Tuning pedal pros and cons?

StuffnJunk · August 2008

my band mate is always on my case to get a tuning pedal....i know that every pedal you have cuts down on the overall signal, so i don't want anything unnecessary in there

then again, it could help avoid catastrophe during a live show if my guitar gets knocked out of tune

but, that is why i always have a backup guitar tuned up and ready to go....what are the odds of having two guitars go out of tune during a 45 minute set??

xtremehardy388 · August 2008

The BOSS TU2 is true bypass. It won't hurt your sound. I think mine is a necessity. If I'm changing guitars, I use it to mute the signal. I played a show and went out of tune during a solo. During the jam section, I tuned my guitar, thanks to this. I think it'd be a good investment for you. You never know what's going to happen...it's best to be prepared.

StuffnJunk · August 2008

ok, i'll look into that

by the way, how can i Facebook you if i don't know your real name?

exhausted · August 2008

xtremehardy388 wrote:

The BOSS TU2 is true bypass. It won't hurt your sound.

no it's not.

*however* it has a pretty good buffered bypass that, when placed at the end of a pedal chain, can sort of be an aid in the whole long-pedal-chain-long cable-signal quality thing.

i keep mine out of the way by running it from the tuning output on a volume pedal at the front of my chain.

ianvomsaal · August 2008

GET YOURSELF A TUNER NOW!!!(I'd be on your case every day until you got yourself a tuner, and USED IT)!!!
Nothing sucks more than playing a tune with someone who's out of tune - why doesn't it drive everyone nuts?

No BOSS pedal is True Bypass, they are all buffered (unless it's been modded), but about 90% of the musicians
out there have a TU2 on their pedalboard - myself included. In many cases a buffered pedal is better than True
Bypass. I actually have a Buffered OD Pedal near the start of my board because it buffers all the true bypass
pedals after it. Check this out: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html
Yes, Pete Cornish is the guy that did David Gilmours Pedalboard (and still does his stuff). He's done pedalboards
for Any Summers (Police). Man, here's his client list, it's huge: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/client.html
Here's his main page: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/

xtremehardy388 · August 2008

StuffnJunk wrote:

ok, i'll look into that

by the way, how can i Facebook you if i don't know your real name?

Michael Rotgers

Also, I thought it was 'true bypass' (we had a discussion a while back about how deceiving that saying can be with pedals today). I retract my statement.

exhausted · August 2008

just be careful putting a buffered pedal at the very front if you're a fuzz user. some (most?) fuzzes hated buffered signals and sound very poor when they see them. actually, lots of overdrive/distortions behave differently with unbuffered/buffered signals.

Novawind · August 2008

For what it's worth, I have a Korg DT-10 and love it.

Edit: My 1000th post. I need to play more.

StuffnJunk · August 2008

ianvomsaal wrote:

GET YOURSELF A TUNER NOW!!!(I'd be on your case every day until you got yourself a tuner, and USED IT)!!!
Nothing sucks more than playing a tune with someone who's out of tune - why doesn't it drive everyone nuts?

No BOSS pedal is True Bypass, they are all buffered (unless it's been modded), but about 90% of the musicians
out there have a TU2 on their pedalboard - myself included. In many cases a buffered pedal is better than True
Bypass. I actually have a Buffered OD Pedal near the start of my board because it buffers all the true bypass
pedals after it. Check this out: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html
Yes, Pete Cornish is the guy that did David Gilmours Pedalboard (and still does his stuff). He's done pedalboards
for Any Summers (Police). Man, here's his client list, it's huge: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/client.html
Here's his main page: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/

ok Ian, your opinion carries a lot of weight....but just cuz i don't have a tuner pedal doesn't mean i don't tune before playing and during breaks! and if one guitar sounds out of tune during a show, i whip on the other one...no good?

aahhh, i guess i should get one

lucylespian · August 2008

A tuner is the most important pedal to have.
There is always lots of talk about true-bypass vs buffered, but buffering has a purpose. Without being an electronics guy, I can predict that it serves to manitin signal integrity, and to reduce popping during switch changes.
Most signal degradation is due to the nature of teh effect.
Wah , for example, is a moving frequency filter, so of course there is frequency loss, that's what it is designed to do. Frequecny loss translates to SPL reduction and therefore "tone suck". A passive pedal like a tuner won't do that.

ianvomsaal · August 2008

StuffnJunk wrote:

ok Ian, your opinion carries a lot of weight....but just cuz i don't have a tuner pedal doesn't mean i don't tune before playing and during breaks! and if one guitar sounds out of tune during a show, i whip on the other one...no good?

