Robot Guitar - Les would have loved this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atKD-lNB27U&
I have to wonder if there is some Iso Directional Induction Oscillator Technology applied to drive those tuner motors.
Man, that Robot stuff is just so wrong. Ten years from now, how many of those units are still going
to be working?
Sigh.
I know! That is why I thought there must be some of that IDIOT technology involved, but apparently this is REAL. I’ll have to go down to the local Guitar Center and see one of these. Maybe there will be some opportunity for electronic technicians to get some work out of this. Imagine the complications of building the neck, providing power, calibrating the servos, and that master switch must be pretty unique.
Gibson has a looooong history of fumbling with anything more advanced than a traditional guitar.
Gibson CEO “King Henry” Juszkiewicz has a history of acquiring technology IP by partnering with or buying a company, then manipulating the legal system to extort the IP. Well known examples are the dissolution of Opcode (mourned by many Opcode loyalists) and the difficult birth of the Oberheim OBMx. King Henry has boasted of retaining legions of lawyers with a well funded legal warchest while declaring that no engineer is worth over $25/hour. He has never had any competent engineering staff (you get what you pay for), he is always interfering with projects and marketing, he seems totally inept with strategic deployment of the high technology in his possession, and does not believe in rewarding his employees (bad enough that a 2010 poll rated Gibson the WORST place to work).
All of this adds up to laughable products like the robot guitars and an industry that is reluctant to partner with the well known reputation of King Henry.
This isn’t the first time Gibson and Moog have been strange bedfellows–anyone remember Norlin?
Almost as bad as the CBS debacle with Fender/Rhodes/Rogers etc…
It’s been out for a couple of years now - maybe more. It’s amazing technology for specific users. People like Joni Mitchell played it many different tunings and needed a bunch of different guitars set up on stage. This allows one guitar to quickly switch tunings. And, of course, almost instantly getting a guitar back in tune on stage. If I remember correctly, it even guided the player, with a bit of manual interaction, in intonating the strings/bridge.
Now, for fun, add the robot tuners to the Picasso guitar that Linda Manzer made for Pat Metheny:
Now THAT is interesting. I wonder if there was a collaboration with the Animusic people.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXNVbvFXyk
Talk about a robot guitar…