Gibson gets official with the self-tuning Robot Guitar
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Nov 12th 2007 12:33PM
posted Nov 12th 2007 12:33PM
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Wow...thats really cool... dont know if they'll do something like that for a violin...
I would've thought a classically trained musician might use a digital tuner for speed, but generally they will use their ears. They're not used to having this stuff done for them, and they wouldn't trust it. Hence no market.
I'm a guitarist, and I find ears considerably more difficult to lose than little digital tuners. After three years of this, I now find tuning assists annoying and inaccurate. I can't imagine buying something like this, as I would end up tweaking it myself anyway.
True but that isnt the point of this guitar. The auto tuning is mostly just gimmicky or for people who dont have that great of an ear for tunning yet. But the real advantage of this is for a live guitar. If you cant afford to have 3-4 different guitars all tuned just how you like them and dont want to make people wait while you change tuning, its perfect. Of course if it costs as much as 3-4 guitars then there really isnt much of a point. And please, until you've tried it out for yourself at a local shop dont be too harsh of it.
you are absolutely right. any moderate level guitarist should be able to tune their instrument in 30 seconds or less with their ears. Not that this isn't a cool trick. I'm assuming that they are 100% confident that their frets are flawless, otherwise this is uselss. I guess it's just another toy for the guitar hero wannabes.
I disagree. While a moderate level guitarist may be able to tune a guitar quickly, it will not be as accurate as it can be. Even the most advanced guitarists are unable to tune as well as a computer can. This is not for a guitarist who will tune once and play for a while... this is for the guitarist who, during a show, will tune to drop-D or some other unusual tuning and wants it to be quick, but accurate.
Hmmmm. Violin Robot Hero doesnt really sound catchy....
Sounds like a Japanese character from the seventies though..
makishima is correct. The point of this is for playing live, where you can't take 30 seconds to retune a guitar that went out of tune mid-song. And you can't hear yourself plucking the strings.
@Josiah
I'm a classically trained musician. Although I play a wind instrument, I think the same principles are in effect here:
Tuning by machine/computer will probably tune "perfectly," and very quickly. However perfect intonation is often not your goal in a performance. There are LOTS of subtle nuances with intonation that are too complex to be replicated by a machine. (so far) Sometimes you want to be out of tune, in a very specific way, depending on the composer, venue, instrumentation, style of music, color of the LSD, etc. I see that they've pre-programmed some of presets into this guitar, but this is only the tip of the iceberg of what a professional might use.
I'm not saying that this thing isn't great for 99% of the potential audience. Hell, I'm not a guitarist, and this thing would probably be great for me. I'm sure this device is great for an intermediate-to-advanced guitarist, but if you're talking about elite professional performers, I think could potentially hurt them more than help them.
As my teacher always used to say, you tune with your ears, not a tuner...
What you all seem to be missing is that
REAL GUITARS ARE FOR OLD PEOPLE!
/south park reference
@Arthur Nonamiss
It's interesting you mention that you play a wind instrument. I'm a saxophonist myself, and I take my instrument to a technician to be tuned, because it's impossible to tune the instrument without the proper tools. It's certainly not something you do during at a gig.
You can adjust the overall tuning of the instrument slightly by adjusting your mouthpiece so you're close to the rest of the band, but you can't change individual toneholes. Beyond that, if you find your high F# is out of tune, you have to adjust your embouchure when you play just that note until you see your tech.
This is not the case with a guitar. A guitar's tuning is redone completely, every time it comes out of the case to be played, as every string can be adjusted easily. The instrument is highly subject to the heat and humidity of the venue you're playing at.
I'm not sure why Gibson is claiming with "World's first robot guitar". Transperformance has been selling self-tuning guitars for years. It can be retro-fit into just about any guitar. You can store up to 250 different tunings and it's intelligent enough to account for temperature and humidity. That's great that Gibson has finally joined the game, but "world's first" it is not.
http://transperformance.com/index2.htm
That's sick!
It would feel really odd to let the guitar tune itself. I, personally, don't mind tuning, but of course, I play bass, so I don't have to tune up all that much.
wow...so cool :)
can't wait to try this thing out
Check out http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar there is gonna be a sign up to check it out early
Price? I bet it's ungodly expencive....
Personally i just spend the 30 seconds it takes to tune my guitar every month...
Month? You either play a floyd (or equivalent) or barely play at all, right?
from what i understand, the initial limited release (10 per store, check the website for availability) will sell for $2199 MSRP. Being a limited edition, it's not likely that you'll get it much cheaper than that. The limited edition will be the only gibson EVER with that sexy blue sunburst finish though.
