CodeMonk Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I love the new color. I like that SG although I'm not to crazy about that pickguard color. Maybe black or even clear? http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/Gibson-Guitar-Les-Paul-Robot-LP-Studio-Ltd.-Robot-SG-Special.html What you all think? I read a review of the Robot guitar, I think in Guitar World. They said that the tuning functions were a tad flaky. But still, I love that color. An SG thats not black or red! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkEpTiKaL Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 It's a nice color and I agree with you on the PG. It looks like carbon fiber or something. But to stick that high of a price tag on a guitar that does a task that only takes less than a minute is kinda ridiculous to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenn1281733995 Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I like a nice SG /LP as much as the next guy but those 2 examples are horrendous (sp?). And what's up with that freakin' pickguard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Truly horrible colours, makes me think of Tinky Winky. They should have at least made the pickguard match the handbag, not the TV-screen on Tinky Winky's belly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I HATE the colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yosoybay Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Truly horrible colours' date=' makes me think of Tinky Winky. [img']http://www.observationdeck.org/lip/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/tinky-winky.jpg[/img] They should have at least made the pickguard match the handbag, not the TV-screen on Tinky Winkys belly... LOL you must have kids. I never would have thought of Tinky Winky in a million years. I did, however, think it resembled something I'd see at Toys R Us next to the Barbie aisle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funkwire Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I HATE the colors. + 1...do NOT like. Isn't that the color used on the LP Goddess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pohatu771 Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Are they actually calling it a Les Paul now? The first run didn't say Les Paul anywhere on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricochet Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 The color is not that bad. Alltho it takes some getting used to. It's the whole idea of a self-tuning guitar that puts me off. One of the coolest moves in Rock & Roll, and they try to take it away. :D They should have at least chosen the Hendrix V as a first model. That would have been cheeky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I can't think of many products I would avoid as much as I'd avoid the Robot guitars. As previously mentioned, they're effete... all that effort to do something any decent player should be able to accomplish himself in short order. Then there's the maintenance angle. We're seeing 50-year old Gibson guitars that are still in use; I have an SG that is now 30 years old myself. Realize that a guitar is supposed to have a long life and then imagine trying to find parts for those Robots in about 25 years... if the complex electronics even last anywhere near that long (I give them five years before they start acting up)... and what will the repair bill be like? At least a pot will always be a pot and a switch will always be a switch... but all the componentry inside a Robot is sure to be obsolete and impossible to repair in a relatively short time. How long until it becomes impossible to find those servo-driven tuners anywhere? How much you want to bet they break often and each cost more than an entire set of Schallers? And think of all that wiring in the neck... then pray that none of them ever break! I've seen too many guitars with complex on-board electronics that have been 'bypassed' due to the improbability of repair at a reasonable cost... so that the guitar is returned to a 'passive' state and the fancy electronics merely serves as ballast. It's interesting to see that Gibson has introduced two products at opposite ends of the complexity curve; on one hand you have the almost unfinished BFG (which seems to be selling well) and on the other you have the Robot which I forecast will end up in the same part of the museum as the Epiphone Professional and the fancy RD guitars of the seventies. It seems that the boys in Nashville have overlooked the most important rule of engineering: K.I.S,S. Ley's just pray they never decide to build a computerized guitar... that runs on Windows Vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonk Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 I agree there RotoCanX. I don't like the idea of the automatic tuning. And the review I read even said it was flaky. I used to work as an electronic technician and can tell you from personal experience, that most electronic devices have an operating life of about 5 years (more or less, depending on the complexity of it). Most are built this way on purpose. One of my professors in college called it "Planned Obsolescence". It breaks in 5 years so you have to buy the newest model, usually at double the cost. And when they do make a computerized guitar (Not IF but WHEN. I'm sure they will some day), Lets hope it doesn't run on Windows ME (the biggest POS OS I have ever seen, and I'm a computer tech/network tech/software engineer, etc). I must be one of the few that actually like the colors. The PG is butt *** ugly though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pohatu771 Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I like the colour. I like the LP Goddess, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Uh-oh... you know what that means. :) Seriously though, the colours are the only thing that doesn't turn me off about those guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Coulombe Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 If the mechanism works as it should then colour should not be an issue unless you are a collector. My concerns would be the servos, and accuracy, programmability for alternate tunings (?). They are going half price on Ebay. In that case, since they seem to have made a lot of them, you could always pick one up if they fill a need for a good price, sand it, and do what you want. As a collector's item could be good, perhaps not like The Lemon, but ya the colour's a bit funky. Perhaps they will change the next line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rented Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Rosie is all a man needs. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billybob Dylan Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 And think of all that wiring in the neck... then pray that none of them ever break! I don't disagree with pretty much everything you said' date=' but at least (I believe I'm right in saying) that there's no internal wiring inside the neck. The strings are used to transmit the signal from the electronics to the tuners. ... most electronic devices have an operating life of about 5 years (more or less, depending on the complexity of it). Most are built this way on purpose. One of my professors in college called it "Planned Obsolescence". It breaks in 5 years so you have to buy the newest model, usually at double the cost. This is absolute bollocks. I've worked in consumer electronics virtually all my working life, and if any company ever deliberately designed products with a "planned obsolescence" of 5 years, they'd be out of business in 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingfrets Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 This is absolute bollocks. I've worked in consumer electronics virtually all my working life' date=' and if any company ever deliberately designed products with a "planned obsolescence" of 5 years, they'd be out of business in 6.