Yamaha EZ-EG MIDI Guitar Keytar Ztar

via this auction

"Marketed as "Learning Guitars", the Yamaha EZ-EG and EZ-AG are secretly a powerful instrument for controlling softsynths!
Besides their normal MIDI messages, these guitars also send out SysEx for each fret pressed and released. This allows us to create our own performance modes not originally found in the EZ-EG instruments.For those of you interested in pursuing alternate midi controllers...

Last year Yamaha released their "EZ" series of "learning guitars" -- guitar shaped devices with a fretboard full of backlit keys (to aid in learning chords) instead of strings. While these are marketed as learning guitars, their midi controller capabilies have been generally overlooked (even by Yamaha's own marketing dept). To the best of my ability, I will try to clear that up here.

First off, the good news. This thing sends out a reliable and relatively expressive stream of midi data! Your host sequencer will recieve exactly what you played, with accurate velocity, no extraneous pitch-bends and no tracking delay. Hallelujah!

There are 72 very light action "keys", laid out in a fretboard pattern (12 frets x 6 rows). They depress very easily and light when pressed (handy for cleaning up your playing technique). All keys send midi note-ons ( 28-88 ) and are triggered by both fretting the notes and strumming the triggers (a set of bars on the body, laid out in six-string pattern).

Hidden gem #1: fretting notes (no strum) sends out a very low velocity (vel=14) note-on. This sounds remarkably realistic using the onboard guitar patches, but is worth far more when used with synths or VSTi's. By varying your synths' velocity sensitivity you can add some expressive elements to your performances. Best of all, by lowering or eliminating velocity sensitivity you can play synths simply by fretting notes (no strum necessary). This greatly reduces stray notes, and is a feature found on Starr Labs midi controllers.

Because of this feature, hammer-ons and pull-offs are quite realistic, an elusive characteristic in guitar-midi controllers. The only problem is that you can't pull-off to an open string, it simply results in a note off.

Hidden Gem #2: The triggers work incerdibly well. They respond accurately to velocity (roughly 15-128) and somehow sustain nearly indefinitely. Best of all, you can mute strings just like a real guitar. You can even mute individual stings (you will get a staccato burst of notes, just like a guitar) or let them howl. Then when you touch the trigger with your hand, the sustain stops. Remarkable.

Downsides? The pull-off issue mentioned above and the fact that the tremelo (pitch bend) bar seems locked at +/- 200 cents. But these are very minor gripes considering that I now have something that many midi guitarist have longed for for years -- a reliable stream of midi data with no tracking delay and no extraneous pitchbend data. While it is still no Ztar, for $299 I am happy.

Yamaha has a really interesting and unique teaching guitar called the EZ-EG guitar. This $299 electric guitar features 12 lighted frets that show beginners the actual hand positions for all the chords they'll need to know before they take off on their own, and six 'strings' that emulate strumming or finger-picking. In addition to an onboard selection of 36 songs, songs can be loaded into the guitar's memory directly from any PC. The EZ-EG will also reproduce nine realistic guitar sounds, eight bass guitar sounds and the timbres of a banjo, piano and traditional Japanese shamisen through its built-in speaker. Selectable play modes include: Strumming Practice for the right hand, where chords change automatically during a strumming practice; Chord Training for the left hand, where the user simply makes the chord changes while it strums; and Full Play, which shows chord changes by lighting the frets, while the user strums and plays chords.

Standard 'guitar' features include volume, tempo, and balance controls, standard tuning plus open tuning options and a tremolo bar. A unique electronic capo allows pitch adjustment. Users may plug the EZ-EG into a standard guitar amplifier, or use the mini-headphone jack for private practice. The EZ-EG operates on six "AA" cells included and strap. retails for $299"