After the initial run sells out, the guitar will go into regular production for about 30% less, so about $1600 MSRP. The exact pricing hasn't been set yet. The full production model will be a LP Studio, and will be available in all the regular Studio finishes.
Pricing will probably come way down after the tuning mechanism gets ported to other models.
Honestly, if you're really interested in this thing, try to get one of the limited release models. That way, even if you end up hating it, it will still sell for more than you bought it for in 5 years or so.
Once a month... a guitar tuned once a month and played often sounds as good as a person who showers once a month smells.
Music and gadgetry are the two loves of my life, and this is a top-notch synthesis of the two. The electric blue is sexy, too.
I knew this was coming. It was my idea several years ago! It probably won't do well, though. As a guitar player I usually just tune by ear.
Ya know...I had a great idea once too: It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.
Sarcasm aside, you're right. The thing did look pretty good in the movie, which I missed previously. Still, depending on how much it is, it may not be worth it for those of us who can tune by ear. And, if you can't, you're probably not spending $1000+ on a guitar anyway.
I wish Gibson would implement this into a non-Les Paul guitar. I have nothing against them, but I prefer my Epiphone Casino... if they'd reissue the ES-330 with the robotic tuners... that'd be great.
Same. I love my Casino.
Yay! Finally, something I heard about before reading of it on Engadget! Yeah, somewhere online is a video of the amazing Graham Nash with the thing; maybe a prototype. He dug it much. Professionals, like Graham, have songs that require different tunings. From what I saw on the vid, the thing is going to sell real well.
Ears go bad over time.
hopefully not ernie balls, while this may help them stay in tune could it help eb's from coming dead in the package?
Robot Guitar? They didn't really name it Robot Guitar, did they?
I play guitar and I'm not sure how much I'd actually like this, but I can't say I wouldn't like to try it out.
Liam -
I think you're missing the point. You see that this does not just the standard EADGBE tuning but several other popular tunings as well. What this would let a guitarist do is play one guitar through an entire live show - no more changing instruments just to get a different tuning. It would also cut setup time in about half, because you only need to tune one guitar before a show (and the guitar does it for you) rather than five or six manually.
Of course, I still probably wouldn't trust this thing to work all the time and would therefore have to have backups anyway, but I'm sure that's the real intent behind it.
Personally, I wouldn't buy this guitar solely because there's just more that can break. Guitars are one of the last products you can buy that are seriously meant to last 50 years or more, and through heavy, hard use - no "robot" guitar is even going to last half that before the electronics and mechanical parts wear out, and good luck finding replacements in 20 years. It's not like this is going to be standard equipment; this is a specialized guitar.
Changing strings also looks like a serious pain in the ass.
Good point, but I was really talking about why this clearly isn't going to cross over onto other instruments. Doing alternate tunings is a pain unless you know your intervals. Like Jose Gonzales (search "#SPLIT 13.2 José Gonzalez Storm" on google for an example), who changes tuning regularly in his live shows at speed. Could a guitar program in all the tunings he uses, though? Like Nick Drake, he seems to use a different one every song.
I was also talking about personal preference; I like to mess with the tuning. Even if I've just used a digital tuner, and the open string is dead on, I will mess. Few guitars are perfectly intonated, and the fret positions are a mathematical compromise. So it helps if you compromise the tuning too. I say this in all certainty that I am the only one that cares.
Reminds me of this system that was out quite awhile before Gibson revealed theirs: http://transperformance.com/multimedia/index1.html
Interesting thing is I have heard much about Transperformance since... Hmmm
That guitar looks damn sexy! But a guitar that tunes itself? no thanks mate. Better to just tune by ear...this would annoy me SO MUCH because even when it had tuned itself id probably need to tweak it a little bit.
And if you really want to tune your guitar (as opposed to twiddle a stupid knob), you'll just get a stroboscopic tuner from Peterson.
Not sure why all these musicians aren't incredibly excited about this,
I for one welcom our self-tuning Robot Guitar overlords.
this is pretty cool but I'm wondering if people are really going to use it. I know I'd feel like kind of a douche bag if i had one.....a very in tune douche bag though.
But does it play Doom? Or at least Guitar Hero 3?
But will it play the theme from doom?
if you can spend that much money for that guitar, why don't you invest in some sort of processor or pod to not just tune the strings but add effects to your playing.. just a thought
This is immensely cool. Of course, eventually it will get to the point of, why have a human tune it, a machine can to it better, why have a human play it, a machine can do it better, and we'll live in a world where most music is just computer synthesized beats with untalented jerks talking over it...
oh my I just made myself sad.
