Meet Circle Guitar, the 250BPM robo-plucker in a six-string
Embedded mechanical step sequencer spins up a storm
Say hello to Circle Guitar, an electric guitar with a built in mechanical step sequencer, "to generate sounds, textures and rhythms that would be impossible with a conventional electric guitar," pushing "guitar playing into new, unexplored territories," according to designer and builder Anthony Dickens.
The central mechanism, the motor driven circle that actually strikes the strings, is essentially a mechanical step sequencer that can hit speeds of up to 250BPM. Programming the sequence is also physical, involving placing five different colour-coded hardnesses of plectrum in any of 128 holes.
Meanwhile, six switches on the body of the guitar control which of the strings' signals - captured by multi-channel pickup - make it to output, and Circle Guitar also outputs a time code or syncs tempo via USB.
Dickens' ash-bodied, rosewood fingerboarded labour of love is currently a working prototype, built at London's Makerversity, home to a range of independent engineers, designers, artists and musicians.
"I love the thought that by creating a new kind of musical instrument," says Dickens. "I have created a new way to inspire musicians to express their ideas and ultimately move and excite their audiences in the profound way that only music can."
Inevitably, Circle Guitar is already dividing opinion on social media, with one of the more reasonable objections being that it's "a problem looking for a solution".
All we can say is, we want one.
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.




I'm lucky enough to be MusicRadar's Editor-in-chief while being, by some considerable distance, the least proficient musician on the editorial team. An undeniably ropey but occasionally enthusiastic drummer, I've worked on the world's greatest music making website in one capacity or another since its launch in 2007. I hope you enjoy the site - we do.
“We are so unencumbered and unbothered by these externally imposed rules or other people’s ideas for what music should be”: Blood Incantation on the making of Absolute Elsewhere and how “Data from Star Trek” saved the album – and the studio
“I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time