Synthetic Infinity

Since the invention of the Hammond organ in 1935, hardly an instrument exists that has not been electrified. Piano, flute, violin, trumpet, drums --each has its own plugged-in cousin. Most conspicuous is pop-rock's king of instruments, the electric guitar. Ten years ago, from Engineering Physicist Robert Moog, came the Moog synthesizer, which first produced music through electricity alone. A nuclear-age superorgan, it looks like the offspring of a piano and a telephone switchboard.

The public was bewitched with its eerie atomic sounds, first through Composer Walter Carlos' bestselling record Switched-On Bach, later by Rock Keyboard Artists Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Rick Wakeman of Yes. The synthesizer began to challenge the electric guitar for the top of the instrumental rock pile.

Then along came the guitar synthesizer. "This guitar does not play a high E, it plays a high anything," claims its Inventor, Walter Sear, a Manhattan tuba manufacturer who worked with Moog for 18 years on the original synthesizer. His instrument looks like a guitar. It plays like one too. There ends the resemblance. Mating a solid-body Plexiglas Armstrong guitar with a Moog by means of an electric umbilical cord, Sear has created an instrument of virtually incalculable sound potential.

Programmed Individually. Each of the six strings, attached to its own tiny synthesizer, can be programmed individually. This means that one string can be set to play a percussive ostinato, while its neighbor simulates a keyboard synthesizer. Another string might be tuned as a bass. The remaining strings could be used as a live guitar. While the resulting one-man band is somewhat less than an orchestra, a musician playing a guitar synthesizer could fill in for any six-man rock group--or one twelve-handed guitarist.

As on a guitar, notes can bend, slide and wave. Sounds can glide through all the frequencies between two fixed pitches--just as the human voice does--enabling Sear's musical clone to produce any sound imaginable. Moreover, the guitar can now match a keyboard Moog's titanic output decibel for decibel. In live performance, the complex studio wall synthesizer with its winking lights and patchcord jungle can be replaced by a portable console.

Those who were disappointed that 1974 failed to turn up a new grand vizier of rock may find that the guitar synthesizer will jolt pop music back to life. But there are drawbacks. The road model of this sonic Tinkertoy costs $35,000. At first, guitarists are elated by the possibility of playing two quarter-tones with infinite sustain on the same string. Elation turns to concern, however, when they find that they must learn a whole new technique. "You have to play it gently," says Guitarist Steve Howe of Yes. Jazz-Rock Guitarist John McLaughlin estimates that he will need six months to learn guitar synthesizer technology. When he has mastered it he will be able to improvise dozens of melodies in seconds rather than minutes. The prospect would make Bach weep. McLaughlin predicts that one day synthesizers will be built into all instruments. "The synthesizer world," he adds, "opens the door to musical infinity."

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