I think it's a great idea. the point is not to tune it more easily, it's to change tuning more easily. I've been trying to build one of my own, but it's really hard to make it compact enough...
great to have one that's already built for me!
what if you want to play in some whacky alternate tuning? does it let you do that or does it wind itself back to its EADGBE?
Watch the video, there are a bunch of different settings.
this answers your question:
http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar/RobotGuitarVideoVoting.aspx
Well, as a pro guitar player (to clarify I've been playing 15 years, and I get paid), I hope Gibson has made it super accurate because entry level players won't be able to justify the cost of this and guys like me are very picky. I can see how it would be super convenient for me if it was accurate enough, but I also don't need it. I have a (super accurate) strobe tuner on my pedal-board so I can easily and accurately tune anytime during a set. I do love that Gibson is trying to push the envelope forward though, like with their other high tech guitar, the HD.6X Digital Les Paul. I think this guitar is going to appeal mostly to older guys with more money than skill, cause they can easily change tunings to play along with all the classic rock records mentioned in the video. The kind of guy who can afford an EVH frankenstrat replica to hang on the wall next to his cherry '32 Ford.
exactly nova62400! That's why I am definitely going to get it. It's a great toy and that's why a lot of people will love it. I am not good in tuning by ear (and it seems not even professionals like you are able to tune by ear on stage!) and I am not pretending to be a good player. I like playing for fun. This thing will allow me to quickly change the tuning for various songs. From a pure business perspective, there are definitely more guitar players at my level then there are at your level. Consequently, Gibson will probably make good money with this. If it doesn't hold 50 years? Not a problem - there's going to be something cooler in a few years anyway. Today is the day! Can't wait to get the real thing :-)
I, for one, welcome our new robotic guitar overlords. Them, or just general robot gods.
Can I use it in Guitar Hero?
Hmmm, I think I'll wait until they make one that will give head. Just cut out the whole rockin' middle stage altogether!
no matter what instrument you play having a good "ear" is essential. tuning a guitar is very easy though even without a tuner. using simple harmonics you can have the entire thing in tune within a matter of minutes. this isn't a guitar for a beginner so stop complaining that it is a cheat or something. this isn't for guitar hero wannabe's either. if you are a experienced musician this would be a handy tool if your playing a set and using different tunings for each song. with this guitar, the transition into the next song could be very, very smooth. I think Gibson is being crazy innovative with this and very bold considering there won't be a big market for this initially. they need to work on adding this technology to other stringed instruments giving for a better precision of sound to an orchestra. that would be sweet.
I love the idea. For people that are preforming, this will be an awesome tool.
Just like it was stated above.
AKBlade13
Guys, obviously now this thing is going to cost an arm and a leg, but its more so a sign of where the guiatar industry might be going in the future.
And anyways im sure the price of these robot guitars will be considerably less in a few years.
This would be great for 12 string guitars!
It's the stupid tool from Tronical, a company in Hamburg, Germany. Since this costs standalone about 700 Euros, I'd prefer to invest the money in a more precious musical instrument...
The benefit as they showed is, that you can make your own tuning presets (up to 20 different) and you can access them thru the extra knob. Nice gadget for those who don't care for playing guitar but have lots of money and the need of being a step ahead.
I guess, its best combined with a guitar synthesizer and ethernet connector.
Damn, this is so close to what I was planning for my final year design project in university...
i dont usually tune much different from stanard, and even when i go into drop d i only have to change one string as i am a bass player, so this would not really help even if there was a bass model!
I have played the guitar for 7 years, own a Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster and I think this is kind of a cool idea. Certainly I can tune my guitar quickly on my own, but you know what. Sometimes I want to change tunings multiple times to play songs, and usually I have to bust out the electronic tuner for Drop D and some of the other tunings to get them just right.
It gets annoying then I just end up playing the tuning I'm currently at. This however, would quickly change my tunings in between playing.
Not that I can afford it! lol.
That is great and all but:
"Only cowboys stay in tune" - James Marshall Hendrix
(I have read this site forever and this is my first comment, not all technology makes things better)
Robots 1
Roadies 0
To those anti-robot guitar folks I have to say I don't think you're really grasping the intent behind the instrument or the possible uses of the instrument by experianced pros. Reading the Gibson website you can already see that guitar gods from Jimmy Page to Steve Vai are loving this system. Both of them already regularly use the Transperformance self-tuning system. The reason behind this are the ease of use as well as musical innovation this makes possible. I'll have to wait til I can demo the Robot before I'm sure but the Transperformance system tunes so quickly that you can switch tunings while you're playing a song. We're talking mid-chord, between a phrase, whatever. If The Robot Guitar is that quick the pros are going to have a field day creating new tonal palettes that were (not including the Transperformance system) previously impossible.
