Tronical News

Dark Fire Launch

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:57:34 -0800

The worldwide excitement surrounding the launch of the Gibson Dark Fire has arrived in Sydney, Australia, with images of the groundbreaking new guitar projected onto prominent Sydney landmarks including the biggest one of all the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bridge, or "Coathanger" as Sydneysiders often refer to it, opened in 1932 and is the world's widest long-span bridge and is the fourth longest spanning arch bridge in the world.   The Dark Fire image was also projected on to the side of buildings in the city's center along busy Liverpool and Oxford streets, causing excitement throughout the city. The Gibson Dark Fire is the world's most technically advanced guitar in the history of musical instruments and is set to become the most-wanted product this Christmas.

Robot Guitar Wins Best Music Hardware Award at BT Digital Music Awards

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Gibson Robot Guitar was awarded with the prestigious “Best Music Hardware Award” at the BT Digital Music Awards 2008. Now in its seventh year, the awards ceremony was held at the Roundhouse in London on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
The world’s first guitar with robotic technology, the Robot Guitar beat stiff competition from the Motorola ROKR E8 and Ripserver. The Best Music Hardware Award in association with Stuff Magazine was decided upon by a panel of distinguished industry judges. The Robot was selected for its innovation, usability, style and price point, among other features.
Gibson's Robot Guitar eliminates tuning problems for guitarists. It automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning. It also allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. Furthermore, it allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions. Finally, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings are an automated breeze.
“The Robot Guitar was a vision I had for many years prior to its production," said Gibson Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. "To win Best Music Hardware at the Digital Music Awards goes to prove that it has been embraced by musicians around the world and I am delighted.”
The annual Digital Music Awards were presented by TV’s Fearne Cotton and Rufus Hound and was filmed for ITV2. Bands performing in between the awards included Sugababes, Ida Maria, British Sea Power, Sam Beeton, Fightstar and Iglu & Hartly.
Other award winners included Kylie Minogue, who picked up best pop artist and best innovation for the site Kylie Konnect, where fans can create their own profile on the site dedicated to the pop princess. Coldplay picked up an award for Best Official Music Web site, which featured the free download of their single "Violet Hill." The band also picked up the Best Rock/Indie Artist award. Radiohead walked away with the Artist of the Year award, fighting off competition from Leona Lewis and Bloc Party. Further winners included The Zutons for Best Video Podcast, Vampire Weekend for Best Breakthrough Artist and The Camden Crawl 2008 for Best Mobile Campaign.
Thirteen of the 20 awards given last night were voted for online and the remaining seven by a panel of industry experts. —Jeremy Singer, 10/2/08

CES Award

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 21:59:52 -0800

The Gibson Robot Guitar received “Best of Show” honors on Sunday, January 6 at the annual NEWSTIPS Cherry Picks event at CES. The Cherry Picks award has become known for targeting trend-setting technology and recognizing the most exciting and promising products each year. The Gibson Robot guitar was presented in front of worldwide media at the annual Cherry Picks event held in Las Vegas and competed against products from a hybrid vehicle to the latest in technology's best home and business products. The Gibson Robot guitar received an overwhelming vote for "Best of Show" and was recognized in a special award presentation.
The Robot Guitar made history in December with its launch as the first guitar with robotic self-tuning technology. The guitar eliminates tuning problems for artists by automatically tuning to a standard A440 and allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. The technology also makes string changes an automated breeze and allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or weather changes.
The system’s high technology components are extremely light and do not change the instrument in any way. The user interface of the Robot Guitar is the Master Control Knob, which has all operating and control functionality contained in 11 different positions. The Powerhead-Locking tuners, constructed with lightweight alloy housing, represent a revolution in guitar technology and are not any heavier than common tuning keys. Each Powerhead has a motorized high-performance gearbox controlled by signals from the CPU. As the motorized tuners adjust the pitch of the strings, they are monitored by means of a Tune-Control Bridge. The Gibson Robot Guitar is the first production instrument offering robotic ability and is exclusive to Gibson Guitar.

Gibson Proudly Presents The Robot Guitar

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:48:53 -0800

On December 7, 2007, Gibson will change the guitar world forever. Again.

True to the spirit of innovation that inspired Gibson to invent the legendary Tune-o-matic bridge, the powerful humbucker, and the revolutionary Digital Les Paul, Gibson proudly presents the Gibson Robot Guitar—the world's first guitar with robotic technology.

Since the dawn of the instrument, musicians have come to accept the guitar's imperfections and lack of tonal precision as necessary evils. Onstage and off, guitarists have fought to stay in tune. Every music lover and performer has had to suffer through the show—halting, mood-killing atonal droning of a loudly amped guitar being brought into tune. And in the studio, or at home, imprecise intonation throws the guitar in and out of tune, up and down the neck, as the instrument requires tweaking with each season and at times with each string change.

For as long as the guitar has existed, guitar lovers have had two choices—live with a temperamental and out-of-tune instrument or make frequent trips to the shop for setups. Not anymore.

Introducing the Gibson Robot Guitar. All you have to do is play it

Gibson Guitar Announces First Robot Guitar

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:55:41 -0800

Gibson Guitar announced today the limited availability of the world's first guitar with robotic technology, the Gibson Robot Guitar. True to the spirit of innovation that inspired Gibson to invent the legendary Tune-o-matic bridge, the powerful humbucker and the revolutionary HD.6X Pro digital Les Paul guitar, the Gibson Robot Guitar is set to make music industry history.
Features:
1. The Gibson Robot Guitar eliminates tuning problems for guitarists. It automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning.
2. It also allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. These tunings were used on many well-known hit songs, giving players easy access for the very first time.
3. The Gibson Robot Guitar allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions.
4. Finally, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings are an automated breeze.

The system consists of five high technology components which are extremely light and do not change the instrument in any way. A control knob (which also serves at the volume knob) enables the tuning with a simple push or pull. Each tuner is equipped with specialized servo motors. As the motorized tuners adjust the pitch of the strings they are monitored by means of a Tune-Control Bridge.
The world's 1st run limited edition version of Gibson Les Paul Robot Guitars will go on sale at 5 PM on December 7, 2007 at 400 dealers throughout the world. Each store will only have 10 instruments. This highly collectible piece of history will be available in an exclusive Blue Silverburst Les Paul model.
To find the list of exclusive Robot Guitar dealers go to www.gibson.com/robotguitar.
The user interface of the Gibson Robot Guitar is the Master Control Knob (MCK). The Master Control Knob has all operating and control functionality contained in 11 different positions. The Powerhead-Locking tuners are constructed with a lightweight alloy housing and are not heavier than common tuning keys. They represent a revolution in guitar technology. Each Powerhead has a motorized high-performance gearbox controlled by signals from the Neck CPU mounted on the back of the headstock.