Gibson's limited-edition Robot Guitar was undeniably cool when we played with it last year, and it looks like the sequel's going to be even hotter -- say hello to Dark Fire. The flame-red axe features a second-generation Robot tuning system can get up to pitch in less than a second -- and not only is it smaller and lighter than the weighty original, battery life has been significantly extended to 500 tunings on a single charge. Once you're in tune, you'll be able to make almost any noise you want with the Chameleon Tone system: in addition to a P90 and a bridge-mounted humbucker, there's a third piezo pickup in the bridge that can be blended with the standard units for what Gibson called an "incredible array of tonal possibilities." In case that's not enough for you, the Dark Fire also ships with the Robot Interface Pack, a powered breakout box that lets you integrate your axe into almost any digital audio workflow you can dream up: there's two quarter-inch balanced line outs, headphone out, FireWire (sorry, MacBook owners), and a special hex connector that carries the output of each string from the piezo pickup -- these can either be broken out into individual quarter-inch outputs or used to control MIDI guitar controllers with an adapter. Original Robot owners aren't being left out: Gibson says it'll upgrade them for "close to cost," after the Dark Fire launches on December 15th. Pretty wild, all in all, but we'll wait for pricing information to hit before we consider trading in our battered old Tele.

[Via Music Radar]

Sure, it's been out for a little while, but considering how many Engadget editors play guitar (and the fact that Pete just started RCRD LBL), we figured we had to stop by Gibson's booth-bus complex and give the Robot Guitar a shot. The self-tuning axe actually weighs a little less than a regular Les Paul, even though it has gigantic motorized tuners and all that extra circuitry. To activate the system, you pull out a special tone knob and select one of the eight or so presets, and then simply strum until the lights flash blue three times. It's really fast, and undeniably cool, but for nine hundred extra bucks, we'll stick with our trusty TU-12. Video's after the break -- and make sure to check out the gallery for a shot of the weirdest thing we've seen in a while: eight dudes all plugged into Line6 Pods and headphones, rocking out quietly in a circle.

For all you rockers out there who are too lazy or too busy to tune your own strings, Gibson has just made your day. The self-tuning Les Paul we told you about back at the beginning of October has just gotten its official release date and a brand-spanking-new name: The Gibson Robot Guitar. Sure, it won't fix you breakfast, watch the children, or make a logical decision to wipe out all human life on the planet, but on December 12th, it will tune the hell out of your Ernie Balls. Check the video after the break to see the guitar in action.