Guitar Fetish Has Tuner Pedals In Stock!

gjbassist · #1 03-28-2010, 09:47 AM

I have been waiting since December to order one of these but they have been out of stock. Just checked and they have them so I nabbed one! If you want one get it while you can.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfselditusif.html

sidd_laroy · #2 03-28-2010, 10:03 AM

is their stuff any good? their prices are ridiculously low.

uaudio · #3 03-28-2010, 10:05 AM

Nice. This answers the only two relevant questions when considering tuners:

1. Does it tune accurately?
2. How much does it cost?

gjbassist · #4 03-28-2010, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidd_laroy

is their stuff any good? their prices are ridiculously low.

I'll soon find out. I ordered it because of positive comments here on TB about it being accurate, able to track a low B string and easy to read. Will post a review once I get it.

Volume4 · #5 03-29-2010, 05:14 PM

Mine just arrived today. Only worry I have is the footswitch......it feels very cheap/fragile..... but who knows.

Otherwise, I've only tried it once and it does it's job well. The jacks seem just okay and it would be great on a dark stage.

It's a very nice design and layout and I don't know how many other tuners for $40 are accurate to +/- 1 cent.

It's cool, I think if it broke, got lost or stolen..... I wouldn't get it again. I think I would go for a Planet Waves unit.

It's well worth the $ if it holds up, which I can't predict.

Here is a pic

Bongolation · #6 03-29-2010, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uaudio

Nice. This answers the only two relevant questions when considering tuners:

1. Does it tune accurately?
2. How much does it cost?

Actually, the two questions are:

1: Can I see it?

2: How much does it cost?

"Accuracy" is almost always a canard with tuners, which are by far the most comprehensively misunderstood piece of equipment a musician will ever buy, especially bassists.

Webtroll · #7 03-29-2010, 07:32 PM

That's pretty nice. Not nice enough to make me regret buying a Polytune but pretty nice.

bongomania · #8 03-29-2010, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bongolation

"Accuracy" is almost always a canard with tuners, which are by far the most comprehensively misunderstood piece of equipment a musician will ever buy, especially bassists.

Not disagreeing with you per se, but I wonder if you could explain that statement a bit more?

blendermassacre · #9 03-29-2010, 11:58 PM

I've had mine for months. I don't gig, but I've never had any sort of problem with daily at home use. I power mine with a one spot. Its super bright in my dark basement. Tracks fairly well (low b isn't perfect, but better than the sabine rack tuner I had). Overall way worth the money compared to a korg pitchblack.

Thankful birds · #10 03-30-2010, 12:11 AM

Own it, gig it a lot. It is the easiest to use tuner I've ever had. I love it.

Bongolation · #11 03-30-2010, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bongolation

"Accuracy" is almost always a canard with tuners, which are by far the most comprehensively misunderstood piece of equipment a musician will ever buy, especially bassists.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

Not disagreeing with you per se, but I wonder if you could explain that statement a bit more?

Sure, the quick version:

1: What does "in tune" mean in the first place? People will argue about that forever and about all they'll agree on is that whatever "in tune" is, it's impossible to achieve throughout the range of available notes on a fretted stringed instrument because of inherent intonation difficulties. So, "accurate to .01 of a cent" is meaningless there, because playing notes around a fretboard will produce relative tuning inaccuracies of several cents anyway, even if you've decided on what "in tune" means to you in terms of temperament or no temperament.

2: Human hearing can't distinguish sub-cent variations anyway, even if you were just going to play that one "in tune" note.

3: Your bass probably does not produce stable and clean tones/waveforms anyway, especially if it's on the big strings of a "woody" instrument. I've seen vintage and vintage style basses that throw wows of over 30 cents on E with flats. Watching these outputs on a 'scope make one despair of ever being "in tune" because you can hear the note wowing back and forth. You look at the 'scope and you don't have the tidy, stable sine wave you'll see on, say a higher note on a guitar. What you have is a pretty nasty waveform the approximate fundamental tone of which is going back and forth as various resonances in the instrument and its environment interfere with each other. Of course, the lower the note, the more apparent this is.

You can't blame an "inaccurate" or "lousy, cheap" tuner for this -- but people do it all the time.

If you were working with a clean 440 A from a reference signal generator, almost any tuner at any price will give you a good zero on A unless it's been damaged or had something in the circuit degrade -- but you're not dealing with a clean reference signal, you're often dealing with a very unstable, organic output from a semi-rigid instrument trying to shake a big ugly string at a constant 41.204Hz, say, in spite of other interfering vibrating frequencies.

If a tuner can give you a stable zero with this sort of input, then it's because it is INaccurate, not accurate. There is some sort of damping that fakes an average out of this messy input, but with what is effectively a volatile, asymmetric waveform, this can only be a guess, and usually it's not a very good one.

"Garbage in = garbage out," in other words. A tuner can only do so much, and the purely instrumental accuracy of a tuning device based on ideal lab-signal input is the least of your worries as a musician trying to play music.

Volume4 · #12 03-30-2010, 04:46 PM

Interesting stuff.

Day 2 and I'm feeling better about purchasing the GFS, also good to hear fellow TBers who have owned one longer.

This is from the Tuner description of the Planet Waves unit I was torn over between getting the GFS or. I'm going to build a pedalboard in the near future so the GFS won. I can use the bypass on my Bass Big Muff as a tuner out on the board.

