By David Ponce
This is not a new product by any means, but I got to hear a demonstration of the Evertune guitar bridge at The Startup Debut and was really impressed. It’s a specially designed guitar bridge that keeps it in tune at all times. The way it works is as follows. The frequency of a string is determined by three factors: its length, weight and tension. Two of these, length and weight, are pretty constant. But changes in tension will cause changes in pitch. So the bridge features springs that pull on the string with a constant force. It you turn the tuning peg one way or the other, the spring in the bridge adjusts to keep the tension the same, thus staying in tune. And it works. Really, really well.
Now, you have to understand the system’s limitations. There’s an effective range outside of which turning the pegs will change the frequency, so you have to stay within that. But there might be times when you actually want to get to the upper edge of that range and play there; if you want to bend your strings for example. And this is somewhat of a weakness in the system, in my opinion. Most guitar playing involves bending of some kind, so you’d want to stay at the edge of the effective range most of the time anyway. But if you’re spending time finding that edge, you might as well spend it tuning the guitar in the first place. It’s a fundamental flaw, but not one that dimishes the Evertune’s effectiveness. If you want to play chords for example, this is perfect. It’s for more bluesy stuff that you’re going to run into trouble.
In any case, the device itsellf is around $330 but you will need to spend more money on having someone install it for you, and this typically costs an extra $200-$300. The company is working to have guitars with Evertune pre-installed.
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