The gTar by Incident Tech, the funky instrument that began life as a Kickstarter project last spring, certainly looks the part of an electric guitar. Our white test unit echoes the iconic shape of a Fender Stratocaster, complete with strings, tuning pegs, and even a pick guard. But the similarities end with the appearance. This is no traditional axe, but a hybrid of an electric guitar and a purely digital device—something you play like a guitar but that makes sound via MIDI processed through an iPhone. It's a clever new way to learn the instrument and a flexible way to record digital music simply by strumming away. The question that remains to be answered is: Just who is it for?
To see the differences between a guitar and the gTar, start with what's missing. There are no pickups under the strings to capture the notes played, as in your dad's Les Paul. Instead, gTar creates signals via MIDI that your iPhone—which plugs into the face of the gTar—translates in actual sound. As such, the gTar doesn't have to sound like anything. At the push of a button a player chooses a clean electric guitar sound, distortion, delay, acoustic guitar, and other tones.
Activate gTar and the other cool component comes to life: its psychedelic fretboard, a grid of LEDs that illuminates to show the player what notes to play. With your iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 plugged into the instrument's face, launch the gTar app and choose one of the songs or scales from the growing library. Then start shredding.
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