This is what a synthaxe looks like, They're working on a datajack port Options

[Xahn Borealis]

Enjoy.

[Redjack]

That Rocks!

[Mardrax]

I tend to favour this one still. Strings, please!

[CanRay]

Not a high-tech keytar? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Mardrax]

For all its advancements over the years, I still can't bring myself to lay down over a couple hundred bucks for something that plays MIDI (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[CanRay]

I'm still waiting for the days when Muzak goes MIDI. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Traul]

I tend to favour this one still. Strings, please!

How this is better than a good old pedal controler? Unless you consider the fact that you cannot play and control the synthetizer at the same time as a desirable feature, of course. Yes, you get the funky lights on the touch pad...

To the OP: this is only the beginning. The next step is realizing that we can get rid of the shapes and techniques that were imposed by the physical constraints of acoustic instruments. It might take a long time: we still haven't digested the switch to electric. See things like the e-bow, the hyperbass, the Chapman stick,...

[Mardrax]

How this is better than a good old pedal controler? Unless you consider the fact that you cannot play and control the synthetizer at the same time as a desirable feature, of course. Yes, you get the funky lights on the touch pad...

Oh, but you can play while controlling the controller, it just takes some practice, same as a trem bar, really. Beside that, you could always set the controller up as a pitch shifter on one axes, hit up a sustainer and go to town with that.

Of course, there's something to be said for having a whole lot of things in one package. Instruments like the one Bellamy had commissioned from Manson serve as a stepping stone to this. Which is still a whole lot of foot pedals rolled into the guitar itself, but I'd love to see you control the knobs on a pedal while playing. Some pinky-control allows you to do so perfectly, however, like we've been doing with volume knobs for ages.
As far as x-y controllers go though, there's a definite advantage. I'd like to see you change the settings on two separate pedals simultaneously with your feet, during play.

And all the while, you're not using all the functionality a set of strings give you: tone control, analog volume control, analog levels of damping with both hands, vibrato control on both hands (provided a trem bridge), ability to play harmonics without changing tonesets, and that's just naming a few.
As far as that's concerned, I'd like to see that touchscreen handle 5 fingered play wihtout delay, and the lack of tactile feedback would make it pretty much impossible to play tremolo-picking speeds comfortably, if it could handle that, which I highly doubt.

Technological advances will bring progress there, but mostly, analog options by far outweigh the purely synthetic ones, for live play. All the examples you listed aren't more 'electric' than your standard issue electric instrument is.

And hey, Steve Vai himself has said on multiple occasions one of his favourite guitars is that "because of the pretty lights." Of course, this is coming from the same man saying the most important part of his gear is his ground fan. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Traul]

Oh, but you can play while controlling the controller, it just takes some practice, same as a trem bar, really.

The trem bar and effect pedals have been built for that and placed at locations where they disrupt play as little as possible. With this guitar either the right hand is on the touch pad or it is playing the string. To make something really good out of this idea it would have to be combined with a core instrument meant to be played with only 1 hand. How about a wheel fiddle? Get a powered wheel and the right hand is free.

Technological advances will bring progress there, but mostly, analog options by far outweigh the purely synthetic ones, for live play. All the examples you listed aren't more 'electric' than your standard issue electric instrument is.

My point exactly. All these instruments have been made possible by an 80 year-old technology, but they do create new sounds. We are still far from having explored the previous revolution.

[Mardrax]

The trem bar and effect pedals have been built for that and placed at locations where they disrupt play as little as possible. With this guitar either the right hand is on the touch pad or it is playing the string. To make something really good out of this idea it would have to be combined with a core instrument meant to be played with only 1 hand.

For one who has seen tapping instruments like the Chapman Stick in action, you're remarkably unaware of the possibility of playing a guitar one-handed. Picking and plucking strings is an addition, not a necessity. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

I fully agree with you though, in that behind the bridge isn't the most convenient location for extra stuff. Then again, you can't stuff everything into the space between jack and strings, and an xy-controller eats up body real-estate like nothing else. I couldn't think of a more convenient place to put it.