if a company puts something out there and then gets butthurt or more, over valid constructive criticism, maybe they should blame the product and not the people. and MAYBE, just MAYBE, they should send out a few guitars for testing and just have it on a non-visible basis (actual youtube vid) so they can iron out the kinks. that way future vids would be more of an advertisement, while aslo getting more detailed feedback.
Using bots to troll comments is not an 'oopsie' that can be attributed to inexperience. It shows the malicious and deceptive mentality of their marketing department and by extension their management. Their backpedaling does not compensate for that. Them paying you shouldnt either. I dont think it matters they now decide being open to feedback is better for optics, because they already revealed what kind of company they are running.
I'm an "other guitar teacher", 15 years experience, pro musician and guitar tech 20+ years. Every video I have seen about this product seem to be absolutely correct: it's (in this form) a poor product and massively overpriced for the beginner market. In its current form I would never recommend it to anyone. Claiming it's made of wood and overdubbing actual guitars over their own videos is fraudulent in my opinion. And bots spamming channel comments?? YIKES! I commend your approach to this Henning though I'm not sure I could ever give them the benefit of the doubt that you do.
When you can pick up an Ibanez that plays decently and easily with an amp for not much over half the price, you have a product price segment problem bigger than any hype would cover.
i expensive yes overprice no i thimk.when u add ton of usefull or bad thimk goes in price so u can build so epnsive but still so bad as well that mot mean overpriced oh still can be but this not look so cheap orduct but so oıverprce like all those knifes at net used promosional fake by some chefs and youtuners like sell 30-50 dolar knives to 200-250 dolar . i seen at past some averahe guitar were sell expnsive duer they use some fancy think like woods fancy binding but build quality wasnt good çmaybe im wrong but for my pow that 2 diffrent think expsniver but useless is diffrent then overpriced .gold case bad movment watch will be expsniver and useless then good quality stenless still japaon autowatch some movment becouse of gold but bad watch still will be expsniver then actual good watch .or selling fake rolex to like real its scuming .all is diffrent things is this scuming is this usless but expsnive added way so many features electronic bump the price nonsense and losing value even as count as kid toys or they scuming by lying super cheap orcut and selling overprice pay infuciers and others and scuming people .diffrent think even bigest comapnies lot of other field fail at some concpets pructs they did lot of mistake some even goes bankrupt becouse of it or came of edge of ir.but need to point our right way
You are such a cool dude, Henning. What a wonderful way to tackle this obstacle. Very positive. Very logical. Very diplomatic. Proud to be a subscriber to your channel.
My own experience with 'a certain brand' on my tiny ass channel was some dude contacted me about having this product on my channel, now my first three questions were; Why me? Why the hell such a small channel? (60 subs), Is this legit? I contacted the company directly, they never replied. I contacted this contact, no reply (four months ago). Company does exist. but I've kept my mouth shut far as the name is concerned because this may have been a scam. Yes my channel sucks but I have 60 subs that are great people.
I saw Andy's video and knew it was about this company 😂! Very bad look on them that's for sure. That would have been an epic video if they had sent it to Glenn though!😂 It does give me hope though how they are being humans about it and trying to work with you!💯
Never apologize for being truthful, Henning. You are saving people a lot of money if they had spent on these inferior products! It's channels like yours and The Guitar Geek that are really appreciated by the guitar community, because you will truthfully review products for us, whether you are getting a fee for the review from the company who made it or not. It's nice to see that the company has realized that even though on the whole, your reviews were negative - perhaps there is a lot of truth in yours and Andy's reviews and that they are interested to work alongside you to make the product better. Keep up the good work!
This is why I really respect this channel. You provide knowledgable information and honest opinions. You set a standard for guitar influencers. And I love animals at the end!
Bad reviews are a good thing and help companies see where they can improve. I am glad they are seeing the value of your video and listening. From a marketing standpoint bots are never good they mess up the algorithm and decrease any actual growth. It is hard to bounce back once applying them.
Actually damage control is very normal, exploiting 'soft touch' individuals to offset corporate risk is tried and true. They don't need to get any more 'feedback' that they already got for free from many channels already. Wise up.
They could improve the fretting notes to registered lowered velocity vs. full pressed notes on their nylon strings for beginners to properly mute the strings when appropriate. Properly muting was not something I learned for the first 2 years when I started playing guitar and I hated myself for it(Self-taught coz I'm too broke for lessons). Their marketing team/person might've used bots without the knowledge of their other team or anyone else in their company. In any case, I really dig how you handled this, I truly appreciate your transparency.
I would ask (once the tracking issues are addressed) that they allow alternate tunings to be used. Click a setting/turn a knob and be in open C, for instance. Fwiw it looks like it could help with muscle memory but it won't really help with picking but it could maybe help develop your picking accuracy? Dunno since I've not handled the product. As for price, you could get a squire, practice amp, and a joyo pedal or two for the price of this product. Trust me when I say that's by far the bestest way to start off
I’ve been in bed for three days with a sports injury and I’m weirdly invested in this story! Super classy of you to do this follow-up video. Sounds like Aereoguitar should market itself as a useful toy instead of a good guitar. Buyer beware but also, seller beware. The product launch should have unfolded in stages and their marketing team seems to have been told what to say, which resulted in over-promising quality and capacity. They should re-launch with these lessons in mind. Aereoguitar is innovative as hell, but it is a useful toy for kids and beginners, not a guitar for players.
4:04 So true. I've seen Henning do videos of products he said he was not getting paid to do, but he felt the product was so good that he had to share it. I own a wonderful Charvel due to one of those videos. Thanks for your honesty Henning, we appreciate it, and have to come to expect it.
Hey, props to Aeroband for finding me a bunch of wonderful guitar channels to join! You had me at debacle and your thoughtfulness about their employees, and I’d subbed before you even said doodoo 😂 They really missed a lot of opportunity with this ‘instrument’, the marketing and communication is far worse than the product. Honestly I’d actually like something like that, for none of the reasons they are selling it on and not for that price. Maybe they should just sell the stickers separately and leave it at that.
I'd guessed what Andy's video was about! I had to sit through the pain of playing guitar, there's no short cuts, you just have to build up the hard skin on your fingers!
I am impressed! They are doing exactly what they should be; put out a prototype, get feedback, and be open to improving the product. My opinion: They are selling this to the wrong people. It looks like it would make a decent midi controller and travel guitar. If they knocked the price down to $350 (about the price of a MIDI controller), I'd consider it.
I have one - I got in on the super early bird kickstarter and worked with the demo model - it is actually a great MIDI controller but in it's current FW has some connectivity bugs to work out but once it is connected the latency is better than any of the other guitar MIDI controllers I have used. a lot of the people that are weirded out I think don't know the history of a lot of the guitar MIDI controllers out there I have used the yourock, jamstik, jammy and a couple of others - this is really more like an evolution of the yourock guitar. luckily on the kickstarter I got it - something around $250 - so in that range it was totally worth it for a MIDI guitar considering most things are in the $500-600 range
Thank you for saying that if a product is bad that it should be said it's bad. There are way too many influencers that say something is good when it's truly not. It's not cool for false reports only to waste a person's time and money with their experience with said product.
Good points Henning, very level-headed and concise summary of the issues in this situation. And your honesty of having received money for consulting with them shows your good character.
They May need to work on some of the tracking issues (if they are lucky it's on the Software side) and then this thing could be cool for that Application. If the tracking is solid, then the price for an advanced User base might even be reasonable.
The price puts you in striking range of the Godin SR range which are superb guitars in their own rights with the best midi implementation in any guitar or guitar-like controller. Some,plastic non-guitar like this isn't worth $150 let alone $500+.
Man this is so wholesome, loving the objectivity and willingness to come together. Kudos to both, you and Aeroband! Now just imagine if every such situation would get approached in this way, how awesome would that be??
