Homepage Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar Guitar maintenance electric multi-tool?! anyone interested?

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #35612
    DarrenEngland
    Participant

    Hi guys

    I am currently studying for a degree in product design at Bournemouth university, and my final year project is to design a guitar multi-maintenance tool.

    The product will be electrically powered with a rotating end to perform certain tasks as rapid machine head unwinding/re-winding, screw driver ends, cleaning pads etc.

    Is there a possibility you could fill out my short qustionnaire? it would be greatly appreciated and would help me a lot. cheers guys.

    all the best

    Darren England

    Age?
    16-20
    20-25
    25-30
    30+

    Gender?
    Male
    Female

    Favoured brand (generally)?
    Fender
    Gibson
    Ibanez
    Peavey
    PRS
    Boss
    Behringer
    Dean
    B.C Rich
    Tanglewood
    Yamaha
    Godin
    Other

    How regular do u change guitar strings (at work and personal) – averagely?

    Everyday
    Twice a week
    Once a week
    Once every 2 weeks
    Once a month
    Less than once a month

    Would you be interested in using a hand operated automated electronic rapid guitar maintenance multi-tool?

    Yes?
    No?

    If answered yes to the previous question how much would you be willing/expect to purchase the product for?

    £20-25
    £26-30
    £30-40
    £40+

Viewing 22 reply threads
  • Author
    Replies
    • #73414
      Tim
      Participant

      More useless than an armed robot with a personality disorder and a troubled ‘past’, that’s harsh!

    • #73391
      Michael
      Participant

      I cannot help thinking Robo Cop, only more useless, everytime you mention Robo Tuner.

    • #73429
      Tim
      Participant

      Thats why I didn’t mention stringing a guitar in my post. I was thinking heads that can get into the nooks and crannies of the bridge, under strings, fretboard right up to the fret etc.

    • #73415
      lee_UK
      Participant

      [quote=”Tim”]I sent the guy a PM a while back but focused on the Maintainance, cleaning and stuff but then you end up with custom heads for a Dremel .[/quote]

      Dremel may be a bit harsh, the lowest setting is 5000 rpm !
      at that rate it would wind a string on in 3 nanoseconds.
      But then you could always change the attachment for one of those polishing wheels which means you could give your guitar a fret dress during the gig interval.

      Hands up all those who even looked at the video demo of the Robotic Tuner??

    • #73398
      1bassleft
      Participant

      For Darren, it looks a bit like the product idea might have no problem to solve. Like some of the other posts here, I have a swap-head screwdriver and a set of allen keys and they tend to get used at home rather than at gigs. I don’t see myself buying a rapid de-stringer multitool because, as a bass player, I restring as infrequently as I can get away with.

      Sorry if some responses seem very negative, but that’s the point of a questionnaire 🙂

    • #73400
      Michael
      Participant

      But is it robotic.

    • #73420
      lee_UK
      Participant

      I jumped in a bit late there…. case of not reading the replies til you hit the Submit button 😆

    • #73428
      lee_UK
      Participant

      [quote=”1bassleft”]I can think of a defence for the robotic tuner. I remember (I think I posted about it here) a three-band gig and the 1st band’s bassist snapped his “A”. He quickly opened my case and saw it was a lefty bass. So he opened the 3rd player’s case. I knew the player so I couldn’t wait to see the poor guy’s face… The 3rd band’s man played a fretless 😆

      Anyhoo, the point. The guy struggled with one of the other basses (can’t remember which) for a song and I grabbed his bass and one of my spares (he didn’t carry strings, the dolt). It is actually quite tricky to tune up an unplugged instrument while a band is gigging. I can get away, just, by placing my cheek on the upper horn and feeling the vibes. The robotic has a built-in tuner so, I’m assuming, it tweeks the machinehead back and forth until it gets the green light.

      It’s about the only circumstance I can think of, but for a road tech it may be a very useful tool.[/quote]

      plug in a guitar tuner and it does exactly the same thing, whats the difference? you still have to plug your guitar lead in to the the robotuner.

    • #73409
      1bassleft
      Participant

      😳 , there was no tuner available at the time but, yep, that would’ve solved the problem.

    • #73440
      Tim
      Participant

      I sent the guy a PM a while back but focused on the Maintainance, cleaning and stuff but then you end up with custom heads for a Dremel basically, hadn’t thought of tuning so much, don’t really see much argument to mechanise it, in 1bl’s example surely plugging into a tuner would work? Or am I being dense?! Iknow on y tuner the jack over-rides the mic.

