mike_mccue
 
Just make sure the lead singer knows some good (long) jokes for when have to go looking for a fresh battery.
 
 
:-)

The battery is rechargeable... and last about 80-100 tunings.
BTW, You can manually tune the guitar... 
 
BTW, I am the singer...   :-)
My guitar playing is simple stuff (still a lot to learn).

Rep was at our office this week demoing the Peavey At-200. I was skeptical, but in the final analysis this guitar turned out to be quite playable with a variety of tunings and good tones that include a realistic acoustical sound. Priced at $499 right now with the expansion kit free during July. Might be worth a look at your local dealer if your looking for this type of guitar.
 
 
 

That Peavey seems really weird... the strings will sound out of tune acoustically even when the electronic output is in tune.
 
They advise you to turn the amp up so you can't hear it. :-S
 
The presenter also pronounces that "latency is not an issue" which is an rather self serving and opinionated way to avoid saying something slightly more factual such as "latency is 2.4ms".
 
I'm amused by both of these technologies.
 
There are lots of guitars that will stay in tune for a entire set no matter how harsh the environmental conditions.
 
best regards,
mike

@Mike: I personally don't need either of these guitars at the moment. Saying that, I would also welcome both to the rack if that changed. We are at the cusp of what's coming in the future. I'm glad I had the chance to try one out - it's much better than my skeptical mind thought it would be.

"We are at the cusp of what's coming in the future."
 
Most of the young people in my area that actually play musical instruments seem to have become enamored with small acoustic string instruments and they play music in small ensembles.
 
I'm way past skeptical... I'm into the now. :-)
 
 
 
If I had to choose between the 2 systems... I'd go with the step servo motors and the strings that are actually in tune. That way, I'd enjoy predictable and familiar string tension, I would not encounter intonation problems that needed to be fixed, and I wouldn't have to consider my personal opinion that 2.4ms latency is 2.4ms more than I need to put up with. 
 
all the best,
mike
 

Hey Mike,
 
I realize many guitarists are in tune... regardless of conditions.   :)
Some guitars (Les Paul and other fixed tail units in particular) are much better in this regard.
Dealing with moving to/from drop D can *really* slow down the pace/momentum of a show.
Even if you try to group those tunes together...

FWIW, I think the Gibson solution seems like solid engineering... something Orville would have done if he was around with today's tech.
 
Playing on strings that are physically out of tune, which is how the Peavey technology works, just because it sounds ok coming out of a speaker seems perverse. It seems, to me, that there are much simpler, far more satisfying pleasures to be had in life than banging away on out of tune strings. If it were me, I'd have to tune that guitar before I let it tune itself, just so the string tension felt familiar, the vibration on my belly seemed comforting, and the strings bent like I am used to.
 
all the best,
mike
 
 
 
 

As for how the headstock-mounted Min-etune/Tronical system detects the strings' pitches, the tuning machines obviously must incorporate some sensor technology which senses each string's vibration and transduces it into an electrical signal which is sent to the control unit and processed for pitch detection and compared with reference frequencies, based upon which the tuning machines are driven to adjust the string tensioning.
 
Btw, I believe Gibson's original robot-tuning system used the guitar's pickup for pitch detection, so the shift to a headstock system no doubt required a bit of development in order for the motorized tuning machines to be able to reliably sense each string's pitch across the nut (and string trees). Although I suppose it's also possible that the system senses the headstock vibration and isolates each string's pitch through DSP filtering rather than employing sensors in each tuning machine.
 
The Peavey/Antares auto-tuning is "virtual" using DSP rather than actually phsically varying the string tension, similar to what Roland's V-Guitar systems have already been implementing since the 1990s. Just do a search on "VG-8" and "Joni Mitchell".

mike_mccue
Playing on strings that are physically out of tune, which is how the Peavey technology works, just because it sounds ok coming out of a speaker seems perverse. It seems, to me, that there are much simpler, far more satisfying pleasures to be had in life than banging away on out of tune strings. If it were me, I'd have to tune that guitar before I let it tune itself, just so the string tension felt familiar, the vibration on my belly seemed comforting, and the strings bent like I am used to.

I completely agree...
The guitar would have to be pretty well in tune... else the string tension would feel weird and the acoustic sound would clash.
 
Just got rid of two Ernie Ball Silhouettes (beautiful guitars) because the Floyd Rose was a pain (for me). 
Loved everything else about them... (wood, size, weight, sound, playability)