For those who can’t be bothered with tuning their guitars, Automatic Tuning
Developments of Somerset has developed a a guitar with a built-in motorised
tuner (WO 99/46757). An electromechanical system buried in the soundboard mimics
the process of manually tuning each string several times to correct for the
stresses that affect one string while another is being tensioned. Guitarists
strum randomly and a geared motor adjusts each tensioner. Light-emitting diodes
indicate which strings are out of tune. When all of a row of six have gone out,
even the most tone-deaf musician is safe to go on stage.
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