This is pretty incredible, I think. The fact that it's not electronically manipulating or effecting the guitar's tone other than what seems to be what the pickups are doing to the strings, is both archaic and very forward-thinking. Though we've had devices that affected the strings with electromagnetic fields to cause infinite sustain (Ebow, Fernandes Sustainer, Michael Brook and his "infinite guitar" and the Gizmotron-which never really worked properly) none of these, to my knowledge, ever did anything to DECREASE sustain to make muted sounds. See Vernon Reid's very good banjo impression in the video clip.

If it wasn't for the $7000 pricetag, and the fact that the guitar itself isn't exactly my taste, physically/visually, I'd be really into this thing. Since hearing Michael Brook's fantastic "Rock Paper Scissors" CD, I've been jonesing to put a Fernandes Sustainer into one of my guitars, and I can't even budget the $150 for that, so I can only laugh at a $7000 guitar.

Going back to my original comment that it is an archaic concept, I really love the fact that a company so exclusively associated with synthesizers and electronic processing is actually thinking about how to mess with the physical reaction of guitar strings. Maybe this technology will become more economical at some point, but like the above mentioned products, it seems like only a small demographic of guitar players would be interested in it.

For now, I'll go back to sticking tape on my guitar strings for banjo effects, and using a ton of compression (or my Ebow) for the infinite sustain.

By the way, I think the concept for infinite sustain originated in 1984. Something about going out for a bite and you'd still hear the note when you got back...

Roger