A reliable pedal tuner Boss TU-3?

Bridgehouse

professorben said:

Bridgehouse said:

professorben said:

 Telecasters in general etc. 

 

Wondered if anyone would notice that......

We should have a go on The Unbelievable Truth... I reckon we could slip a fair few porkies past Gyles Brandreth..

vale

i got one of these a few years ago & it's a decent budget alternative to the polytune.
i'm not a pro musician (so if you are recording or touring this prob isn't suitable) but otherwise might interest.
i wanted big flashing letters & superclear up/down indicators because i didn't want to be squinting at little swinging needles in the half-light & this works fine. plus it bypasses your chain when not in use.
as for reliability, i'm not jumping on it & it's metal case & jacks so no probs. they come under various brand names as a PT1 tuner. cheap thrills.

gibsongretschfan

I have a broke TU-2

im going to drop it into strung Out to even things up!

Bridgehouse

gibsongretschfan said:

I have a broke TU-2

im going to drop it into strung Out to even things up!

Bet it gets repaired easily

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

gibsongretschfan said:

I have a broke TU-2

im going to drop it into strung Out to even things up!

Bet it gets repaired easily

Depends what's wrong with it. If it's something in the analogue side I can probably do it, if it's in the digital side it's game over. Always worth a look but not worth spending over about £35 on it, you can buy another one for that.

polotska

In addition to the reliability issues with TC products, their attitude about servicing their products turns me off completely. For the “TonePrint” series and pedals with a similar form factor, the last I heard here in the States is that they weren’t actually doing repairs (even for something as common as the footswitch failing)—they were issuing a service replacement under warranty, or charging (if I remember correctly) $79 out of warranty for a replacement unit. And here’s what they say on their Web site:

Guitar pedals: Can it be repaired?
<http://support.tcelectronic.com/hc/en-us/articles/228323148-Guitar-pedals-Can-it-be-repaired->

Question
My guitar pedal (see list below) is out of warranty and defective. I've heard your guitar pedals can't be repaired - is that true?

Answer
Although our pedals are simple and user friendly they are somewhat complex on the inside, which means a repair -- although possible -- would be very time-consuming to the point where it might be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand or new pedal. For this reason, not all components used in the construction of our pedals, are available as spare parts.
Our recommendation would be to get a price estimate for a repair from an authorized service center before deciding of whether to have your pedal repaired.
 

Affected products:
Alter Ego Delay
Corona Chorus
Dark Matter Distortion
Flashback Delay
Hall of Fame Reverb
Gravy Chorus Vibrato
Mojomojo Overdrive
PolyTune
PolyTune Mini
PolyTune Noir
Rottweiler Distortion
Shaker Vibrato
Spark Booster
The Dreamscape
Transition Delay
Trinity Reverb
Vortex Flanger

So suffice it to say that I won’t be buying any of those! Unreliable products couples with nonstandard parts, a poor service program, a condescending attitude, and a warranty inferior to that of Boss (two years versus five on their pedals in the USA)—not worth the hassle. It’s too bad; I’ve tried several of the pedals in this series and liked the way they sound.

shaunm

I don't want to slate the polytune because what's good for one is not good for all. However when I had one it seemed to add white noise when activated. Another annoying thing would be that if the bass player was playing whilst I was tuning it would interfere with the signal.

I went back to my TU-2 and have not had any issues since.

builttospill

Some very informative stuff here folks, cheers for your input, looks like the Boss TU-3  is the way to go.

thomasw88

I had two korg tuners die on me.  pity as I really liked the size/display/look of them.

Have had a TU3 for a couple of years - no issue so far.

builttospill

Probably one of the longest Tuner related threads I've ever come across?

EricTheWeary

builttospill said:

Probably one of the longest Tuner related threads I've ever come across?

Oh no, once you start asking which tuner is easiest to read in daylight you could be here for weeks.

RocknRollDave

ICBM said:

I think I've already seen more unrepairable TC pedals than I have Boss ones, and Boss pedals have been around for forty years.