If it had really good tracking and velocity then it could be useful to guitarists that want to lay down MIDI synth, strings etc. I'm not sure if there are any really good devices for a reasonable price that can do that. To get a full MIDI guitar rig going costs a chunk of change currently.
If tracking works really well (maybe just Software issues and the Hardware is possibly already capable of it), then it could be a reasonable investment, not for the beginner market, but for advanced users. I would totally use something like that for MIDI tracking if it works well and the price is at least reasonable.
I have played keyboards for many years. 10 years ago I started recording at home. I needed some guitar and bass backing and didn't find any realistic sounding digital plugins. First I bought an electric guitar, a cheap digital effect pod and started rehearsing an hour a day. To me tabbing, bending and muting was important. Very soon I got very good results and bought a bass too. To be honest I spend a lot of time just playing with the guitar and bass. It has been a fun experience. I think the best way to learn playing the guitar is to play a guitar.
You guys are way to nice. What they are wanting is cheap endorsements to their product. They don't want to pay the price tag it would take for someone in the music industry to endorse their product. The legal threats they made under the guise of misinformation meaning anything they don't like and not what is true. If they wanted to make a great product they wouldn't try to conceal the product with legal threats rather they would reach out and ask for opinions how to improve the product. People are tired of being treated like cattle/ cash cows and the trends shows it. Unity, Target, Anheuser-Busch, and Blizzard to name a few.,
What this company did in trying to promote their product (fake advertisements, threatening letters to youtubers, chatbots spamming comments) says a LOT more about these people than what they have done in their attempts to do damage control. This is a product that no one needs and answers no questions being asked. And the company is clearly focused on profit, and to a certain extent to be honest, fraud. I'd bail on them, period.
Well Henning, this is nice of you to engage with them again providing quality feedback and your knowledge. Now, telling you as one of your long-term subscribers… just forget about these people. Their current product simply doesn’t belong to real music gear channels. Move on, and the soonest possible because now several channels are talking about this, which is unnecessary and some viewers will indeed say things like “it’s just about the clicks”, and you and other good/hardworking musician-RUclipsrs don’t need to waste time and energy with that crap. Cheers friend.
Thank you for this, Henning: you were right in the first video, and right again in this, plus you teach people through this video how to be honest yet diplomatic with a company that asked you to review their product.
Our music teacher started explaining the Do Re Me nursery rhyme to us. We counted them, 7. From there we learned harmony, so a bit of mathematics came in and I was hooked. There was some logic to the structure. After that a person can analyze any piece of music, or scale, to detect various optional selections, seems this could go on for a lifetime. A pastime. The various instruments have a little skill required to interact with them, and I can see lessons focusing on this. But the structure is where I usually start. It’s more of a universal language. [edit] I wish you the best HP. Sorry to hear how this has gone. Kinda kills the joy for music.
Thay made a HUGE mistake sending that "thing" to guitar reviewers.. They should've sent it to Gamer Streamers who want to learn guitar... They might have different opinion on the thing.
And let's not forget the threats of legal actions to theguitargeek in case he would put out a negative review, I'm afraid we're really getting past the point of giving the benefit of the doubt.
The not looking in the mirror before filming is something I would do for sure. I appreciate self deprecating humor so the little note at the end made me crack up. Also, you're right, Glenn would've torn this company a new arse. Cheers.
I dont care if a company goes under or if people lose jobs if the company is using deceptive practices to sell or market their product and they get called out for it. They dug the hole....they can learn how to climb out of it.
In terms of body shape and styling I think it looks great. Headstock shape suits it and is radical too. I think they have spent a lot of time, money and effort on industrial design. If they made real, good quality guitars that have the same body lines I think they would be on to a winner - and if they took their tech capabilities in a different direct - to enhance real guitars - they might just be revolutionary.
I love that it didn't occur to their marketing department that the guitar community could have integrity. Please for the love of God send one to Glenn!
Being real. Bringing a new product to a competitive market is quite difficult. Making a product that fail to deliver, more so. But being open minded to improve the product & customer experience it may turn out to be some good to it. But above all thing, Integrity matters! 🎸🎸
Das zeigt ja, dass sie eigentlich schon vorhaben ein gutes Produkt auf den Markt zu bringen👍 Mich würde mal interessieren, ob die Personen, die in der Firma an der Entwicklung beteiligt sind überhaupt selber Gitarre spielen? Wäre zumindest von Vorteil ;-) Wer weiß, vielleicht könnte man ja auch was aushandeln, damit es in Zukunft ein professionell produzierten, für das Produkt zugeschnittenen Online Gitarren Kurs gibt, um den absoluten Anfängern die Basics (Wie halte ich ne Gitarre, ect..) beizubringen. Z.B. auf RUclips von einem netten Hessen mit Erfahrungen als Gitarrenlehrer?!😉
Why would a beginner pay $600 ??? !! IMO A Chinese kit guitar goes for under $300 on average Comes with guitar, Picks, gig Bag, Strap, Cord, AMP. & Once student learns to play they can up grade electronics wiring, pots, caps, pickups, This is a great learning instrument. Or the student buys a used guitar like a Fender or Gibson under $300. looks like the video game Guitar Hero. They need to do everything you said plus SAY NOT A PRO LEVEL Instrument because its not. It could work if the price point is lower. Cheers
LOL they offered one to Glenn! :) Your review was what I know your subs expected, a great honest review. It's very nice to hear that they want to improve their product, that says a lot and not the impression I think most got from the emails that were sent out.
“I'll tip my hat to the Aeroband Guitar company Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my REAL guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray I don't get fooled again”
Great follow up! I appreciate your candor and balance. Not everything has to be black or white and you do a great job managing the nuisance without needing to make anyone into villains. I’m sure they have people that put their hearts into this product and maybe - as you said - they just didn’t really understand the community / customer base well enough….and got some bad advice along the way. I’m just a newb but I think we should generally applaud legitimate innovation that moves the community, and learners, forward.
I think it's a technically interesting product. A few of the issues can be fixed in software (capo function mutes notes behind it, use only furthest pressed note for tapping, etc). Some may need a hardware tweak or both hardware and software (muting based on touching strings rather than "bar" on bridge cover). Ultimately, it's difficult to really see the market for it and where they should be trying to position it. Individual RGB LED's under each note would make it better for learning (colour code for each finger for example, better than just the side lights), but it's just too expensive for that purpose alone... 🤷♂ It feels like something an engineer came up with and ran with without any thought to whether it actually solves an existing problem or fits any existing market niche. Just being a cool idea that does something in a new way appeals to engineers.
Thanks for the Update Henning. - Since you have their ear, and they mentioned bending... obviously with the silicon string arrangement, I just don't know how it would work, and as a beginner tool, it just isn't necessary. However, if they want to get this thing to the experienced crowd as a midi controller, it would be great if it had a tremelo bar, which worked like a pitch wheel on a midi keyboard. Also, it could have a switch to change it to expression wheel mode. That could be cool... it would gain my interest. As it stands now, I would not spend the money they are asking, but if they optimize it for midi use with my DAW... hmmm could be cool.
By the way Henning, may I add, thanks also for your honest review, in spite of the offer of money,. I am glad to hear the company is paying you anyway. You deserve it!
It'd be really cool if this guitar had LEDs on the fretboard which could show you the places you should grab your fingers to play notes and chords and when you press them correctly , LEDs for next chord appear and so on. Itd be really helpfull to learn new songs
Fixes: Buttons. These do not hurt fingers (yamaha and fender midi guitars). For bending an accelerometer chip like in the fender, cheap and is on all cellphones. 3) Actual midi out port. Then it will be pretty good.
Glad they are willing to listen to experts. As a technical instructor - this seems to suffer from some of the same issues we have with industrial training equipment - you can go simple, and be usable for 30 minutes early on - or you can get complex, which ends up being the actual equipment, and working on them instead/addition to. Another issue is the pricing thing - that is also a thing on a training tool, they are stupid expensive as a general rule. Thanks for the follow up video.