Probably good advice for any tuner

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.c...er-?sku=210086

The purest input tones yield the best results. Here's how to achieve optimal tuning:

•Pluck the string with a light to moderate stroke. Strings will usually go slightly sharp right after the initial attack. Excessive or heavy plucking of the string will increase this effect. Give the string a second to "settle" before tuning.

•Pluck the string with the flesh of your thumb. This will yield less harmonic information for the tuner to analyze then using a pick.

•Turn the tone knob of the instrument down. This again will roll off high-end harmonic details and input a more fundamental tone.

•Lower the volume of the guitar 30% to 50%. This will usually yield less harmonic detail and input gain.

•While coarse tuning look at the entire display for movement. When the action of the LED's begin slowing to a halt, look at the leading LED for movement and continue to tune until the LED stops in place.

Bongolation · #13 03-30-2010, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volume4

Probably good advice for any tuner

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.c...er-?sku=210086

Yes, as far as it goes, but do you notice that much of this is sort of how to "fool" the tuner by sending it artificially tweaked output different from what you actually expect to play, and the notes the way you will actually play will not be "in tune"?

For example, if you tune a guitar according to the above instructions and then blast out fast chords, what will happen? You'll be substantially sharp (I'm not speculating here -- that's a known problem in engineering recordings, and they hint at it in those instructions).

My point -- which was originally brought to my attention by an article by producer/engineer Jack Endino many years ago -- is that electronic tuners for guitars and bass can never be more than tools for getting approximate tunings which will afterward have to be tweaked by ear to get the best compromise for what you are actually going to play, the way you are actually going to play it.

After a while, with a given bass and a given tuner, you can sometimes become familiar enough with their interaction to sort of "read between the lines" to produce approximately what you normally consider in tune from the readout's behavior.

But mainly your hope as a bassist lies in the fact that normal humans can't detect "out of tune" on single notes to within many cents. Chording makes out of tune more noticeable.

No go-faster tuner at any price (or their fervid ad copy) will fix any of this. When people bray on about how a $400 tuner's "superior accuracy" fixed all their problems, I assume they also bought a bunch of magic cables too.

Volume4 · #14 03-30-2010, 05:54 PM

Off topic....I'm a huge Jack Endino fan.

Anyway, you're making some good points...which is why I don't think spending over $100 for a tuner is a good idea.

A Boss TU pedal and most of its peers are good enough.

SO back to the original topic.....the GFS is a good buy imho.

blendermassacre · #15 03-30-2010, 06:03 PM

this thing falls into the "sx" debate category. For the money, you can't beat it. My only beefs are: The 9v input is really inconvienient, considering tuners are usually the first pedal people use from right to left. As mentioned, the low be could track better, but overall, I'm happy I spent my 40 bucks on that months ago.

pasta4lnch · #16 03-30-2010, 06:10 PM

Bongolation - good stuff. I've always been frustrated w/ tuning. . . I actually don't like my tuners sensitive for the reasons you mention. they'll never actually be IN tune. I can hear this more w/ my guitar than bass - I pluck and the note starts sharp and then flats out

Bongolation · #17 03-30-2010, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pasta4lnch

I can hear this more w/ my guitar than bass - I pluck and the note starts sharp and then flats out

Yes, and they always will. That's exactly how plucked strings behave -- so, where do you tune? Do you tune for the sharp initial peak, or the flat rolloff?

If you're chording a full six strings on a guitar and slamming fast punk stuff, you're going to be way sharp and it's going to be audibly apparent, as the more notes that are played, the more apparent "out of tune" is to the human ear.

The worst single thing about electronic tuners is that they prevent players from ever developing a decent ear for pitch, or even thinking about it.

To this day, "real" music instructors teaching "real" musicians usually force them to learn to tune by ear from a single reference tone, usually an A fork. This pays off in the long run, because ultimately you are going to have to tune by ear if you ever want to really sound right.

The difference here is that instead of getting their information on how to approach playing from classical instructors, people get their information from magazine ads and guitar store salesmen.

I don't have great pitch and have almost no patience at all. I use electronic tuners to get a quick and dirty "in tune" and usually don't sweat the small stuff. If it sounds off, I adjust until by ear until it doesn't and try to test for intonation problems later (poorly cut nuts are a huge source of intonation problems on guitars, particularly).

So, as I said initially, what I want is a tuner I can see. I have no illusions about what they can or can't do, but to the extent I use them, I don't want to stand there squinting at the readout trying to make it out.

pasta4lnch · #18 03-30-2010, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bongolation

The worst single thing about electronic tuners is that they prevent players from ever developing a decent ear for pitch, or even thinking about it.

I agree - I've definitely gotten lazy in the eartraining since I started relying on tuners (which I never had growing up). . . but at the same time in a live setting tuning by ear isn't a luxury most people have.

troy mcclure · #19 01-08-2011, 04:31 AM

I lost mine after leaving a gig to go to hospital and calling in a replacement bassist, no one knows what happen to it, I bought another one, it was awesome, It's display is plenty bright.

One Bad Monkey · #20 01-08-2011, 06:07 AM

Very well said, Bongolation.

One thing I've always believed about tuners is that if you're tuning with one, you'll ultimately be in tune with that and not necessarily the musicians you're playing with. Especially when playing with a piano (not a keyboard), it's more important to tune off that instrument than your tuner. If the piano hasn't been tuned in a while, it could very well be a little out of tune, rendering your tuner useless in that situation.