Tenori-On Goes Orange

The Tenori-On remains one of the most eye-catching, hypnotizing ways to make music, and Yamaha has a cheaper model coming in January. Unlike the original, it can't use batteries, has plastic casing, and the LED-lights only show on one side. More »

The Arduinocaster Makes Keytars Even Geekier, If That's Possible

Mike Cook made this awesome homemade MIDI instrument using an Arduino microprocessor mated to a host of motion- and touch-sensitive control structures, all residing in this fantastic Keytar-esque shell. Does it rock? More »

Blackbird Rider Nylon Guitar Actually Carbon-Fiber and Nearly Indestructible

Blackbird's Rider Nylon guitar is actually not made of nylon—ok its strings are—but instead it's far more highly-tech'd and its body and neck are actually carbon fiber. It may not be bullet-proof, but Blackbird says its "nearly indestructible," making it perfect as a travel guitar. The material has meant a few design tweaks over a traditional shape: it's far squarer, and the sound holes are now a single hole moved up to the neck, and dubbed a "soundscoop" instead—apparently this makes for a better sound response. The other side-effect is that it's light enough at 3-pounds to fit into an aircraft overhead locker. High-tech costs though—the nylon string model is $1,900, a smaller steel-stringed version is $1,600. [Product via GadgetLab]

Gibson's Dark Fire: Les Paul Reborn as RoboCop

It looks like the reason Gibson's self-tuning Robot guitar had a limited run is that the legendary guitar innovator had a much more insane second stage already blueprinted up: Gibson's Dark Fire Les Paul-style digital guitar is the crowning shred-related scientific achievement of our time. More »