any love for the Boss TU-2 tuner

  • Thread starter Thread starter saxxamafone
  • Start date Start date
I never understood why they did a Waza Tuner. What’s special about it?
 
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Ive had one for years, works fine. Set & forget. And like most Boss pedals its a buffer.
 
The buffer on the TU-3 is terrible. Was the buffer on the TU-2 better?
 
Where’s Mason to tell me to use the Vertex buffer?
 
Hate it. I'm a polytune guy but recently switched to the EBMM volume tuner with a loop which is game changing
 
DanTravis62 said:
Hate it. I'm a polytune guy but recently switched to the EBMM volume tuner with a loop which is game changing
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i tuned for 5min with the poly tune and couldn’t get past the pixelated led display.. funny how different guys prefer different things
 
saxxamafone said:
i tuned for 5min with the poly tune and couldn’t get past the pixelated led display.. funny how different guys prefer different things
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Honestly it's really intuitive and accurate if you take a second to get used to it

You can also change the display to multiple different types, including an easy tu type
 
There are multiple buffers in a Boss pedal. The input buffers are fine, it is the output buffers that are lacking for driving long runs.
The output buffer doesn't matter unless it is the last pedal before the cable that goes to the amp.
Boss uses the fet-style buffers that do not stack-up well, so limit yourself to a couple Boss pedals in front of the amp and not more than a couple in the loop and you'll be fine, just do not use them in the last position.
 
I used the same TU-2 for 25 years and it finally started acting funny.
Just ordered a TU-3.
If it works...it works 😁
 
Just now realised I’ve never bought a tuner.

Back when I started playing guitar in high school I was acoustic only for a few years and my mom bought me whatever cheap pocket tuner for acoustics everyone else had.

When I started playing electric I always had a modeler with a built in tuner until about 10 years ago when I bought my house and started accumulating tube amps. But I still just plug into my axe FX to tune, even when playing tube amps.
 
dave74 said:
There are multiple buffers in a Boss pedal. The input buffers are fine, it is the output buffers that are lacking for driving long runs.
The output buffer doesn't matter unless it is the last pedal before the cable that goes to the amp.
Boss uses the fet-style buffers that do not stack-up well, so limit yourself to a couple Boss pedals in front of the amp and not more than a couple in the loop and you'll be fine, just do not use them in the last position.
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I'm not sure how this relates to what you mean, but the problem why I say the buffer on the TU-3 sucks is because it clips. It doesn't have a lot of headroom. I once tried recording DI's with the TU-3 in the chain because I though having a buffer in the chain would help a little, right? But I immediately noticed the waveform looked cut off on the highest peaks as if I were playing active pickups. I normally use hot pickups like the Nazgul, 500T, and Black Winter. But I also had Burstbuckers on a guitar at that point, and even those puny little things made the buffer clip a little if I strummed hard.

The Bonafide buffer on the Polytune certainly doesn't do that.
 
Rex Rocker said:
I'm not sure how this relates to what you mean, but the problem why I say the buffer on the TU-3 sucks is because it clips. It doesn't have a lot of headroom. I once tried recording DI's with the TU-3 in the chain because I though having a buffer in the chain would help a little, right? But I immediately noticed the waveform looked cut off on the highest peaks as if I were playing active pickups. I normally use hot pickups like the Nazgul, 500T, and Black Winter. But I also had Burstbuckers on a guitar at that point, and even those puny little things made the buffer clip a little if I strummed hard.

The Bonafide buffer on the Polytune certainly doesn't do that.
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Oh I see. I've never used a tuner in my chain, only to do setups so I've never ran into the clipping issue. I guess that is why Boss don't always work in loops if the signal is too hot.

I wonder if the Waza tuner clips like that, and what about when the Waza is set on true-bypass. (?)

Those Bonified buffers are a great deal, and as you said they are built into many of the regular TC pedals.
Many tones would be improved just by placing a Bonified at the end of the front-end and at the end of the loop chain.
 
dave74 said:
Oh I see. I've never used a tuner in my chain, only to do setups so I've never ran into the clipping issue. I guess that is why Boss don't always work in loops if the signal is too hot.

I wonder if the Waza tuner clips like that, and what about when the Waza is set on true-bypass. (?)

Those Bonified buffers are a great deal, and as you said they are built into many of the regular TC pedals.
Many tones would be improved just by placing a Bonified at the end of the front-end and at the end of the loop chain.
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Yeah, I was wondering about the Waza too. I honestly overall liked how the TU-3 tuned over the TC if I must be honest. Tuning was faster, less finicky, and I always felt like I sounded more in tune after tuning with the TU-3. Not night and day, but the user experience was overall the tiniest fraction better, IMO. It's just that damn stupid buffer.

The Bonafide buffer sounds and functions so much better.

That's my overall experience with Boss pedals, to be honest. A lot of them are really nice, but if you look elsewhere, you'll probably find something better. I love the SD-1. It's the one Boss Pedal that I really love, but I just love the MXR Wylde Overdrive better, for example.
 
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Rex Rocker said:
That's my overall experience with Boss pedals, to be honest. A lot of them are really nice, but if you look elsewhere, you'll probably find something better. I love the SD-1. It's the one Boss Pedal that I really love, but I just love the MXR Wylde Overdrive better, for example.
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I agree with this, wholeheartedly, with a couple of big exceptions.

As far as cheap digital delays go, the old DD3s have some kind of magic that just works, especially for leads. There's other stuff out there that's great, for sure, strymon dig etc, but the DD3 is a bonafide classic.

The Dimension C is incredible too, and even with a handful of copies out there, NONE have come close.

I've never been an SD1 guy, I actually prefer the old OD series pedals by a wide margin.
 
DanTravis62 said:
I agree with this, wholeheartedly, with a couple of big exceptions.

As far as cheap digital delays go, the old DD3s have some kind of magic that just works, especially for leads. There's other stuff out there that's great, for sure, strymon dig etc, but the DD3 is a bonafide classic.

The Dimension C is incredible too, and even with a handful of copies out there, NONE have come close.

I've never been an SD1 guy, I actually prefer the old OD series pedals by a wide margin.
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I've never tried the Dimention C, but I'd love to. I use a model of one on my Helix, and I used to have a cheap TC Electronics clone.

Do you mean the OD-1? Or the OD-3? I don't love the OD-3, but that's a whole different kind of pedal than I'm used to. It's certainly not a TS-type like the SD-1 is. I'd love to try an OD-1.
 
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