Gibson Dark Fire System, Owner'S Manual

Page 1: ...Gibson Dark Fire Gibson Dark Fire Owner s Manual Owner s Manual Gibson Dark Fire 4 0 manual page 1 ...

Page 2: ...le might walk or in locations where they may receive pressure from items placed upon or against them Also be very careful with any power source connections such as where the AC adapter connects to the wall outlet If these are jostled loose the Robot Guitar II Breakout Box or RIP audio interface may experience extreme power differentials which can potentially harm you and the product Service Please...

Page 3: ...ll be replaced with the most similar product whose value does not exceed your original product s purchase price Remember as a necessary condition to the warranty coverage described in this section you must activate your warranty by mailing the warranty card included with Dark Fire to Gibson USA Department W P O Box 100087 Nashville TN 37210 0087 Warranty Limitations Unfortunately it is not possibl...

Page 4: ...contract or tort even if Gibson or its authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages and Gibson shall not be liable for any expenses claims or suits arising from or relating to any of the foregoing To obtain warranty service contact the service center nearest you US Toll Free 1 800 4GIBSON US Local 1 615 871 4500 Email service gibson com Europe 00800 4GIBSON1 Email ...

Page 5: ...or computer based recording it can also charge Dark Fire s internal battery Multiple outputs available for recording Magnetic pickups Piezo pickup individual string outputs The pickup switch toggle is also a knob Piezo blend that sets the blend of magnetic and Piezo pickup sounds Set up with Plek technology for exceptional playability Bundled with Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 full version and A...

Page 6: ...r Control Knob MCK a sophisticated push pull knob with an illuminated interactive display shows Dark Fire s status and lets you select tunings sounds and more The MCK has two main modes When pushed in closest to the guitar body the MCK works like a regular tone knob Pulling the MCK out furthest from the guitar body activates it and applies power to Dark Fire You can rotate the MCK to make various ...

Page 7: ...nd individual outputs for each string hex pickup all of which feed a tip ring sleeve stereo 1 4 output jack There are several ways to use these outputs As you familiarize yourself with the Dark Fire guitar we suggest using either the Traditional Electric Guitar or Blended Electric Piezo Sound connections described next The companion RIP Computer Interface manual covers computer based application i...

Page 8: ...er computer This software turns your computer into a virtual guitar rack with dozens of virtual amp and effect options while the RIP interface provides an input for Dark Fire along with mono or stereo outputs for your mixer PA or active speakers For a computer based live performance setup that takes advantage of Dark Fire s eight outputs and individual string processing possibilities load Ableton ...

Page 9: ...ividual string in tune All LEDs off except one LED solid blue green or red Tuning is complete White blinking Short circuit detected Check if a string touches the tail piece the bridge a fret or another string make sure that strings are cut close to the posts and that all strings are in the bridge saddle s center White solid Tuning for this string is temporarily on hold tuning will be completed aft...

Page 10: ...h with six presets of alternate tunings Dark Fire comes with 18 factory presets loaded in these banks but you can replace any of these with custom presets The three banks are indicated by the colors of the dots in the center of the Display Matrix Blue the default bank when you first pull the MCK out Green additional alternate tunings Red special low tunings that are optimized for use with differen...

Page 11: ...e tuning 4 The string colors indicate the tuning status 5 When Dark Fire is tuned the String LED you selected will shine solid blue and the other String LEDs will turn off 6 Push the MCK back in you re ready to play Blue Bank Presets Reference String LED Name Tuning low string to high E E Major E B E G B e A DADAGAD D A D G A D D Dropped D D A D G B e G Delta Blues D G D G B D B E Flat Eb Ab Db Gb...

Page 12: ...for the selected alternate tuning 6 The string colors indicate the tuning status 7 When Dark Fire is tuned the String LED you selected will shine the same color as the current Bank and the other String LEDs will turn off Push the MCK in you re ready to play 8 To return to Standard Tuning rotate the MCK to the Peg symbol and press momentarily on the Display Matrix Strum the strings and Dark Fire wi...

Page 13: ...ain the the most recently stored Chameleon magnetic pickup coil configuration even with no power This is because Dark Fire s Chameleon Tone technology uses special latching relays that remember their most recent state Choosing Chameleon Tones 1 Pull the MCK out choose a tuning Preset and tune the guitar as described in Chapter 2 The Chameleon Tone will be applied to whichever tuning you ve selecte...

Page 14: ...coil Green switched on Red switched off White out of phase Blue parallel Note that just because different Chameleon tones have the same coil wirings doesn t mean they sound the same For example although Gibson Classic Blues and L5 have the same coil wirings the EQ settings for for the magnetic pickups blue Pickup symbol turned on are different and shade the tones differently Sometimes these differ...