I love the clean look of the guitar, and the idea having a speaker in the guitar. Build a real guitar with the same looks and with speaker,headphone jack,line out, amp (simulator)and sounds like distortion-echo (simulation)build in. So it is always ready to play on vacation, the streets and on stage.
Well the points that you're making are extremely helpful, and it sounds like they want to improve. If they reduce the price dramatically, improved the tracks, maybe partner with someone for lessons. With the improvements you're suggesting it could be along the lines of a LAVA acoustic sort of deal.
just real quick, straight up, that is a beautiful space, that room. how often do we get wide open floors AND guitar stuff on the walls. it's all so clean and zen. LOVE it. (irrelevant to the vid but i felt props needed given. :) )
and possibly it seems astroturfed comments sections with human/bot 'fake positive messages' spam ... classy! not like some kind of mafia money laundering front group at all
Yes, kudos to them for their reaction. Just the same, it's an issue when a "guitar teaching product" can't teach bending notes. Everything else become totally pointless when you can't cover "ALL" the basics. Am I wrong?
This reminds me of a few years back when some indie video camera designer who was making (or trying to make) a high end "revolutionary" camera, sued (or threatened to review) influencers for honest reviews. Can't remember the name, but was very similar, and it ruined the company, as this likely will.
Sounds like damage control for the damage control. Your absolutely right about the yes men thing I've seen this before where you have a group of people all saying "that's fantastic" but know very little about the real picture.
I’ve really enjoyed my Mad Katz Rock Band Pro controller as a MIDI controller. Especially for creating sheet music in Guitar Pro. If it can be better than that at a reasonable price, I’d be interested.
Seems to be fair from both sides. We will see how this will develop. The company has to offer something more or special for a tool that costs about 500€... Maybe some more ongoing guitar courses over a longer period of time. If you imagine what kind of guitars you can get today, in such a high quality... it's hard to argue that this tool is needed. And also you can get guitar beginner sets under 500€...
Make it a tool that people would want to use: as you said, improve the app. Leds over all the fretboard that show chords, modes, etc. Really good samples, including a 12 string and synth sounds. And lastly, an actual MIDI tool capable enough for music production and, if possible, live playing. However, it would have to remain in the $500 ballpark.
Unfortunately Chinese companies have on the most part no ability to innovate . Their products for the most part consist of reverse engineered IP's from western manufactures. They believe if you make something that is a visual copy of something that already exists that is good enough. There have been toy guitars that have variations of this tech that have been available for decades.I doubt if anyone in their design team even plays guitar. There are many high quality guitar related products made in China by actual instrument and electronic based companies. This company is a manufacturer of clever toys and nothing more.
I appreciate their willingness to listen. Although it seems to me that it's way too late for that to make much difference at this point. What I can't forgive is their shoddy ethics: Misleading ads, questionable leaning on/threats of influencers, bot attacks and product ratings on their own web site (for the drum product) that are stellar compared with how their product is reviewed on a site they can't control, such as Amazon. I get it: A company has to protect its reputation. But by what means? When do the means actually tarnish that reputation?! It's hard to trust a company with my money for a product that is not cheap under these circumstances. If they lie BEFORE they get my money, imagine how they'll act once my check clears.
My take; This is not really about “products” or a guitar per se. This is “corporate behaviour”, where self made rules go one way, while rights (if any) are up to the non-incorporated user/consumer to understand and possibly uphold. It’s about upholding corporate value, not simply trading goods (that was before 2008…). The economic rights are SO different between corporations and eh, meat-and-blood persons. This is why nearly every single country has (had?) some kind of regulation (an f-word…?) to protect end users who are NOT corporations. A company can also write off expenses from a lost litigation, a “simple” wage-taker can not. Also, a company can mostly work (trade) across national borders, while consumer rights don’t work across the same borders. Remember that large corporations are the main influencers for our politicians. We only have our ballots (and SoMe influencers), and no stock options to influence said corporations in reverse. Isn’t that kinda un-democratic…? 😅👍
It seems like this company may actually be listening to people reviewing the products. This is a good thing and hopefully they listen and hopefully they didn't sink too much into production beyond where it would be too costly to make any corrections and improvements.
the behaviour is more in line with what happens in the Chinese social media influencer system. i've seen a number of Chinese companies bringing products to international influencers by having an internal marketing division or hiring domestic marketing companies that have no idea how to work in the international market. it usually doesn't work out very well for the reasons you've outlined. i've worked as a copywriter for one of these companies and seen a bit of the panic and confusion from the product company themselves.
I really appreciated both the 2 videos you made about this product, cause you explained everything from your point of view and from a point of view of non guitarist. And I've learned something more about this product boh good and bad things.
It's great they responded like that. The issue is that it's a cultural problem and just the way ecommerce works in China. In China if you want to sell something, it's all done on a few big platforms where it's an essentially pay to play ads/rank, influencer and discount driven. They don't really have this website concept, organic SEO etc... even though they do exist. These platforms are heavily controlled and fixed. So, when Chinese companies try and sell in the west, they normally think they can heavily discount, pay for fake reviews and pay influencers. Also, the influencers in China are nearly all with agencies and have very punitive contracts which is why they tried to write politely threatening letters to some RUclipsrs.
I wish they ditch all the learning stuff and focus only on it being a midi controller - there is a huge market where the guitar and the synth community meet and they could gain a bunch of synth channels that would be genuinely interested in such a product. Let's hope for the best. I appreciate your positive take and I hope they turn around for the better.
this is good in my opinion. i mean they probably only do it because they will lose money and they try to save it, but the fact that t hey are willing to say " ok what didnt you like? can we make it better and make it work? " and work with people and maybe make a better product that could potentially help beginners, this is very good and respectable. i still think i agree that its best to just get a comfortable cheap guitar and take proper lessons, but if done right, it could work for some people. maybe. and its good to see them willing to try to correct it.
I really hope they listen to you. As a respected teacher and player, your views can guide this company into making great educational products. Best wishes on the new version.
In the end the product just doesn't solve a real problem. You might as well just get an electric with light strings and a professional setup. It is basically a pub conversation that got out of hand and no one thought to check if it made sense later :-)
The product may not be amazing, they may have panicked a bit when things started going sideways, but they way they have approached the backlash actually makes me excited to see what they come up with next. I may never be a beginner again, but there are plenty of people out there who could benefit from something _like_ this product, and the more guitar players the better!
I disagree. I don't see how starting off on even a better version of this thing is better than starting off with a real guitar. Everything it makes easier it does so by encouraging bad habits that then you're going to have to break on a real instrument, which isn't helping the student out at all.
Easy fixes: 1 add a fking midi port. 2) drop the price: remember a regular gtar + a boss SY-1 pedal gets you right into synth guitar perfectly for much less. Very much recommended: Buttons instead of the captive strips. The buttons play so much better (yamaha and fender vs yourock). The fender has a sensor that if you move the gtar around it can bend the notes if you want (a gyroscope like your phones).
I think if they really wanna target Beginners, They need to get rid of all that EXTRA bling thats not needed. The Midi, The Jack, all that. It should be as plain and simple as charging port, the Capo function is pretty cool and maybe to make it more realistic add the function of having to play at the higher fret like how you would have to with an actual capo etc..
This is why you always need an independent consultant before you release a product into a market that you either don't know anything or very little about.
MIDI ? That could be the saving grace. An ‘easy to play MIDI guitar controller’ is a very viable product. But put a sequencer in the guitar… That’s a very attractive product - with a very specific market. I’d pay $300 for that if I was a ‘home synth studio ‘ dude (which I am), and guitar playing was not my main thing - because the Aeroband with an inbuilt sequencer would be a crazy good fun tool to make music. Imagine - you turn up at a friend’s studio with a guitar loaded with riff sequences and nice chords, all ready to plug in to your favourite synths. That would be a killer product. Best of luck to Aeroband. ✌ 👽 🎸
I'm not in the business of ruining lives, companies etc. either, nor am I influencer. On other hand, aeroband is not my responsibility. They released product which is ... let's say "based on being clueless about what the intended purpose requires" added marketing which is bad. When they don't make money on that adventure, it's not my fault.
