Gibson Robot Guitars

[jdogric12]

Anybody got hands on experience with one of these? Thinking about getting one.

[kiramdear]

I demoed a couple in the store. The auto-tuning is pretty cool. The tuners are very light and do not cause neck dive. Other than that they are like any other nice new SG or Les Paul. Prices were way low on them last time I looked, around $1400 for the SG. Well, low considering that list was three grand. Pretty trippy to watch the tuners turn by themselves.

[sloop_john_b]

Gibson has been blowing 'em out - I've been considering picking one up.

[jdogric12]

There is a new black SG for a grand... I think I may snag it.

[admin]

I had a demo of one of these in a local guitar store. All of a sudden strings started tuning and popping as if it was an Orville Redenbacher commercial. Not an impressive moment for the Robot model.

[sloop_john_b]

I had a demo of one of these in a local guitar store. All of a sudden strings started tuning and popping as if it was an Orville Redenbacher commercial. Not an impressive moment for the Robot model.

Are you saying they started breaking?

[jdogric12]

I tried this one on Sunday. It seemed to work fine, but definitely idiosyncratic to say the least. It seems like something that's cool if you read the manual carefully, but you wouldn't want your idiot friends to mess with it, could break easily if used wrong.

[admin]

Yes, I am saying they started breaking. It took the clerk a few moments to regain his composure before again discussing it as a serious instrument but in the end it did tune quite effeciently. Not a hallmark moment but he was able to demonstrate that it did tune itself. Only the first two strings were brutilized. Agreed Jason, the tuners seemed to have a life of their own for a few moments as they took off. This is for professionals, don't try it at home.

[cjj]

I just have to ask, WHY??? Is it really that hard to tune a guitar manually???

[sloop_john_b]

I just have to ask, WHY??? Is it really that hard to tune a guitar manually???

Nope. But I sure do hate taking the time to tune in-between songs when playing live. That can really kill the flow of a show. I can even tune during a part of a song where I don't play without being distracted from singing.

[admin]

And let's not forget, some consider that the tone is in the tuners.

[jsm610]

Its innovative. And for $1k just do it!

[winston]

If the guitar starts tuning in the middle of a song can you keep playing or do you have to take your hands off of it. Personally I can tune on the fly in the middle of a song if necessary, so I would have no use for this sort of technonolgy.

[jdogric12]

You pull out a push/pull knob to "tune it" and you are never supposed to turn the tuning machine heads yourself unless you pull them out (like a push/pull knob). And if one or more is pulled out, you don't want to tune. Seems very tempermental. That's disappointing. My Fender Cyber Twin series 1 is better than that, it allows for even accidental resistance in the motors.

[tyarbrough]

There's a really great little guitar repair shop here in Fort Worth and they are one of three authorized repair centers in the US for the robot guitars. They had to do quite a bit of training for the honor. Someone also told that Fender was first approached about the robot tuners and turned them away.