I'm REALLY surprised that this wasn't asked earlier.

BT

Tune my pitch up, smack my pitch up.

You should try looking at a Strat VG, which can emulate 12 string, acoustic, humbucker guitars as well as being able to emulate any tuning set, drop D, 1/2 step for example. Plus it just processes the sound thanks to an extra pick up from Roland, so no actual mechanical process is involved. And you can turn all of this off and still have you standard American Strat plus its only £1200. 

http://www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html

P.s. I'm not trying to start a Les Paul vs Strat argument here.

WARNiNG: If your allergic to cheese, skip this post...

recommend the documentary
"American Masters - Les Paul" 
nice torrent for any guitar fanboy.

This new les paul is like a fitting tribute to a cheesemaster, and i do say that with all the respect in the world, if thats possible... Les Paul was an innovator, heh he "invented" multitrack recording...

After so many years of respect, Gibson has just lost me, yes, i did say that. Our evolution is a now a joke, this is a sign of the fake "wag the dog" apocalypse. Run for your porn!!!

Can't tune a guitar? don't play
Can't finish a song out of tune by *winging* it? don't play
Can't tune in between songs? get off stage and go watch your porn

oh and btw, emulation blows, nothin' beats the real thing, oh, almost forgot *cough* nothing beats talent too

I'll take the guitar hero 3 controller over this one, thank you.

Sounds like an over-complex and over-priced answer to a problem no-one has. Aimed at the middle-aged-bedroom-guitarist-with-too-much -money market.

If the author could inform us valiant readers where we can buy a new Les Paul Standard for £700, I'm sure it would make for an even better <ahem> article.

And for the record (or even the rough demo), the Strat VG doesn't do the tuning for you, it just uses a subset of the Roland COSM technology to make the sounds....

Now if it could just strum itself, and work the fret itself, I'd be a rock star!!!

PS. I think this is the third time I've received this very same Verification code....

/tailrattle