Maybe something got lost in translation with these instruments. I would really like to hear an actual sales pitch that goes over the features and the intention of the company. Pretty wholesome video you got here, today. Maybe you can help these guys with their idea. Good luck.
Maybe if the company had ever picked up the decades old Casio product, that was basically the same thing, they could have seen how this was going to go.
I love how you are living up to being the bigger person. Yeah, they messed up originally, but anyone who is genuinely trying to learn from them deserves a second chance IMO. When dealing with people from different cultures etc, there are big pitfalls to fall into, and some patience is warranted :)
@@rinkydinkfretboard8737 ". You don’t threaten your customers with legal action for not liking your product. It’s the golden rule. " Quite right, we don't do that around here. Nor anywhere as far as I know. But to be fair, that is not what they did. So, let's reformulate it a bit "You don't threaten a reviewer you have commissioned to review your product for calling your product trash" ....Which I just can imagine some company would do around here, but they really shouldn't. But maybe that is not a strange thing to do in a another culture. The saving grace IMO, (you don't have to agree,) is that they seem to realize they have misunderstood how western consumers and (even paid) reviewer think and feel about the matter, and they are trying to learn and accommodate the new market.
Dude , do not defend yourself , crappy products should not make it , the people who pay for the products will support the products if the product is good. You gave a honest opinion. They picked the wrong person to demo the crap they made. There is like 3 billion people in that one country , if they can not make it in that market , what makes them think it needs to be on a global market? I would stop pandering to them and just tell them to find someone who does not want to actually play guitar to cater too. They literally made a glorified Rockband or guitar hero instrument. Its worthless for learning anything lol.
I see as the only possible saving grace for this instrument if they can make each segment of "string" on the fretboard to light up independently. In that case, the product value would be to learn songs faster by just pressing the sequence of lights on the fretboard, which would be handy for anyone who is bad at reading tabs: this would include beginners, but also hobbyists who want to keep playing "by ear" or don't have enough time/energy/motivation to learn sight reading. IF they can implement this technology, and IF they can reduce the price, then I think this instrument may be a nice addition to a hobbyist guitarist collection that can and will be used alongside real guitars: any time you want to learn a new song you learn the fingering first on the aeroguitar and when you are comfortable with playing it by memory then you can perfect it on a real guitar. Or if you just want to jam along with some friends on songs you have never played before, hopping on the aeroguitar and following lights may make your life easier and your play more interesting than looking for a tab or chord sequence on the internet. In other words, I think that they have to rethink this instrument from a beginner's bridge to a real guitar to an easier and more fun alternative to tab reading. Otherwise there is no other way that such a product would be viable nor recommendable for anyone, including beginners.
I’m glad they have shown interest in rethinking the product. If it had been sold as just something fun to make some tunes on then it would never had got to this point! As a concept I can see where it could be a good alternative to a guitar and an online course. I don’t think anything can be better than a real life old-school guitar lesson. The first thing that stood out to me is the size. Surely you need kids to be able to use it too if you want to sell it as a learning platform? If you could add a led for every ‘string’ on each fret and tweak the tutorials surely it could have a place in classrooms etc - no tuning, able to be taught without a specialist music teacher etc etc The concept seems to have a lot of potential but has skipped straight from the cool idea stage to sale without the use a subject expert stage.
My uncle had one of these because he wanted to learn guitar in his 50s. Not sure if it was the same company but it was the same concept. I was already an experienced young shredder when I picked it up and I thought it was a lot of fun tbh. Couldn't play a whole lot on it but it was still super fun to mess around on. im not a bot.
I nearly spit out my coffee that they reached out to Glenn Fricker! They didn’t make a good product, so they aren’t going to get a good review unless they get a dishonest reviewer. The RUclips guitar community (you and many of your friends I follow) they reached out to are not the target audience and are people of integrity that won’t lie.
Maybe they should lean on the midi controller side of it and try to appeal to kids who already make music ("beats" and whatnot) using some basic controller into an ipad but don't play guitar. I can see them getting to enjoy pretty quickly the ability to add a bit of strumming or arpeggios to their music, learn some guitar while at it, and keeping the device in their toolbox rather than tossing it after moving to an actual guitar.
I am an amateur guitar player since over 30 years... I don't know if that product is bad or good, and won't know it myself as I won't buy it ... But I have been in the advertising/marketing business since also over 30 years and no matter their product, this is where they got all wrong ... the target, the testers, the message, the threatening, the medium advertisement choice (they should have done a TV commercial for Christmas rather then sending that product to guitar influencers ...) ... in short, they did not prepare their media campaign the right way, and now, no matter what you would say trying to save them, the damage is done, it already happened in the past with many other products (great examples in the car industry) ... they should not have sent that to channels dedicated mostly to guitar players rather than to kids and parents who want a toy to play with for Christmas ... they should change that strategy right away and very quickly if they want to give a chance to their product ... because on what I see, this is definitely not an educational tool as to help learn the guitar ... it is just a Christmas toy in the middle of the tons of other useless Christmas toys with lights and sounds ...
Hats off, Henning. Super respect for you. That being said, you may not be in the business of ruining companies and making people jobless, but a bought "opinion" is a direct hit on the consumer - who is the less protected party in the manufacturer, influencer/reviewer and retailer scene. Yes, more than the worker of any company that may go jobless. You may say it's one person mistake and not a company, but when you add bought reviews with legal threats, the lying spec sheet, the overdubbing, the bot spam and probably a ton of worst stuff behind the curtains, you're over one person or one team. Again, a lot of respect for your position in the case, but I really hope they fade into nothingness as an example to future scammers. The guitar community already has enough dogmas with fenders, gibsons, mesa boogies and marshalls; we don't need new companies to perpetuate bad practices. If a company does all that with a kickstarter program investment, can you imagine what could they do with e.g., the Gibson shares of US market (1.5bi - 34% of the 4.4bi of guitar sales in US 2022)? With their practices that are clearly and willingly damaging for their consumers plus plenty fuel (money), you can imagine the fire later. They got their chance and they f'd up. Now they get the heat and then just fade.
If companies want a good review, then they need a good product.
Aeroband developed the bestest product they could make. Of all the products in the world, this 🎸 is definitely one of them! Well done Aeroband! ♥️🐄🐮 💜
if a company puts something out there and then gets butthurt or more, over valid constructive criticism, maybe they should blame the product and not the people. and MAYBE, just MAYBE, they should send out a few guitars for testing and just have it on a non-visible basis (actual youtube vid) so they can iron out the kinks. that way future vids would be more of an advertisement, while aslo getting more detailed feedback.
Too right, mate
Stop it with this common sense!
1000%, let the product speak for itself.
Using bots to troll comments is not an 'oopsie' that can be attributed to inexperience. It shows the malicious and deceptive mentality of their marketing department and by extension their management. Their backpedaling does not compensate for that. Them paying you shouldnt either. I dont think it matters they now decide being open to feedback is better for optics, because they already revealed what kind of company they are running.
I love the RUclips guitar community!
Thanks to you guys - well done!
I'm an "other guitar teacher", 15 years experience, pro musician and guitar tech 20+ years. Every video I have seen about this product seem to be absolutely correct: it's (in this form) a poor product and massively overpriced for the beginner market. In its current form I would never recommend it to anyone. Claiming it's made of wood and overdubbing actual guitars over their own videos is fraudulent in my opinion. And bots spamming channel comments?? YIKES! I commend your approach to this Henning though I'm not sure I could ever give them the benefit of the doubt that you do.
When you can pick up an Ibanez that plays decently and easily with an amp for not much over half the price, you have a product price segment problem bigger than any hype would cover.
