Choosing a chooner

BintyTwanger77

I'm probably going to go for either a Boss TU3 or TC Polytune Noir, as...well I've gone for long enough without one.

I'd also like to power a couple of drive pedals from it (so if you could advise how many I can power from either) and would need to mute my signal when engaged.

Any other tuner suggestions would be very helpful. Cheers.

ICBM

BintyTwanger77 said:

I'm probably going to go for either a Boss TU3 or TC Polytune Noir, as...well I've gone for long enough without one.

Boss. They don't have shit switches which break.

BintyTwanger77 said:

I'd also like to power a couple of drive pedals from it (so if you could advise how many I can power from either)

When I was back there in seminary school, there was a person there who put forth the proposition that you can power other pedals from a tuner. Power other pedals from a tuner. [sarcastic] Power other pedals from a tuner. [/sarcastic]

[Screaming] You cannot power other pedals from a tuner!

[/sorry, pet peeve….]



You can't "power" any other pedals from a tuner. All the pedals like this simply have a 'through' power socket for daisy-chaining - the *power supply* is what powers the other pedals. You can power as many other pedals as the power supply can, less the draw of the tuner. It's exactly the same as if you use a standard daisy-chain with the tuner on one of the leads.

guitarfishbay

Don't know how much you can daisy chain, I guess that'd be in the manual, but the TU3 can do either mute or keep the signal on. It is buffered, IIRC the Polytune isn't, so that might be a consideration.

I think the Boss is great, never used the polytune pedal though, only the app

bingefeller

I have a TC Polytune which I like, seems good for intonating a guitar too.  

ICBM

The Polytune app is brilliant - the best £3 I've ever spent on something musical probably. It's great for tuning up guitars with floating bridges in particular.

I just don't like their pedals.

octatonic

ICBM said:

The Polytune app is brilliant - the best £3 I've ever spent on something musical probably. It's great for tuning up guitars with floating bridges in particular.

I just don't like their pedals.

The Peterson iPhone tuner is so much better than the Polytune app imho.
I also dislike the TC tuners- I've not had a switch break but the multi string sensing stuff is less accurate than doing it one string at once.
I have a TC one on my board because it takes up sod all room- why do the Boss ones have to be so massive?

guitarfishbay

Because they use the same standard sized casings for everything, probably more profitable to stick with that. Though you can get this now

octatonic

LOL- brilliant.
A tuner that has no button to mute the signal to your amp so everyone can hear you tuning up.

guitarfishbay

octatonic said:

LOL- brilliant.
A tuner that has no button to mute the signal to your amp so everyone can hear you tuning up.

Well depends on your signal chain. There are setups where that doesn't matter because there are other ways to mute. Personally I like Boss tuners because you can pass through and leave them on all the time. I've always had a volume pedal down stream so use that to mute.

BintyTwanger77

@ICBM Thanks for that, though I was aware that these tuners aren't a separate power source.

 I would be powering it from one of the 500mA points on a Strymon Ojai and daisy chaining the drives from the tuner. My only thought was whether doing this might cause some kind of unwanted digital noise, e.g. like the noise you get if you daisy-chain analogue and digital pedals.

octatonic

guitarfishbay said:

octatonic said:

LOL- brilliant.
A tuner that has no button to mute the signal to your amp so everyone can hear you tuning up.

Well depends on your signal chain. There are setups where that doesn't matter because there are other ways to mute. Personally I like Boss tuners because you can pass through and leave them on all the time. I've always had a volume pedal down stream so use that to mute.

Fair point- I've struggled to find volume pedals that don't rob tone though so I've ended up taking them off and using the guitar volume to 'violin in' sounds.

Bridgehouse

I'm thinking of going vintage and getting some pitch pipes.

timmysoft

My tuner is built in, i prefer it that way.

menamestom

I have one of the original polytunes, it's great.  It's one of those things I useall the time without thinking about it.  Between every song I give a quick strum without thinking about it then tune the single strings as needed.  Iam conscious the switch may not last forever,  but it's payed for itself many times over already.

Sassafras

You youngsters. Haven't any of you got pianos to tune by or even tuning forks?

BintyTwanger77

Sassafras said:

You youngsters. Haven't any of you got pianos to tune by or even tuning forks?

'Ow very dare you, I'm classically trained, dear.

Lebarque

Sonic research turbo tuner. Excellent. Ended my tuner GAS :-)

Adam_MD

I don't know about the boss but the polytune makes noises through my amp when its on the same daisy chain as my drive pedals.  I usually have my digital pedals powered individually but my power supply died at a rehersal and had to use my backup one spot instead.  The noise was really annoying.  

DesVegas

Hardwire polytune HT6 is fab. Can see all six strings at once. Can drop it down 2, 3 or more half steps. I have it after my drive pedals as a mute, you can power other pedals off it too.

menamestom

Sassafras said:

You youngsters. Haven't any of you got pianos to tune by or even tuning forks?

I have both but it seems excessive to drag an upright to a gig! 

Moe_Zambeek

timmysoft said:

My tuner is built in, i prefer it that way.

Love the colour of that guitar!

I have Polytune mini, which does the job. I have it connected to the tuner out on my Lehle volume, and use the volume pedal to mute. I agree with other posters that the multi-string mode is essentially useless but I'm ok with that. The Boss one above just looks weird, like it's had a limb amputated, and I couldn't stand not being able to switch it off. Having said that, I do miss the 'strobe' mode of the original Polytune. Does the Boss do anything similar?