Help me pick a tuner pedal.

[sunvalleylaw]

Mom wants a gift idea for me for Christmas around $70.00. I need a new tuning pedal. The old Behringer i had works fine but is noisy. I found the TCE polytune for $70 on amazon, and also think the Korg Pitchblack looks good, though it is a bit more on Amazon. The GFS one looks ok and is cheaper.

Thoughts? Anyone try the GFS one? If she can get the TCE Poly for $70 I am inclined to ask for that. It's gonna be either a tuner, or probably a pullover sweater from like quiksilver or something.


Or I could ask her for one (read one, not two) tire for my mountain bike. Sheesh they are expensive!

[Eric***]

I bought the GFS one, then bought the Pitchblack and returned the GFS. GFS was OK, just no great shakes. I think at this point I would get the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner, Polytune, or a Pitchblack. I like the Pitchblack -- it does what it's supposed to do and is no fuss, but the others seem nice too.

Truth be told, I use my Snark or the tuning on my Mustang amp more than any other method.

[marnold***]

I'm asking the same question. I've got a Korg CA-20 that's been OK for me for almost 15 years. The power button is failing on it, which renders it somewhat worthless. It never has worked terribly well (IMO) for my bass and certainly not for intonation. I'd love to get a strobe tuner but that's a massive investment.

[ET335]

I have the Pitchblack also and it is a very nice tuner....works great for me and it's true bypass.

Sweetwater has a 20.00 rebate on those to.

[marnold***]

If you want to go strobe, this video compares the Turbo Tuner to a Peterson. Both would work great, although the Turbo Tuner's pitch recognition is ridiculously good. He ran it into an A/B/Y box and ran the A output to one and the B to the other.


FWIW, I think the Turbo Tuner is the only thing that has ever been universally praised on The Gear Page. I think I might have to save my pennies and get one. Don't know if I'd get the pedal version or not. The non pedal version has a mic for acoustics and anything else that doesn't have an output jack. Both go for $129 with free shipping. FWIW, that Peterson goes for $200.

[Eric***]

Marnold, if you rock a Korg CA-20, you should definitely spend the $10 on a Snark clip-on, whether you get a Turbo Tuner or not. It's a great great little tuner.

[Ch0jin]

I have the GFS tuner and it seems to do the job just fine. What do you like better about the PitchBlack Eric? (Just curious is all)

[bcdon***]

The TCE polytune is awesome! Great design and great company. I've spoke to them a few times as I'm beta testing the drop-D firmware update. Great bunch of guys.

[Eric***]

I have the GFS tuner and it seems to do the job just fine. What do you like better about the PitchBlack Eric? (Just curious is all)

Better, faster tracking and more accurate, I think. I'm not sure of the accuracy of the GFS, but I think the Pitchblack is maybe +/- 1 cent. Dunno. After getting the Pitchblack for $70 or so on Amazon, I just found myself liking the note tracking and power supply and different display modes. Not that I switch strings or notes super-fast while tuning or anything like that, but it just feels nice and less clunky.

That being said, I think I would be fine if someone gave me the GFS tuner and said I had to use it as my only tuner. A quick google search indicates that it is probably the same accuracy, so I guess that reason is out the door.

I'm not usually one to splurge on more expensive gear, but I just felt like the Pitchblack worked better overall.

[marnold***]

I've watched a couple of videos with the Pitchblack and it looks pretty cool--light years better than my CA-20. I think I would probably like the Turbo Tuner's display more, plus it actually is a strobe tuner. They claim accuracy to within +/- .02 of a cent. I certainly can't hear anything that close. I know I _can_ hear the difference in the accuracy of my CA-20. My ear is just good enough to drive me nuts sometimes. At their normal sale prices, I'd spend the bit more to get the TT. Getting a Pitchblack for $70 would certainly affect the discussion majorly.

[sunvalleylaw]

I think that the turbo tuner would be awesome, but I also think the polytune looks great and is in my Mom's requested price range on Amazon. The Pitchblack did not show up as being less than 80 or 90 something or I would think about it more. But based on a vid or two, I think I will just go with the polytune.

[bcdon***]

But based on a vid or two, I think I will just go with the polytune.

I think you'll really dig the polytune. I paid $99 for mine so you're getting a pretty good deal too!

[Ch0jin]

Cool thanks. I kind of am one to splurge, but tuners never really got me all excited. I was ordering stuff from GFS anyway, saw the tuner and as I didn't have any kind of floor tuner at the time I ticked the box. That was my whole decision process right there

[deeaa*]

Depends on the usage, and I think the TC Polytune and Pitchblack are the top two in lower price bracket at the moment, but for different purposes.

Polytune is probably great for quick everyday tuning and as a stage tuner, but IMO the Pitchblack is far more accurate than most any pedal tuner I have tried.

Usually pedal tuner small leds are rather coarse indicators, but the Pitchblack has seemingly infinite variation in LARGE led brightness - it really gives an accurate tuning easily. I can tune with a normal BOSS pedal tuner or Line6 built in one, and it looks exact, and than swap to Pitchblack and really get it in accurate tuning. But it still is a pedal tuner you can put on a pedalboard with huge indicators you can't miss.

Pitchblack also can do strobe as well, which I wish I knew how to use well.

So if you tune a lot and need it to happen really quickly, I'd get the Polytune, but if you rather need an accurate tuner for small adjustments and/or even intonation setting, I do believe a Pitchblack is a better choice.

[t_ross33]

+1 on the Pitchblack

[otaypanky***]

I have a Polytune and a Turbo Tuner. Both work great. Yeah the Turbo is fast, but the Polytune is pretty quick too and has some great features
The 'check all strings at once' feature which ends up being a time saver if you're using it playing out.
It has a strobe type display if you like that better.
It has a 9V power out jack if you want to daisy chain
Another nice feature is easier access to change a battery. Instead of 4 tiny screws it has one large screw closure that can be opened using a coin.

[Monkus]

+2 on the pitchblack

[cebreez]

I have a bunch of the fender stomp tuners which IMO look cool, feel rugged, and for at least the first month work really well. After about a month all bets are off as the accuracy tends to decrease and the display becomes somewhat irradic. Oh and it starts eating batteries and I leave mine plugged into the pedal board. Which also may be why they don't last. They used to stay on all the time.

The Polytune looks sweet, (i hope the bad hype is wrong), as does the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner. I may try either one when my last fender goes out... which may be real soon.

[Eric***]

I think that the turbo tuner would be awesome, but I also think the polytune looks great and is in my Mom's requested price range on Amazon. The Pitchblack did not show up as being less than 80 or 90 something or I would think about it more. But based on a vid or two, I think I will just go with the polytune.

I would just caution you about taking that video too seriously. The polytune may well be the better tuner (never owned one, so I can't comment), but that video was obviously made by a very biased person who had already made up his mind, so I'm not sure it's the best practical comparison. Just sayin'.