This is useful to know.

As well as my regular 3 piece wedding band, I also dep very regularly with another 3 piece, who use 2 x TC Helicon for additional vocal harmonies. At Sunday's gig, we had to wind the level mix on the one I was using down to zero mid-gig because of a dicky switch that kept the effect on when it should have been off.
I know it is hardly a rigorously scientific experiment, but FWIW it means 50% of our TC Electronics pedals are faulty

Thing is, the bassist/ frontman of said trio I dep for is pushing me towards getting one for my own line-up....the rub being that he is the guy who gets all of my gigs as our agent, so whilst it's up to me at the end of the day, he does kind of have the right to express an opinion  
For me in my current financial situation, it's a significant enough outlay for me to not really want to invest unless it will really come in useful...and if they are hideously unreliable, then forget it!

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

gibsongretschfan said:

I have a broke TU-2

im going to drop it into strung Out to even things up!

Bet it gets repaired easily

Depends what's wrong with it. If it's something in the analogue side I can probably do it, if it's in the digital side it's game over. Always worth a look but not worth spending over about £35 on it, you can buy another one for that.

But I thought you could fix anything, anything at all. In fact, I was beginning to think you had a sonic screwdriver

shuikit

shaunm said:

I don't want to slate the polytune because what's good for one is not good for all. However when I had one it seemed to add white noise when activated. 

I also found this and had to stick it on an isolated power output which got rid of the white noise but it's pretty poor that the noise was there in the first place.

RocknRollDave

Bridgehouse said:

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

gibsongretschfan said:

I have a broke TU-2

im going to drop it into strung Out to even things up!

Bet it gets repaired easily

Depends what's wrong with it. If it's something in the analogue side I can probably do it, if it's in the digital side it's game over. Always worth a look but not worth spending over about £35 on it, you can buy another one for that.

But I thought you could fix anything, anything at all. In fact, I was beginning to think you had a sonic screwdriver

No, he's just pleased to see us

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

But I thought you could fix anything, anything at all. In fact, I was beginning to think you had a sonic screwdriver

lol

No, but it is true that some people think I'm a know-all, I have an odd heartbeat and I'm older than I look…

shaunm

shuikit said:

shaunm said:

I don't want to slate the polytune because what's good for one is not good for all. However when I had one it seemed to add white noise when activated. 

I also found this and had to stick it on an isolated power output which got rid of the white noise but it's pretty poor that the noise was there in the first place.

Mine was the mini so it was power only but I had it hooked up to a Trex power plant and it made no difference at all.

crunchman

I own a Polytune Mini because it is small and I don't have a lot of space on my board.

Having said that, I've had dreadful experience with TC reliability.  I've had 2 Nova Delays go bad on me.  I think I've owned 6 TC pedals in total.

We've also had 2 of the TC helicon mic stand mount vocal monitors (out of 4) go bad in my church.

Overall that's 4 out of 10 so a 40% failure rate.  it could actually be higher than that.  I sold a couple of the pedals so they could well have gone wrong for their new owners.

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

But I thought you could fix anything, anything at all. In fact, I was beginning to think you had a sonic screwdriver

lol

No, but it is true that some people think I'm a know-all, I have an odd heartbeat and I'm older than I look…

You are Clive Dunn and I claim my five pounds

gibsongretschfan

crunchman said:

I own a Polytune Mini because it is small and I don't have a lot of space on my board.

Having said that, I've had dreadful experience with TC reliability.  I've had 2 Nova Delays go bad on me.  I think I've owned 6 TC pedals in total.

We've also had 2 of the TC helicon mic stand mount vocal monitors (out of 4) go bad in my church.

Overall that's 4 out of 10 so a 40% failure rate.  it could actually be higher than that.  I sold a couple of the pedals so they could well have gone wrong for their new owners.

I seen a couple of TC pedals in a shop once. Someone may even have bought them and had them go wrong!