Melo-D

Most people who give up on guitar never get past the first hurdle: not knowing where their fingers should go. Melo-D is built around that problem. Instead of starting with chord charts and theory, the maker pitches it as a way to begin with music you already want to play, following light cues on the neck and prompts on a built-in screen.

Learning by following the light

The maker says the neck lights up to show where to press for each chord and note, and the screen shows when and where to press. The approach is closer to a rhythm game than a method book. Beginners start with a 7-key Beginner Mode and can later move to a 21-chord Advanced Layout, so the instrument grows with the player rather than front-loading everything at once.

AI features: AI Tab, Hum-to-Solo and AI Jam

According to the maker, AI Tab reads the melody from an uploaded audio file, arranges it into something playable and syncs it to the guitar. Songs can be organized either as fingerstyle solo tabs or as chord charts for singing along. Hum-to-Solo takes a melody hummed into the smartphone app and converts it into a playable fingerstyle solo, which is then synced to Melo-D. AI Jam runs on the guitar's own touchscreen: pick a tone, genre and mood, and the AI generates an original piece. Because tabs, AI-generated songs and guides can all be handled on the 2.4-inch LCD touchscreen, the maker says the phone can be put away once a song is synced.

Melo-D also offers multiple instrument sounds, including acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, digital piano, guzheng and drums, which the maker presents as a way to keep practice from going stale.

Hardware and specifications

• Folding design: 468.5×243×81mm folded, 894.5×274.5×81mm unfolded; weight 2193g
• Sound: 0.91L acoustic chamber, 10W tweeter, 20W woofer, DSP tuning, up to 20W amplifier output
• Battery: 5000mAh, 7.3V, 36.5Wh; about 5 hours with the built-in speakers, 10+ hours (theoretical) with external speakers
• Charging: USB Type-C, up to 5V/3A, 15W input; about 2.5 hours to charge
• Connectivity: USB Type-C OTG for real-time mobile recording and audio output, 3.5mm TRS line out, 3.5mm TRS wireless mic input, Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth LE 5.0, Bluetooth Audio 5.0
• Materials: PC+ABS plastic body; stainless steel alloy and aluminum alloy metal parts
• Colors: Pearl White and Obsidian Black

Taken together, Melo-D aims to fold practice, songwriting and portability into one self-contained instrument, with built-in speakers meaning no external amp is required to play, according to the maker.