Gibson launches Robot Guitar

Limited edition self-tuning Les Paul set to banish your tuning woes forever

The MusicRadar Team, Thu 15 Nov, 12:26 pm GMT

The limited edition and production versions side by side

Gibson has announced details of its new Robot Guitar. While the name sounds very sci-fi, in a kitsch sort of way, essentially the Robot Guitar is a Les Paul equipped with Tronical's Powertune automated tuning system.

The guitar not only self-tunes and self-intonates, but also features a rotary master control knob that gives access to a range of customisable alternate tunings including Open E, DADGAD, Drop D and several others.

Gibson boss Henry Juszkiewicz: "Every player is challenged with tuning. Things like stage lighting and weather can change the instrument and have it out of tune within minutes of being in tune. Professionals have guitar techs and as many as 80 guitars on stage to combat that, but the average person doesn't have that."

Initially the Robot Guitar is a limited edition model available in selected stores now, with a standard production model expected in 2008.
Click here to see the Robot Guitar guitar in action.

Also, if the Robot Guitar isn't impressive enough for you, how about a robot that plays the violin? Click here to see the amazing video on the Guardian website.

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User comments (2)

iodax

33 weeks ago.

Bought one of these 1st run robots and have nothing but great things to say about the guitar!
The point isn't to avoid learning to tune, I doubt many novice guitarists would want to spend the best part of £1400 on a guitar. So, of course I can already tune. But, even with near perfect pitch, and a great electronic tuner, it does take time to tune 'perfectly'. I use hybrid gauge strings with a relatively heavy playing style, which means I have to tune between takes when recording. That takes time and detracts from performance.
The real point is that it allows a player to concentrate on the music.
Instead of having to spend ages tuning perfectly between each take when recording, this does it in seconds at the push of a button, so I can concentrate on performance.
Live, it's excellent to switch between tunings in no time at all. And, because it's so quick, I've found myself experimenting with tunings I haven't previously spent much time with.
Personally I love being able to jump to an open G for some slide playing, without having to keep an audience waiting or carry and extra guitar around.
The intonation and string winding features are massive added bonuses.
Above all, this stands-up as a great guitar in it's own right.
I'm looking forward to when this technology is available on an acoustic 12 string!

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Nu_Value

35 weeks ago.

Nice guitar, does alot for you tbh, tuning, stringing etc.
Though personally I don't think guitars that give you a hand in tuning is the exact direction we should be heading in. Yeah it is a really impressive guitar but, we've already got tuners for eg. And tuners don't exactly help much with your playing anyway, not actual playing-wise of course, 'cause it does lolz, but with your ear I mean. Learning to tune yourself, by ear, is much better than having something tune for you, helping you to recognize differant note sounds 'n etc. But if guitars like this for instance become the norm, it won't help budding guitar players, 'cause it'll be abit too tempting to have tuning done for you by somethin' that you want tuned... Lolz hope that isn't too confusing xD Peace.

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