Although Gibson's self-tuning
Robot Guitar is mighty snazzy, buying an entirely new instrument in order to ease your tuning woes isn't exactly practical. Truth be told, the N-Tune won't do the tuning for you, but it does make adjusting those flats and sharps a lot more interesting. Essentially, the chromatic tuner replaces the volume control on your electric axe and can be retrofitted in most every guitar / bass out there. Once installed, users simply pull the knob up to mute the volume and turn the tuner on simultaneously, and then you can check out the on-knob LEDs to gauge how accurately your strings are tuned. Best of all, this thing is slated to ship within the next month for just $100, but alas, it's recommended that you pay a professional to actually rig it up.
posted Feb 27th 2008 4:45PM
Totally Awesome.
Kinda pointless, actually. Most decent effects pedal rigs have integrated tuners that give much better feedback than this.
Whoa... an engadget post about a _real_ musical instrument? Did someone put mescaline in my coffee?
Sorry, I thought the old "mescaline in the coffee" gag would be a good one, I guess I might have gone too far.
I thought it went over pretty well
I might appreciate the joke if I knew what the hell mescaline was.
Does it let you go up to 11 now?
only Marshall stacks do. ;p
Does it play Doom?
no but srsly, that's pretty cool.
Brilliant!
I need to find Doom tabs and a good midi pedal...
But wait a minute... with this thing, you still have to actually tune the guitar yourself. How 2006.
you mean 2007?
no, he meant 2006.
the Gibson Robot was released in 2007.
The thing is, pretty much every electric guitar rig out there these days already has a tuner built into the pedal. Most guys I know run Line6 floorboards that already have the tuner, and the few guys I know who still go with the 50 different individual pedals velcroed to a piece of plywood already have a tuner pedal also.
I have a tuner built into my Takamine acoustic, which I LOVE, but thats because I just run it straight into a direct box and have no pedals. Putting a tuner on an electric is just redundant.
But what if you patch directly into an amp and don't have pedals. You know, for us non-touring players?
Well, you could either buy a $30 tuner pedal to run in-between your guitar and amp, which would allow you to tune any guitar you plugged in or you can spend $99 to put this on every guitar you own or might use with your amp.
@phanbouy
Shoot - buying an extra cable and a pedal tuner would be cheaper than 100 bucks for this and then having someone install it.
Irony. I read this as I'm tuning with a 1972 pitch pipe.
That's certainly the way to go. I thought this was interesting at first, but then got to the price point. Even a good electronic tuner is only $20. Plus, it probably sucks tone like a mofo and definitely won't look good on my strat.
Exactly. Tuners are cheap, and way more practical. Plus I'd recommend that anyone tries to tune with their ears if they can. If you're practicing with other musicians, it's not cool to keep them waiting, less so when there's a paying audience. But if you're on your own, it's good practice, helps develop your aural skills.
so how does this help my score in Guitar Hero III???
Guitar Hero is for talent-less wannabes ;D
This is awesome.
If I had a guitar worth putting this on (yes, I love my Squier to pieces but I would never spend this much money on it unless it needed fixing) and some cash, I would definitely buy it. Great for those who record, especially. If you sound a little Flat when live then it's not the end of the world, but on recordings, it matters.
Aren't Squiers for talent-less wannabes? ;D
I'll have you know that I recorded 3 albums with that lil' baby :) (Search my username on iTunes in March 08, folks! ;) hehe couldn't resist)
So... those songs you recorded using your Squire. Are they emo/punk? Are they more then the same chord repeated?
My roommate owns a squire. He thinks he's hot shit too.
So... those songs you recorded using your Squire. Are they emo/punk? Are they more then the same chord repeated?
My roommate owns a squire. He thinks he's hot shit too.
"I love my Squier to pieces but I would never spend this much money on it unless it needed fixing"
If your Squier needed to be repaired it would probably be a better investment to buy a new Squier or a used Strat off of eBay. I got a used mexican Strat shipped to me for $150 last year and I couldn't be happier with it.
This self tuning sounds nice.....
But does the volume go to 11? lol
So how long before nVidia files a copyright infringement lawsuit?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html
I was about to say the same thing.
Why would you put something which has miniturised components before even hitting the output of your guitar - it's just going to suck highs. All these teeny-tiny guitar gadgets are only concerned with making them as small as possible and don't care about putting your signal through crappy or 'good-enough-i-guess-but-look-how-tiny' components.
Since when has pedalboard real estate been so costly, anyway?
Oh and to the guys writing about 'crappy' Squiers - dunno if it's been said yet as I only skimmed half way down - but Squiers, whilst more often than not are nothing particularly special, are not all that infrequently really very special instruments, and in fact the JV's are hugely desirable (and rightly so, they play and sound and are built GREAT)
But is it true bypass? ; )