Page 15: ...he level counter clockwise to increase Unlit Piezo pickup output blend is off magnetic pickups only If Dark Fire connects to the RIP computer interface Green Piezo pickup output blend is on Piezo EQ is off Live mode Blue Piezo pickup output blend is on and Piezo EQ is on Live mode Light blue cyan Hex outputs are enabled Recording mode You must enable Hex Output Mode for RIP to see the hexaphonic s...

Page 16: ... kind of sound often associated with Jimi Hendrix We ll tune to the E Flat Major tuning that Hendrix often used enable the magnetic pickups with EQ enable the Piezo without EQ and choose the Twang sound 1 Pull the MCK out rotate it to the B position the blue tuning bank press down momentarily on the MCK and strum the strings Dark Fire is now tuned to E Flat Major assuming you haven t overwritten t...

Page 17: ...ith Gibson Classic the P90H neck pickup is wired as a single coil pickup but EQ is enabled for both the magnetic pickups and the Piezo With Les Paul mode although the P90H neck pickup is also wired as a single coil pickup the EQ and Piezo default to being off About the Wiring in Les Paul Controls The volume controls in a classic Les Paul interact with each other when the pickup toggle is in the mi...

Page 18: ...hat the classic Chameleon sounds require that the pickup toggle switch be in the middle both pickups position with no Piezo sound blended in and the tone controls up full But with so many options available to change tone in addition to the Chameleon Tones it s possible to stray from the original classic sounds This makes it easy to create useful variations on these classic sounds for even more ton...

Page 19: ...ry life After the Battery is charged fully the charging circuit switches to trickle charge mode to prevent damage to the battery The blue light remains on while trickle charging You can also charge Dark Fire with the RIP Computer Interface Refer to its manual for details Monitoring the Charging Process To monitor the charging process while in any Bank with the charger connected 1 If the MCK isn t ...

Page 20: ...ark Fire switches off the Piezo out and onboard EQ and Powertune switches into hibernation mode If the red charge level symbol appears begin charging Dark Fire immediately If you turn on Dark Fire and the Display Matrix shows nothing but yellow dots or if this appears during the course of playing then the battery is fully discharged At this point you must recharge the battery If Dark Fire was char...

Page 21: ...ery out of storage charge it fully before playing Dark Fire This promotes longer battery life Once the battery is fully charged disconnect the charger Li Ion batteries are smart and you can t really overcharge them However leaving them connected to a charger when fully charged uses power unnecessarily These tips don t necessarily apply to laptop computers Even if a laptop uses an Li Ion battery th...

Page 22: ... off each string close to the post if one string contacts another the system may function improperly Also do not use any strings which have frayed wraps at the ball end Dark Fire will not function if any part of the string touches beyond its insulated holder and don t let steel bottleneck slides contact the strings during tuning operations 5 Manually turn each tuning peg to tighten the string tens...

Page 23: ... the display the Rotating Arrow LED will shine blue and all string LEDs will shine green 4 Turn the MCK to the string LED that corresponds to the string you are replacing The LED you select will shine red 5 Press the MCK s Display Matrix momentarily a few times in succession and the corresponding Powerhead will start to turn and place tension on that string 6 Once there is enough tension on the st...

Page 24: ... turn green 5 When all string LEDs have turned green they will turn off and the Peg LED will start flashing This indicates your Custom Altered Tuning is ready to store 6 To store a preset in the Blue Bank As Dark Fire is currently in the Blue Bank storing to the Blue Bank is easy Select a string LED position then press the Display Matrix momentarily and the string LEDs will flash red 4 times indic...

Page 25: ...a standard tuning to A 440Hz then pushing the MCK in before adjusting the intonation Note You can easily change a fretted string s pitch by up to 10 cents by applying different forces and the position where you press down on the string affects pitch Please use a consistent force and position Also during intonation the tuning precision is set to maximum automatically you may notice that it takes a ...

Page 26: ...t string Dark Fire will tune the low E string to Eb 3 Fret the A string at the 1st fret and pluck only that string Dark Fire will tune the A string to Ab 4 Fret the D string at the 1st fret and pluck only that string Dark Fire will tune the D string to Db 5 Continue fretting strings at the 1st fret and plucking individual strings When complete you may store your tuning as a Custom Altered Tuning T...

Page 27: ...events the name from being spelled out So we want to choose 13 as the function and 0 as the value Here s what to do after entering setup mode 1 Rotate the MCK until the Display Matrix shows the function s first digit which is 1 2 Press momentarily on the MCK 1 will flash red to confirm it has been entered 3 Rotate the MCK until the Display Matrix shows the function s second digit which is 3 4 Pres...