Well, the sound can be real samples because it's obviously a MIDI controller or similar, and probably not all too good of one.
he gave them the benefit of doubt after they paid him and hired him as consultant.
In some countries marketing it as a "guitar" could be considered fraudulent.
i expensive yes overprice no i thimk.when u add ton of usefull or bad thimk goes in price so u can build so epnsive but still so bad as well that mot mean overpriced oh still can be but this not look so cheap orduct but so oıverprce like all those knifes at net used promosional fake by some chefs and youtuners like sell 30-50 dolar knives to 200-250 dolar .
i seen at past some averahe guitar were sell expnsive duer they use some fancy think like woods fancy binding but build quality wasnt good çmaybe im wrong but for my pow that 2 diffrent think expsniver but useless is diffrent then overpriced .gold case bad movment watch will be expsniver and useless then good quality stenless still japaon autowatch some movment becouse of gold but bad watch still will be expsniver then actual good watch .or selling fake rolex to like real its scuming .all is diffrent things
is this scuming is this usless but expsnive added way so many features electronic bump the price nonsense and losing value even as count as kid toys or they scuming by lying super cheap orcut and selling overprice pay infuciers and others and scuming people .diffrent think even bigest comapnies lot of other field fail at some concpets pructs they did lot of mistake some even goes bankrupt becouse of it or came of edge of ir.but need to point our right way
You are such a cool dude, Henning. What a wonderful way to tackle this obstacle. Very positive. Very logical. Very diplomatic. Proud to be a subscriber to your channel.
When it comes to Engineering, leave it to the Germans 🇩🇪
@@creamwobbly Example?
Indeed, Henning is very polite, but get the message gets through.
...if he only could learn how to shave..without making bacon of his face 😂
My own experience with 'a certain brand' on my tiny ass channel was some dude contacted me about having this product on my channel, now my first three questions were; Why me? Why the hell such a small channel? (60 subs), Is this legit? I contacted the company directly, they never replied. I contacted this contact, no reply (four months ago). Company does exist. but I've kept my mouth shut far as the name is concerned because this may have been a scam. Yes my channel sucks but I have 60 subs that are great people.
I saw Andy's video and knew it was about this company 😂! Very bad look on them that's for sure. That would have been an epic video if they had sent it to Glenn though!😂 It does give me hope though how they are being humans about it and trying to work with you!💯
I thought the same
Most professional assessment while still being very honest.
Never apologize for being truthful, Henning. You are saving people a lot of money if they had spent on these inferior products!
It's channels like yours and The Guitar Geek that are really appreciated by the guitar community, because you will truthfully review products for us, whether you are getting a fee for the review from the company who made it or not.
It's nice to see that the company has realized that even though on the whole, your reviews were negative - perhaps there is a lot of truth in yours and Andy's reviews and that they are interested to work alongside you to make the product better.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the update Henning. This company has a long way to go...IF they really want to improve their product, only time will tell
Exactly…… as the saying goes, the proof will be in the pudding.
This is why I really respect this channel. You provide knowledgable information and honest opinions. You set a standard for guitar influencers. And I love animals at the end!
Bad reviews are a good thing and help companies see where they can improve. I am glad they are seeing the value of your video and listening.
From a marketing standpoint bots are never good they mess up the algorithm and decrease any actual growth. It is hard to bounce back once applying them.
i'm glad things are looking up! it's rare for companies to truly listen to negative feedback
Actually damage control is very normal, exploiting 'soft touch' individuals to offset corporate risk is tried and true. They don't need to get any more 'feedback' that they already got for free from many channels already. Wise up.
They could improve the fretting notes to registered lowered velocity vs. full pressed notes on their nylon strings for beginners to properly mute the strings when appropriate. Properly muting was not something I learned for the first 2 years when I started playing guitar and I hated myself for it(Self-taught coz I'm too broke for lessons). Their marketing team/person might've used bots without the knowledge of their other team or anyone else in their company. In any case, I really dig how you handled this, I truly appreciate your transparency.
I would ask (once the tracking issues are addressed) that they allow alternate tunings to be used. Click a setting/turn a knob and be in open C, for instance. Fwiw it looks like it could help with muscle memory but it won't really help with picking but it could maybe help develop your picking accuracy? Dunno since I've not handled the product. As for price, you could get a squire, practice amp, and a joyo pedal or two for the price of this product. Trust me when I say that's by far the bestest way to start off
I’ve been in bed for three days with a sports injury and I’m weirdly invested in this story! Super classy of you to do this follow-up video. Sounds like Aereoguitar should market itself as a useful toy instead of a good guitar.
Buyer beware but also, seller beware. The product launch should have unfolded in stages and their marketing team seems to have been told what to say, which resulted in over-promising quality and capacity. They should re-launch with these lessons in mind. Aereoguitar is innovative as hell, but it is a useful toy for kids and beginners, not a guitar for players.
Strangely invested in this story because you’re probably on Percocet 😂
😆
4:04 So true. I've seen Henning do videos of products he said he was not getting paid to do, but he felt the product was so good that he had to share it. I own a wonderful Charvel due to one of those videos. Thanks for your honesty Henning, we appreciate it, and have to come to expect it.
Hey, props to Aeroband for finding me a bunch of wonderful guitar channels to join! You had me at debacle and your thoughtfulness about their employees, and I’d subbed before you even said doodoo 😂 They really missed a lot of opportunity with this ‘instrument’, the marketing and communication is far worse than the product. Honestly I’d actually like something like that, for none of the reasons they are selling it on and not for that price. Maybe they should just sell the stickers separately and leave it at that.
Dudu 🚗🐞macht das schon....
I'd guessed what Andy's video was about! I had to sit through the pain of playing guitar, there's no short cuts, you just have to build up the hard skin on your fingers!
I am impressed! They are doing exactly what they should be; put out a prototype, get feedback, and be open to improving the product.
My opinion: They are selling this to the wrong people. It looks like it would make a decent midi controller and travel guitar. If they knocked the price down to $350 (about the price of a MIDI controller), I'd consider it.
Also, a library of onboard tones would be really cool.
I have one - I got in on the super early bird kickstarter and worked with the demo model - it is actually a great MIDI controller but in it's current FW has some connectivity bugs to work out but once it is connected the latency is better than any of the other guitar MIDI controllers I have used. a lot of the people that are weirded out I think don't know the history of a lot of the guitar MIDI controllers out there I have used the yourock, jamstik, jammy and a couple of others - this is really more like an evolution of the yourock guitar. luckily on the kickstarter I got it - something around $250 - so in that range it was totally worth it for a MIDI guitar considering most things are in the $500-600 range
Thank you for saying that if a product is bad that it should be said it's bad. There are way too many influencers that say something is good when it's truly not. It's not cool for false reports only to waste a person's time and money with their experience with said product.
When you said they approached Glenn Fricker I laughed so hard. I still want to see Glenn review it!!!!!
If I wasn't lying on the floor I would have falling out my chair. The episode of FGR would be one of the books.
Ditto, soon as Glen came up, i started to really laugh, it would've been beyond epic.
Good points Henning, very level-headed and concise summary of the issues in this situation. And your honesty of having received money for consulting with them shows your good character.
Really like that you guys are telling us how you really feel and not just here is what the company told us to say.
Maybe they should market it as a guitar-like MIDI controller; that's what I assumed, upon first glance.
That’s what I thought and I’d be interested in it were it addressed as such.
They May need to work on some of the tracking issues (if they are lucky it's on the Software side) and then this thing could be cool for that Application. If the tracking is solid, then the price for an advanced User base might even be reasonable.
The price puts you in striking range of the Godin SR range which are superb guitars in their own rights with the best midi implementation in any guitar or guitar-like controller. Some,plastic non-guitar like this isn't worth $150 let alone $500+.
Man this is so wholesome, loving the objectivity and willingness to come together. Kudos to both, you and Aeroband! Now just imagine if every such situation would get approached in this way, how awesome would that be??
I think it has potential as a travel instrument and for midi recording but they have a ways to go yet.
If it had really good tracking and velocity then it could be useful to guitarists that want to lay down MIDI synth, strings etc. I'm not sure if there are any really good devices for a reasonable price that can do that. To get a full MIDI guitar rig going costs a chunk of change currently.
If tracking works really well (maybe just Software issues and the Hardware is possibly already capable of it), then it could be a reasonable investment, not for the beginner market, but for advanced users. I would totally use something like that for MIDI tracking if it works well and the price is at least reasonable.
I have played keyboards for many years. 10 years ago I started recording at home. I needed some guitar and bass backing and didn't find any realistic sounding digital plugins. First I bought an electric guitar, a cheap digital effect pod and started rehearsing an hour a day. To me tabbing, bending and muting was important. Very soon I got very good results and bought a bass too. To be honest I spend a lot of time just playing with the guitar and bass. It has been a fun experience. I think the best way to learn playing the guitar is to play a guitar.
You guys are way to nice.
What they are wanting is cheap endorsements to their product. They don't want to pay the price tag it would take for someone in the music industry to endorse their product. The legal threats they made under the guise of misinformation meaning anything they don't like and not what is true. If they wanted to make a great product they wouldn't try to conceal the product with legal threats rather they would reach out and ask for opinions how to improve the product.
People are tired of being treated like cattle/ cash cows and the trends shows it. Unity, Target, Anheuser-Busch, and Blizzard to name a few.,
What this company did in trying to promote their product (fake advertisements, threatening letters to youtubers, chatbots spamming comments) says a LOT more about these people than what they have done in their attempts to do damage control.
This is a product that no one needs and answers no questions being asked. And the company is clearly focused on profit, and to a certain extent to be honest, fraud.
I'd bail on them, period.
Well Henning, this is nice of you to engage with them again providing quality feedback and your knowledge.
Now, telling you as one of your long-term subscribers… just forget about these people. Their current product simply doesn’t belong to real music gear channels. Move on, and the soonest possible because now several channels are talking about this, which is unnecessary and some viewers will indeed say things like “it’s just about the clicks”, and you and other good/hardworking musician-RUclipsrs don’t need to waste time and energy with that crap.
Cheers friend.
Thank you for this, Henning: you were right in the first video, and right again in this, plus you teach people through this video how to be honest yet diplomatic with a company that asked you to review their product.
Man, I love your stance on the guitar community and really speaking in Behalf to us the consumers. Thanks for sticking to your guns on this.
Could you ask them if they will remove the threat of legal action against Andy, and apologise to him!
Our music teacher started explaining the Do Re Me nursery rhyme to us. We counted them, 7.
From there we learned harmony, so a bit of mathematics came in and I was hooked. There was some logic to the structure.
After that a person can analyze any piece of music, or scale, to detect various optional selections, seems this could go on for a lifetime. A pastime.
The various instruments have a little skill required to interact with them, and I can see lessons focusing on this. But the structure is where I usually start. It’s more of a universal language.
[edit] I wish you the best HP. Sorry to hear how this has gone. Kinda kills the joy for music.
Thay made a HUGE mistake sending that "thing" to guitar reviewers..
They should've sent it to Gamer Streamers who want to learn guitar... They might have different opinion on the thing.
And let's not forget the threats of legal actions to theguitargeek in case he would put out a negative review, I'm afraid we're really getting past the point of giving the benefit of the doubt.
There isn't any doubt.
The not looking in the mirror before filming is something I would do for sure. I appreciate self deprecating humor so the little note at the end made me crack up. Also, you're right, Glenn would've torn this company a new arse. Cheers.
I dont care if a company goes under or if people lose jobs if the company is using deceptive practices to sell or market their product and they get called out for it. They dug the hole....they can learn how to climb out of it.
In terms of body shape and styling I think it looks great. Headstock shape suits it and is radical too. I think they have spent a lot of time, money and effort on industrial design. If they made real, good quality guitars that have the same body lines I think they would be on to a winner - and if they took their tech capabilities in a different direct - to enhance real guitars - they might just be revolutionary.
I am amazed they want advice, and that you took the time to make this video. Hopefully something comes of this.
I love that it didn't occur to their marketing department that the guitar community could have integrity. Please for the love of God send one to Glenn!
I think Glenn would have a stroke or pop a vocal chord.
@@sansocie I can hear him screaming in my head right now.
Being real. Bringing a new product to a competitive market is quite difficult. Making a product that fail to deliver, more so. But being open minded to improve the product & customer experience it may turn out to be some good to it. But above all thing, Integrity matters! 🎸🎸
Das zeigt ja, dass sie eigentlich schon vorhaben ein gutes Produkt auf den Markt zu bringen👍 Mich würde mal interessieren, ob die Personen, die in der Firma an der Entwicklung beteiligt sind überhaupt selber Gitarre spielen? Wäre zumindest von Vorteil ;-)
Wer weiß, vielleicht könnte man ja auch was aushandeln, damit es in Zukunft ein professionell produzierten, für das Produkt zugeschnittenen Online Gitarren Kurs gibt, um den absoluten Anfängern die Basics (Wie halte ich ne Gitarre, ect..) beizubringen. Z.B. auf RUclips von einem netten Hessen mit Erfahrungen als Gitarrenlehrer?!😉
Why would a beginner pay $600 ??? !! IMO A Chinese kit guitar goes for under $300 on average Comes with guitar, Picks, gig Bag, Strap, Cord, AMP. & Once student learns to play they can up grade electronics wiring, pots, caps, pickups, This is a great learning instrument. Or the student buys a used guitar like a Fender or Gibson under $300. looks like the video game Guitar Hero. They need to do everything you said plus SAY NOT A PRO LEVEL Instrument because its not. It could work if the price point is lower. Cheers
LOL they offered one to Glenn! :) Your review was what I know your subs expected, a great honest review. It's very nice to hear that they want to improve their product, that says a lot and not the impression I think most got from the emails that were sent out.
The product has shortcomings and people should be aware of them. End of story.
“I'll tip my hat to the Aeroband Guitar company
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my REAL guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
I don't get fooled again”
this has actually become quite interesting. and congratulations to you man, you have a spine.
Great follow up! I appreciate your candor and balance. Not everything has to be black or white and you do a great job managing the nuisance without needing to make anyone into villains. I’m sure they have people that put their hearts into this product and maybe - as you said - they just didn’t really understand the community / customer base well enough….and got some bad advice along the way. I’m just a newb but I think we should generally applaud legitimate innovation that moves the community, and learners, forward.
I think it's a technically interesting product. A few of the issues can be fixed in software (capo function mutes notes behind it, use only furthest pressed note for tapping, etc). Some may need a hardware tweak or both hardware and software (muting based on touching strings rather than "bar" on bridge cover).
Ultimately, it's difficult to really see the market for it and where they should be trying to position it. Individual RGB LED's under each note would make it better for learning (colour code for each finger for example, better than just the side lights), but it's just too expensive for that purpose alone... 🤷♂ It feels like something an engineer came up with and ran with without any thought to whether it actually solves an existing problem or fits any existing market niche. Just being a cool idea that does something in a new way appeals to engineers.
Thanks for the Update Henning. - Since you have their ear, and they mentioned bending... obviously with the silicon string arrangement, I just don't know how it would work, and as a beginner tool, it just isn't necessary.
However, if they want to get this thing to the experienced crowd as a midi controller, it would be great if it had a tremelo bar, which worked like a pitch wheel on a midi keyboard. Also, it could have a switch to change it to expression wheel mode. That could be cool... it would gain my interest.
As it stands now, I would not spend the money they are asking, but if they optimize it for midi use with my DAW... hmmm could be cool.
By the way Henning, may I add, thanks also for your honest review, in spite of the offer of money,. I am glad to hear the company is paying you anyway. You deserve it!
