The Wilkinson Fret-King Super-Matic
Self-Tuning Guitar
“The Super-Matic doesn’t just tune well. It is a super-Strat on steroids”
The idea of a self-tuning guitar must be as old as the electric guitar itself. Surely, every guitarist who’s ever performed live, let alone makes use of alternate tunings, has thought it would be a novel idea and in recent years a number of brands have toyed with this concept such as Gibson with their Robot Les Paul.
On review here is the Fret-King Super-Matic designed by guitar mod guru Trev Wilkinson, which features a self-tuning system that seems by far the most practical, discrete and elegant solution to the self- tuning conundrum.
Anatomy
The Super-Matic doesn’t just tune well. It is a super-Strat on steroids, featuring 24 frets and Wilkinson designed HSH pickup layout mounted on a two-piece alder body. The pickup configuration is rather ingenious, as the bottom tone control is a variable coil-splitting knob blending between humbucker and single-coil sounds. This greatly expands the tonal possibilities.
The tuning system has six tuning presets. One is standard E and five are user reprogrammable. It also functions as an onboard conventional chromatic tuner. It consists of the Wilkinson ATD HT440 Bridge with motorised machine heads and a hex pickup mounted behind the bridge humbucker. It is through this pickup that one controls the system. There is a small LCD display on the bottom E side of the pickup and a single function button on the high E side, with which the system is activated and presets are selected. The system runs off a standard 9v battery and, according to the manual, the battery lasts for at least 250 tunings.
Playability
The guitar is rather heavy, the body has sharp edges and the C-shaped neck with the large frets is quite chunky, but overall it is incredibly easy and comfortable to play. I was, however, a little irked that the input socket does not fit an angled jack.
Using the self-tuning system was incredibly intuitive: press the button once to activate the chromatic tuner display and, since the self-tuning mechanism is in the bridge and the standard headstock tuners remain unaffected, tune as normal. Or hold the button in for a second, scroll through the displayed presets by pressing the button again and strum all the strings once and watch the motors retune. Storing tunings is just as simple once you learn all the display symbols. On occasion I did need to re-strum for the system to read properly, but this was rare.
The thrill of moving from Standard E to Open G in seconds is incredible and it does so with great accuracy. It’s one limitation, however, is that it can only save tuning presets up to a full tone above or below standard tuning. So you won’t be able to save your drop C tunings.
Sounds
The tonal variety on offer here must be noted. The bridge pickup alone with its variable humbucking and single-coil sounds is very tasty and blending the two brings out an unexpected palette of tonal colours.
Through a clean tube-driven amp the humbucker mode is fat with a nice mid-range bump and rich harmonics. The pickups are well balanced, each with its own character, but work well together. In single-coil mode the neck pickup really accentuates the sparkle and compliments open tunings very nicely.
While humbucker mode is the obvious choice for more distorted tones, dialling in a bit of single coil adds a tad more attack and grit. I found this particularly useful for bluesy leads.
Verdict
I must admit that at first I was not expecting much, aside from what I assumed would be a gimmicky tuning feature, but, while this modern take on the Strat is not (in my opinion) very pretty, it sure puts out. I am blown away, not only by the accuracy, practicality and ease of use of the self-tuning system but also by the Super-Matics playability and sheer tonal variety. A definite winner!
Suggested retail price: R 19,995.00
Distributor: Technology Innovated Distribution (TID) | +27 10 5000 111 www.tidistribution.co.za
Connect with Muse