    • #73434
      1bassleft
      Participant

      I can think of a defence for the robotic tuner. I remember (I think I posted about it here) a three-band gig and the 1st band’s bassist snapped his “A”. He quickly opened my case and saw it was a lefty bass. So he opened the 3rd player’s case. I knew the player so I couldn’t wait to see the poor guy’s face… The 3rd band’s man played a fretless 😆

      Anyhoo, the point. The guy struggled with one of the other basses (can’t remember which) for a song and I grabbed his bass and one of my spares (he didn’t carry strings, the dolt). It is actually quite tricky to tune up an unplugged instrument while a band is gigging. I can get away, just, by placing my cheek on the upper horn and feeling the vibes. The robotic has a built-in tuner so, I’m assuming, it tweeks the machinehead back and forth until it gets the green light.

      It’s about the only circumstance I can think of, but for a road tech it may be a very useful tool.

    • #73399
      lee_UK
      Participant

      I was going to do the Peter Crouch gag but thought it was too dire. 😆

      Those old manual string winders work great, why would you want a robotic one?
      I just use the old manual wind on method (fingers), i have a multi-tool in the case but rarely use it, it’s there in case of emergency, i got it free with 2 sets of Elixr strings, it has a winder, a light, cross head, 2 hex’s, cutters and pliers, think i paid £15 for the whole deal, to be honest i was only interested in the strings but the tool came along with it.

      I break strings quite a lot when gigging, and i have a spare guitar to get me out of trouble, if it breaks in the first set i put a new string on in the intveral, if it breaks in the 2nd set i just play the spare to the end.

      That robotic tuner often shown on here as an advert looks complete rubbish, who would spend hard earned cash on a gimmick like that?

      If you want to go down the electric route, then how about designing a tuner attachment that can fit in a standard electric screwdriver chuck? then you could also fit it into a specially designed string winder (manual), so it pulls out of the manual winder and slots into a screwdriver chuck, you can buy those screwdrivers for around £10 in the DIY stores and they are variable speed, plenty of torque to shift a guitar tuner.
      (I still wouldn’t buy one)

      For the record, i change my strings about every 4 gigs (8 weeks), the guitars i use at home i change about every 6 months, depending on how often i use them.

    • #73438
      1bassleft
      Participant

      and see this:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSoVKUVOnfQ

      for a robotic turning action (sorry, can’t resist terrible puns). I might’ve picked Peter Crouch, but for Ian Wright’s “I’ll get my coat” comment at the end:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38T0BF2WAHk

    • #73437
      Michael
      Participant

      Darren,

      Take a look at ActionTuners.com for a robotic tuning action.

    • #73436
      1bassleft
      Participant

      You’re very welcome, Darren. Good luck with your design project and keep us posted here; we’d be interested to see how it develops. As you’ve reckoned; bass tuners could be a real problem for tooling. Most guitar machines are in a similar width, thankfully.

    • #73401
      DarrenEngland
      Participant

      hey guys

      yeh your right B1, thats pretty much everything i want to include in the tool, as a guitarist myself, these are the maintenance problems i wana solve with an easy to use product and im planning on it having several adaptor ends to perform these specific jobs.

      im definately guna look into the possibilty for the tool to be used with basses, but at the moment i agree with your point.

      cheers for your advice guys its greatly appreciated.

    • #73407
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Funny you should say that, Mike. A bunch of crash-helmeted, McLaren string removers in the pits at Denmark Street did cross my mind. It’s the tricky part of designing a multi-tool that doesn’t end up only doing one job…

    • #73403
      Michael
      Participant

      Quality advice from 1b.

      I need reassurance this thing isn’t like the nut removers used by a pit stop crew. Am I getting a head of myself?

    • #73433
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Lee, you are being facetious 😛 ; the questionnaire is an important part of a design project.

      Darren, have a thunk about what you want your multi-tool to do. On a guitar, there are fine (rotation) tunings required such as bridge saddle height, truss rod, pickup height and tuning machines. Then there are rapid requirements like getting the neck screws, pickguard screws out or unwinding the tuners for string replacement. Different jobs (and the latter would appeal mostly to road techs and store techs).

      I suggest you ditch Behringer and Boss from your Q, as they are primarily involved in amps and effects, not guitars. If you want your tool to handle rapid detuning, then have a close look at the major players in machine heads; Schaller, Grover, Gotoh, Kluson etc. Consider whether to specialize in a guitar tool or whether bass machines (and their widely varying dimensions) are worth the effort.

      Good luck with your project; keep us updated.

    • #73404
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Who the hell works in a guitar shop?

    • #73408
      Tim
      Participant

      A guy (or person, sorry 😳 ) in a guitar shop, it does say at work and personal.

    • #73411
      DarrenEngland
      Participant

      Thats the point in a questionnaire, to find out what people do/dont do, and in this case i may find no one changes strings everyday

    • #73393
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Who the hell would change strings everyday??

Viewing 22 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.