Self tuning guitar hits bum note - October 03, 2007
Call me old fashioned, but I’ve always thought live rock music should involve feedback, distortion, frequent changes of guitar and the opportunity for witty stage banter provided by the need for the lead guitarist to tune up. Not so axe manufacturer Gibson. Fresh from inventing a digital guitar to do away with distortion they’ve invented a self tuning guitar.
While helpful gadgets that will tell you if you’re out of tune have been around for a while, Gibson have stuck one on an instrument and rigged it up to tiny motors that will tighten or loosen the strings for you. This isn’t actually the first guitar with built in tuning, as Gibson are good enough to admit in the press release they put out on September 21st. Still, after a new write up in Technology Review this kit is getting some attention (Gizmodo, USA Today, Engadget).
While some are keen, others are decidedly not. “Look, I’m lazy, okay? But I'm not too lazy to tune my own goddamn guitar properly. You can spend $900 on this magic thing or you can spend $12 for a friggin’ tuner,” says one blogger.
Image: Punchstock
Comments
Now if Gibson can put their self tuning system on an acoustic guitar and a classical guitar, we'd be talking.
I teach time-pressed adults at community night classes. Their single biggest problem is tuning. Their source of greatest unease and nervousness is tuning.
It would be a godsend if you could walk into a class of beginner students with selftuning beginner guitars.
Who knows. I might see it in a decade or two.
I also have have one 15 year old who is self-driven, self-opinionated, and has a 20 collection of music, that he knows intimately.
He loves learning licks and bits and pieces of each song. (Not a whole song but when you have a 20 Gig library why learn whole songs right?)
He loves playing the stuff.
Slight problem. He can't tune. Doesn't practise tuning. Won't tune. Won't learn to tune. ("I can do that later") When he gets tuning with an electronic tuner wrong, he takes his guitar into the shop for tuning..
He won't do drop D tuning because he's scared of really blowing it.
Now he's another perfect candidate for self-tuning guitars.
When they get this technology right and put it on everything, then anyone and everyone can play. From a social and guitar sales point of view, this is a good thing.
If they happen to make as much money as players who can tune by ear, well, good luck to them.
Posted by: Taura Eruera | October 12, 2007 02:57 AM
to those of you who don't get it: these self tuning guitars are not for those poor souls who can't tune their guitar, but for performing musicians who like to use alternate tunings and are forced to either a:retune your guitar every time you need a different tuning, taking away momentum from your performance and also frustrating finding those sweet overtones in a noisy environment b)keep several to many different acoustic guitars on stage, one for each tuning...I have done gigs like this, works OK but I only used three tunings and am building my repertoire to use about six or seven or c)get ahold of a line 6 digital acoustic which can cover all the tunings but loses the original acoustic resonance and also I must say it feels weird to play in different tunings without the difference in string tensions...(the gibson robot guitar addresses a lot of these issues, but who needs open tunings on an electic: I used to use one for slide but don't even need that any more)but an accessible acoustic version including at least standard, drop D, lute tuning, open D, open G, DADGAD and at least one minor tuning would be a godsend...I guess they actually have these now, they just cost over fourteen grand...again, the beauty of this invention is not simply to tune a guitar because you suck or just have a bad ear, but to free up creative musicians to create their spicy altered tuning gems in flowing freedom...for those of you just wanting to be able to tune a guitar, I suggest a digital tuner for reference, and a combination of intervals, harmonics and chords to ensure the strongest tuning, given your axe has solid intonation
Posted by: travis crum | October 27, 2008 07:03 AM