Also, to those thinking this is something for lazy people or beginners or what have you... think twice. Expert-level guitar shredding wreaks havok on a the tuning of a guitar. Bends, heavy-picking, slides and other techniques like those stretch the strings a bit resulting in a guitar that is typically out of perfect tune by the end of one or two songs. The transperformance system maintains perfect tune while playing. The Gibson system doesn't so thats a downside. Still the Gibson system include an intonation system as well that will allow you to perfectly intonate your guitar in a few minutes. Anyone who's ever intonated a guitar before knows what a technological advance that is.
Besides, anything that keeps those sickeningly annoying Floyd Rose systems off of more guitars has my support.
Actually guys I think that this is the greatest thing that has happen to guitars for decades. Think of the possibilities... I mean this is definatelty not for beginers, unless they are really really loaded beginers. This is for people like me that first of all love Les Pauls (at least to start with) Also they will be all gibsons for now because gibson bought the exclusive rights for this system ( no doubt copy cats to come), but its for intermediate to advanced players like me that just want one main guitar and that is it. Who can't afford a bunch of 2,000 dollar les pauls. And really its really not that expensive for a les paul. A LP standard is about that price. It seems to be based on that the studio which is about 1200, but the only difference is cosmetics, and have you seen how sexy that blue and silver burst is? I am pre-ordering this limited edition sucker ASAP, and provided it works well it will be my main axe, and I'll just have one epi back up, and thats it. I mainly want it because i play in one half step down a lot and now my back up is a Peice of crap ibanez that won't hold tuning and I keep it half step down,Drop D and a whole step down tunings are nice too.. but it would be so nice to be able to switch my axe instantly so i could play in tune all the time in what ever tuning instantly on my gibson, not my sucky Ibanez base model. And again have you seen how sexy that silver and blue sunburst is? I think you would be crazy not to jump on this guitar!!! But don't if you live near me because I need to reserve it before they sell out. Actually though my biggest fear is that this technology will flood the market, and everyone will have one and it won't be cool anymore... But that is why i got to get that Limited edition! I hope they keep the stock limited... But Bottom line... Coolest extremely useful technolgy(the tuners), best tone(Gibson Les Paul), and Sexiest thing on the planet... If for no other reason I'd be buying that crap to e-bay it!... You know something like this is going to sell out in like ten seconds!
i make robotics controls myself,but i don't like it when digital gizmos pollute such beautiful things like violins and classical pianos.
these instruments are the symbol of human culture and pure talent.
similarly,paint and paper is cheap,but you don't get picasso's everywhere.
i think it will make rich yuppy scum look like musicians,or rockstar wannabes.
real musicians,real instruments,like books,will never be phased out no matter how much technology progresses.thankfully.
bear in mind i build robots for a living.
I have been playing for 40 years and own Frnder, Gibson, and PRS guitars..I never sell or trade. I can tune by ear of course, but the intonation was a trick well worth learning. Don't have to do it much, but great to bring the best out in an instrument. I would buy this guitar in a heartbeat and intend to buy the electronic Fender as well. No better way to spend my time than making music. I can't wait for more cool gadgets....I am calling my dealer tomorrow and seeing if I can reserve one or the new Les Pauls..I have spent more than that on just my PRS alone....
I can't wait for the 88 key version on a Steinway. Should only cost oh, hmmm, a jilllllion dollars.
I was given one of the Limited Editions as a gift (yes, my wife rocks). I play well, gig regularly, and do know how to tune my guitar. I generally use 2 or 3 different tunings per show. I find this to be a really useful/practical instrument for live performance.
It has worked as promised. I bend lots of notes, and then talk while it is tuning itself back up; I don't have to take even a second away from connecting with the audience. Going from DADGAD to standard and back is without thinking. No losing a beat. I've generally shied away from composing songs with retuning in the middle because of the easy chance to not get things right on pitch during a song. With this toy, I'd be more inclined to do that. I find that I let it tune between every song "because I can" whereas with a regular guitar I cut corners and only tune when I really hear something out of whack.
One feature I didn't appreciate before having this guitar is the ability to drop the entire guitar a whole step quickly. Having a "-1" capo is kinda cool... I play sometimes with clarinet and other Bb players who use music transcribed one pitch above standard. In the past I've had to transpose a step on the fly which inevitably leads to errors... Now I can push the "play with the clarinet" button and poof.