aahhh, i guess i should get one

I didn't really mean to sound like I was busting your balls, it's just a big pet-peeve of mine (I check tuning between every song I play).
I think all this stems from my time in Music School - I once had 20 points taken off of one of my Classical JURY performances because
I had one string fall slightly out of tune - Unfortunately most higher end classical guitars tend to fall out of tune quite easily from temp
or humidity changes (typically because of the solid wood). I tuned my guitar in the rehearsal room and walked 15-steps (quite literally
15-steps) over to the JURY room - Unfortunately my guitar went slightly out of tune changing rooms, and it basically cost me 2-grades
because I didn't check it once I got in there - my G-string slightly fell out of tune, and one of the jurors heard it, and marked me off for
it (jurors are instructors evaluating your performance) - in the end the best grade I could get was a C, and the juror commented on my
evaluation sheet "tune your guitar next time!". Since then making sure "everyone is in tune" has been one of my big pet-peeves

).
Cheers . . .

- Ian

BTW - I agree, tuners are one of the most important pedals to have - get a tuner!

jcmark611 · August 2008

I suggest getting a volume pedal and using the "tuner out" function.

xtremehardy388 · August 2008

lucylespian wrote:

A tuner is the most important pedal to have.

+1

ianvomsaal · August 2008

Addition . . . another nice thing about a tuner like the TU-2 is that you can kill all sound with one step.

xtremehardy388 · August 2008

ianvomsaal wrote:

Addition . . . another nice thing about a tuner like the TU-2 is that you can kill all sound with one step.

Yup, I use it when I switch guitars

Anon · August 2008

StuffnJunk wrote:

my band mate is always on my case to get a tuning pedal....i know that every pedal you have cuts down on the overall signal, so i don't want anything unnecessary in there

then again, it could help avoid catastrophe during a live show if my guitar gets knocked out of tune

but, that is why i always have a backup guitar tuned up and ready to go....what are the odds of having two guitars go out of tune during a 45 minute set??

Seriously get one. It will be one of the best purchases you've ever made pedal wise.

kitfoo · August 2008

My TU-2 is the first thing in my chain. I've tried putting it at the end, in the middle, and everywhere between. In the front seems to be the best...at least with my setup. Now all I need to do is figure out a way to keep my wah pedal from picking up bad 80's music!

Jam10 · August 2008

I have the TU 2 tuner as well and it the most important pedal I have. I check my tuning all the time. I think a tuner is a must. I also love that I can just step on the pedal and quiet everything down if need be. Seriously get a tuner. You will thank us all.

Django · August 2008

StuffnJunk wrote:

my band mate is always on my case to get a tuning pedal....i know that every pedal you have cuts down on the overall signal, so i don't want anything unnecessary in there

then again, it could help avoid catastrophe during a live show if my guitar gets knocked out of tune

but, that is why i always have a backup guitar tuned up and ready to go....what are the odds of having two guitars go out of tune during a 45 minute set??

There's no point have a great sound if your out of tune.
Bands tuning up off each other on stage sounds terrible. Get one now.

who's_pearljam? · August 2008

ianvomsaal wrote:

Addition . . . another nice thing about a tuner like the TU-2 is that you can kill all sound with one step.

I use that feature when I'm in "I think I'm sucking" mode!

The tuner is an essential item if you want to play music in a band!

It doesn't matter how beautiful the tone is when you've crafted your thousands of dollars of amp and pedal and guitar chain. It all sounds horrible when you're just a bit out of tune. Even if you have a great ear for tune, you can't always tell on stage with all the other noise going on and the tuner won't mislead you.

The Tu-2 is an all around good pedal. I used to keep it off the loop like Exhausted says, but now I have it right in line because I bend strings kind of hard and blip out of tune a lot, so I can even mute and retune a string in the middle of a song if I really need it. I've been playing some funky old Guyatone guitars and they need tuning all the time. I usually tune up between each song, especially with a tremolo guitar. Guitars get knocked out of tune all the time on stage. If a spotlight hits you, the strings warm up and change pitch. If you're outside, and a cool breeze blows, or the sun hits you, ,,,out of tune.

It also has a power out that can power other pedals on your board, too.

Disadvantage is that it doesn't have an internal mike, so if you have an acoustic guitar with no pickup, you can't tune that but you can get a cheapo Korg for like 15 dollars for that.

Any tuner pedal you get should have a bright readout, too. If it's a faint LED light, and the lights are on you, or the sun's shining, it's hard to see the readout.

Oh, and regarding overdrive after a buffered pedal. That can be true, especially with really sensitive overdrives. My TS-9 works fine after the TU-2 but my Ibanez Tube King is better before the pedal. I actually haven't figured out what I'm going to do with that lineup yet!

xtremehardy388 · August 2008

who's_pearljam? wrote:

Disadvantage is that it doesn't have an internal mike, so if you have an acoustic guitar with no pickup, you can't tune that but you can get a cheapo Korg for like 15 dollars for that.

Got one of those, too, haha

Tuning pedal pros and cons?

Comments

Categories