Some people have a knack for tuning a guitar by ear. Others invest in tuners of all shapes and sizes -- tuners that plug in, tuners that stick onto the body, tuners that attach to headstocks -- to hit the perfect note. How about a handheld, smartphone-connected tuner that takes care of the actual turning of the pegs for you? It's coming.
The Roadie Tuner on Kickstarter has blown past its $60,000 funding goal with over a month to go. The gadget hooks up with an Android or iOS smartphone tuning app via Bluetooth. You physically move the device from tuning peg to tuning peg, and it turns the peg until that string is in tune. The app handles all the audio processing, listening to your guitar via your smartphone mic and telling the Roadie how much to turn each peg. You can also plug electric guitars directly into your smartphone using an adapter.
Band Industries, the creator of the Roadie, claims the device and app combo is three times more accurate than the human ear. The tuner can also be set for alternate tunings. It can take under a minute to go from standard to a tuning like open D.
The Roadie doesn't just tune your guitar, it also listens to the sound quality. It'll let you know its time to get off your lazy butt and change your strings when they get old and start to deteriorate. Band Industries is aiming to deliver its first batch of Roadie Tuners in June 2014.
Rock stars can just hand their guitars off to a human roadie to get all that pesky tuning taken care of. If you buy a Roadie Tuner, you can at least pause in between songs to fix your tuning and tell the audience, "I'm going to let my Roadie take care of this."
