Artist 01 | ​​
The Instrument that started it all​​
​The Kuzma Self-Playing Guitar began as an engineering experiment driven by curiosity and a lifelong love of the guitar. There were years of conversations, questions, shared problem-solving, and a lot of bad music. That’s where the early prototypes took shape.​
By asking a lot of questions to a lot of generous people, the early advanced prototypes began to work.
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Now the question became -
"What should I do with this self-playing guitar now that it exists?"
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In a converation asking for advice, the owner of Artist 01 took this question to heart.
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"I want the first one."
Inventor (Michael Kuzma) sharing the early prototype
From the beginning, this wasn’t just a project — it was years of trial, error, and persistence.
9,400 hours
7 years of development
Making it reliable and worthy of a home took years of iteration.
This video tells the full
story of Artist 01.
Safe transportation being tested as Artist 01 performs at Two Peoples Bay in Western Australia prior to being shipped to the other side of the globe
Artist 01 didn’t go to a collector or a vault. It went back to the community where this project first took shape. Artist 01 now lives in a not-for-profit restaurant raising money to serve meals for those in need.
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Artist 01 set the stage for all those that came after.
Artist 01 with the new owners.
The Story of Artist 01 Continues...
As Artist 01 began attracting attention beyond its original home, it was temporarily exhibited to showcase local engineering patents in the community.
Artist 01 was recently placed in a premium display case
Artist 01 marks the moment the Kuzma Self-Playing Guitar stopped being an idea and became a work of art.