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TC Polytune 2 display hard to read

I hear ya on that one. I just got the ST300 (full size version) and it actually leaves me seeing stars after I use it (30yo eyes with glasses). The speed and sensitivity are amazing however, so I can't part with it. I'm thinking of picking up a pack of these guys:

LightDims Original Strength\xae: Amazon.ca: Home & Kitchen

Can stick one of the square ones over the screen and put the display back to a normal level of brightness. It might work for your polytune as well.
 
The screen over the leds on mine fell off. Tried gluing it back on but it had some reaction and the screen blacked over and is now useless. Not sure how I'm going to handle it. Otherwise, I loved the polytune. I use their clip on now, which does the trick. I do miss the muting functionality of the pedal, though.
 
I am the poster child for bad eyesight.

You're bringing a knife to a gunfight there, son :D No one here has eyesight worse than mine- if they did, they'd be unable to read the website at all.

Polytune 2 is the easiest to see tuner I've used. I've had the Polytune 1, Pitchblack, Strobostomp, the round Planet Waves one, lots of multieffect tuners including the M5, Axe-Fx, numerous Bosses, and borrowed a bunch of TU-2s and 3s, TurboTuner, and lots of others.

For me the letters themselves mean less than the brightness and contrast of the colors. Haven't found better than the Polytune 2.
 
You're bringing a knife to a gunfight there, son :D No one here has eyesight worse than mine- if they did, they'd be unable to read the website at all.

Polytune 2 is the easiest to see tuner I've used. I've had the Polytune 1, Pitchblack, Strobostomp, the round Planet Waves one, lots of multieffect tuners including the M5, Axe-Fx, numerous Bosses, and borrowed a bunch of TU-2s and 3s, TurboTuner, and lots of others.

For me the letters themselves mean less than the brightness and contrast of the colors. Haven't found better than the Polytune 2.

Challenge accepted:
Do you have sight in both eyes?
Are you licensed to drive?

Your proper spelling and pedal knowledge aside, there is more to vision than your prescription. For example, looking at an exit sign or the red led sign at the deli makes my eye twitch when I try to focus on it. The Poly is similar.

Also, there is more to being able to see / use a tuner than brightness.

Admittedly I do have to bend over to use the Line6. But I am more accurate than with the Poly.

Now go away or I will taunt you a second time. Or provide more evidence and I will attempt a rebut. :)
 
Gentlemen, choose your weapons! (if you can see them)

I think my problem is related to my monovision. That is, due to LASEK a second time, one eye is better for close-up vision and one is better for faraway. That probably makes those super bright LEDs a mess for me.
 
Challenge accepted:
Do you have sight in both eyes?
Are you licensed to drive?

Your proper spelling and pedal knowledge aside, there is more to vision than your prescription. For example, looking at an exit sign or the red led sign at the deli makes my eye twitch when I try to focus on it. The Poly is similar.

Also, there is more to being able to see / use a tuner than brightness.

Admittedly I do have to bend over to use the Line6. But I am more accurate than with the Poly.

Now go away or I will taunt you a second time. Or provide more evidence and I will attempt a rebut. :)

I am legally blind with my glasses on- corrected is 20/200 in my better eye on a good day. I can't even pretend to read without them. I have ocular albinism so my vision becomes worse in daylight/bright light as I'm very light sensitive and it hurts. I have nystagmus so my eyes shake and rarely can focus, compounding the blurry vision. I was under the care of the CT board of education for the blind for my entire education before college, given a white cane (which I never used) in second grade and could never dream of getting even a special license that some legally blind people can be granted.

The biggest pain in the ass of all (not counting not driving) is I've never been able to read any of the overhead menus at fast food joints. Going to Dairy Queen with me often requires reading off 30 Blizzard flavors to me :D
 
(I would kill for Lasek, not a candidate).

Exhibit A:

(These are the expensive lenses that cut the size by 35% or so)

image.jpeg
 
I am legally blind with my glasses on- corrected is 20/200 in my better eye on a good day. I can't even pretend to read without them. I have ocular albinism so my vision becomes worse in daylight/bright light as I'm very light sensitive and it hurts. I have nystagmus so my eyes shake and rarely can focus, compounding the blurry vision. I was under the care of the CT board of education for the blind for my entire education before college, given a white cane (which I never used) in second grade and could never dream of getting even a special license that some legally blind people can be granted.

The biggest pain in the ass of all (not counting not driving) is I've never been able to read any of the overhead menus at fast food joints. Going to Dairy Queen with me often requires reading off 30 Blizzard flavors to me :D

I think you may edge me out by a wee bit but not by much!

