Thoughts on the Polytune

jsummers83

So I'm looking for a new tuner and I've heard a bit about this Polytune tuner. Is it really as good as I've heard? Does it make a difference being able to strum the whole guitar to find out which string is out of tune? I've been playing for a couple decades so I usually know exactly which string needs to be tuned anyway, so I'm not sure if this is a huge advantage.

I'd be interested to hear from those who own it or have used it in the past. How does it compare to the Boss TU-3 tuner?

Thanks!

AlanRatcliffe

It does work well and quicker than a regular tuner (especially in a playing situation). Nice to have, but it isn't an earth-shattering advantage over something like a Korg Pitchblack (and the PB has the edge for sheer visibility).

jsummers83

Interesting. They claim to have made improvements on the LED brightness with the Polytune 2, but perhaps that's the one you were referring to.

Thanks for the thoughts. They do a good job at marketing, that's for sure. I don't find many tuners that tune to .1 cent (most are +/- 1 cent) but I'm also not quite sure if that makes a huge difference.

Sebber

I've got a first generation Polytune Mini and it's a great piece of kit, occupying a fraction of my pedal board real estate than my trusty old Boss TU-2. I do definitely find being able to see all 6-strings at a glance to be useful, especially in a gigging situation where my ear might hear something out of whack but not necessarily which string: obviously one doesn't want to be tuning audibly in front of an audience, so muting via the pedal between songs and being able to see all strings at a glance can very quickly tell you how your overall tuning is.

One caveat: if you ever play/gig outdoors and the sun shines on your pedal board the LED display becomes totally useless. I've heard TC Electronic have improved matters with their latest version of these pedals.

jsummers83

Awesome. Thanks for the feedback Sebber! Good to hear from somebody who gigs with it.

Bob-Dubery

Am I right in saying that that all 6 strings mode only works for standard tuning? So if I'm in drop d then it'll show me that the 6 string is out even if it's tuned perfectly to D?

AlanRatcliffe

X-rated Bob wrote: Am I right in saying that that all 6 strings mode only works for standard tuning? So if I'm in drop d then it'll show me that the 6 string is out even if it's tuned perfectly to D?

When I reviewed it, yes (there was talk of a future firmware update, but I'm not sure if that is here yet).

However, you can have it auto switch to mono tuning when you only play one string and the mono tuning is chromatic. So strum, tune the other strings, play dropped string by itself and tune that.

It's really well thought out (as TC stuff tends to be).

peterleroux

According to the website, the Polytune 2 supports drop D and 'capo tuning'. Seeing as it's not specifically mentioned I suppose you're on your own for anything else.