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Peterson vs Walrus tuners

Jared Houseman

Jared Houseman

Jul 5, 2018
738
793
#1
I'm looking to pick up a new tuner for Black Friday. I've narrowed it down to the Peterson strobostomp for the walrus canvas tuner.

I slightly prefer the strobe screen of the Peterson, but the walrus matches my pedal board better and seems to be more flexible.

The real deciding factors for me are:

Responsiveness: I want to be able to use the tuner real time while playing fretless to give me some intonation feedback

Upright bass E string tracking: I've used a handful of tuners that work great on electric but can't sense the low E on an upright. I need a tuner that works well on both


Both are high quality tuners so I'm assuming they perform similarly. I would love to hear some feedback to help me make my choice
 
#2
Jared Houseman said:
I'm looking to pick up a new tuner for Black Friday. I've narrowed it down to the Peterson strobostomp for the walrus canvas tuner.

I slightly prefer the strobe screen of the Peterson, but the walrus matches my pedal board better and seems to be more flexible.

The real deciding factors for me are:

Responsiveness: I want to be able to use the tuner real time while playing fretless to give me some intonation feedback

Upright bass E string tracking: I've used a handful of tuners that work great on electric but can't sense the low E on an upright. I need a tuner that works well on both


Both are high quality tuners so I'm assuming they perform similarly. I would love to hear some feedback to help me make my choice
Click to expand...
I have a Peterson Mini on my board at home, and it’s super responsive. I use a boss TU-3 in strobe mode on my small “work” board and I think it’s also great.

I have no experience with the Walrus, but it does look great.
 
Last edited:
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#5
I recently bought Peterson mini. I had a doubt like You between him and Walrus, but went for a Peterson because Walrus needs a 300mA power. That was the only reason for my decision, and I was not wrong. It works flawlessly and I like it.
 
#7
I have the StoboStomp HD and the Mini and they are both great solid tuners and fast to pick up. I like the power pass-through on the HD and I also like how small the Mini is because I prefer to keep my pedalboards as small as possible. The monitor modes on both are a must have and the color of the screen can be changed to taste - not sure if that’s an option on the Walrus.

I have no experience with the Walrus.
I also have zero experience with upright fwiw.
 
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#8
Walrus looks interesting.

I went with the ST-300 because I could configure it to be always on to support my fretless playing. But is has no mute indication.

I picked up the StroboStomp HD which has a mute LED. I see the Walrus has the word "Mute" on the display.

The Petersen has a limited viewing angle which is not a problem when it is on the floor but if you have it on a desk it is hard to see. The ST-300 has no such limitation.
 
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#10
12bass said:
The Turbo Tuner ST-300 is nearly instantaneous and super accurate.
Click to expand...
This. It's the most accurate and responsive tuner I've ever used. That being said, I do have some Peterson tuners as well and they are good but not quite up to the TT level. I like them because you can set them to be on and still pass signal, which is not an option for the TT.
 
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#11
edwinhurwitz said:
This. It's the most accurate and responsive tuner I've ever used. That being said, I do have some Peterson tuners as well and they are good but not quite up to the TT level. I like them because you can set them to be on and still pass signal, which is not an option for the TT.
Click to expand...

The regular ST-300 has a switchable pass-through mode. I ordered it directly instead of the Mini, which was available locally, because I wanted the extra features, plus the battery option. Saw no advantage in the Mini.
 
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#15
The ST-300 is a very quick and accurate tuner, with a few options like the ability to upload custom tunings, switchable output/true-bypass (not on Mini version). However, it lacks some of the gee whiz features of some competitors, like large customizable LCD displays, menus, the ability to play Doom, run ChatGPT 4, etc.... Wish it had the option to dim the LEDs for indoor usage though.... they are super bright!

Which pedal tuner is "best" is largely a matter of priorities. The ST-300 is probably the fastest and most accurate, and relatively non-nonsense, but that's not necessarily the best fit for everyone.
 
#18
I have a ST200. I wanted to try the Peterson cause you can change colors. Yes I am shallow. Buddy bought the Peterson and I compared. The ST200 tracks fasters and has less drift than the Peterson. I ended up buying two more ST300 minis to keep as a backup.
 
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#19
12bass said:
The Turbo Tuner ST-300 is nearly instantaneous and super accurate.
Click to expand...
12bass said:
The regular ST-300 has a switchable pass-through mode. I ordered it directly instead of the Mini
Click to expand...

I only just learned about the ST-300 several days ago, when I realized I needed to move away from clip-on tuners and get a stompbox tuner with mute capability...some modest research here on TB suggested that the ST-300 would be my best bet.

So then I go to the Sonic Research website, and it says both the mini and the full-sized ST-300 are "out of production" and only the full-sized ST-300 will resume production in March 2026!

:(
 

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