I have the most oval of lenses in my single sighted eye. I am 20-40 to 20-50 corrected and I can drive but only with proof from a Dr.

I also can't read any menus or off the tv etc. But I do bow to your superior condition.
 
You guys should meet my wife. She's legally blind. So this is a good group for discussing digital displays. I hope the Turbo Tuner's works for me. It's also LED like the Polytuner.

The problem I had with the Turbo Tuner was that it was all red- no contrast, which is the key to seeing for me. Did they start making them in red/green?
 
I think you may edge me out by a wee bit but not by much!

I have the most oval of lenses in my single sighted eye. I am 20-40 to 20-50 corrected and I can drive but only with proof from a Dr.

I also can't read any menus or off the tv etc. But I do bow to your superior condition.

Trust me, it's a contest I'd rather lose :laugh: I always used to get glasses provided by the state. One year I got a set with no reduction- we had to send them back because they literally would fall immediately off of my face from the weight. Modern lightweight lenses with smaller frames have made a massive difference.
 
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Trust me, it's a contest I'd rather lose :laugh: I always used to get glasses provided by the state. One year I got a set with no reduction- we had to send them back because they literally would fall immediately off of my face from the weight. Modern lightweight lenses with smaller frames have made a massive difference.

I used to break mine they were so embarrassing. Unfortunately this only leads to taping them back together. You may already know this.

It is a rare day when I meet someone who has worse vision that is not completely impaired.

Focus is an issue for me. The more I try, the more it won't. Some negative feedback thing.

On topic, I have this trouble with the Poly but not the Line6.
 
I used to break mine they were so embarrassing. Unfortunately this only leads to taping them back together. You may already know this.

It is a rare day when I meet someone who has worse vision that is not completely impaired.

The most embarrassing was when they tried a special set of glasses with a mini telescope on one lense when I was in school to see if I could use it to read the chalkboard for once. Thankfully it didn't work with my focus issues because if it did I probably would have tried to hide them.

It's hard for people to understand usually. I'm not totally blind, and if someone is within a foot or so I see them pretty well, but it degrades so exponentially after that that if I don't know a person's body shape and mannerisms well, I often won't recognize them from five feet away. I see color well though, hence liking the contrast on the PT2 best.

Even though it's one of the most accurate tuners, the Strobostomp is just about the worst tuner if you have any vision issues; dull, similar colors and one of those LCD screens that would fade as you angled away from it. At least the model I bought about a decade back was like that.
 
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Followup. I have the ST-300 now and it's better. Not perfect, in that focusing on the note letter is not that sharp, but better than the Polytune. I emailed Sonic Research hoping they might have firmware to reduce the brightness of the LEDs, but no problem if not. Not even sure I'd really need to get that film they sell to cut the glare from LEDs on routers and such.
 
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I'm actually getting used to the brightness of mine. I recorded a track on Friday with only a dim lamp on in my office. While it was bright, it didn't leave my eyes burning like the last time. I'm assuming it's because it was brand new at the time and I was overly fixated on it. I find that I can tune a bit quicker than I could with the 200 version, so in all honesty the display isn't on for more than 2 or 3 seconds.

I went through all of that already. They are not able to control the LED's via firmware, nor can they add a brightness adjustment. I'm assuming the LED's are directly powered and not hooked up to a controller.

One more complaint I have is the signal return delay after turning off the tuner. It's not instant like the 200 was, there is a bit of a delay. So if you were trying tune quick mid song, and turning off the tuner right when you need to come in, you would miss a few notes for sure. Probably not a huge deal, as 99% of tuning is done between songs, but still a mild annoyance.
 
I'm actually getting used to the brightness of mine. I recorded a track on Friday with only a dim lamp on in my office. While it was bright, it didn't leave my eyes burning like the last time. I'm assuming it's because it was brand new at the time and I was overly fixated on it. I find that I can tune a bit quicker than I could with the 200 version, so in all honesty the display isn't on for more than 2 or 3 seconds.

I went through all of that already. They are not able to control the LED's via firmware, nor can they add a brightness adjustment. I'm assuming the LED's are directly powered and not hooked up to a controller.

One more complaint I have is the signal return delay after turning off the tuner. It's not instant like the 200 was, there is a bit of a delay. So if you were trying tune quick mid song, and turning off the tuner right when you need to come in, you would miss a few notes for sure. Probably not a huge deal, as 99% of tuning is done between songs, but still a mild annoyance.

Thanks. Good to know that they can't do that via firmware. I think I'll get used to it as well. But as for the delay, I don't think I've seen that. I'll play more, but I wonder if it could be an issue with yours in particular.