Gibson Robot Guitar Reviews
November 13th, 2007
News: Gibson has a new guitar that is going to be available in a limited number ( 10 in each store ) of stores on December 7th 2007. It is called the Gibson Robot Guitar and I thought I would provide you with as much information as I can dig up on this dazzling baby!. I used to own a midnight manhattan so this brings back sweet memories.
So what is the deal with this? Well Gibson has invented a guitar which uses robotic technology, what this means is where currently playing live or from home you have had to encounter problems like staying in tune and on top of that intonation problems well now you dont have to run into those issues and keep having to make frequent dashes to you local guitar store for maintenance.
These limited edition Les Pauls will have self-tuning robotic technology. Initially they will be creating them in a dramatic blue silverburst nitrocellulose finish which according to Gibson will never be used on any other Gibson guitar making its collectibility jump through the roof. It will use a power adaptor and a rechargeble for the system. It will come with a nice silver tolex case where the interior will be a plush silver
Stores that will be carrying these are all on the east coast, PE, NH, MA, CT, NJ, DE, MD
Self - Tuning in standard
This is so friggin cool, ok you want to tune this baby up. You pull out the MCK ( Master Control Knob ) knob, hands off the guitar just strum down all strings once and the pegs on the head will turn automatically tuning the guitar. On the knob is led lights one for each string on the guitar, when that string is in tune it will turn a solid green and then when all are in tune the lights will flash blue meaning its in tune. Once its in tune you push it back in.
Alternate Tuning
Who this is going to appeal to is pretty much everyone but definately those who love to explore alternate tunings often. Usually if players are going to be playing different songs live in different tunings they have a stack of guitars available well now with the Robot guitar you just rotate the Master control to the preset, strum and you can play in Open E, Dropped D, DADGAD, Open G, Hendrix Tuning, Double Dropped D and any of your own custom tunings that you can program into the system. Now if you want to switch back quickly you just twist the MCK knob and strum and boom you are back to your standard tuning.. how cool is that!
String LED display Actions during Tuning
String not tuned = solid red
measuring frequency = red flashing
Powerheads turning = yellow flashing
signal clipping = solid blue
string frequency at extreme range = solid purple
individual string in tune = solid green
all strings in tuen = all Leds flash blue 3 times
One thing to bear in mind is when the tuning is going on you will not hear any of the strings all the strings are muted, once the MCK button goes back in the volume comes back.
Intonation Mode
So if that wasn’t enough how about having a guitar which handles all your seasonal intonation maintenance too? The way to kick into that is you just pull out the mCK and turn it to " I " then to activate it you press the control button for three secons, and hit the string you want to check and the robot guitar will tune it up for you. You then fret the same string at the 12 fret, pluck the fret and the MCK lets you know how to adjust the strings bridge saddle to intonate it. Each green LED illuminates, you turn the saddle screw half a turn clockwide and then for each red led you get you turn it half a turn counterclockwide. You do this for each of your strings and boom you have a guitar which is within 0.2 % accuracy in minutes.. no more fumbling around.
Features
Pickups are 490R and 498T
22 Fret Ebony fingerboard with 12 inch radius
Charging System
Solid Mahogany wood
Powerhead Locking tuners
Neck CPU
There is no information as of yet on what they will be pricing these at.
Manual Guide - Shows you all the Led Settings
Video Demo of the Robot Guitar from Gibson
Warnings
A few things to be sure you know about when using this guitar, otherwise your warranty might get voided.
1. Dont fret a string while attempting to tune the robot guitar, strings must be open for the system to function unless you are doing the intonation routine
2. Never manually turn the tuning pegs on the powerheads unless they are in the disengaged position which is pulled out and away from the peghead.
One Response to “Gibson Robot Guitar Reviews”
Ben Herden April 25th, 2008 at 6:52 pm #
I just bought one of these guitars. Why biggest concern was,” Does this guitar play and sound as well as other Gibsons, or is this a (not so cheap) gimmick?”. Turns out the guitar is great to play, and sounds huge! The tuning technology is just awesome. I know, it doesn’t take long to tune a guitar but this thing is just magic. And it looks tre cool. While this was an extravagent purchase for me, it was well worth it.