ARP Avatar

The ARP Avatar is a monophonic guitar synthesizer produced by ARP Instruments, beginning in 1977.

Mike Rutherford was a notable user of the ARP Avatar guitar synth. He used it occasionally for studio & live work with Genesis, starting from the ...And Then There Were Three album (1978) until the Mama tour in 1983 when he stopped using it. He also liked the Avatar's distinctive hexaphonic fuzz setting. But he found it wasn't as good in terms of tracking, so he'd dampen the strings with foam and occasionally put a capo on it.

Other than the Avatar, Mike also used the Roland GR-500 guitar synth which was polyphonic unlike the Avatar. Around the time of Abacab, he seemed to prefer the GR-500 to the Avatar. Even so, both of Mike's Fender Stratocaster guitars were fitted with Avatar pickups to control the guitar synth. "Man Of Our Times" from Duke prominently features the ARP Avatar, doubled with a Stratocaster guitar part to create the final lead sound.

In terms of sounds from the ARP Avatar, he had the two oscillators on the Avatar in slight modulation (but tuned to the same tunings as the guitar), which was the effect he used on the "Duke's Travels" solo. He also liked the Avatar's distinctive hexaphonic fuzz setting.