Gibson Robot Guitar Review

[Anderton]

 

There seems to be some anger about this little tuning system. If you like it and have a couple spare bucks, buy it. If you don't, don't. That's really about as deep as it gets.

 

 

 

You have it all wrong!! We're talking about the decline and fall of Western civilization as we know it!!

[Anderton]

 

But if they were gonna automate tuning, they should've automated intonation, too, because, really, you're not "in tune" unless you're also intonated.

 

 

 

Although the process of intonation isn't automated, it is semi-automated in the sense that the Robot Guitar makes it a whole lot easier, and makes provisions for using the system to intonate.

[bbach]

 

Dear Anderton, I have a question about charging the robot guitar. The manuel says when it is fully charged, the power brick will be solid blue and the led on the knob will stop lighting up green (automatically turn off). My brick is blue, but the knob is still lighting up green all the way. Does yours turn off automatically? I am just trying to figure out if I have fully charged it or not. Thanks ! John

 

 

Hey John, mine does the same thing as yours. My thoughts are that the instructions are wrong or it was originally intended to shut of automatically but something changed in the design. You could make a call to the number Gibson gives in the manual and see what they have to say, but I show a full charge so I won't worry about it. You can check if yours is fully charged by unplugging the guitar. Then pull out the mck and turn it to c. Press the button and you should have ten green lights.

[Jasco]

 

I did this once as an experiment in the '80s, on an Atari computer. It would semi-randomly pick from the pentatonic blues scale, plus the flat-5 and major-3, using a probability table that would change the likelihood of the next note it picked based on whatever the last note was and on the current 'chord' (which I simulated by just inserting arpeggiated chord notes between the melodic notes). It was a lot of fun to play with, and often coughed up interesting and engaging melodies I'd have never thought of on my own. But it was just an experiment I played with; I never mistook it's output for real creativity. Just something to do while waiting for eternity to get here, I guess...

 

 

 

What did you do about rhythmic choices?

[The Chosen Few]

If you're never going to try it simply because you see it as a time saving device that opposes your philosophy, you might be missing out on some of the artistic advantages this technology offers.

 

The thread has jumped lots since this but hey might as well get into another post " it's fun ! "

I would like people of the world to be artistic and there are many ways of doing this. I read about the robot guitar a little and it doesn't work for me. I really enjoy altered tunings and I will explain to you for the sake of my bordum why it doesnt.

I used altered tunings to protray what ever sounds I need at any given time. I usually only play songs in a same "tune" so I can save some effort of my strings changing pitch while I play.

I know the robor guitar has a certain amount of presets in it and you can put what ever you like. But I'd rather just think in my head " Well that Gmsus4 add9 sure would sound sweet if I had this open and this on this fret " which wouldnt make me go reprogram it into my guitar for one song. Then worry about charging the battery and then if this happens or that happens I have to worry about it.

What do I have to worry if I have perfect pitch and an acoustic guitar... Distortation ?!?!

That's why it doesnt apply it me

Now for someone who doesnt have perfect pitch I bet it would be a sweet deal, no dought. But I also believe taking the time to develop perfect pitch will let you "hear the music" and make you a much more efficient guitar player then happeneing to have the cash around to buy something of this nature.

It's all for the great good of humanity you see

:blah:

So I'm done

[GuitarGuy503]

I personally like the idea of a self tuning guitar but the color is pretty hideous if you ask me...

[DevilRaysFan]

 

There seems to be some anger about this little tuning system. If you like it and have a couple spare bucks, buy it. If you don't, don't. That's really about as deep as it gets.

 

 

What might be a "couple of spare bucks" for you is a lot of money for me......

[Anderton]

Hey, it ain't cheap. But that's usually the case when companies are trying to amortize R&D.

[DevilRaysFan]

 

Hey, it ain't cheap. But that's usually the case when companies are trying to amortize R&D.

 

 

"Will It Go Round In Circles....."

 

....aaaaaand, as I stated waaaaaay back in Post #12 -- forward/ progressive thinking in the form of improvements of any given thing all up-and-down the spectrum for a greater good is usually a positive thing....

 

What Im set-off about is that this comes off more as a marketing ploy for upper class folks to enjoy as opposed to being a goodwill intent to improve the instrument universally for everyone........ You admitted yourself that you believe that these Robot Guitars are being initially made for collector's in mind.... Im sorry, but I cant think of any reason why a collector, for the sake of collecting, requires such a device on a guitar (other than being a phallic-symbol to other collectors)..........It would be different if auto-tuners appeared on all new production Gibsons ( and Epiphones) as a new universal "improvement" to guitars and basses as new standard equipment , then I can say "Yeah, I'm wrong" and will concede that Gibson is paving the way for forward guitar thinking that other manufacturers will have to follow suit and employ....Such is not the case.........I dont care about any of the reasons stated in any of these pages about why this thing is so great: if Gibson's intended use is a "peacock" for hobbyists or collectors instead of reasons such as: beginners - who really DO have a need for auto-tuning installed on their Holiday Special guitar-pak guitars, or helping the working-stiff fulltime career musicians like me that play music up to 7 nights a week and really do have a great need for a device like that but cant afford $2500 in their household budget, or the vari-detuning garage metal musician with big dreams and LOADS of talent but can only afford a guitar in the three-digit range because minimum-wage barely gets him by, or any other reason that I can probably think of other than elitest collecting/showing-off, then its worthless to me..............

