[MrSandMan]

What do you think of the Gibson robotic guitar that tunes itself? A man in Germany invented the concept.

http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar/index.html

In Select Stores December 7, 2007
First Run Limited Edition, only 10 per store

"It will not make you a better guitar player but it will allow the average player to access some very sophisticated tunings," Gibson Guitar Chief Executive Henry Juszkiewicz told Reuters on Tuesday.

The six nonstandard preset tunings were used on hits ranging from "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones and Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" and Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game."

Gibson says the robot guitar is aimed at amateurs who have a hard time keeping their guitars in tune, as well as professionals who now use technicians during concerts to keep about 100 guitars tuned to different keys.

"Professional guitar players use a lot of different tuning and people who listen to the stars wonder why they can't reproduce the same sound themselves," Juszkiewicz said.

Temperature variations, changing strings and simply playing the instrument have long been tuning challenges for guitarists with even the best musical ear.

But some have already poured scorn on the robot guitar.

"I'm sorry, this is just lazy. With stuff like this, tuning is going to be a lost skill," wrote LettheBassPlay on the www.ultimate-guitar.com Web site forum.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21791941/

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