Top positive review
11 people found this helpful
Accurate, fun, and doesn't look like Rodan landed on your guitar's headstock.
By Eudaimonium on Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2016
This is my first clip-on tuner, and I think it's pretty great despite not having anything to compare it to. It seems to be every bit as accurate, quick and easy to use as my Polytune 2 pedal tuner (which I also really love). The polyphonic mode isn't as accurate as when you check each string individually (in fact, yes, the modes appear not to agree perfectly sometimes, as one guy who gave it two stars noted), but the polyphonic function gives you a quick and easy way to see if a string is so far out of tune that you should take the time to adjust it. One strum across all the strings and a quick glance is all it takes to see where things are at, and it's a super fast way to tune all your strings at once if you're in a hurry and don't want to tune each string one at a time to perfection (and if you do, then you may also suffer from OCD). Strobe mode is very accurate, but a little trippy to decipher until you get used to it, then it's very fast (also sort of space-age and fun). When deciding to purchase this I read some reviews that complained that they didn't like the clip, but I don't agree with them. It appears minimalist, functional, and robust. I'm not sure what those other folks expect. From an aesthetic design standpoint, this tuner is a lot less obtrusive and far more slick looking than the other options out there. One guy said he was afraid it could scratch his headstock, but I think you'd have to work at it pretty hard for that to happen. I also read some reviews that complained that the PolyTune Clip was a little fussy about where it's placed on the headstock in order to read all the strings. I found this to be somewhat true, but not an issue for me since it works great on the end of my Martin acoustic headstock, and in the middle of both my Fender Stratocaster headstocks (though not as well on the tip of the Stratocaster headstock where it's harder to see anyway). Others complained that since it doesn't swivel in all directions they didn't like it, but I've not really found that to be a problem for me since the best placements on my headstocks also happen to be in places and at an angle where it's easy to see. I also suspect that if it had another point to swivel from it may not be as accurate and sensitive as it is since more rotating parts means more places to negatively affect the vibrations it's trying to sense. In order to get the most out of it, you probably need to read the manual. I suspect some of the negative reviewers aren't big on doing that, and that's why they're happier with the less expensive clip-on tuners. Or maybe they just got a defective unit, who knows.
Top critical review
4 people found this helpful
Didn't do what I expected... but tunes well
By Richard on Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2018
For some reason, the way I read the description of this, I thought I'd be able to read cents. I wanted this to test out James Taylor's idea of tuning a bit off of standard... I wanted temperament tuning. Well, when I got this tuner, I discovered that nope, there isn't a "cents" display mode. Well, OK, I thought, surely then the specs will say what each LED represents in cents. Nope, no mention of cents anywhere in the docs. Bummer, OK, I'll email TC Electronics. They got back to me immediately... some of the best response times I've seen. But.... there answer was that they don't have that information. What!? I'm thinking, you don't know the specs of your device... how do you know how well it's tuning???? OK, I'm thinking, I've asked the wrong question... maybe the LEDs aren't linear in cents... maybe they're linear in frequency... maybe they know the frequency bandwidth per LED, or the percentage frequency per LED. Nope, same answer: they don't have that info. Wow, well quick response, but no useful info... and a surprising lack of information. So, I turned to programming my computer to generate tones that I could use to measure the frequency/cents per LED. Here's what I found: - this applies to their single string tuning mode. They show a set of vertical bars of LEDs. The center LED bar is green when you're tuned perfectly...right and left of that are vertical bars of red LEDs for sharp/flat tuning. - from the green bar to the first red bar is about 7-8 cents. Each bar after that is close to 5 cents. - this holds for all 6 strings So, I can kind of approach JT temperament tuning for the fat strings, but will be guessing quite a bit for the thin strings. However, after going through this exercise I've found: I can hear 10 cent differences... impossible for me to detect 3 cent differences. Then, I saw a youtube video of a guy playing the same song with both tunings... I couldn't tell the difference... I'm guessing that folks with "good" ears can detect the difference (I don't think this is mumbo jumbo like gold plated speaker wires) The tuner does a good job of tuning to standard tuning, but I'm not sure it's worth 2-3 times the cost of other tuners. The poly tune feature seems like a cool idea. Since I don't perform (I just plink at home), it does nothing for me that justifies 2-3 times the cost of other tuners. It has other tuning modes, that I don't yet use as a plink-at-home player (drop-D tuning, off 440 Hz tuning, etc). The reason I'm rating this 3 stars is it's expensive, and I wasn't happy that the company wasn't more helpful. If you perform, the polytune feature might be very useful for quick tuning on stage, and well worth the money.
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