What tuner pedal are you using ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bash_Man
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acceptance said:
Everyone is saying that nearly all boss pedals have the best buffers…
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There is a video with Brian Wampler where he stacks a bunch Boss pedals in a chain, and he comes out losing signal or something pretty worrisome.

 
The TC Electronic Polytune Noir works great for me. I play gigs in the day from time to time and the screen on my trusty old Boss TU-2 was unreadable in sunlight. The TC Electronic is as visible in direct sunlight as it is in a dark bar. I also like the fact that TC is smaller than the Boss.
 
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To save space on my new board I took a chance on the Rockstock Nano Tuner. The switch doesn't seem the most robust, but I use it in the tuner out of my ES-8 so that isn't an issue, and I find it does a good job.

4.-Smallest-Tuner-Ever-Made.png
 
Rex Rocker said:
I'm using the TC Electronic Polytune 3. The buffer is killer, but it's also defeatable. The screen is nice and bright's. It's fairly accurate. The polyphonic tuning thing is kind of a gimmick. It honestly doesn't work all that well in Drop C, but the chromatic tuning works fine. It's mostly the buffer that I like, honestly.

I had a Boss TU-3. I actually had two. They suck. I mean, they tune fine. They're bright. They're reliable. But the buffer fucking blows. Anything higher output than a vintage single coil clipped the buffer when strumming hard.

I also had a Planet Waves Tru Strobe Pedal Tuner. Hated it. It felt like the tuner had anxiety attacks. Tuning was super slow and cumbersome. The finish got tarnished super fast. Ugh.

I actually kinda sorta liked how the TU-3 tuned on the fly. Like... 0.01% better? But man... that fucking buffer.
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Agree on the Polytune 3 and the buffer. Is there any way to turn off the polytune function and just use it as a regular tuner? I find it very accurate also without all the bouncing around like regular tuners.
 
Soundstorm said:
Agree on the Polytune 3 and the buffer. Is there any way to turn off the polytune function and just use it as a regular tuner? I find it very accurate also without all the bouncing around like regular tuners.
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If you just strum a single string, it works like a regular tuner.
 
What tuner pedal works well for tuning to A? I have a couple pedals and they work ok but most of them seem to struggle when I use my seven string trying to tune to A.
 

PROVIDENCE STV-1JB SYSTEM TUNER​


my favourite.
It's a Korg Pitchblack Advanced
Buffer is same spec as TC Bonafide
Buffer can be switched on and off when needed.

providence-stv-1jb_2000x.jpg
 
MetalThrasher said:
What tuner pedal works well for tuning to A? I have a couple pedals and they work ok but most of them seem to struggle when I use my seven string trying to tune to A.
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I have no problem tuning my 5-string bass with the Polytune?

Most tuners are meant to be used for guitar and bass. I didn't know it was common for tuners not to work on lower tunings?
 
I can tune to B no problem, but it seems once I go lower the tuner goes out of whack if I could put it that way.
 
tuning fork as well.
I realized how professional tuners killed music.
 
Hey everyone, so I got both TU3 and Polytune 3 pedals to evaluate. I ran/wired both pedals in series to see how it goes for both in a live situation (band jam in this case). I didn't put the tone factor in perspective as I figured if a pedal causes tone suck (ie TU3), I can simply use a Bypass Loop pedal or buffered input splitter to remove it from the signal chain. Setup was Guitar --> TU3 (bypass Output) --> PT3 --> remaining rig. Note that I do have a mute function on my Fractal FX8, so not having the TU3 or PT3 inline isn't an issue if I decide on that. I also wired it up that way so I can turn both pedals ON to tune, with the TU3 bypass output allowing the signal to flow to the PT3.

I put the PT3 on true bypass mode as I didn't want to have its buffer affect the buffer on the TU3 in any way and give me a false positive on the TU3. So, the tone test with the TU3 will come later IF I decide I need a Bypass Loop pedal.

My findings:
Let me start by saying these are my findings from what I found/experienced and are not reflective of everyone's or someone else's findings or opinions.
  • Both pedals are amazing with their features set. I can see why both pedals are popular and used by many musicians as tuners in their rigs.

  • Both pedals are accurate, the PT3 was more accurate, however, I found myself fiddling with tuning more, which wasted time in a way.

  • While tuning with both tuners, the TU3 showed me being in tune utilizing the Accupitch feature, while the PT3 sort of kept showing as I was off a hair bit, but tonally and playing open chords, the guitar was in tune. Perhaps something to do with the PT3 having ±0.1 cent accuracy while the TU3 has ±1 cent.

  • While keeping both tuners on while playing, the PT3 jumped all over the place. Especially jumping between the standard tuner and polyphonic modes. Big distraction in my opinion. The TU3 only has one mode per display.

  • Polyphone mode was great when silent tuning, however; I found it took some patience to sort of "learn" how to use it correctly between that and single-string tuning. One little noise or too many strings and PT3 jumps between single note mode and polyphonic. In a live situation, I can see that being frustrating and somewhat of a time waster.

  • Between the ±1 Cent (TU3) and ±0.1 Cent (PT3) difference, while it's almost 10x "less accurate", it didn't seem to make a difference tonally to my ears and even tuning with the TU3, everything was in tune. The PT3 just made me spend more time tuning with no audible results. It's almost like you need tuning heads with a smaller turn ratio to get into that small 0.X Cent tuning position to make the PT3 happy.
So, after testing for a couple of hours, I ended up going with the TU3 and sadly returned the PT3 to the store. For the price used, you can't go wrong with the TU3 (I got mine for $80CDN from Kijiji) while the PT3 I had to get new as everything used was priced nearly as much brand new and people weren't willing to work a deal.

Cheers
 
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