If you've seen those Lexus commercials with the cars that can parallel park themselves, Gibson has just come up with an equivalent for the electric guitar - the Gibson Powertune Les Paul. The Powertune Les Paul operates on a new tuning system that enables the guitar to digitally tune itself.

The tuning system requires no external devices to work and is simply a non-intrusive, digital system of communication between the Master Control Knob and the tuning heads. The MCK allows users to select any popular preset tuning from standard, to DADGAD, to custom tuning creations just by lightly strumming the strings.

Gibson's website took a jab at Fender's VG Stratocasters and their auto-tune systems:

"Fender claims to have automated tuning on its VG Stratocaster, but it is far from being a genuine self-tuning system, and lightyears from having the capabilities of Gibson’s Powertune System. In fact, if you put a VG Stratocaster into correct “relative” tuning but slightly flat or sharp of true concert pitch (i.e. the guitar strings are “in tune” with each other, but not with other instruments in accepted A-440Hz tuning), it is not even capable of correcting its virtual tuning to make the guitar actually in tune."

Other than a Master Control Knob and a battery pack on the back of the headstock, the Powertune system does not infringe on the Powertune Les Paul in any way. It still plays, feels, and virtually weighs the same as any Les Paul, which is important in implementing such an innovative new system on such a classic guitar.

One last convenient feature coincides with the Mitch Hedburg broken escalator theory. Even if the battery runs out on the digital Powertune, the tuning heads still function as normal tuners in case you forget to run to the store before a gig to pick up an extra 9V battery.