Tuner Pedals?

Boab · Post by **Boab** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:43 pm

I'm after a guitar tuner pedal of some sort and don't really know much about them. The obvious choices seem to be a Boss TU-2/TU-3 or a Korg Pitchblack or DT-10(?).

What I need:

Ability to tune to Eb
Standard Boss 9v powery bit
Preferably smallish, but not essential

My chain at the moment is Zoom PD-01 > Fredric IC Muff Clone > Small Clone, and it may or may not grow in the future, so I don't know whether I should be looking for True Bypass or Buffered.

Any of you know of any bargain pedals that'll do the job well and reliably, or I should I go for one of those I mentioned above?

Danka.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:45 pm

Cheap. Does the job. Copes with alternative tunings.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:01 pm

is the behringer fairly accurate?

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:02 pm

I've never had any trouble with it. I'm sure it's less accurate than more expensive tuners, but it isn't noticeably so.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:06 pm

I've had a Korg DT10 for years now and i've never had an issue with it. Our bass player has a Fender tuner and if he puts it at the front of his chain it makes a squealing sound so i'd avoid one of those. An old singer of ours had a Behringer tuner and it has a noticeable effect on his guitar's tone when in his chain, could have just been the one he had though as Behringer pedals generally have a good rep.

roachello · Post by **roachello** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:38 am

The TC Electronic Polytune is pretty badass. You can check if your strings are in tune by strumming all your strings at one time. Or you can do it one by one. I really like the interface, it's really easy to understand and it' chromatic so Eb away! But what it doesn't do yet is alternative tunes on polytune function. You can however, tune it manually to your alternate tunings one string at a time.

Amazon.co.uk has it for Â£69.99

atmo · Post by **atmo** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:18 am

I have a Hardwire HT-2 and am fairly happy with it. If I was buying again it'd be a toss up between it and the polytune.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:18 am

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:15 am

I used to have a super cheapo Arion tuner pedal that was absolute garbage. I don't think it was chromatic, but I didn't play in anything other than standard back then so it was fine for me. I remember the first time I used the adapter for it, it fried the circuit and killed the pedal. After that I stuck to the Korg chromatic tuners, that weren't pedals. All of my performance experience has been playing bass, and I have a Korg Rack mount tuner in my rack case, so I don't have much experience with pedals beyond that.

The guitarist in one of my previous bands had a cheap Planet Waves pedal tuner that was chromatic, worked well, and looked pretty cool. He quit the band pretty much right after we started playing shows so I don't know how well it held up over time. The singer in that band had a Fender when we first started out and I agree with whoever already mentioned it in this thread that it is absolute garbage. It made noise in his pedal chain, and it wasn't very reliable either. He bought a Boss pedal after I pointed out all the problems with that terrible pedal. Every guitarist I've played with since then has had a Boss tuner and no one's ever mentioned problems with them.

I've always liked my Korg Rack tuner, and the handheld chromatic tuners that I bring with me to lessons. They're very reliable and work really well. I would recommend the Korg Pitchblack tuner, even though I've never used one, because I've never been let down by their tuners. Boss seems to be the standard for tuner pedals though, and since most people I know have had experience with them, I would say that is a very safe bet too.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:52 am

Korg DT-10 all the way. Great tuner, great buffer. Makes your guitar sound better both because it's in tune and because it's nicely buffered.

There is no other option, fuck all these other recommendations. They should be ashamed.

Boab · Post by **Boab** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:38 pm

Cheers for all the input folks. I'm leaning more and more to the Pitchblack, since I don't need a buffer (do I?), it's small, looks cool and, based on others opinions, has no real impact on sound.

Is my Zoom PD-01 really true bypass? I know it sells itself as being so, but I'm sure I've read places that the schematics and what not suggest it isn't really. Is the Fredric IC Muff bypass too? I guess these are the questions that will determine whether I go for the Korg DT-10 or the Pitchblack, since I may enlarge my board over time and need some buffering.

h8mtv · Post by **h8mtv** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:39 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:

had mine nearly 2 years. No probs.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:52 pm

Boab wrote:Cheers for all the input folks. I'm leaning more and more to the Pitchblack, since I don't need a buffer (do I?), it's small, looks cool and, based on others opinions, has no real impact on sound.

Is my Zoom PD-01 really true bypass? I know it sells itself as being so, but I'm sure I've read places that the schematics and what not suggest it isn't really. Is the Fredric IC Muff bypass too? I guess these are the questions that will determine whether I go for the Korg DT-10 or the Pitchblack, since I may enlarge my board over time and need some buffering.

Tim's pedal will be True Bypass. I'm not sure about the Zoom but I suspect not.

You should always have at least one Buffer per 2-3 TB pedals on your board, and always have at least one even if you're just going guitar-cable-tuner-cable-amp

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:57 pm

Mike wrote:Korg DT-10 all the way. Great tuner, great buffer. Makes your guitar sound better both because it's in tune and because it's nicely buffered.

There is no other option, fuck all these other recommendations. They should be ashamed.

+1, I have a black one and it looks swiiisshh.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:47 pm

cobascis wrote:
Mike wrote:Korg DT-10 all the way. Great tuner, great buffer. Makes your guitar sound better both because it's in tune and because it's nicely buffered.

There is no other option, fuck all these other recommendations. They should be ashamed.
+1, I have a black one and it looks swiiisshh.

I bought a DK-10BK (the black model with the blue light) after asking for suggestions here. I've been happy with it and beats using the clip-on Intellitouch.

Johno · Post by **Johno** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:01 pm

I thought the Pitchblack killed your top end, didn't Doog make a video on this a while back?

I have a TU-2 you can pick them up cheap 2nd hand, reliable & have DC out for daisy chains.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:13 pm

does all the things you need and its half the price of the boss stuff... dare you enter the Matrix

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:22 pm

dezb1 wrote:

does all the things you need and its half the price of the boss stuff... dare you enter the Matrix

+1

Post by **Doog** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:33 pm

Johno wrote:I thought the Pitchblack killed your top end, didn't Doog make a video on this a while back?

Nah, it was 4 truebypass pedals with and without a DT-10 (buffered) at the start. Huge difference, the mp3 is long gone though, bah :/

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:58 pm

Not sure if you will be using whatever you buy in a band situation but if you are i'd use the same brand tuner as other members. That sounds ridiculous as they should all read the same but my Behringer is out with the other guys Korg DT-10's.

Have'nt personally owned a DT-10 but from what i've witnessed i agree with Mike. It handles A standard tuning (of all things) just as well as concert pitch.