I've seen a lot of people here and elsewhere saying how much they hate the Tronical Tune / Gibson Min-eTune system. I'm going to come right out and say I love it. Yes you have to learn a few obscure sequences of button presses, and re-stringing a guitar takes longer, but ultimately it just seems like a logical progression from using a digital tuner. Plus the machine heads are geared incredibly low, so manual fine tuning is more accurate. The only thing I really dislike about it (as someone who mainly plays acoustic) is that it doesn't work with capos.
What am I missing that's so terrible about it? I've not tried the Gibson version, is it less good than the Tronical one?
I'm quite tempted to pick up one of the Gibson models that has it fitted, if they're still going cheap.
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I wanted to like the e-tune system and it's a clever piece of engineering. I changed because:
1) If I wanted to correct the tuning of a single string on the fly it was too slow and far quicker for me to do it by ear.
2) Following on from point 1, the fact that the tuners had to be manually rotated in the opposite direction on one side was very confusing on the spur of the moment.
3) I found changing strings too fiddly.
4) I wasn't keen on the string locking method which I found awkward.
5) I can see that it might be useful if you use a lot of altered tunings, but I only use a drop D on rare occasions.
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And the options to go back to normal tuners doesn't go away - its not like you would be out of options and have to throw the guitar away
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I've only tried the original Gibson/Tronical "Robot" tuners from 2008 - with a lot of electronic gubbins in and on the guitar body as well as on the headstock - and although it works reasonably well I just can't see the point of it. It doesn't make tuning the guitar any quicker or easier. The proverbial sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
And as for SGs being neck heavy - this takes it to a whole new level.
I can just about see the point of this if you're changing tunings a lot, but given the reports of failures (I've seen one personally too - one string kept detuning) I wouldn't trust it on a gigging guitar without a backup, and if you're going to do that you may as well take two guitars in different tunings… OK, if you're using more than two tunings it perhaps still makes sense.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It strikes me the president of Gibson is desperate to be seen as some sort of Steve Jobs figure. To the detriment of his company.
If Gibson want to be a modern company. Offer me a Les Paul with 6100 fretwire as a standard option.
As I use and like the GForce system I've commented on here a few times defending them, I can't be bothered anymore, if you don't like them, remove them, they're not glued or screwed to the body, it's simple! You might be able to sell them on here or ebay for the cost of reasonable replacement standard tuners.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein