EverTune is a Los Angeles-based startup notable for inventing an award–winning[1][2] mechanical device called the EverTune bridge which keeps strings in tune. It was initially developed for use on electric guitars but there are reports that is being developed for use on other stringed-instruments such as the piano.[2]
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The problem of keeping stringed instruments, particularly guitars, in tune has been a continuing issue since these instruments had been invented.[3] A common technique for electric guitar players during a guitar solo is to not only press on the fret, but bend the string to raise the pitch, but this would often have the effect of causing the string to become out of tune.[2] But guitar makers had not found a way to solve the problem for many decades.[4] Guitarists often would have to spend time between songs re-tuning their instruments which sometimes interfered with the flow of a performance. Pianos, as well, can go out of tune, and retuning these large instruments often required a specialist skilled at this activity. In the late 1980s, there was a system developed by Gibson which it called the Robot Guitar System which used an onboard computer using motors and a battery which kept the instrument in tune.[4][5] But the system was complex and did not gain much marketplace acceptance, according to one report.[4]
An avid guitarist and engineering student at Duke University named Cosmos Lyles came up with the idea for the invention[1] when he had been sitting on a couch.[3] Lyle's first attempt at building a tuner was made out of plywood, two screws, a bearing from a skateboard, and spare guitar parts.[2] Lyle spent a year trying to refine the idea, but became eager to find a partner and googled prototype engineer and this search led him to engineer and product developer Paul Dowd, who was also an amateur guitarist.[2] Dowd helped Lyle expand and hone the idea into a working contraption.[2] It took five years to turn the idea into a physical functioning device, according to two accounts, and cost $500,000.[3][2] Invented by engineers Cosmos Lyles and Paul Dowd, the EverTune bridge is a spring and lever system that maintains string tension thus keeping the guitar in tune. Albeit a new technology as far as string instruments are concerned it is not a new concept in the world of mechanics. Spring and lever systems are a standard solution in order to flatten a tension curve.
Ask any engineer how to flatten a tension curve, which is what EverTune does ... and 9 out of 10 of them will say you should use a spring-and-lever system like the one I designed.—Cosmos Lyle, 2010[4]
In 2010, the engineers were on their sixteenth prototype but are continuing to work out the kinks.[2]
The EverTune bridge keeps a guitar in tune despite changes in tension.[1][3] It was described as a simple[6] mechanical device which maintains a constant state of tension despite changes in temperature or humidity or physical actions on a guitar such as strumming or bending the strings or even if a guitarist "just plays too hard", or if a tuning peg is knocked accidentally.[2][3][4] The result is strings that stay in tune even while the guitar is being played[6] which allows a guitarist to focus on playing and not tuning.[3]
On a guitar, the bridge has six springs and levers, one for each of a guitar's six strings,[2] such that "when a string stretches or slips, the springs apply the opposing force necessary to compensate for the shift, thus maintaining the correct tension and tuning."[4] In theory, the device can work with any stringed instrument, according to the inventors.[3] The mechanism has been patented. A guitar with one installed is no longer tuned by turning the pegs at the end of the guitar's neck:
The guitar is tuned by turning a screw on the EverTune bridge (no tuning pegs are used), which adjusts the tension of a spring that corresponds to one of the six strings. Each spring attaches to a lever that holds the string in place; the lever shifts if the string loosens or tightens, but the connected spring maintains the proper tension to keep the guitar in tune.—Paul Wootton[2]
The chief executive officer is Mark Chayet who had previously founded a manufacturing firm named Evermark which made CDs and DVDs.[1] Chayet provided some of the initial financing for the firm, and other executives and entrepreneurs include David Weiderman, William Quigley, and Brock Pierce.[1] The firm raised $800,000 in cash in May 2010, according to one report.[1] One of the first guitars to have an EverTune bridge fitted in the factory is the VGS Radioactive TD-Special. A Tommy Denander signature guitar was created by the German luthiers of VGS. The EverTune bridge has hit the market in North America in October 2010 but the first series is by installation only. The unit was displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010.[5][6] The product was highlighted in a feature in The New York Times entitled The Year in Ideas.[7] In August 2011, the product was not yet ready for sale.[6] One report suggested that EverTune will be available on a "wide range of electric guitars" in the near future and will be available as an installation kit.[6] One report suggested there were 35 guitars with Evertune installed or about to be retrofitted with them.[2] There are talks with guitar makers of electric guitars and basses to have the device embedded into new models.[2]