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TC Polytune - Best tuner for Bass?

#21
I have both the Polytune Mini2 and the Polytune Clip. Both are excellent and track bass well, including the low B-string. The Politune Clip is fairly expensive compared to other clip-on tuners, but its miles better than the others. I see they've released the Unitune Clip, which is cheaper and doesn't do the poly thing, but you don't really need that on bass anyway.
 
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#26
Smallmouth_Bass said:
I have both the Polytune Mini2 and the Polytune Clip. Both are excellent and track bass well, including the low B-string. The Politune Clip is fairly expensive compared to other clip-on tuners, but its miles better than the others. I see they've released the Unitune Clip, which is cheaper and doesn't do the poly thing, but you don't really need that on bass anyway.
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I have the polytune clip and just hit the unitune. Agree you don't need / use the poly with bass and the unitune tracks lows just as well and you can save a few bucks !!
 
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#27
Turbo Tuner - super fast and accurate, handles low B. Also I really like that it does not consume any battery power when switched off, so no need to pull the cord out of the tuner's input jack when finished playing.

Polytune clip - accurate, handles low B, more discreet and elegant than most other clip tuners.
Smallmouth_Bass said:
I see they've released the Unitune Clip, which is cheaper and doesn't do the poly thing, but you don't really need that on bass anyway.
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Don't need it on guitar either. I have the Polytune2 Mini on my guitar board and like it a lot but almost never use the poly feature because it doesn't work as well - sometimes in poly mode it reports a particular string is off and then when you play the string by itself it shows as in tune or off in the opposite direction. It's very accurate one string at a time though. I use the strobe display mode.
 
#29
I bought a used Polytune 2 pedal a few months ago and it's been great. I've only used the normal mode (non-strobe) and don't have much use for the tune-down modes or even the poly feature but it's cool that they're all on board.

The bright display is easy to see on stage and it seems very accurate. I considered a few others at the time (mainly the Planet Waves/D'Addario CT-20 bc of the fast tracking) but I don't have any regrets about buying the Polytune.
 
#33
Been using the Turbo Tuner for many years, got the urge to try something different, picked up a Polytune, and it worked for about a year, then it quit, went back to the Turbo Tuner, as a side note, the older TurboTuners were model # ST-200, the newer ones are #ST-300, and the newer ones, are somewhat brighter, in direct sunlight, and in Texas, that means very bright sunlight, also the Turbo Tuners are great for setting intonation
 
#34
Snibborwocky said:
I'm more than happy with my Polytune 2 mini. I was thinking about getting the 3 mini Noir edition but that's just an aesthetic preference I think. Is there really much difference between the 2 and 3?
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A little. You can choose between buffered and true bypass with the 3, and it has an always-on option with the buffered bypass. The more dubious improvements are better strobe mode accuracy (which Peterson claims can't really be done due to the display not being good enough to keep up with it, and it's already so accurate that I couldn't care less), and added alternate tunings (I always use it in chromatic mode...alternate tuning modes are for beginners and people who never bothered to learn theory). I'm not upgrading. My 2 Mini works just fine, and I hardly ever use it anyway since getting a Unitune.
 
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#35
JimmyM said:
(I always use it in chromatic mode...alternate tuning modes are for beginners and people who never bothered to learn theory)
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No, alternate tuning modes on the Polytune let you use poly mode for those tunings.

(At least I assume so: as I said earlier in the thread I don't use the poly feature anyway, but it would be insane if it didn't work that way.)
 
#37
nnnnnn said:
No, alternate tuning modes on the Polytune let you use poly mode for those tunings.

(At least I assume so: as I said earlier in the thread I don't use the poly feature anyway, but it would be insane if it didn't work that way.)
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Well I'm with you and probably a step farther...I consider poly mode a joke on either bass or guitar. I'm lucky to get one, maybe two strings semi-tuned before the sustain runs out.
 
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#40
I had a turbo tuner, have a polytune 2, and currently just use a snark clip on. I lost my turbo tuner at a gig, but wasn't wild about the display (I just find the pseudo strobe hard to deal with). The polytune is great. Maybe less accurate than the turbo, But plenty accurate for my ears. Only reason I'm not using it much right now is that current gig doesn't call for pedals, and I'd rather not bring my board for the tuner. The snark is also close enough to my ears, they are cheap, and you don't need extra cords or anything
 

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