Oh, to be clear, I have not used these motorized tuners. I'm just saying that my experience was that when electronic tuners arrived they did a lot to train and improve people's innate sense of pitch and so I'm speculating that this latest system might do the same thing.

But it might not - we'll have to see.

The only hands-on report I have is that my brother-in-law had the opportunity to use an earlier version of this thing a few years ago on a recording studio’s guitar and he was delighted with it. Simply because it saved a minute of messing around before every take, allowing him to concentrate on the music rather than the tuning.

But one thing is certain. If any violin players are reading this they'll be laughing their socks off in contempt at the whole issue!

Cheers - C

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Ah let them fidlers be... they only play violin because the guitar is to much instrument for their hands *duck and cover kids, remember, duck and cover!*

I do see a difference with a device that tells you what the right pitch is though and one that makes that pitch for you. If you know how to tune and have a good ear, well on a loud stage this would be great. But since I misunderstood you and thought you had used them yourself, for now I will stick with my first post.

But I keep the right to change my mind

Me too!

Cheers man - C

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Cheers mate

Seems like a good idea for pros onstage. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young spent more time tuning up at Woodstock than they did playing and not EVERYONE has perfect pitch, like Jimi Hendrix had, and can tune while they're playing, so I can see where it would be very useful for that purpose.

However, I agree that in the case of beginners it's very important for them to get that ear training. It makes you a better musician in the long run, and what if something went wrong with the auto-tuner?? Without the ear training as a foundation, they'd be lost, just like so many teens I've seen who are so used to using calculators, etc., that they can't count change to a customer without the aid of the electronic registers that are now common. I was in a B.K. once when the power went out and the girl at the register got so frustrated trying to count change that she started crying! An aspiring guitarist who didn't have the ear training would find himself in the same boat (but probably without the tears).

I started out with a cheap pitch pipe, then went to a tuning fork that gave the tone of the open 5th (A) string and learned to tune the other five strings by using that. After doing that for so long, I was able to get very close to perfect tuning and that was confirmed when I started to use the electronic tuners I use today. They're good things to have around, for sure, but I'm still able to tune manually, if I need to. And I believe that's essential background for any beginner to have.

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

I saw one of the original Robot guitars and I had to have one.

The good news, I have a Gibson is now in tune. The bad news, if something can break it will break. When one of my tuners quit tuning I had to send it to Nashville so the only person on the planet that is authorized to work on these could fix it. Very costly. So now the guitar sits in it's pretty case while I play my 92 American Standard at gigs.

The new units from Tronical aren't ready for market just yet. If you listen closely to the videos they don't quite tune perfectly yet. From what I've read on other boards they will cost around $450. The install is easy, take off your tuners and install their unit. No other modifications are needed. It 'listens' to the strings and tunes them, really fast. The demos seem to show units working very fast. I want one, but not for my Strat.

I'm new to this site but a lifetime Fender player.

Rick Rose
Phoenix, AZ