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The Kuzma Self-Playing Guitar System

Hands-free busking

By Rain Noe - July 30

in Tech

They say it takes 10,000 hours to develop mastery, but Michael Kuzma may have pulled it off in 9,400 hours. That's how long it took the guitarist and electrical engineer to develop his Kuzma Self-Playing Guitar System.

Kuzma's invention, which can be fitted to any guitar, consists of 3D-printed parts, motors, belt drives, cable drives, actuators and picks. The device can both pick and fret, and while it can't yet play Hendrix, it can do Oasis covers:

While it may rankle traditional street performers, Kuzma has used his invention for hands-off busking. And because his invention is technically a robot, it can of course do things no human can do. In this video he cranks it up to play 44 notes per second, far faster than us fleshbags can manage:

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Kuzma custom-builds these for customers and has a waitlist. Since delivering his first unit in January of last year, he's now up to seven. The price starts at $40,000, with the ultimate total depending on customizations, chosen base guitar and delivery location (Kuzma delivers the units himself).

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Juan Cano

2 days ago

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I mean, amazing technical feat, but I find it illuminating to hear it and thing the sound is just so terrible, like a MIDI recording. I wonder if he is able to program the machines to vary the tempo a hair, the intensity of the pick and strumming and make them sound more realistic, as if a human was playing them? Or maybe his goal is this cold result.

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Alan Nomoto

2 days ago

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Dumbest $40,000 “instrument” I’ve ever seen. Let’s take the ART out of ART.

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