It'd be really cool if this guitar had LEDs on the fretboard which could show you the places you should grab your fingers to play notes and chords and when you press them correctly , LEDs for next chord appear and so on. Itd be really helpfull to learn new songs
Fixes: Buttons. These do not hurt fingers (yamaha and fender midi guitars). For bending an accelerometer chip like in the fender, cheap and is on all cellphones. 3) Actual midi out port. Then it will be pretty good.
Glad they are willing to listen to experts. As a technical instructor - this seems to suffer from some of the same issues we have with industrial training equipment - you can go simple, and be usable for 30 minutes early on - or you can get complex, which ends up being the actual equipment, and working on them instead/addition to. Another issue is the pricing thing - that is also a thing on a training tool, they are stupid expensive as a general rule.
Thanks for the follow up video.
I love the clean look of the guitar, and the idea having a speaker in the guitar.
Build a real guitar with the same looks and with speaker,headphone jack,line out, amp (simulator)and sounds like distortion-echo (simulation)build in. So it is always ready to play on vacation, the streets and on stage.
Well the points that you're making are extremely helpful, and it sounds like they want to improve. If they reduce the price dramatically, improved the tracks, maybe partner with someone for lessons. With the improvements you're suggesting it could be along the lines of a LAVA acoustic sort of deal.
just real quick, straight up, that is a beautiful space, that room. how often do we get wide open floors AND guitar stuff on the walls. it's all so clean and zen. LOVE it. (irrelevant to the vid but i felt props needed given. :) )
this company is scum, they threatened reviewers with lawsuits.
and possibly it seems astroturfed comments sections with human/bot 'fake positive messages' spam ... classy! not like some kind of mafia money laundering front group at all
Yes, kudos to them for their reaction. Just the same, it's an issue when a "guitar teaching product" can't teach bending notes. Everything else become totally pointless when you can't cover "ALL" the basics. Am I wrong?
This reminds me of a few years back when some indie video camera designer who was making (or trying to make) a high end "revolutionary" camera, sued (or threatened to review) influencers for honest reviews. Can't remember the name, but was very similar, and it ruined the company, as this likely will.
Color me surprised, did not see that coming after watching Andy's video yesterday.
Sounds like damage control for the damage control. Your absolutely right about the yes men thing I've seen this before where you have a group of people all saying "that's fantastic" but know very little about the real picture.
I’ve really enjoyed my Mad Katz Rock Band Pro controller as a MIDI controller. Especially for creating sheet music in Guitar Pro. If it can be better than that at a reasonable price, I’d be interested.
Seems to be fair from both sides. We will see how this will develop. The company has to offer something more or special for a tool that costs about 500€...
Maybe some more ongoing guitar courses over a longer period of time. If you imagine what kind of guitars you can get today, in such a high quality... it's hard to argue that this tool is needed. And also you can get guitar beginner sets under 500€...
Make it a tool that people would want to use: as you said, improve the app. Leds over all the fretboard that show chords, modes, etc. Really good samples, including a 12 string and synth sounds. And lastly, an actual MIDI tool capable enough for music production and, if possible, live playing. However, it would have to remain in the $500 ballpark.
Unfortunately Chinese companies have on the most part no ability to innovate . Their products for the most part consist of reverse engineered IP's from western manufactures. They believe if you make something that is a visual copy of something that already exists that is good enough. There have been toy guitars that have variations of this tech that have been available for decades.I doubt if anyone in their design team even plays guitar. There are many high quality guitar related products made in China by actual instrument and electronic based companies. This company is a manufacturer of clever toys and nothing more.
I appreciate their willingness to listen. Although it seems to me that it's way too late for that to make much difference at this point. What I can't forgive is their shoddy ethics: Misleading ads, questionable leaning on/threats of influencers, bot attacks and product ratings on their own web site (for the drum product) that are stellar compared with how their product is reviewed on a site they can't control, such as Amazon. I get it: A company has to protect its reputation. But by what means? When do the means actually tarnish that reputation?!
It's hard to trust a company with my money for a product that is not cheap under these circumstances. If they lie BEFORE they get my money, imagine how they'll act once my check clears.
My take; This is not really about “products” or a guitar per se. This is “corporate behaviour”, where self made rules go one way, while rights (if any) are up to the non-incorporated user/consumer to understand and possibly uphold. It’s about upholding corporate value, not simply trading goods (that was before 2008…).
The economic rights are SO different between corporations and eh, meat-and-blood persons. This is why nearly every single country has (had?) some kind of regulation (an f-word…?) to protect end users who are NOT corporations. A company can also write off expenses from a lost litigation, a “simple” wage-taker can not. Also, a company can mostly work (trade) across national borders, while consumer rights don’t work across the same borders.
Remember that large corporations are the main influencers for our politicians. We only have our ballots (and SoMe influencers), and no stock options to influence said corporations in reverse. Isn’t that kinda un-democratic…? 😅👍
It seems like this company may actually be listening to people reviewing the products. This is a good thing and hopefully they listen and hopefully they didn't sink too much into production beyond where it would be too costly to make any corrections and improvements.
the behaviour is more in line with what happens in the Chinese social media influencer system. i've seen a number of Chinese companies bringing products to international influencers by having an internal marketing division or hiring domestic marketing companies that have no idea how to work in the international market. it usually doesn't work out very well for the reasons you've outlined. i've worked as a copywriter for one of these companies and seen a bit of the panic and confusion from the product company themselves.
I really appreciated both the 2 videos you made about this product, cause you explained everything from your point of view and from a point of view of non guitarist. And I've learned something more about this product boh good and bad things.
It's great they responded like that. The issue is that it's a cultural problem and just the way ecommerce works in China. In China if you want to sell something, it's all done on a few big platforms where it's an essentially pay to play ads/rank, influencer and discount driven. They don't really have this website concept, organic SEO etc... even though they do exist. These platforms are heavily controlled and fixed. So, when Chinese companies try and sell in the west, they normally think they can heavily discount, pay for fake reviews and pay influencers. Also, the influencers in China are nearly all with agencies and have very punitive contracts which is why they tried to write politely threatening letters to some RUclipsrs.
Nice to see you take the time to address the issues from all directions.
I wish they ditch all the learning stuff and focus only on it being a midi controller - there is a huge market where the guitar and the synth community meet and they could gain a bunch of synth channels that would be genuinely interested in such a product. Let's hope for the best. I appreciate your positive take and I hope they turn around for the better.
I wanna see it used as a Skyrim controller.
this is good in my opinion. i mean they probably only do it because they will lose money and they try to save it, but the fact that t hey are willing to say " ok what didnt you like? can we make it better and make it work? " and work with people and maybe make a better product that could potentially help beginners, this is very good and respectable. i still think i agree that its best to just get a comfortable cheap guitar and take proper lessons, but if done right, it could work for some people. maybe. and its good to see them willing to try to correct it.
I really hope they listen to you. As a respected teacher and player, your views can guide this company into making great educational products.
Best wishes on the new version.
"With great power comes great...coffee." well played, my friend! Too funny!
In the end the product just doesn't solve a real problem. You might as well just get an electric with light strings and a professional setup. It is basically a pub conversation that got out of hand and no one thought to check if it made sense later :-)
The product may not be amazing, they may have panicked a bit when things started going sideways, but they way they have approached the backlash actually makes me excited to see what they come up with next. I may never be a beginner again, but there are plenty of people out there who could benefit from something _like_ this product, and the more guitar players the better!
I disagree. I don't see how starting off on even a better version of this thing is better than starting off with a real guitar. Everything it makes easier it does so by encouraging bad habits that then you're going to have to break on a real instrument, which isn't helping the student out at all.
I bend on my acoustic. Also pressure vibrato and side-to-side vibrato. Not doing big bends as my fingers can only take so much...
If they want to get your input, that's basically development and need to pay for it.
I never going to buy that sh*t! Sounds like a dangerous company..
Easy fixes: 1 add a fking midi port. 2) drop the price: remember a regular gtar + a boss SY-1 pedal gets you right into synth guitar perfectly for much less.
Very much recommended: Buttons instead of the captive strips. The buttons play so much better (yamaha and fender vs yourock).
The fender has a sensor that if you move the gtar around it can bend the notes if you want (a gyroscope like your phones).
I think if they really wanna target Beginners, They need to get rid of all that EXTRA bling thats not needed. The Midi, The Jack, all that. It should be as plain and simple as charging port, the Capo function is pretty cool and maybe to make it more realistic add the function of having to play at the higher fret like how you would have to with an actual capo etc..
This is why you always need an independent consultant before you release a product into a market that you either don't know anything or very little about.
MIDI ? That could be the saving grace. An ‘easy to play MIDI guitar controller’ is a very viable product.
But put a sequencer in the guitar…
That’s a very attractive product - with a very specific market.
I’d pay $300 for that if I was a ‘home synth studio ‘ dude (which I am), and guitar playing was not my main thing - because the Aeroband with an inbuilt sequencer would be a crazy good fun tool to make music.
Imagine - you turn up at a friend’s studio with a guitar loaded with riff sequences and nice chords, all ready to plug in to your favourite synths.
That would be a killer product.
Best of luck to Aeroband.
✌ 👽 🎸
I'm not in the business of ruining lives, companies etc. either, nor am I influencer. On other hand, aeroband is not my responsibility. They released product which is ... let's say "based on being clueless about what the intended purpose requires" added marketing which is bad. When they don't make money on that adventure, it's not my fault.
Maybe something got lost in translation with these instruments.
I would really like to hear an actual sales pitch that goes over the features and the intention of the company.
Pretty wholesome video you got here, today. Maybe you can help these guys with their idea.
Good luck.
Maybe if the company had ever picked up the decades old Casio product, that was basically the same thing, they could have seen how this was going to go.
I love how you are living up to being the bigger person. Yeah, they messed up originally, but anyone who is genuinely trying to learn from them deserves a second chance IMO. When dealing with people from different cultures etc, there are big pitfalls to fall into, and some patience is warranted :)
@@rinkydinkfretboard8737
". You don’t threaten your customers with legal action for not liking your product. It’s the golden rule. "
Quite right, we don't do that around here. Nor anywhere as far as I know. But to be fair, that is not what they did.
So, let's reformulate it a bit "You don't threaten a reviewer you have commissioned to review your product for calling your product trash" ....Which I just can imagine some company would do around here, but they really shouldn't.
But maybe that is not a strange thing to do in a another culture.
The saving grace IMO, (you don't have to agree,) is that they seem to realize they have misunderstood how western consumers and (even paid) reviewer think and feel about the matter, and they are trying to learn and accommodate the new market.
Dude , do not defend yourself , crappy products should not make it , the people who pay for the products will support the products if the product is good. You gave a honest opinion. They picked the wrong person to demo the crap they made. There is like 3 billion people in that one country , if they can not make it in that market , what makes them think it needs to be on a global market? I would stop pandering to them and just tell them to find someone who does not want to actually play guitar to cater too. They literally made a glorified Rockband or guitar hero instrument. Its worthless for learning anything lol.
I see as the only possible saving grace for this instrument if they can make each segment of "string" on the fretboard to light up independently. In that case, the product value would be to learn songs faster by just pressing the sequence of lights on the fretboard, which would be handy for anyone who is bad at reading tabs: this would include beginners, but also hobbyists who want to keep playing "by ear" or don't have enough time/energy/motivation to learn sight reading.
IF they can implement this technology, and IF they can reduce the price, then I think this instrument may be a nice addition to a hobbyist guitarist collection that can and will be used alongside real guitars: any time you want to learn a new song you learn the fingering first on the aeroguitar and when you are comfortable with playing it by memory then you can perfect it on a real guitar. Or if you just want to jam along with some friends on songs you have never played before, hopping on the aeroguitar and following lights may make your life easier and your play more interesting than looking for a tab or chord sequence on the internet.
In other words, I think that they have to rethink this instrument from a beginner's bridge to a real guitar to an easier and more fun alternative to tab reading. Otherwise there is no other way that such a product would be viable nor recommendable for anyone, including beginners.
Great video. I have seen several videos on this product. My question is, didn't Yamaha already do this with the ez-ag? Practically the same concept. 🤔
I’m glad they have shown interest in rethinking the product.
If it had been sold as just something fun to make some tunes on then it would never had got to this point!
As a concept I can see where it could be a good alternative to a guitar and an online course. I don’t think anything can be better than a real life old-school guitar lesson.
The first thing that stood out to me is the size. Surely you need kids to be able to use it too if you want to sell it as a learning platform? If you could add a led for every ‘string’ on each fret and tweak the tutorials surely it could have a place in classrooms etc - no tuning, able to be taught without a specialist music teacher etc etc
The concept seems to have a lot of potential but has skipped straight from the cool idea stage to sale without the use a subject expert stage.
My uncle had one of these because he wanted to learn guitar in his 50s. Not sure if it was the same company but it was the same concept. I was already an experienced young shredder when I picked it up and I thought it was a lot of fun tbh. Couldn't play a whole lot on it but it was still super fun to mess around on. im not a bot.
I nearly spit out my coffee that they reached out to Glenn Fricker! They didn’t make a good product, so they aren’t going to get a good review unless they get a dishonest reviewer. The RUclips guitar community (you and many of your friends I follow) they reached out to are not the target audience and are people of integrity that won’t lie.
Maybe they should lean on the midi controller side of it and try to appeal to kids who already make music ("beats" and whatnot) using some basic controller into an ipad but don't play guitar. I can see them getting to enjoy pretty quickly the ability to add a bit of strumming or arpeggios to their music, learn some guitar while at it, and keeping the device in their toolbox rather than tossing it after moving to an actual guitar.
I am an amateur guitar player since over 30 years... I don't know if that product is bad or good, and won't know it myself as I won't buy it ... But I have been in the advertising/marketing business since also over 30 years and no matter their product, this is where they got all wrong ... the target, the testers, the message, the threatening, the medium advertisement choice (they should have done a TV commercial for Christmas rather then sending that product to guitar influencers ...) ... in short, they did not prepare their media campaign the right way, and now, no matter what you would say trying to save them, the damage is done, it already happened in the past with many other products (great examples in the car industry) ... they should not have sent that to channels dedicated mostly to guitar players rather than to kids and parents who want a toy to play with for Christmas ... they should change that strategy right away and very quickly if they want to give a chance to their product ... because on what I see, this is definitely not an educational tool as to help learn the guitar ... it is just a Christmas toy in the middle of the tons of other useless Christmas toys with lights and sounds ...
Those companies that listen to the negative, acknowledge it and fix it are the ones I will throw money at
Hats off, Henning. Super respect for you.
That being said, you may not be in the business of ruining companies and making people jobless, but a bought "opinion" is a direct hit on the consumer - who is the less protected party in the manufacturer, influencer/reviewer and retailer scene. Yes, more than the worker of any company that may go jobless.
You may say it's one person mistake and not a company, but when you add bought reviews with legal threats, the lying spec sheet, the overdubbing, the bot spam and probably a ton of worst stuff behind the curtains, you're over one person or one team. Again, a lot of respect for your position in the case, but I really hope they fade into nothingness as an example to future scammers.
The guitar community already has enough dogmas with fenders, gibsons, mesa boogies and marshalls; we don't need new companies to perpetuate bad practices. If a company does all that with a kickstarter program investment, can you imagine what could they do with e.g., the Gibson shares of US market (1.5bi - 34% of the 4.4bi of guitar sales in US 2022)? With their practices that are clearly and willingly damaging for their consumers plus plenty fuel (money), you can imagine the fire later. They got their chance and they f'd up. Now they get the heat and then just fade.