At CES 2025 I was able to demo the LiberLive C1, the “world’s first stringless guitar,” and yes, it’s basically Guitar Hero in real life.
Aspiring rock stars can enjoy and share their music thanks to the C1’s built-in speaker system comprising a 3-inch Mid-Woofer and a 0.8-inch Tweeter. Simply play the guitar by holding down one of the chord buttons on the fretboard and then strum the switch on the body, and the strength of your strumming translates into different dynamics in playback.
Beginners can use the app to show them interactive chord sheets to help them learn new songs. Then, when you want a more advanced setup, you can rely on the transpose knob to modulate the guitar’s standard chords, use the app to create custom chords that you can assign to the 21 neck buttons (seven rows of three), and even emulate . an acoustic guitar with the pad to play the C1 and six virtual strings.
You can also make the C1 sound more like a bass or piano to further personalize your music-making experience.
Not for purists, but for me.
The music purists among you will probably be a little horrified by the LiberLive C1, and may even scoff at its $799 asking price (it’s currently on sale for $499), but I think it’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait to try it out. exit correctly.
Yes, I don’t expect the next world-famous frontman to rely on a LiberLive at his band’s next concert, nor for musicians like Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran to trade in their trusty acoustic for a stringless guitar. However, for players who love to sing but aren’t proficient in another instrument, the C1 seems like a great option for simply playing your own custom accompaniment instead of relying on a pre-made track.
And while buskers may want to consider a speaker with a little more punch eventually (the noisy convention center wasn’t the loudest) as an all-in-one starter package (ignoring a singing microphone, which you may not need) . (necessary at first) doesn’t seem like a bad choice, especially with its battery life of up to six hours on a single charge (using the built-in speakers, it goes up to 12 hours with an external sound system).
I’ll want to test it out more before giving a final verdict, but in terms of technological solutions to democratize music creation, this seems like a much better solution than a soulless AI beat generator.
