A Robotic Guitar for Musicians of the Future

Guitar Hero is a lot of fun, but if your New Year's resolution includes learning how to play the real thing, check out Gibson's new Robot Guitar. You obviously want to learn how to tune a guitar without any gadgets, but diving right into the music is going to be a lot easier for beginners using a self-tuning guitar.

Apparently, Gibson spent years of research on this limited-edition Les Paul Robotic Guitar, and couldn't be happier to see it launch next month. A video on the site shows just how easy it is to tune the guitar—even a child could do it. Chris Adams, the inventor of the Robot Guitar, says tuning only takes two minutes to understand. "The only thing you have to do to start is pull the knob, strum the strings, and when everything on the display is blue, you are done. We checked the guitar out with some nine-year-old kids, and they picked it up immediately. It doesn't come easier than this—pull the knob, strum, push in, done."

This robotic guitar talks you through everything from intonation to quickly accessing nonstandard tunings used in classic hits like Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" and Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." Everything is done at the twist of a knob, saving amateurs a lot of time and professionals a lot of money since they won't need a personal guitar technician anymore. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and Steve Vai are already raving about it.

But don't worry, this guitar isn't exclusive to high-profile guitarists. Gibson will release 4,000 limited-edition Robot Guitars worldwide on December 7, and if you got $2,500 to spend, you can get your very own self-tuning guitar too. A regular model will begin selling in January 2008, which hopefully also means a nice drop in price.