self tuning guitar

[spauldingrules]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_hi_te/self_tuning_guitar

Whaddya think?

 

[jackthehack]

$3500 for a guitar that "tunes itself"? I think it's something for people who might hang a guitar on the wall and take it down twice a year to play the "Smoke on the Water" riff to impress their equally retarded friends.

 

[sundin4prez]

i think its dumb.......3500,  wow

 

[Shmoopie]

um, i don't... um, i don't know what to say to that. next it will play its self to, very advantages for those new plays that find playing to be a "headache"

 

[bpmorton777]

i guess this is a little different from the transperfomance tuning thingy.

http://transperformance.com/perform/index2.htm

i think this is mostly used by slide players

Brian

 

[guitlouie]

I like tuning my own guitar.  Sometimes I like to detune, or retune in the middle of a song.  I really don't see any point to this at all.

 

[jalbertochavez]

I don't like the idea of it. With $3,500 I could build 2 (maybe 3) Warmoth guitars, put locking tuners on 'em, tune them both differently, and end up with 2 great lookin' & gig-worthy guitars instead of a novelty guitar that'll probably get discontinued in a few years. Am I right or am I right?

 

[willyk]

I'm with Jack. I think it would only appeal to non-musician wannabe's. Having said that they'll probably make millions.
Crikey they'll be fitting surfboards with self levelling gyros next.... :tard:

 

[nathan a]

I'm with Jack. I think it would only appeal to non-musician wannabe's.

I disagree. I think it could appeal to a lot of fine, decent guitarists. They just have to be LAZY. I can understand getting tired of tuning and retuning guitars. This robot s*** is a cop-out, but I understand why someone would be interested in this.

 

[tfarny]

Well, it satisfies a niche need, I guess - it can do six alternate tunings, back and forth within two seconds.  If you're a pro and you play a lot of slide or whatever, you may think this is cool.
As for helping beginners, sheesh! spend $600 on a nice asian-made kit and a small amp, and then spend $2900 on lessons, concert tickets, rock star clothes, girls, booze and drugs.
I guarantee you'll sound better and have more fun playing if you spend your money my way.

 

[jtroska]

I've seen comments like these all over the internet and I can't believe people don't get it.

Well, maybe the difference is I play in a cover band and I don't do originals anymore.  Playing covers forces me to use many alternate tunings.  Older rock songs were usually in E standard or sometimes Eb.  '90s grunge used Dropped D a lot.  And these days bands are down to Dropped C.  That's 4 tunings right there.  And then there's Dropped Db and DADGAD and Double Dropped D... Aauugghhh!

You have to bring a truck-load of guitars for one show these days.  Or you have to stop and retune every few songs while your singer holds the audience with "Don't forget to tip your bartender".  Nothing brings down the energy like that.

So for the gigging musician that needs to be able to cover a wide range of tunings and be able to take request and bang them out quickly, this changes everything.

Of course, it helps if your bassist can transpose, too.  Mine just retunes his lowest string to the lowest note of the song and shifts his fingering around.  Harder to do that on guitar because of chords.

 

[stubhead]

For $10 I can buy a CD that does it all - tunes the guitar, plays the guitar, plays the bass, drums, and even sings the song for me too! I can spend all the rest of my money on the booze and drugs and just kick back, man....  :glasses9: I think maybe this is the wrong forum to be asking about this, being comprised of people who like to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars nitpicking around building their own guitars? I like to tune my guitar.... :glasses9:

 

[riarojr]

haha i saw this robot guitar in guitar center this past weekend and at first i thought it was the godess LP till i saw the other knobs since i couldn't see the 5ft thick tuning system with it being in the case.  i think it's a pretty clever trick to pull off and even though i'll never, EVER buy it myself cuz of that crazy price the tag makes sense once you really think about it...... does that brand sound familiar to anyone else on this forum?????  :dontknow: can't remember seein one of those in the Rogue guitars price range which is the reason i ain't got none of those either.  just my personal thoughts tho arty07:

 

[neilium]

You guys are thinking too small. If this device was MIDI accessible, you could have access to all sorts of tunings via a pedalboard. Use an expression pedal as a B-bender, use a couple expression pedals and you could play Buddy Emmons licks on a Les Paul. Assign an LFO to control the servos and you have a motorized vibrola a la Doc Kauffman's bakelite lap steels.

If all you're doing with the technology is the same old job, then, yes, the convenience doesn't justify the price. But something like this in the hands of someone with some screwy ideas and the nerve to experiment and f*** around could be really cool. Vibrato bars were never meant to be pushed all the way to the body; that didn't stop Hendrix. Amplifiers weren't meant to distort (I remember ads for Marshall in the 70's that said "Full Volume, No Distortion") but that didn't stop Muddy Waters or Elmore James. V's were never meant to be flying, stratos were never meant to caster, the two great tastes of peanut butter and chocolate were never supposed to meet, but what was once seen as an unholy marriage is today a source of unbridled joy.

So stop bitching about overpriced robo-guitars and have a Reese's peanut butter cup.

 

[nathan a]

So stop bitching about overpriced robo-guitars and have a Reese's peanut butter cup.

I like you.

And I agree, it'll be the unconventional ways of using this thing that could make it such a perfect tool - in the right hands.

 

[neilium]

I like you.

awww shucks.

 

[Shmoopie]

So stop bitching about overpriced robo-guitars and have a Reese's peanut butter cup.
[/quote]

Nice. i like your thinking. is the glass half empty or half full?  i don't care, i just want a drink.

any way, im a bassist, i can exempt this thread.  basses were never meant to wha, phase, tremolo, flange, distort, hit fly balls, or slap.
well, i guess i can't exempt now.

 

[jtroska]

You guys are thinking too small. If this device was MIDI accessible, you could have access to all sorts of tunings via a pedalboard... If all you're doing with the technology is the same old job, then, yes, the convenience doesn't justify the price. But something like this in the hands of someone with some screwy ideas and the nerve to experiment and f*** around could be really cool.

Has anybody seen the original self-tuning guitar by Transperformance? www.transperformance.com?  That thing could go to alternate tunings while you played!  This newer, less expensive "Robot Guitar" requires you to strum open strings while it tunes up.  But the more elaborate Transperformance system just returned at the touch of a button.  You could have a verse in E; a chorus in Dropped C; and a slide solo in an open chord tuning without ever stopping playing.  A tuning only had to be programmed once and then the system somehow learned how to pull the strings for that tuning and could do it again anytime. 

I played a Transperformance guitar.  It's completely amazing.  But yes, you have to think outside and beyond the box.

 

[willyk]

How much extra for a lefty? :sad: