New Gibson guitar tunes itself
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...bsonguitar1204

New Gibson guitar uses robotics technology to tune itself


YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press
December 4, 2007 at 12:19 AM EST

TOKYO — Musicians of the world are getting a new kind of artistic freedom with technology that eliminates the challenging chore of tuning.
Robotics technology developed by German company Tronical GmbH in partnership with Gibson Guitar Corp. enables Gibson's newest Les Paul model to tune itself in about two seconds.
For users who purchase the add-on technology, the guitar recognizes pitch. Then, its processor directs motors on its six tuning pegs to tighten or loosen the strings accordingly. Tronical has offered its “Powertune System” online and through retailers in Germany since March, according to the company's website.
The Gibson Les Paul guitar model with Blue Silverburst finish goes on sale globally this Friday.

 

Enlarge Image Mike Peters of British rock group The Alarm' demonstrates the new Gibson robot Les Paul guitar in London on Monday. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)




Nashville, Tenn., guitar maker Gibson and Tronical said Powertune is the world's first self-tuning technology, and Gibson says it is particularly useful for beginners, who tend to find tuning a headache.
Musician Ichiro Tanaka, who tuned and played a sample guitar at Gibson's Tokyo office Monday, said the technology is handy for professionals too. If they use special tuning for just part of a concert, as he often does, it means they don't have to lug around an extra guitar with the second tuning ready.
“It's more than just convenience,” said Tanaka, of Japan. “It's a feature I really appreciate.”
The Les Paul Silverburst model is to cost about $2,780 (U.S.) in Japan and $2,499 in the U.S., with self-tuning offered for $900 extra.

i know, its disgusting. i fucking hate this company for this very reason. theyre always putting out some modern state of the art million $$$$ guitars.

fuck this shit.

sonic youth could tour with just 5 guitars, each capable of tuning itself in seconds to one of their myriad odd tunings. I think this kicks ass, and will only get cheaper.

i think if you can play guitar, you can tune your own. this is a novelty item (priced prohibitively high for that matter).

This and other things in this month's issue of The Science Journal of Evil.

I think some of their tunings require different string gauges..

hence the statement I made about taking 5 guitars instead of 30.

I think this shit rules all. Tuning is a boring chore. if the guitar can tune itself to yr presets then all the better!!!! I think this shit fucking rules.

and as far as price goes, it is $800 for just the tuner hardware which can be installed on any guitar. I have seen some of my guitar gearhead friends pay far more on amps, guitars, gear etc.

I think this is genius! Now the real new wave of punk rockers can begihn, whio do not even need to know how to tune to rock out!

What, so this gizmo restrings guitars in seconds as well, huh?

The idea of automatically changing the tuning mid song gives me a slight chubby.

of course not, but just strap that new string in there and the servo motors will tune it right as rain and quick as fuck! Keep on rocking!

but just because a guitar may be tuned the same, it's gonna sound different depending upon the guitar.

that would be great. in a 2 second rest in the middle of a song you could hit the next rpeset and change tuning!

what are you, some sort of negative nelly?

you don't know the half of it!

Or strum that shit as it bends bizarrely all over the place like some kind of disconnected tremolo

If that doesn't fuck up the mechanics, of course.

ha.
lot of fucking good that cookie does for me then!

i think its awful,

strings and tunings need to settle in, changing tunings all the time on a guitar causes said guitar to go out of tune, and doesnt allow the strings to 'sit' correctly and can dramatically reduce string life.

its also very overpriced. its not hard to tune a guitar, you can buy tuners if youre having difficulty, this is an extreamly overpriced toy for lazy people,

so what next you can buy a guitar that plays itself for you?

that'll really rock,

this is stupid. if you can't tune or don't have time to tune, you probably shouldn't be playing music in the first place.

and it's funny how it mentions artists getting a new "artistic freedom" because i can only imagine this thing getting in the way of constructing new sounds and textures with a guitar.

guitar hero isn't that far off.

It's a trap!

I wonder if I can have presets. I would have them tuned to power chords and have the first ever automatic punk song. WHERE'S YOUR DIY, NOW?

what bullshit is this page? http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar/story2.html

pure crap!!! no mention of SY??? what the fuck...

i have no idea how to tune without a tuner, but my tuner only tunes the top string on my guitar and nothing else. i have no desire to learn how to tune anyway. this gadget looks dumb and cost a shit load of money. i'll buy it if it was 100 bucks and if it was kraftwerk automatically tuning my guitar.

it seems very wrong and stupid, but i'm guessing it will go the way of the midi guitar.

we can only hope.

Gang Gang Dance use a lot of MIDI guitar.
The only use I can see for this is having a song that requires more than one tuning within that one song, and even then the only real reason for that would be to show off your fancy self-tuning guitar.

for some reason i can see quite a few guitarists in prog-metal bands getting these things.

i didn't mean it couldn't be useful (haviing midi makes a guitar compatible with tons of sequencers, samplers, synths, etc.) but it's more like an oddball of a thing instead of an industry standard.

hence the probable destiny of the self tuned thing.

there's no doubt that COULD be useful, but given that thing's target market, there won't be much of anything good coming out of it.

It'll be tech-nerd central for sure.
And guitar teachers and cruise ship bands.

:D:D:D

wouldn't it be useless if you invented your own tunings?

you preset your tunings. you hit a switch,. it tunes itself for you. I THINK IT IS GENIUS

You play guitar Rob?

b to the a s s

and c to the e l l o

niiice.. I asked coz to me (as a bassist) tuning is pretty much part of being a "musician".
Back when I used to play live with my band the short "tuning pauses" were always far from annoying (alse becuz drums kept on going and stuff), and starting a reharsal/recording session by checking the tuning on my instrument always helped me get into the right "state of mind" of playing.
This is a nice "technology display", but I don't see it much as an improvement for the instrument itself.
Not sure if you were 100% serious here, but restringing a guitar takes quite some time and the bridge and even the nut might need adjustments, it's not just a matter of tuning, setting up a guitar to fit your "sound-needs" can be quite tricky, it's not something you can achieve just changing strings .
Bottom line : I'd save those 800$ for another guitar :D.

I've known many "professional" musicians that do not know how to string or tune a guitar properly.

Now, these are people that definitely can string and can tune, but get it wrong.

They tend to overwrap the heavy strings (some more than others) and they also don't always tune up to the note. They also usually fail to test out things by string/note matching.

To me, the difference between a tuned guitar and a finely tuned guitar is tremendous.

I agree with girlgun that the self-tuning Gibson is a gimmicky novelty item.

the same thing was said of the electric solid body guitar.

the same thing was said of the first effects pedals.

the same thing was said about the Theremin....wait, they were right about that one....

ha ha!!!