Tronical

  • I played a Les Paul with this tuning system on in my local music shop around 8 months ago and it worked really well. You had to strum the guitar around 3-4 times for it to put it in perfect tune but way quicker than doing it yourself. I was asking the store manager about putting one on my PRS but they said it was only the Gibson style one that was available then, but they knew that a fender one was being worked on I think its a great bit of kit and great for bands that do lots of different tunings :thumbup:

  • This is basically the same thing that was in the Gibson "Robot" guitars, only it's been refined a little more since then. From everything I've heard it sounds like a very cool little gadget, I've not encountered one in real life yet though, and I gotta say the price and the odd requirements for threading (and engineering/materials used on the pegs, which seem designed to fail) are holding me back from ordering one online to try out.

  • i got it a week ago for my strat, and it works just fine. the price is quite high, but considering that you will get 6 motorized tuners with a high class measuring system, it's is quite fair.
    the installation is as easy as 1-2-3, the new way of threading is learned within 2-3 string changing sessions.


    what i don't like is that the tuners are quite high/long and not staggered... i guess that is due to making compromises to put it on various guitar models.


    i got the standard fender floating bridge and you need 2 tuning procedures to e.g. tunes down to D-G-C-F-A-D... (like 15s total) but consider, how long it would take to do it manually.

  • I own a 2010 Gibson Robot and recently bought a 91 Les Paul lite that I updated to include the latest version of Tronical tuners. The old Robot works fairly well but can be temperamental at times, it doesn't like to do drop C tuning very much and will go from doing it great for a few weeks to giving constant errors until you relearn the tuning. It also gets to be a pain in the butt when the battery is getting low. The latest version of the tuners tune much faster, the main difference I see is that the tuners automatically wind a predetermined number of times when changing from standard to half step down etc. and then start the fine tuning. One word of caution for anyone that orders the new version, do not over tighten the string locks, I stripped one last Thursday, I have a replacement that should arrive tomorrow, $33 or so for the tuner but around a hundred or so after shipping and duty to Canada.

  • Even I know the inventor of Tronical/Robot Guitar (Chris Adams from Hamburg) personally, I never tried his stuff. I like to play vintage guitars and noone would kill his old jewels for that.....


    I just know one guitar-player who uses Tronical machine-heads on a Les Paul Studio and everytime I meet him on a local jam-session, his guitar seems to be out of tune all the time. I have to say that the other guitar-players are real professionals, most of them experienced session players, but maybe it's the guy himself.


    Did somebody control the tuning with a high quality tuner like a Peterson? Is Tronical working that precisely?

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • Tried it twice at the MusikMesse and it tuned accurately and reasonably fast.
    If I used a lot of different open tunings I'd definitely consider this system.
    As for the guy Guenter mentioned who is using it and being out of tune nonetheless: maybe his calibration is/was wrong or it's his intonation per se, who knows?

  • Tried it twice at the MusikMesse and it tuned accurately and reasonably fast.
    If I used a lot of different open tunings I'd definitely consider this system.
    As for the guy Guenter mentioned who is using it and being out of tune nonetheless: maybe his calibration is/was wrong or it's his intonation per se, who knows?

    That sounds great, maybe I'll give it a try.


    I met Chris Adams long ago when he was planning to release his robot-machine heads. At this time he was constantly working on it, it's great that he found Gibson to support him and he went to be successful.


    A lot of interesting stuff coming from Germany ;)

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • Even I know the inventor of Tronical/Robot Guitar (Chris Adams from Hamburg) personally,


    Then please :) , urge him to update his product, it's not finnished.



    Did somebody control the tuning with a high quality tuner like a Peterson? Is Tronical working that precisely?


    Not exactly... Here is a message I sent them one year ago:

    I have just bought a Tronical tune Type A (from Thomann) and installed it on my Gibson SG Standard, with Elixir strings 10-52.
    I have trouble with the A & E low strings to have them tuned correctly.


    It's often that they are 20 and even 30 % out of tune (below or above the correct pitch, there are no rules), even when I tune them string by string.
    It's more likely to happen in multi string mode though.
    It seems more likely to happen with low tunings such as Drop D and Drop C (custom).
    And it's more likely to happen with the low E string.


    One example: I save a custom Drop C tuning. If immediately after that I tune in single string mode, the low E string is rotating and put me out of tune. Of course it shouldn't...


    Note that I did the calibration and for information, when i checked the gain after that, it was set to high signal (all leds on).


    What can I do to help ?


    The most painful thing is that when the robot consider he's done with a string, its light turns green, and that's over with that string. Even if you see with your own tuner that it 's out of pitch and strum it again.
    So you have to turn off the device, turn on and retry, hoping it will tune it correctly this time.


    Other than that I must admit it's very useful to switch from a tuning to another in no time.

  • I'm using the Tronical Tune Type C1 on my Ibanez Iron Label (SIR70fd), and for me it's working quite well. I started using it when my band started to use different tunings (standard, flat, drop-d, drop-c#, and full step down). I'm always using the mode which tunes all strings in parallel (start the tuning and strum all 6 strings). As the 1st and 2nd strings (e and b) have a much lower volume, I usually need to mute the strings 4-6 (D, A, E) after they are in tune - usually after 2-3 seconds and strum just the 1st and 2nd string again.


    All my tunings (even if they are built in) are custom tunings. I.e. I tuned my guitar with my KPA and stored the tuning as custom tuning. I don't know whether the result would be worse, if I would use the built-in tunings like standard, flat, drop-d etc.


    The strings I'm using are Ernie Ball 2215 (010 - 013 - 017 - 030 - 042 - 052)


  • Is it possible that your guitar suffers from an unstable tuning by itself?
    For example, if the strings are improperly wrapped around the mechanic, they tend to go out of tune as long as you move them.


    Also, if the capo grooves don't allow for a smooth string flowing, strings can grip and the perceived tension can be misleading for the tumer.


    Last, IIRC you can alway tune the strings by hand. Does the LED remain green even when you detune the string by hand?

  • Is it possible that your guitar suffers from an unstable tuning by itself?
    For example, if the strings are improperly wrapped around the mechanic, they tend to go out of tune as long as you move them.


    Also, if the capo grooves don't allow for a smooth string flowing, strings can grip and the perceived tension can be misleading for the tumer.


    Last, IIRC you can alway tune the strings by hand. Does the LED remain green even when you detune the string by hand?


    The tronical is not designed to keep a guitar in tune, although with its locking tuners it is doing quite a good job at it.
    I was refering to the initial tuning step.

  • If it's not finished I won't buy it.... very different opinions here, maybe I'll visit his company and try it out there. We've been in contact many years ago and I haven't seen Chris Adams for quite a while. But I met him recently backstage at a Scorpions-concert (even that can happen...). The guitar has to be in tune a 100%, otherwise it's nothing but a nice gimmick.

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • I think he means : the tronical doesn't improve tuning stability.


    Thanks Per :)
    If the capo's grooves worked bad, or there were too many wraps around the mechanics, this would not be tronical's flaw but might well affect their efficiency tho :|