RE: Check out the Robot Guitar

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

   When I first became aware of the Transperformance system, it was a $2000
upgrade to a guitar the owner had to supply, that also involved removing 
the
fret board to install graphite support rods on either side of the truss rod
to improve rigidity and also the major routing it took for the bridge and
control panel to be mounted on the body. That was at least 8 years ago. At
about that time I got to see Sonny Landreth and his band the Goners back up
John Hiatt at a Local blues festival, and he was using a les Paul with the
system. He wasn't doing anything wild like retuning mid song ala Manring or
Adrian Legg. But he was using it very effectively to tune between songs so
segues were much faster, and of course he was blazing, I got so much
inspiration from hearing him play that day and since I was so close I
finally figured out how he was doing his behind the slide bar fretting.
Sonny, if you are out there and listening, I'm sorry but I totally nicked
that technique from you. One negative other than the price of the original
transperformance system is the tuner bridge altered the sound of the
instrument due to its mass and construction and though you could add it to 
a
strat style guitar, I believe it rendered the whammy bar useless. The new
system that Gibson has licensed and I believe was designed in Germany puts
the servo motors in the tuners them selves, which would require running
wires up the truss rod channel, if one could get a system retro fitted, but
the fact that it isn't a bridge design per se, seems like it wouldn't 
effect
the sound of the instrument as much. The bad news is I believe that Gibson
has an exclusive distribution deal, or may have bought the company outright
that designed the robot tuning system, so the likelihood of obtaining a
system for fender style guitars in the US is slim to none. I think the new
Robot system has many creative possibilities,   and I was under the
impression that it was programmable but I may be wrong. But the thought of
being able to quickly change tunings, without having to make pithy chit 
chat
while trying to get in tune, or change individual strings ala a b-bender,
mid song is interesting to me. I'm just not sure I'd want to have to play 
an
ugly blue Les Paul to get at the technology. Oh and the price is way out of
my range for now. But, I look forward to seeing all my favorite rich rock
stars who have Gibson endorsements making beautiful, precisely tuned music
on their Gibson robot guitars:) In the hands of some one like Slash, oh the
possibilities are infinite.........................
Bill