Carvin tells us that next month they will begin shipping the NS1 Nylon Synth Access guitar. This instrument is a soundhole-less acoustic body packed with MIDI pickups and other features.

With gold-plated hardware and a flame maple top, the NS1 sports a through-body neck design extending into a chambered Mahogany body. The neck is semi-flat 20" radius to satisfy the nylon player's usual preference.

The guitar also has onboard EQ featuring stacked mid cut/boost and mid sweep controls plus stacked treble/bass controls.

Conventional pickups on the NS1 are piezoelectric, but the real payload in this guitar is its MIDI pickup system. Billed as "revolutionary", the MIDI system is a "hexaphonic" system whereby six pickups, one for each string are installed. (We'll quibble with the idea that this design is any revolution given that the Gibson HD-6X has sported this design for a while.)

The NS1 MIDI pickup system allows acoustic and MIDI signals to travel out a 13-pin cable. Output is compatible with GR-33 Guitar Synthesizer, VG-88 V-Guitar System, V-Bass System, the Roland GI-20 GK-MIDI Interface, the Axon AX100 Guitar-MIDI converter, and many more. For convenient scrolling through MIDI synth patches, the NS1 provides a mini toggle switch.

Street price? $1,399.