Robot guitars: self tuning, intonating etc..

[Jeff White]

I wonder what demographic of people will buy this. ??

50+ yr old dentists reliving the early 20s that they never had with the ear they never will have.

Jeff

[Scodiddly]

I wonder what demographic of people will buy this. ??

50+ yr old dentists reliving the early 20s that they never had with the ear they never will have.

Jeff

No, those guys are too busy buying official SRV or Jimi Stratocasters.

Hey, I wouldn't argue that learning how to tune your guitar is a useful skill that every guitarist should know. But I've heard enough guys (even good ones) playing out-of-tune guitars that I wouldn't turn up my nose if I saw such a guitar at a gig.

I do think it would be cool if the possibilities inspired somebody to really take advantage and come up with some interesting music. Because really y'all are arguing against technology without any good reason to do so.

[satire]Kind of like how that Les Paul guy pretty much wasted his life fooling around with gimmicky effects and overdubbing. Why couldn't he just hire some more guitar players and singers and record some real music? [/satire]

[shedshrine]

Hey, I wouldn't argue that learning how to tune your guitar is a useful skill that every guitarist should know. But I've heard enough guys (even good ones) playing out-of-tune guitars that I wouldn't turn up my nose if I saw such a guitar at a gig.

I do think it would be cool if the possibilities inspired somebody to really take advantage and come up with some interesting music. Because really y'all are arguing against technology without any good reason to do so.

Hmm. Maybe have it switch tunings with tap tempo, in within scale intervals, you play repeating patterns and have them evolve. Cool. Would be a trip to have the strings sliding back and forth and changing tension under your fingers while you play. Play some droning on tauter open strings mixed with insanely wide slack key bending. Then of course throw in a whammy bar . Yes, this could definitely be cool.

I'm sure folks like Joni Mitchell et al who use lots of tunings would love a well implemented quickchange tuning guitar.


what comes after the guitar. Bet it will just morph into something similar but totally different.

[;ivlunsdystf]

I like the looks of it. That coloration makes it look like a shark.

Dentists are keeping the entire consumer sector of the 'pro audio' industry afloat.

What the hell is this "intonation"?

[shedshrine]

What the hell is this "intonation"?

Has to do with how clearly you speak to your guitar while turning its saddle screws...

[joel hamilton]

What the hell is this "intonation"?

Has to do with how clearly you speak to your guitar while turning its saddle screws...

In this case, I think it is "incantation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incantation

Wizardry. Not in the Harry potter way, but more in the DIO way, ya know?

[shedshrine]

What the hell is this "intonation"?

Here's wiki on it:

Intonation
Many cheap or used guitars do not have good intonation. Intonation refers to the individual notes along a guitar's neck being at the correct pitch (not a little bit sharp or a little bit flat when fretted), and is influenced by (among other factors) the length of the string between where it contacts at the bridge saddle and where it contacts at the nut. The positions of the 6 individual bridge saddles are adjustable a small distance backward and forward which adjusts the length of the string and hence intonation. Intonation is best tested with the aid of a digital chromatic tuner (a simple matter of moving up the neck fretting notes while checking that each note is "in tune" on your tuner). A quick test is to compare the pitch of the 12th fret natural harmonic to the pitch of the 12th fret normally-fretted note, if they match exactly then it's a reasonable indicator of decent intonation.



I reread the setup part in the thing's manual when you asked that, turns out it doesn't intonate itself, even for a holy diver. However, it does tells you how many saddle screw turns to get there with a blinking lcd readout (pg 39). Kind of all, youknow, robot like.

[Knights Who Say Neve]

Wow, I hate to say anything good about this now that TOMB has passed its verdict, but- wouldn't this be useful for someone who uses a lot of different tunings, and doesn't want to drag out multiple guitars?

It certainly would be useful, sort of like a tuner and my left hand are kind of useful in that situation. I can almost guarantee you that this thing would not be faster or better at changing tunings... at best, you would still have to write a set list with the tunings in mind, and pace the set accordingly. Like fumbling with that ding dong of a "super knob" thingy would make things way more efficient than just tuning for the next song while someone addresses the crowd? I would be more bummed that I didnt notice the TINY little blue dot wasnt over the red G# on the dial and I tuned to the wrong tuning and ripped into the next song completely wondering how the fuck to just get the thing BACK to where I wanted it... it is too clever. Stuff like that seems to always fail under real life conditions. I dunno... I wouldnt use one. Good for anyone who thinks it is an awesome idea (G.E. smith and kevin eubanks , maybe?)

Well, I'm think I'd try it out first before declaring it useless.

[RefD]

Good for anyone who thinks it is an awesome idea (G.E. smith and kevin eubanks , maybe?)

i kinda doubt G. E. Smith would touch either of these with a ten-foot Hall and Oates reunion.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Sorry, I was joking. My point, though, is that the target buyer of this guitar is probably not necessarily familiar with the concept of intonation. What do I know, though.

I just played my little cousin's Epiphone Les Paul (his christmas present from Guitard Center) and I have to say it was a pretty nice guitar. It was shark blue like the robotar, too.

[shedshrine]

Sorry, I was joking. My point, though, is that the target buyer of this guitar is probably not necessarily familiar with the concept of intonation. What do I know, though.

I just played my little cousin's Epiphone Les Paul (his christmas present from Guitard Center) and I have to say it was a pretty nice guitar. It was shark blue like the robotar, too.

Ha! I thought you might've been, (I've read many of your posts!) but just in case you weren't I covered my ass.

I have no illusions about version one of this thing doing all the wild stuff I was imagining up there, it just got me to wonderin'

[;ivlunsdystf]

Well. I, for one, hope that some weird Laurie Anderson or Robert Fripp type person finds a way to hack this roboguitar and make it do weird things that a regular guitar can't do. That's what should be happening with MIDI guitar in general, but unfortunately it often ends up being deployed as a fake saxophone or whatever, instead.

[RefD]

Well. I, for one, hope that some weird Laurie Anderson or Robert Fripp type person finds a way to hack this roboguitar and make it do weird things that a regular guitar can't do.

Adrian Belew used to carry that torch as well, tho mostly in his first 3 solo albums.

[johnny7]

The word "ROBOT" is precisely what is cool.
I, for one, fucking love robots.

Hmm, can you listen to it while it tunes?
If so, could you strum it and make it run through 97 different tunings in a row?
Can randomness be put into the equation?
I want one.

Johnny

[Scodiddly]

Well. I, for one, hope that some weird Laurie Anderson or Robert Fripp type person finds a way to hack this roboguitar and make it do weird things that a regular guitar can't do.

Adrian Belew used to carry that torch as well, tho mostly in his first 3 solo albums.

There was a pretty good quote from Belew about that sort of thing back in the 80's King Crimson days. He and Fripp had been doing all sorts of goofy things with the Roland guitar synths, which sort of surprised the Roland people. They had just been expecting mediocre guitar players to sit around playing open E chords with cool sounds, not doing anything remotely serious with the product.