Regarding exactness of tuning - you can modify how accurate it is, up to a tolerance of 0.2 cents. The more accurate you make it, the slower the self-tuning is. By default the manual says it's accurate to 1 cent, though I found it to be off by up to 2 cents in either direction per string. I've found that tuning takes about 8 or 9 seconds, and it seems most useful to let it tune 2x if you're changing tunings. One clunky aspect is that it's easy for it to jump back to standard tuning by mistake from wherever else you are if you don't push buttons in the right sequence. But that is quickly remedied with another button push and I imagine I'll get better with this over time.
Regarding intonation, it has a built-in function that helps you to perfectly intonate it. I haven't done it yet, but it looks fairly easy.
Well, I've been playing for twenty-three years, most of that acoustically on various twelve-string guitars. This definitely develops excellent by-ear tuning skills (though I've always used a fork for a starting point) as well as much more intelligent tuning techniques (using the same reference note for each string's tuning, a longer story). I've gotten quite quick and developed too much of an ear - meaning when I'm playing with other people who can't hear when they are slightly off, or whose intonation isn't properly set, it curls my hair.
I've recently (last three years) switched back to electric to play in a band - we've done about 100 live gigs since our inception - and let me tell you, if this thing actually tunes true it would be great. We don't have roadies and backup kit is minimal - even if we had tons, we inevitably need a bit of a tweak nearly every song to keep my ear happy. If both guitarists had this, our intervals would be shorter and the energy rolling. I often believe that I'm the only one aware of the out-of-tune issues before we get them fixed (I'm usually whispering "check your B" to our rhythm guitarist between songs), but if all we needed to do was step on the volume pedals, pull a knob, strum twice and then keep on truckin', it would be great. We'd also start playing some Stones (and other) tunes in the correct tuning, rather than cheating with standard tuning.
All that said - there's no way I'm dropping $2100 on this guitar. I'm a cheap-o and I've always found that a bit more money gets you a big leap in quality, but a big leap in money gets you a moderate improvement. I ended up buying an Ibanez ARC500 after comparing dozens of Les Paul and Les Paul copies through various apm/cabinet combinations because it was the closest representative sound with quality construction and playability at the best price.
We're a bar band and until we started playing big gigs for big money, I'd never feel I could afford this (and my wife would kill me)!
Also - to reference the comment above about "why not build in effects" - this is commonly done by many musicians. Jery Garcia of the Grateful Dead spent about 25 years slowly working his way up to a 30-lb behemoth that was full MIDI and gave an amazingly unique character to his playing that is likely impossible to replicate, and I highly doubt he was alone.
Kudos to Gibson for trying this out - I think this would sell well to live-band musicians regularly playing 1000+ venues who are needing to keep the energy up and the downtime to a minimum - provided the guitar proves itself from a durability perspective. (Then again - as an audience member - I've been happy to wait for the next song, too, if the band rocks...)
good idea for the working pro for their own stuff or covers, however, newbies should stick with learning harmonics- IMO much of your own style develops from this. would love to see this applied to acoustic drums- ie. self monitoring system for live applications.
ok I had to return- if you are thinking about getting this and you use several alternate tunings in your playing- alternate tuning will in many cases change the way your guitar feels (tension difference)and over time using the same set of strings to alternate tune will cause string breakage much quicker than normal. this is why I still use 4 guitars with different tuning-because of the feel and stability- if you get this for just a few tuning changes say dropD(less tension and no problem) then i say go for it, however if you are into experimenting with many alternate tunings then i would say your better off buying three or more guitars with different guage strings to meet your needs.I hope Gibson puts some heavy guage strings on these );
Robot Guitar... When I first heard this, I thought it was literally a guitar that played itself, and you could download new rifts and upload them. That would be cool..
All the great guitarists were great because they lived in a time when everything had to be done the hard way. They didn't have TABs or instructional DVDs, they learned from old, scratchy LPs. Watch old videos of Townshend, Hendrix, SRV, etc... those guys would retune their guitars mid-song without missing a beat. If you think that the current generation of guitarists is lacking in talent and skill, just wait until the generation that grows up with this comes along.
it's amazing how everyone who posts to this board is an expert musician with perfect pitch and can tune by ear better than a computer. all you poseurs posters should get together and start 12 bands that will quickly become the best in the world.
as for me, i'll just be here listening to the radio and noticing subtle mistakes that most normal people will never hear.