Gibson Guitars have revealed plans to hit back over a supposed legal case against auto-tuning firm Tronical with a court battle of their own.

Last week Far Out Magazine reported the news that Tronical, a German company whose automatic guitar tuning systems were first released in 2013, announced their legal case against Gibson with plans to sue for $50 million.

Now the troubled guitar company has hit back at the statement issued by Tronical CEO Chris Adams which claimed that Gibson breached an “exclusive research and development agreement with Tronical.”

Gibson say the Tronical case was designed “to hide the fact that Tronical and Mr Adams were sued last year by Gibson, alleging that they currently owe Gibson several millions of dollars in damages.”

Gibson’s response goes on to say that they provided Tronical and CEO Adams with in excess of $13.5 million in funding to create and develop auto tuners exclusively for Gibson.

“Despite the millions that Gibson previously paid Tronical and Mr. Adams, they have been unwilling or unable to account for the monies provided by Gibson, have failed to fulfil agreed-upon orders for products, and have failed to return money that was prepayment for goods never delivered,” Gibson said.

Tronica’s case against Gibson comes after their patented auto-tuning system appeared on Gibson’s controversial 2015 range and marketed under the name ‘G-Force’. However, G-Force returned mixed results from some sceptical guitar lovers and it was later assigned to High Performance electrics only in the 2016 and 2017.

Tronical recently said in an official statement: “Tronical is claiming licensing fees to the amount of 23 million US dollars from the share in the profits agreed in the contract, and a further 27 million US dollars on the grounds of Gibson’s breach of contract of the exclusive research and development agreement with Tronical, which Gibson should have met by 2026.”

The case comes at a difficult time for the iconic guitar company who face major battles to avoid administration as crippling debt threatens to end their longstanding influence on the music industry.

Gibson have a $375 million bond due to be paid the 23rd of July and it will trigger $145 million to be added to that total if it’s not paid in full by then.

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