LONDON (AFP) — The world's first self-tuning guitar was unveiled to the public in London Monday -- an instrument that automatically detects when a string has fallen out of pitch and corrects it.

The Gibson Robot Guitar was unveiled to the public in the British capital by Mike Peters, lead singer and guitarist from The Alarm, the biggest band to come out of Wales in the 1980s and famous for rock anthem "Sixty-Eight Guns".

Guitar-maker Gibson, based in Nashville, Tennessee, promise that the instrument, whose technology has been 10 years in the making, will "change the guitar world forever" when it goes on sale around the world on Friday.

It will retail in Britain for 1,400 pounds (1,970 euros, 2,900 dollars). Ten first run limited editions in the Blue Silverburst Les Paul model will be available in each Gibson store worldwide.

The regular model hits the shops in the new year.

In an interview on the firm's website, inventor Chris Adams, who hit on the idea after becoming frustrated by constant manual tuning, described it as the "Mercedes of guitars".

He said the self-tuning device was already being used by guitarists such as Billy Corgan, from the Smashing Pumpkins, and Matt Bellamy, from Muse, while The Who strummer Pete Townshend was intrigued.

Fans of Gibson guitars include Slash from Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Clapton, Paul Weller and Paul McCartney.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What a crazy idea. I still a little unsure about it, but I haven't tried it either. Does anyone know if this is exclusive to Gibson or can any other guitar maker come out ewith this. If it works put it in an Explorer and I'll be all set.

I have seen the video of it at a guitar shop in my hometown and it is very sweet and looks to work quite well. Should be cool to check out.

Cool. I haven't seen the video yet but it looks cool, expensive but cool.