Inventor Chris Adams Talks about the Gibson Robot Guitar

by Jorg Kliewe.

The premiere of Gibson's Robot Guitar took place in select music stores on December 7, 2007. Four thousand limited edition Les Paul Robot Guitars sold like hot cakes and it looks like the collaboration between Gibson and Chris Adams, the German inventor of the self-tuning innovation, will continue into the forseeable future.

Some might consider the self-tuning mechanics a bit of gadgetry, while guitarists will consider it a bit of wizardry. The system can self-tune to standard tuning (A440), open tunings and others. While most of us head to our guitar shops to have our guitar's intonation set, Gibson offers an electronic intonation guide to help guitarists make their own adjustments with the Robot Guitar.

Gibson's Robot Guitars were on display during Musikmesse 2008, Frankfurt, Germany. Shortly before the German music extravaganze took place, I met with Chris Adams in his Hamburg loft for an exclusive presentation of the innovative technique of his Tronical tuning system.

Chris, the limited Les Paul model of the Robot Guitar sold out in no time. How does that feel? – Did you expect a selling success like that?

Chris Adams: Yeah, the demand for new instruments is tremendous. And there will be new models by Gibson, like an SG model, Les Paul Studio and Explorer which will be equipped with a stock Powertune system. Of course, there will be new products as well.

Powertune is the most innovative in electric guitar technology at the moment. Many others had tried to develop similar solutions. But, they all required the instrument to be altered, like additional routing. Something that most guitarists are afraid of. So, we developed even more products with new features and made them even smaller to fit most guitar models.

I thought you'd have an exclusive collaboration with Gibson?

Chris: Well, maybe we should go back a little. Once the Powertune system was ready for the market, I began offering it to practically all the bigger guitar manufacturers.

Every one of these manufacturers would have had the opportunity to get on the train. During Musimesse 2004 I'd also talked to a representative of a big Japanese corporation who told me they wouldn't be interested. He told me they were realizing something similar, electronically.

As a guitarist, this is an answer that makes you go "hmm!" Then in 2005, I then received an invitation by a bigger manufacturer to show them my prototype in Scottsdale, Arizona. I arrived there flying in from Germany. As I proceeded to the welcome desk they had literally forgotten the appointment! In my opinion that was kind of uncool already.

The whole meeting didn't really work well and was kind of unprofessional. And when they asked me to leave the prototype with them, I didn't, because I made up my mind that being there had been a waste of time. The people I met were obviously trying to fool with me.

Meeting with Gibson went completely differently. This was after being unsuccessful meeting someone at the Gibson booth at Musikmesse where I'd gotten blown off. Some woman told me to check the Internet for the right person to contact. Instead, what I did was to find the mail address of Henry Juszkiewicz. I wrote to him and received an instant reply. Then I presented the guitar to him during a Vegas trade show. After ten minutes talking in a parking lot, Henry asked me, "Alright, how much do you want for it?”

I guess that brought a big smile on your face.

Chris: Sure! But, it also shows you how things go differently when your partner is personally involved and really cares what kind of products his company carries. Henry Juszkiewicz made this a personal matter to him, not leaving the decision to marketing people or the R&D department.

I found it quite amazing that taking a 50/50 chance by offering Powertune to the biggest two players in the market brought you an almost immediate success with one of them.

Chris: To me, it was never doubtful that I'd get the system into the market. I was always confident about implementing the product in the guitar market. Period. And I was pretty relaxed about it too since I'd already found an alternate distribution source.To me, there was no question that I'd be successful with the Powertune. I'd find it either a rough and bumpy way or a little more comfortable ride. The product is just too good to keep it away from guitarists! Giving it up had never been an option.

Since Gibson took the first grab, did they reserve their right for exclusivity?

Chris: Of course they did and it's fully understandable. But, and here comes the good news for all players of other models. There will be replacement parts kits offered by Gibson too. These come with smaller machine heads to fit six-in-a-row headstocks perfectly. In my opinion, it's a generous gesture by Gibson to make Powertune available for all brands with this replacement kit.

Considering that presenting innovations costs money it is probably in the nature of a big corporation to protect their investments.

Chris: You're right. Bringing a true innovation like Powertune into the instrument market requires millions. And by the way, who is really presenting innovations?

There is always a lot of big mouthing about innovations in the guitar business. But, in the end it turns out that there will be just another color! Powertune has even been mentioned in Forbes magazine recently. So, the financial media notices that there is something innovative happening in the guitar market and knowing full well that it competes with computer games that had an increase in revenue by almost 20% last year! The guitar market is decreasing a little.
In my opinion, the next step would have to be to make an instrument more fun, much faster. Playing a musical instrument, like playing a computer game, is suppose to be fun, instantly!

With a device like Powertune, it's easier to get kids to play guitar rather than having them take lessons forever. They get fed up trying to tune the damn guitar! Imagine that I'm little Peter who'd just received his first guitar with Powertune for Christmas. I know nothing about playing guitar. But, with Powertune, I can play a tune in no time and in tune! [Chris strums his guitar in an open E-tuning, moving his index finger on one string up and down the scale).This can be accomplished within an hour. You know, according to a survey done by NAMM, 80% of the people who give up on guitar playing give up because of tuning issues.

Considering that many important innovations in guitar building were made by people, like Leo Fender, who couldn't play guitar, I found it very interesting that an experienced guitar player like yourself should have a problem with tuning.

Chris: Being capable of tuning a guitar doesn't imply that I like it. Especially on stage. It's hard to stay tuned or even change tunings. One of our endorsers, Uli Jon Roth, has played for 40 years and still hates tuning. And he admits that he's not as good at tuning as Powertune. Just think of pianists who would rarely attempt to tune their pianos themselves. Are they bad players just because they are not capable of tuning? I don't think so.

When it comes to open tunings there seem to be a lot of creative options.

Chris: Many guitarist like to play open tunings. But, they don't use open tunings on stage simply because they don't have a roadie or guitar tech with 20 axes backstage. There's also the stress level on stage, especially when you're playing and controlling pedals. It requires all of your attention. Yeah, I agree. Powertune encourages your creativity as a player and allows you to deliver a good performance.

Did you ever consider to design and build your own guitar equipped with Powertune?

Chris: Yes and no. It would have been quite tempting to please my ego with my own guitar. But looking at it from the business aspect, you need get a return on your investment. And guitarists are traditionalists. They're more impressed with the famous and well-established models like a Les Paul. I knew from the beginning that I had to avoid all the flies in the soup, like altering the guitar significantly. Same with the weight. Many people think our tuners are heavier, but I can prove they're not. So, my first goal was to get the attention of the vintage guitar enthusiasts, simply because I could prove there were no physical changes to be made to what they knew. I didn't want to become someone exotic or for it to be a niche product, regardless if my own guitar model would have been as good as the well established models.

Yes, I can see that a flagship music company, like Gibson, can carry you well beyond what a boutique guitar could offer as a selling or marketing platform.

Chris: I can tell you by personal experience that ”Quality, Prestige, Innovation” is not just an advertising motto for Gibson. They mean it. We sent our own people to Nashville to get Gibson guitar makers trained on how to properly install Powertune to their guitars.These folks are proud of working with Gibson and Henry personally double checks every detail before a new instrument leaves the factory. A lot of times, I've seen him in his office checking guitars. So, it's not just the brand name. It's always the company's professionalism and infrastructure that build the success. All together it was the right decision to team up with Gibson. I'm very happy about it.

Alright, here's a delicate question: How do you keep the system from getting copied?

Chris: Not delicate at all. Right now we own a dozen patents worldwide and the whole technology is well protected. Beyond the legal level, I can tell you that most people told me during the 10 year development of Powertune, "It's not gonna work.” And everything that others predicted would not work, actually works perfectly on guitars!

It looks easy. But, the whole technology is pretty complex. It makes you realize that it took a lot of know-how to develop. Frequency detection, for instance. Ours is extremely fast, faster than the one used on a regular strobe tuner. Look at the small tuning heads. Although they weigh less than 50 grams each, every single one of them is capable of moving 50 kilograms. That's more than 1,000 times more than their own weight! These are the details that you need to know about and then make them at a cost so you can price them to sell in the market.

Are all components produced in Germany?

Chris: Yes. The system is assembled in Germany. The Powerheads, however, are Swiss and made at the precision rate of a watch maker. These parts have a tolerance of one micron. That equals one 1000th of a millimeter. You couldn't just make these by hand. You'd need a special high precision robot. Of course, everything can be copied. But considering every detail and the development we went through, it would probably wouldn't be profitable enough to copy this system. The current software alone contains 600 pages of binary code, consisting of ones and zeros. Yeah you can copy it, but you'd better bring enough time and money.

It's quite evident that you don't need to alter your favorite guitar to get it power tuned.

Chris: It was my goal from the beginning to make Powertune applicable to the existing instrument. If you'd own a nice early '60s SG, you would probably not drill routings in it for the feature of a self tuning guitar. If you look at this guitar's back [points at his own limited edition L.P. Robot] you realize it's the regular routing you have for the electronics compartment. Even the battery fits in there. It's good enough for 200 tunings. Then you need to charge it. You can do that with your guitar cord!

Where does the power for the heads come from?

Chris: Right through the strings! But, don't worry. The voltage is so low that you wouldn't be able to feel it. Even if you play with three broken strings, Powertune will still be working. One interesting side effect is that by using Powertune, your ears don't get lazy. Instead, they learn and after about two weeks you can tell immediately if your guitar is in tune or not!

On your website, I noticed photos of a couple of known guitarists. Who is using this technology already??

Chris: Sure! Uli Jon Roth and the British band Muse are among the first users. The Edge from U2 got one after he auctioned his Explorer for a charity event. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Steve Vai use Powertune. Joe Satriani's tech emailed me last week and I met Pete Townshend in Germany. He wants Powertune for his Strat, as do Lenny Kravitz, Dave Grohl [Foo Fighters], Metallica, and 311.

Do you consider yourself more an inventor or a musician?

Chris: I've been playing guitar for two decades now. I just wouldn't accept that tuning a guitar would consume so much time and take so much fun out of the actual playing. While developing Powertune, I discovered that tuning was fun again, especially when it came to open tunings. Besides my work for Powertune, I'm still a devoted guitarist and musician. As a guitarist, it was most important to create something highly professional and something I can stand behind and support.

Related Links
Gibson Guitars
Gibson Robot Guitar Press Release (November 2007)
Gibson's Robot Guitar Includes Advance In Power Tune System
Jorg Kliewe

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