[bbach]

Money can be an issue in life. We've all been there. Some of us will be there again. That's the way it goes. Something being out of my price range does not make it a bad thing. I can't throw six figures at a car, but I'd still like to have a new Mercedes sport coupe with all the goodies. Because that ain't happening does not make it a bad piece of technology. It's just something really cool that I'll never own. I don't mind that and I don't begrudge those that can afford it. More power to em.

 

This Gibson robot guitar is not the cats ass. The neck on my PRS plays like fingers sliding over a smooth marble top. Then neck on the Les Paul Studio plays like driving over speed bumps in a parking lot. The tuning technology is stunning though. It's a start, and it doesn't take a second mortgage to experiment with it. Maybe this robot guitar will kickstart a very interesting use of technology which is likely to drive the price down and make it more readily available. I like it. I'm going to keep this thing for a while and get very familiar with it. I'd love this system on my PRS but I do hope to see the size of the automatic tuning machines get smaller over time.

[ollenorin]

what if you tell it to tune all strings up 2 octaves.....will it break it ?

[markandrew]

I bought one and it works great. Think about this. Starting a song in standard tuning...hitting a button...and in three seconds you are playing a slide solo with an open tuning...then simply tune right back.

[Hard Truth]

Thanks to Eli Marcus

 

David,

 

the Gibson self tuning Robot guitar is not a first, (unless they mean

the first mass-produced commercially available item)

 

Sonny Landreth, Jimmy Page, Pat Metheny, Mick Fleetwood, Eddie Van

Halen, Peter Frampton, and others have been using an automatic tuning

mechanism called Trans Performance on their guitars for a number of

years (Jimmy Page received the first prototype in 1990) - it allows them

to change keys or tunings on the guitar in half a second at the press

of a button, the computerized electronics in the mechanism keep their

guitars in perfect tune at all times.

 

http://transperformance.com/news/index.htm

http://tinyurl.com/2o2jdh

 

Source: 2007 Punmaster's MusicWire http://www.punmaster.com

 

Please pass on free subscriptions to the MusicWire to friends,

associates, and colleagues by sending an email including a first & last

name to musicwire@punmaster.com with the word "subscribe" in the

subject. Stay informed and stay in tune!

[Jasco]

 

Thanks to Eli Marcus David, the Gibson self tuning Robot guitar is not a first, (unless they mean the first mass-produced commercially available item) Sonny Landreth, Jimmy Page, Pat Metheny, Mick Fleetwood, Eddie Van Halen, Peter Frampton, and others have been using an automatic tuning mechanism called Trans Performance on their guitars for a number of years (Jimmy Page received the first prototype in 1990) - it allows them to change keys or tunings on the guitar in half a second at the press of a button, the computerized electronics in the mechanism keep their guitars in perfect tune at all times. http://transperformance.com/news/index.htm http://tinyurl.com/2o2jdh Source: 2007 Punmaster's MusicWire http://www.punmaster.com Please pass on free subscriptions to the MusicWire to friends, associates, and colleagues by sending an email including a first & last name to musicwire@punmaster.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject. Stay informed and stay in tune!

 

 

 

Yes, you are basically correct. This has been discussed already in this thread. However, Jimmy Page did not recieve the first transperformance self-tuning guitar. Dave Beegle did.

[flattoe]

I just got directed to this thread. It's too bad this gibson robot thingy isn't near as cool as the Transperformance Self Tuning guitar system - www.selftuning.com - which has been around since the late 80's. Gibson tried to buy it back in the early to mid 90's but Transperformance wouldn't sell out. Maybe they should have. This system is far and away superior to anything that has ever been developed. Jimmy Page said it was the greatest invention since the electric guitar. There's a lot of cool things about this system like being able to access over 100,000 tunings on the fly and the speed of tuning change is quite quick. It is a bit pricey though. Check out some of the Dave Beegle multiple tuning tracks at www.myspace.com/davebeegleselftuning.

