NPD: Polytune

[Commodore 64]

I've wanted a tuning pedal for quite some time. Finally pulled the trigger on a TC Electronic Polytune. Well my wife pulled the trigger, and got it for me. I told her I wanted it for my birthday (mid-November) and of course she ordered it that day (Sunday) and it came yesterday. $100 from Musician's Friend.

It's different than most tuning pedals in that you can strum the guitar and it will give you a readout on all 6 strings. You can also tune 1 string at a time. Tested it yesterday with my Tele and my Artcore. Works great, as advertised.

When you strum all 6 strings, it shows you the multi string readout. When you pluck one string, it gives you a single string read-out that we are all familiar with. LED brightness is good, the display seems like it would work well on stage (I turned the lights off in my room to try it). Oh it's also true bypass.

http://www.tcelectronic.com/polytune.asp

http://www.tcelectronic.com/media/needle_poly_animation.gif

edit: Robert, I realized the wife didn't use a click-through ad for you. Unconscionable. So I went ahead made a $15 donation to assuage my guilt.

[otaypanky]

I thought it was pretty gimmicky when I first heard about one. But I won a Polytune in a raffle and it's really pretty cool. It's well constructed, has a unique and convenient battery access, and it's a low profile and small size so fitting in a case compartment is a breeze. The 6 strings at once feature is a real time saver when playing out live.

[Robert]

Is it really accurate? I can't imagine this thing working perfectly?

Can you rely on it when playing live?

[Eric]

Hmm, pretty cool. I find that every upgrade I make in the tuner world makes me that much more reliant on them. For instance, I never ever want to tune with anything but my Korg Pitchblack now. I'm a slave to technology.

Anyway, HNPD(?)!

[Commodore 64]

Robert, I can't comment on playing live at a gig yet. Hopefully sometime in December I will be able to actually do that. I will be taking it to rehearsal on October 31 though, so I will get an idea if I'm in tune with the other folks.

If you just hit 1 string it works just like a regular tuner, so I don't see why it wouldn't be as useful as a Pitchblack or Boss TU. My ear isn't as developed as many of you who have played for many years though.

[Perfect Stranger]

I've had one almost a year and love it. I think it's very accurate. Accurate enough for my old ears anyway. I've had several tuners, including
the Korg pitch Black, and got rid of them. I have no problems tuning or intonating my guitars now.

[markb]

There's even an iPhone version :)

[deeaa]

DO those leds dim and get brighter without grading when it's near the correct mark? That's what I love about the Pitchblack, it doesn't just light leds but just one led has infinite number of brightness levels, so you really get an accurate tuning, even more so than with needles...even accurate enough for intonation adjustment, I've found I need to use my ear in intonation much less than with the Korg needle tuner I used to keep around just for that, because the boss tuner had just simple leds and nowhere enough accuracy for fine-tuning.

[Eric]

DO those leds dim and get brighter without grading when it's near the correct mark? That's what I love about the Pitchblack, it doesn't just light leds but just one led has infinite number of brightness levels, so you really get an accurate tuning, even more so than with needles...even accurate enough for intonation adjustment, I've found I need to use my ear in intonation much less than with the Korg needle tuner I used to keep around just for that, because the boss tuner had just simple leds and nowhere enough accuracy for fine-tuning.
I just tried the strobe mode last night too, which I think is pretty cool. I'd just used the normal mode before that, but I think I prefer the strobe.

[deeaa]

Oh yeah? I just quickly glimpsed at the strobe when I got it. Now that it's on the pedalboard haven't thought of trying it. Gotta check it out sometime.

[Perfect Stranger]

DO those leds dim and get brighter without grading when it's near the correct mark? That's what I love about the Pitchblack, it doesn't just light leds but just one led has infinite number of brightness levels, so you really get an accurate tuning, even more so than with needles...even accurate enough for intonation adjustment, I've found I need to use my ear in intonation much less than with the Korg needle tuner I used to keep around just for that, because the boss tuner had just simple leds and nowhere enough accuracy for fine-tuning.


Yes, they do....