A new robot tuner arises: The Roadie 3

A Kickstarter for a new tuner that automatically adjusts your tuning pins for you has been launched. The Roadie 3 follows on from Roadie Music’s Roadie and Roadie 2.

While the words ‘robot tuner’ may make some guitar fans taste blood and reach for the closest bludgeoning implement, the Roadie 3 does come with the advantage of not being attached to your instrument in any obstructive way. Instead, the standalone motorised unit is held against a tuning peg as you pluck the corresponding string.

The latest generation of Roadie Music’s tuner comes with a slew of updates on the last, with a design that’s more “pocket-friendly”, the ability to act as a vibrating metronome, a dynamic frequency displayed on a full-colour LCD, and a larger memory bank for custom tunings. The unit also boasts more accuracy and better immunity to outside noise interference, detecting the vibration of your actual guitar rather than ambient sounds. And finally, perhaps most importantly, the motor spins the tuner head twice as fast over the Roadie 2, now clocking in at 120 RPM.

In a statement on the product’s website, Roadie Music also explained the reasoning behind crowdfunding the unit: “The most important benefit we get from being on Kickstarter is the feedback that we receive from this community of curious, passionate and progressive musicians. When we share our designs, features, and progress with the Kickstarter backers, we get perspective far greater than the sum of our own. This is the best way we have found to create something that will be impactful for a great many musicians.”

That “best way” seems to be exactly that – with the product more than doubling its funding goal in less than an hour, across a 36-day campaign.

View or preorder the product over at kickstarter.com. Backers are able to preorder the units for $89 , saving $40. For more gear news, click here.