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Allan Holdsworth with breath controller and SynthAxe.

A SynthAxe is a fretted, guitar-like MIDI controller, created in 1986 by Bill Aitken and manufactured in England in the middle to late 1980s.

The neck is bent upward from the body because there are two independent sets of strings. The long set create contact between six spaced split frets. Side to side motion registers string bends. The second set of strings for the right hand pass through round magnets utilizing the Hall effect for velocity sensitivity. Six large paddle-like keys can also be used by the right hand to activate the note attack similar to a keyboard or saxophone. It also can be used with a breath controller to simultaneously manipulate the timbre and volume of the instrument.

When originally produced, the SynthAxe carried a price tag of 10,000 pounds (approximately $13,000 US dollars) and eventually sold for about $8,000.00. It was such a sophisticated and expensive piece of machinery that few were sold making it difficult to keep the company afloat. Eventually Virgin Games took over the distribution but let it go after a couple of years.

Prominent players of the SynthAxe include Allan Holdsworth, Chuck Hammer, Lee Ritenour, Future Man, and Al Di Meola.

Allan Holdsworth has featured the Synthaxe on a number of his albums, including Atavachron, Secrets, and Sand. He made these comments about the instrument in an interview:

"The way that I could make a note loud and then soft and then loud and then soft is completely impossible with a guitar. Sure, you could use a volume pedal but it's not the sound — it's not the way I want to hear it. If you play a violin and you pull a note and then you can make it soft and add vibrato, take some off and then make it bright again and hard—just one note. It's just the way you can shape notes. You can shape notes on guitar—I've worked really hard at doing that, but it's really limited compared to what I could do on a Synthaxe. The perception from someone else's point of view is probably different, but being the guy that's trying to create the music, I know that instrument works."

Because it is no longer produced and difficult to locate used units (Holdsworth estimates that there are about 1,000 in existence, and only about 2-3 people who would be qualified to repair one), most musicians who desire a MIDI guitar controller often use more current alternatives, such as Roland or Axon systems that can convert a guitar's output to MIDI via 13-Pin cables and outboard devices. However, the lack of keys and breath controller peripherals for most modern MIDI-compatible guitar controllers allows the Synthaxe to endure as a niche instrument. One notable pioneer who still makes guitar-like controllers, some superficially similar to the SynthAxe, is Harvey Starr of Starr Labs, who offers various MIDI controller instruments that either have keys, strings, or combinations thereof.

• One of the first albums to record with the SynthAxe was David Foster's self-titled 1986 release David Foster with Lee Ritenour playing it on the song "Playing with Fire".

• A SynthAxe formerly belonging to Lee Ritenour was heavily modified by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones percussionist Futureman into his primary instrument, a unique Midi drum controller known as the Synthaxe Drumitar

• SynthAxe photos
• Holdsworth interview in which he talks about SynthAxe
• "This ain't no MIDI guitar."

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