14 DAY TRIAL // Once more, on another field, another facet of the rather fierce battle between technology and tradition is being fought. A raging battle between two sides whose defenders won't make any compromise and are not at all willing to let go. The rest of the people, both mere users of technology and practitioners of the tradition, are caught between the hammer and the anvil as a very hard question is being asked: up to which point is technology allowed to penetrate tradition? Or, from another (actually reversed) point of view: how much tradition must we keep so we can effectively practice the present (and even upcoming) technology?
Indeed, I guess there is no one who could give a direct answer to these questions as the blending between the two aspects is so delicate and so hard to manage that almost any attempt to favor either tech or traditional aspects would doubtlessly be regarded as being wrong. When it comes to technology, everybody uses larger or smaller parts of it in everyday life, whether we see this or not; on the other hand, when it comes to the "traditional" ways in which some things are done, we'd rather not change anything, because "that's the way things go" or because we have grown to be very attached to them. And when these two clash or one of them steps on a "territory" historically belonging to the other, weird questions raise... and it's up to us to find a way to compromise and mediate between them.
It's the case of the anticipated and even awaited automated guitar tuning system from Tronical: it all started with an engineering idea and these days it has ended in a rather expensive piece of equipment placed on real guitars and selling throughout the whole wide worlds already, generating both smiles and relief - for some - and frowning and rants - from others. PowerTune has been released a few days ago, yet it has already generated serious conflicts in the guitar communities: some say that PowerTune represents sheer blasphemy for the serious guitar player while others argue that this is part of the future of music and welcome it with wide open arms. Myself, I have been playing guitar for 14 years now and I have tried to ask the same question; believe me or not, from an objective point of view it was hard even for me to utter a decisive "yes" or "no". On one hand, I imagine how easy it would be for me to quickly tune all my guitars just before the gigs... while on the other hand, I think again and realize that there is no perfect guitar so a machine could tune it up perfectly for a player.
I just remember my old customized Ibanez guitar, spec'd and worked out especially for a death metal rhythm guitarist (that was me): should I have tuned it string by string up to the perfect pitch, I'd have to face slight de-tunings in some positions and when playing different riffs. Well, it all reduced to simply HEARING what some note combinations sounded, so the electronic tuner was just a starting point so I could get the proper 440Hz of the natural A. The rest was done by hands and ears. I also think of pro bands whose guitarists and bass-players specialized people traveling have with them just to perfectly tune their instruments - I really can't believe that these exceptional tech-people could be replaced by the Tronical PowerTune System...
Speaking of which reminds me of the proper star of this editorial, the system itself. The principle is quite simple and I guess many of you who have ever played a stringed instrument have already kind of figured it out: the tuners on the guitars are moved by small electrical motors while the pitch of the string being currently tuned is detected by a piezo pickup, analyzed and compared with the reference-frequency of the given tuning previously stored. Everything runs on rechargeable batteries which are easy to re-fill with current as this is to be done once several weeks and the operation is carried out with a standard guitar cable. The piezo pickups can be mounted on any guitar as long as the bridge is either a standard tremolo (integrated in the bridge) or a tune-o-matic/stoptail one (looking like an additional small pickup, rather like the MIDI Roland GK2). The special tuners are provided by Tronical as they are more than usual tuners and they require a bit of specialized craftsmanship.
Operating this whole new system is a really easy job as there aren't any new potentiometers to be installed on the guitar: simply the volume pot is being replaced with the custom Tronical one, a push-pull one. In the Push position it works like a normal volume knob, regulating the output volume of the pickups; while turning the volume down to 0 and in the Pull position it enters the tuning mode, allowing you to individually access the setting for each string and even select through the different tunings you might have decided to use in your performance. Picking each string will make the corresponding LED on the piezo pickup lit intermittently until it's tuned OK and it remains lit; pick the next string and so on. You'll get a good tune whatsoever...still I haven't tried it to see how it works with my heavy-gauge strings on a baritone guitar but things might just be very cool. All is done in a matter of seconds and this means one could even use this system when onstage, between the songs; everything is very discrete and fast - exactly what's needed in such situations. You can understand better how does PowerTune work like by watching the movie on the Tronical website at the Products page.
What remains to be seen and/or discussed in this issue is not the reliability, because I really doubt that Tronical has done a lousy job in what reliability means in their product - one couldn't simply come out with a $700 device with poor reliability, especially as this automated tuning system has been in project and coveted for many years, sufficient enough for all-round testing and thorough modeling. The matter in discussion here is the price vs. what it does: already there are voices claiming that 700 USD is a huge price to add in a guitar which is already expensive, and here I am thinking about a guitar around $1000, not the "custom shop" $3000-4000. People said that for 700 one can buy a very decent guitar and I have to completely agree: seven hundred dollars would get anyone a good axe and spending another 700 on the PowerTune isn't for anyone. I guess everybody would rather buy a $1400 guitar than a 700 one plus the 700 PoweTune...
Having passed the money issue, another rant came from the "old guys": what the heck could a device like PowerTune bring good in a young guitarist's life and work? Having a guitar which tunes itself will end up with the guitarist not knowing too many things about tuning at all! Since the guitar is an instrument made especially for hands and ears, replacing them both with an impersonal machine to make the basic steps with which any guitarist should begin a "career" is almost equivalent to signing a suicide note, says a 54 years old guitar player. Still, after "dissecting" this matter with bandmates and friends in the music business, we haven't managed to pull out a definitive answer... PowerTune and all it stands for is indeed a very cool device and a truly awesome gimmick... yet it may cause a loss in the overall quality of beginning guitar players' quality. Time will tell... as so far, the price is rather prohibitive. On fact, today I will gig with one of the bands I'm in and still I am not decided whether to choose between the huge convenience of using PowerTune or the fun of doing my tuning myself...
Photo credits Tronical.
