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Robot Guitar ? WTF
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:39 pm
by dawman
I don't really feel like I'm getting old,..just better. Well at least at composition and performance.
But is the world just getting lazier. First there were sequencers, then synths and keyboards are smaller, and synth VST instruments that make your pads for you, and now this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetVXbYRfWk
My son is begging for this. I need to finish paying off my Solaris, buy a truck that won't be shared, etc.
My kid is really starting to impress me with his rapid comprhension on the guitar, and he can play all the tricks I show him, even some old Jimmy Page solos.
I told to him to get srtaight A's last year and I would get him PS3, XBox 360, a BC Rich Guitar.But this thing is 2500 USD.
He's busting my balls and digging into to his college funds now, and my GAS / 3PDS medication fees !!
How lazy can we become where we can pull out our volume knobs to tune our Guitars?

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:54 pm
by next to nothing
hey didnt you convert to virtual cables to escape the hazzle?

(i like the z's but i think i mistyped that one. sry.)
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:38 pm
by alfonso
Such a guitar makes sense just for a pro live situation where you must be perfectly tuned all along a varied and fast progressing set.
But I think that having to tune your guitar manually is mandatory for anyone who has to learn his instrument really in depth. It's part of an essential knowledge, to be able to tune well and fast your instrument and you need to train it, like anything else. Also learning to set up your instrument perfectly so it keeps tuning well is something extremely important for any serious guitar player.
Such a guitar given to a learning young player is a way to cut down his skills. I'd say that it's a guitar that someone should buy with money already earned playing live, so you are at a stage where you can understand if you really need it or not.
I'd rather spend the bucks on tone.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:00 pm
by garyb

nobody has time to tune!
a nice gimmick for a live stage, perhaps....cool if you have lots of extra $$$...
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:44 pm
by wayne
Whatever happened to "Good enough for jazz" ?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:50 pm
by hubird
it's in no relation.
not to the skills, not to proceeds, not to the (amplifying) setup.
Good however is the fast progress and the ambition

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:16 pm
by Neutron
i was hoping to see ASIMO playing smoke on the water.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:24 pm
by garyb
yeah, or an asimo that WAS a guitar...
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:44 am
by braincell
Watch the video, the intonation has to be done manually so what is the point of it? Every time you change the tuning, the intonation will have to be adjusted again, also it doesn't include the most important tuning, The New Standard Tuning.
You should point out to him that there are better guitars in this price range that would be more enjoyable to play, also pro guitarists will laugh at him. It is easy to tune a guitar and it will stay in tune with high quality locking pegs.
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:48 pm
by dawman
He's much like his old man.
Initial excitement uncontained, then common sense sets in.
I just have to agree, and use the old carrot and stick dogma.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:29 pm
by MD69
Hmm
Does it play out of tune as Keith on Get yer yaya's out record?!
cheers
Michel
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:49 pm
by braincell
It would be a great concept for a piano!
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:52 pm
by garyb
pianos are tempered tuning. to truly tune a piano well, it takes a trained human ear....
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:56 am
by kensuguro
a guitar that can tune itself? Wait 'till they come out with a human that can fix his own mistakes! It's hard enough to make one admit there is a mistake. lol
jokes aside, my boss who's a very good guitar player got this. (notice the price tag shouts "boss") And it seems to work very well. It's FAST.
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:43 am
by dawman
Remember Waynes World ?
Some kid started playing a guitar and the store clerks swarmed him, muted the strings and pointed to the sign that said " NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN."
The same should apply here. I grudingly had to teach my son Iron Man, and Smoke On The Water.................PAHLEEZE !!
This little trick would be cool live though. Pull the knob out, then use the harmonics on the 4th and 5th frets. A very quick solution in case you don't have a roadie w/ a spare on standby.
You'd have to pay me a lot of money to service some egotistical guitarist like that, but that's how they do it on the big jobs.
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:59 pm
by Nestor
I would spend this money into a greater guitar if it was for your son. Then, for live performance I understand it as Alfonso does: if you are not a professional with a long tour to go through, then it becomes to be an expensive sophistry

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:25 pm
by dawman
Once he shows more improvement I will buy him another Guitar.
The fact that he is online at the Gibson website already has me nervous.
I started on a Tiesco Del Ray and a Norma Amp and learned SuzyQ and Wipeout.
He has gone from Smoke On The Water to Secret Agent Man, now he is learning Fire by Hendrix.
I just get all excited when he gets it right. How can I ever become mature when I hang out w/ 11 and 12 year olds and love evrything they do?
I am afraid I was destined to be a child throughout life.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:33 am
by Nestor
scope4live wrote:
I am afraid I was destined to be a child throughout life.

If this is the case, you really are a lucky man!

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:51 am
by pollux
Hi Jimmy,
When I was around his age (long time ago), I dreamed on playing on a Gibson Les Paul on a crancked up Marshall JCM 900, like all my guitar heros did..
And then, finally, one day I got them...
After a short while neither of them was in my gear anymore because I found that they both sucked and were highly overpriced... I still play on Les Pauls and SGs, but they are custom made for me by a luthier, for less than what costs a standard Gibson

and the tone is 10 times better (can give you his number if you want

)
This robot guitar is only good for trashing fenders

, or as it has been said, for pros that need to quickly change the tuning on the fly.. and even there.. In many cases we change the guitar because the tone we want is not necessarily the same for each song..
If he doesn't have a good guitar yet, and he desperately wants a Les Paul, I'd rather buy an epiphone LP, change the mics for a couple of seymour duncans (the JB4 and the jazz work like a charm for rock), and take it to a luthier to have it well calibrated (I don't know if it's called like that in english.. sorry

)... It's what I'll do for my kids when they'll start playing up loud!
My humble point of view...
Raul