Page 28: ... example Function 7 has 10 options from 0 9 Note 3 Reset functions have a safety feature where you must press a red Y on the display This is similar to when a PC asks Are You Sure Available Functions and Values Function 1 Instant activated function Controls startup behavior Default 0 Value Result Clickstream 0 Starts up with instant activated tuning 1 0 1 Starts up in Chameleon mode 1 1 2 Starts u...

Page 29: ...ning speed for accuracy 0 least accurate 9 most accurate 7 0 9 Note 0 gives fastest tuning with 2 5 cent accuracy 9 gives slowest tuning with 0 2 cent accuracy Function 9 E Function correction Compensates for different strum levels when tuning Default 1 Value Result Clickstream 0 Switches off compensation to give an extremely slight speed increase when tuning 9 0 1 Switches compensation on to allo...

Page 30: ...n ring when Piezo pickup is switched on 18 0 1 Piezo out signal routed to ring when Piezo pickup is switched on 18 1 Note This relates only to Piezo Out Mono where all six strings are mixed Piezo Out Hex is never routed to the tip Function 20 Sound setup Combine a tuning preset with a coil configuration Default 1 Value Result Clickstream 0 Chooses Gibson Classic for all tuning presets 20 0 Preset ...

Page 31: ...ur mind about resetting in Step 3 choose N No instead of Y Function 105 Reset modifier Resets runtime correction and calibration data Result Clickstream Step 1 Do the clickstream on the right then rotate the MCK fully counter clockwise 105 Step 2 Press the Display Matrix momentarily then wait for the red to appear Step 3 Rotate MCK to the blue Y Yes then press the Display Matrix momentarily Step 4...

Page 32: ...ange your mind about resetting in Step 3 choose N No instead of Y Function 109 Reset all Resets all configuration data to the factory defaults Result Clickstream Step 1 Do the clickstream on the right then rotate the MCK fully counter clockwise 109 Step 2 Press the Display Matrix momentarily then wait for the red to appear Step 3 Rotate MCK to the blue Y Yes then press the Display Matrix momentari...

Page 33: ...und Result Clickstream Configure a band of the magnetic pickup PEQ 21 coil configuration number band number config data Example To configure the left channel PEQ Band1 for the Gibson Classic sound use the clickstream 21 0 1 16 You need the Dark Fire Configuration Tool to calculate the correct config data Function 22 Magnetic PU left channel PEQ settings Configure EQ gain Default depends on sound R...

Page 34: ...simultaneously Default 6 Value Result Clickstream 1 6 Set number of Powerheads that can tune at the same time 30 1 6 Note The third clickstream number can range from 1 to 6 Function 32 Stepper acceleration Set acceleration for each Powerhead individually Default 5 Value Result Clickstream 0 9 Sets Powerhead acceleration 32 1 0 9 Note The second clickstream number is the associated Powerhead number...

Page 35: ...d Piezo pickup have their own equalizers and that the Piezo blend circuit is post equalizer In Hex Mode the RIP Computer Interface does sophisticated analog signal multiplexing in order to have the Piezo pickup and the individual hex pickups available on a single conductor i e the stereo cable s ring connection Gibson Dark Fire 4 0 manual page 35 ...

Page 36: ...second the LED should start flashing yellow information is being sent to the neck CPU and the Powerhead starts to move After tuning the string the string s LED turns green to indicate the string is in tune When the guitar is in tune all strings flash blue If not try these fixes Remove the problematic string and make sure the string bar is not inclined in the saddle and that you can move the string...

Page 37: ... If you hear a winding noise but the Powerhead doesn t move it might be a connection issue from the powerhead to the neck circuitry Inspect the tuning peg that doesn t work If its case is rotated rotate the Powerhead back to its original position level with the back plate with the lit up G this should fix the problem Then tighten the nut to make sure the Powerhead stays in this position Avoid over...

Page 38: ...on Powertune remains active when the PEQ or the Piezo signal is present and you rotate the MCK to the LED Peg symbol When you push the MCK down at this position the PEQ and Piezo signal remain active The tone knob feels like a regular knob without clicks and the tone capacitor is activated again To summarize If you want to shut down Powertune turn the MCK to any position other than the LED Peg sym...

Page 39: ...ain for on EQ blue press again for off unlit LED piezo output toggle press for on green press again for on EQ blue LED Chameleon mode piezo output toggle press for on green press again for on eq blue and press again for off unlit C LED enter Chameleon Tone select mode then choose the desired tone by rotating the MCK to the E A D G B E Arrow or B LEDs display charge level two red bars two yellow ba...