Miniature gears help get guitars in tune
A
Maxon Motor UK product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Dec 22, 2006
A revolutionary new guitar tuner from Somerset-based ATD made its debut at the Frankfurt Music Show, featuring miniature gears from Maxon Motor.
A revolutionary new guitar tuner from Somerset-based ATD made its debut at the Frankfurt Music Show, and will be marketed through Southport-based Wilkinson ATD.
The idea for the completely automatic tuner - which removes the hassle of manually tuning a guitar - has been developed by a team including ATD Director Trevor Wilkinson, Head of Design Engineering Andy Leadbetter and Managing Director Richard Whittall.
The project, on which they have been working for some years, has recently come to fruition with the help of some crucial components sourced from leading high-precision drive and system supplier Maxon Motor.
The device automatically tunes an electric guitar to a faultless pitch.
The guitar strings need to be put under a certain amount of tension to begin with (to "plus or minus 50 cents", for the musicians among you).
Then, at the flick of a switch, the S 440 tuner kicks in, and at the first strum all the strings are tuned to a perfect E.
An LED display confirms the accuracy of the tuning.
Not surprisingly, in order to be commercially successful the tuner has to be so small as to be almost unnoticeable to the guitarist (except when it is needed of course).
On a standard Stratocaster, for example, the new system fits neatly into the space left by the original bridge - even down to using the original screw holes.
As part of the design process, it was important for the designers to incorporate the tiniest, yet most reliable, gearing into the system.
For this they turned to Maxon Motor.
"We supplied a block of six gearheads, to which the motors in the device are fitted", says Keith Ellenden, CEO of Maxon Motor UK.
"The gearheads are made using the very latest metal injection moulding (MIM) technology, which allows a high level of sophistication at a miniature scale".
"We are delighted to be working with ATD - a very innovative company which believes, as we do, that small is beautiful".
"The gearing provided by Maxon is absolutely perfect for us", says ATD's Andy Leadbetter.
"What's more, Maxon's sales engineers have been fabulously helpful".
"Several leading guitar companies are very interested and we are now demonstrating the device to them".
"We hope to produce about 40,000 units per year and we can badge them with any company's logo".
Richard Whittall adds: "We are extremely grateful to Maxon for its essential contribution to completing the project".
"We have been developing it for ten years, and had created a prototype by 1998, but converting that into a marketable product - meeting the essential size, price and quality requirements - has only been possible thanks to Maxon's expertise in the application of miniaturised gearing components".
Beginners and experts alike will benefit from the new technology, for which learning software is being developed.
An even more sophisticated version of the tuner is in the pipeline and ATD is also looking to apply the same principle to other instruments.
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Contact Maxon Motor UK
Tel +44 118 973 3337
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