[/quote'] Not so. Buy a DVD player for $30. Wait till it craps out in...oh...say 2 years. Now, are you gonna pay a repairman $50 to look at it & tell you what's wrong and another $35 to $50 to fix, or will you go buy another DVD player (which probably won't exist now that Blu-Ray is being shoved down our throats...at 5 - 7X the cost of the DVD player)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Mo Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 ....Then there's the maintenance angle. We're seeing 50-year old Gibson guitars that are still in use; I have an SG that is now 30 years old myself. Realize that a guitar is supposed to have a long life and then imagine trying to find parts for those Robots in about 25 years... if the complex electronics even last anywhere near that long (I give them five years before they start acting up)... and what will the repair bill be like? At least a pot will always be a pot and a switch will always be a switch... . You raise a very valid point. It's interesting, because it kind of reminds me how the automobile industry has changed from being metal, switches, wires and knobs to plastic, computers, electronics and buttons... People used to say they don't need no stinkin' automatic transmission, after all any reasonable driver can shift themselves. Regardless, automatics have pretty much taken over (in the US anyway...). Even though an automatic is more complicated, a pain in the @$$ to replace (I did one on an S-10 and it sucked), and more expensive - people still opt for them because they're easier. That being said, atm to me it feels like the robot guitar is too much of a gimmick. Personally I thing the magic knob is a little lame. It would have been much easier if they gave it a reasonable panel on the side or something (like an acoustic electric panel). I guess they were too afraid to deviate from the traditional LP look to change the appearance of the controls? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonk Posted April 9, 2008 Author Share Posted April 9, 2008 This is absolute bollocks. I've worked in consumer electronics virtually all my working life' date=' and if any company ever deliberately designed products with a "planned obsolescence" of 5 years, they'd be out of business in 6.[/quote'] I've been working with electronics (as an assembler, technician, some design), on my own and for various companies since 1981. And 5 years is meant as a general time frame, Not a set in stone value. And its not necessarily a deliberate design. They usually buy cheap components that don't last long. They could buy better components, but they place a lot of value on the bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Mo Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Regarding the "electronics only last 5 years" topic... that's also a different story for guitars. Electronics are not expected or even desired to last more than 5-10 years for most people because it will just be obsolete. It's a different story for guitars because they are -not- being rapidly developed. With the exception of neck profiles, the Les Paul is basically the same guitar since the 50s. Even with the robot feature I'd still call it the same thing (looks the same, plays the same, one new knob.. big deal)... My point is no one buys a guitar thinking it will become obsolete, so the expectation is it will last a long time. My only hope is that Gibson knew what it was doing and used a quality design. I don't worry much about the electronics themselves, they're probably no more complicated than a clock radio so that it should last. Moving parts are usually the issue, so I'd be most worried about the control knob and the tuning mechanism. Those will probably be very expensive to replace, but I'm not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 "I haven't even had this thing a week and the Master Contol Knob came right off in my hand. You would think thats no big deal, just put it back on and tighten the set screw. WRONG. There is a ribbon cable attached to the knob and when the knob comes off it breaks the ribbon cable. That pretty much eliminates any type of self repair or local repair, there's no other option, this thing has to go back to Gibson." (post at the LPF) Living on the wrong continent for just sending stuff back to Gibson I personally wouldn't want to take the chance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 I don't disagree with pretty much everything you said' date=' but at least (I believe I'm right in saying) that there's no internal wiring inside the neck. The strings are used to transmit the signal from the electronics to the tuners.[/quote']Dunno how that would work unless the tailpiece and bridge are isolated so that the strings don't short out to each other. Besides any control signals (one per tuner) you need plus and minus DC to power the things... so I'm pretty sure you need wires in the neck; there's probably some kind of ribbon cable under the fingerboard. This is absolute bollocks. I've worked in consumer electronics virtually all my working life' date=' and if any company ever deliberately designed products with a "planned obsolescence" of 5 years, they'd be out of business in 6.[/quote']Actually it's not. I know for certain that computer hardware is designed for a five-year life. That's not to say it'll blow up after 1,825 days but none of the components are spec'ed to have an MTBF over five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 I don't worry much about the electronics themselves' date=' they're probably no more complicated than a clock radio so that it should last. Moving parts are usually the issue, so I'd be most worried about the control knob and the tuning mechanism. Those will probably be very expensive to replace, but I'm not sure. [/quote'] Yes and no; while it's true that solid state electronic s are very reliable, nothing is perfect and chip manufacturers are constantly coming up with new parts... and the old stuff becomes obsolete just about the time you need one to replace the original on your controller board that just went up in smoke. Figure the mechanical stuff to be a problem in the short run and the electronics to drive you nuts, as Eric Clapton would say, a little 'further on up the road'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billybob Dylan Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Not so. Buy a DVD player for $30. Wait till it craps out in...oh...say 2 years. Now' date=' are you gonna pay a repairman $50 to look at it & tell you what's wrong and another $35 to $50 to fix, or will you go buy another DVD player (which probably won't exist now that Blu-Ray is being shoved down our throats...at 5 - 7X the cost of the DVD player)? [/quote'] That's not "planned obsolescence." That's buying a cheap piece of crap DVD player that goes wrong after 2 years. And no-one in their right mind would even consider trying to repair a $30 DVD player. "Planned obsolescence" involves making a conscious decision to discontinue a product, spare part or an entire technology at some point in the future therefore forcing your customers to abandon their product or technology and buy something new. A big problem is that many products which are criticized as being the victims of "planned obsolescence" are nothing of the sort. They competed in the marketplace and simply lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billybob Dylan Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Dunno how that would work unless the tailpiece and bridge are isolated so that the strings don't short out to each other. Besides any control signals (one per tuner) you need plus and minus DC to power the things... so I'm pretty sure you need wires in the neck; there's probably some kind of ribbon cable under the fingerboard. You may well be right. The bit I read on Gibson's website says "the Powerhead tuners rely on the strings themselves to send the signals." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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