[Anderton]

 

"Will It Go Round In Circles....." ....aaaaaand, as I stated waaaaaay back in Post #12 -- forward/ progressive thinking in the form of improvements of any given thing all up-and-down the spectrum for a greater good is usually a positive thing.... What Im set-off about is that this comes off more as a marketing ploy for upper class folks to enjoy as opposed to being a goodwill intent to improve the instrument universally for everyone........ You admitted yourself that you believe that these Robot Guitars are being initially made for collector's in mind.... Im sorry, but I cant think of any reason why a collector, for the sake of collecting, requires such a device on a guitar (other than being a phallic-symbol to other collectors)..........It would be different if auto-tuners appeared on all new production Gibsons ( and Epiphones) as a new universal "improvement" to guitars and basses as new standard equipment , then I can say "Yeah, I'm wrong" and will concede that Gibson is paving the way for forward guitar thinking that other manufacturers will have to follow suit and employ....Such is not the case.........I dont care about any of the reasons stated in any of these pages about why this thing is so great: if Gibson's intended use is a "peacock" for hobbyists or collectors instead of reasons such as: beginners - who really DO have a need for auto-tuning installed on their Holiday Special guitar-pak guitars, or helping the working-stiff fulltime career musicians like me that play music up to 7 nights a week and really do have a great need for a device like that but cant afford $2500 in their household budget, or the vari-detuning garage metal musician with big dreams and LOADS of talent but can only afford a guitar in the three-digit range because minimum-wage barely gets him by, or any other reason that I can probably think of other than elitest collecting/showing-off, then its worthless to me..............

 

 

 

I have talked to people at Gibson and they fully intend to bring the price down and make it widely available. However from what I understand this is not a trivial undertaking; you can't just say "Hey! Let's make this thing affordable next week!" What they have is the Tronical system, which is fine, but I don't think it was ever designed to be a mass-market item. It was made by a small company, and such entities just don't have the clout to order 250,000 widgets and get a huge price break. Gibson DOES have that kind of clout, but they had damn well better make sure that widget does EXACTLY what they want before they order 250,000 of them...that's probably why they say the next "wave" of self-tuning technology will hit in late 2008. Methinks they expect to spend a lot of effort on R&D.

[Anderton]

The neck on my PRS plays like fingers sliding over a smooth marble top.

 

:thu: I still feel that Paul Reed Smith makes the best guitars in the world. I love his work, the style he brings to his guitars, the sound quality, the neck that makes me play 50% better just by strapping it on. I almost feel like I wouldn't want the tuning technology on one of his axes...I'd be afraid it would unbalance that perfect balance he's achieved.

 

That doesn't take away from what the Robot Guitar does. But the Robot Guitar certainly doesn't take away from what Paul does.

[DevilRaysFan]

 

I have talked to people at Gibson and they fully intend to bring the price down and make it widely available. However from what I understand this is not a trivial undertaking; you can't just say "Hey! Let's make this thing affordable next week!" What they have is the Tronical system, which is fine, but I don't think it was ever designed to be a mass-market item. It was made by a small company, and such entities just don't have the clout to order 250,000 widgets and get a huge price break. Gibson DOES have that kind of clout, but they had damn well better make sure that widget does EXACTLY what they want before they order 250,000 of them...that's probably why they say the next "wave" of self-tuning technology will hit in late 2008. Methinks they expect to spend a lot of effort on R&D.

 

 

 

Fair enough and understood: I was just being the self-proclaimed voice of the little man everywhere....I guess only time will tell, but I'm hoping that this is a sign that Gibson is being motivated on spearheading the next mutation of the guitar as an instrument to be enjoyed by all ........

[bbach]

:thu: I still feel that Paul Reed Smith makes the best guitars in the world. I love his work, the style he brings to his guitars, the sound quality, the neck that makes me play 50% better just by strapping it on. I almost feel like I wouldn't want the tuning technology on one of his axes...I'd be afraid it would unbalance that perfect balance he's achieved. That doesn't take away from what the Robot Guitar does. But the Robot Guitar certainly doesn't take away from what Paul does.

 

I've not owned any other PRS guitars, but this one sure seems to be about as perfect a feel as a player can get. Nice to look at too. At the end of the day you are right about modifying such a nice bit of art. Would it still feel the same afterword?

Maybe that's why I'll keep this Gibson around. It sure makes practicing in those alternate tunings easy.

[Magpel]

Heh, I just assumed it had something to do with Guitar Hero. A real Les Paul that doubles as a fake one. Or maybe that you could beam files to a Gibson robot bass. Or something. Right. How many people are playing Grabbers these days?

 

Automatic tuning is attractive to me. I'd like my Tele, which is a great sounding guitar with really flakey intonation and a neck that the techs just shake their heads at, to adjust spontaneously while I play...as long as there's no AD/DA involved...

 

Come to think of it, the Line 6 people be able to do a no-latency pitch correction thing easily enough, shouldn't they? That could be at least one advantage to the model route.