning curve.  They modify your instrument in ways that require careful attention.  Sometimes they sound sloppy, or just plain bad.  When every setting of a pedal is normalized to a useful range, something is lost in terms of user control.  And to be blunt, digital modeling sounds bad to my ears.  A good tube amp could probably compensate for some of the poor performance of onboard digital effects.  I'm just not ready to believe that a true Swiss army knife of tone exists.  There are too many variables and too many people with different tastes.

The coffin guitar would be funny as a guitar in your stable-maybe for Alice Cooper or Misfits songs, but it would suck to have that as your only guitar...and that SG/flying V thing, it looks like a Thalidomide starfish...maybe Zakk Wylde needs to quit drinking...and Gibson needs to stop asking him for ideas!
 
Jon(who I worked with)and I used to talk about modeling amps, and he felt that they disconnected you from the true interaction between guitar and amp that creates all those wonderful overtones and such and I agreed; I have a lot of effects, but I use two at a time at most; more seemed like diminishing returns...Tony.

While it's not technically a modeling amp, I'm currently playing through a Pritchard Sword of Satori that has several voices.  It's a solid state amp unlike any other out there.  Eric Pritchard (worked at PRS when it first started out designing amps and manufacturing machines for them) has a unique system with multiple patents.  It is analog solid state and I can get voicings of Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa lead, and several others, including an acoustic amp voice that, along with the two horns that I control with a footswitch, gives an excellent acoustic amp tone.  I must admit I was extremely prejudiced against solid state and modeling until I ran across this Pritchard.  It's nothing short of incredible.  At the last Northern Cali Alembic gathering, I had it set up on one side of the drums while on the other was a Marshall double stack.  The Pritchard (about 18 by 17) looked like a little toy in comparison, but after we were done, the Marshall guy came over to me to tell me how great my Pritchard sounded!
 
As for the coffin guitar, it would be great for a cover of Monster Mash at a Halloween gig, or for backing Screamin' Jay Hawkins.  Otherwise, why?
 
Bill, tgo

I think they're ugly, but I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude on the concept.  I'm totally incapable of playing these guitars-as-triggers type instruments, but let's see what Gen-y does.
 
Happy New Year, everyone, btw.
 
R.

Sometimes messing up - whether playing or monkeying around with an effect - is the best way to discover something cool and new.  Hendrix said that once and it's true.