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Tuner Rant
- Thread starter RoadRanger
- Start date
the dodgy jack is most likely a cracked solder joint, a trivially easy fix on otherwise bulletproof boss pedals; also, don't de-tune those other basses when you put them away! that's not helping and maybe even making it worse.
yeah, but it sure takes up a lot of space on the pedalboard
having to reach down and change the setting for each string is a drag too.i hope you don't mean those clever 5th fret/7th fret harmonic chimes?
because those are always wrong.
the right way to tune is each string open with a tuner that will track them, doesn't take long at all.
i hope you don't mean those clever 5th fret/7th fret harmonic chimes?
because those are always wrong.(not dramatically so, but they're about 2 cents off each, which adds up over 4 or 5 strings.)
My experience has been that the open string by itself will waver around 4-5 cents over a 5-6 second period, which admittedly could be the tuner locking onto harmonics over time. Besides, in practice it's not that a big of a deal since equal temperament puts the fretted notes out of tune more than that. In any event, I've never had a problem with it.
Incidentally, the music store I used to work at was AL&M over on Military Highway - I worked in keyboards and service/repair. I know Tommy Parker closed the place years ago, but do you ever see any of the old AL&M folks at Alpha?
Just got the Intellitouch Freedom One WT1 wireless pedal tuner in. The wireless link sounds pretty transparent using a passive bass. The tuner tracks my low "D" well - it's a typical "close enough" display, good enough for live I'm sure. Nice big display and the whole backlight turns green when you're "close enough" - that with the large lighted switchbar would be great for anyone with "less than good" eyesight. The wireless link is class 2 Bluetooth so 30 feet max and susceptible to WiFi interference. Various reviews I've read say you really need the pedal in front of you (not on the top of your amp) so that the transmitter doesn't have to pass though your body. I'll mess with it some more tomorrow night at a rehearsal. Might even try it at a gig next weekend - It's a lot less crappy than I expected, seems fairly well built but not "bulletproof" .
BTW in case anybody cares I found out tonight that the old Zoom 506 II is good for about 1-1/2 rehearsals once the batteries show low - and it just starts cutting out, no loud noises or other bad behavior . It is digital so was probably just rebooting itself.
.BTW in case anybody cares I found out tonight that the old Zoom 506 II is good for about 1-1/2 rehearsals once the batteries show low - and it just starts cutting out, no loud noises or other bad behavior
. It is digital so was probably just rebooting itself.
that's more about the string itself going sharp on the attack and settling to pitch; the problem with the 5th/7th thing is that it's wrong mathematically, the 7th fret harmonic is inherently about 2 cents off from the same note fretted.
also, equal temp doesn't "put the frets out of tune" at all, that's the whole point of equal temperament, all the notes are equally spaced from each other so any interval is as good as any other interval.
sure, that's all within a few cents at best because of the mechanical nature of vibrating strings, but the 5th/7th chime thing adds a math error on top of the physical tolerances.
it's frankly amateurish and there's just no reason to waste time with it when tuners are so cheap and work so well.
occasionally!
for those playing along at home, alpha and AL&M were music store rivals back in the day (back when every music store around here began with "A" to try and be first in the yellow pages, back when that mattered); that all changed when Mars music came to town, inflicting guitar center on us with it, and it became "us against the Evil Empire".
alpha is now the last man standing in the VA beach area besides GC.
Even back then in the pre-Internet days, we both were still having to contend with the mail order folks like Washington Music and Sam Ash.
I'd have much rather see someone go to Alpha to buy something we didn't carry and benefit the local economy.
Research those crappy tuners and you can often find something that works fine the first time
I've got crappy tuners all around me that have worked great for years. However, I think I'm going to break down and do the Polytune Mini because I like the idea of having a tuner that has such accuracy. Mine are accurate enough, but the TC is super accurate. Allegedly 
meh, every time i've messed with it it seemed like a gimmick, and on a guitar the low E famously doesn't quite show the same tuning as when tuning the low E by itself. if they had a "poly-off" mode so it never went there i'd like the pedal better.
my turbos aren't the least bit threatened here; i can stage tune faster with them, poly mode or not.
Popped for the Polytune Mini today. Found out that GC Winter Park had a black one in stock so I ran down there and got it. Ended up getting a sweet deal, too...it's regular $90, I got it for like $76 + tax, which ended up being $81 and change. Have not got to play with it much because I had a gig right away after that, but I tried it in regular chromatic mode and strobe mode, and it was easy to read both modes in the daylight without my glasses. Regular mode turns out to be as accurate as strobe mode, though. Regular is accurate to +/- .5 cents and strobe to .1 cent, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of practical difference. Haven't tried poly mode, though. But I'm digging this tuner, despite paying way more than I wanted.
wow, i guess they've upgraded it!
initially it was a TU2-esque +/-3 cents for the regular mode and +/-.5 cents for the "stream" mode.
.1 cents puts it in peterson virtual strobe territory, which is pretty damn accurate.
Yeah, but I'll tell you...when I set my intonation on my Precision, I used the Korg CA-30 pocket tuner because it was handy, and I checked it with my TC in strobe mode last night, and it was dead-on in tune. I couldn't find how accurate the CA-30 is but the Pitchblack is accurate to within 1 cent, so I can't imagine the CA-30 being more accurate.
Sold my cheaparse pedal tuner that I paid $11 for two years ago, to another guitarist I play with for $5 tonight. It didn't track the low "E" anyways. I did like that it was only on its second set of batteries since I bought it (3 x AAA).
I used the Intellitouch wireless tuner again tonight, still on the same single AAA transmitter battery .
I used the Intellitouch wireless tuner again tonight, still on the same single AAA transmitter battery
.
I've been through the usual suspects as far as tuners go. I've probably owned most of the Boss tuners(I still have a TU-3, which I got after my TU-2, which I liked better, was stolen), I've used the Polytune and the Pitchblack, and I've had a Turbo Tuner on my board for the last year or so. I really do love the Turbo Tuner, it's super fast, super accurate, and I just keep it plugged in to a spot on my 4x4. That being said, I just got a new amp and I'm going to be rack mounting it, so I may go to moving my wireless(Relay G50 to Relay G90) and my tuner(Turbo Tuner to some unnamed rack mount tuner)to a rack. I'm just not sure which rack mount tuner is as good as the Turbo Tuner. I wish they'd just make one...
Rack mount is probably the best route. I recently got the Turbo Tuner and its easily the best stomp tuner I've used to date.
