Guitar Gear Forum

Just got a reminder how much the old TU-2 sucks in bright sunlight. Any suggestions on something that will stand out with the sun beating down on it?

The Korg Pitchblack is pretty good at that.

I heard the TC polytune is good too but I never tried one.

Also consider a clip on, it's usually easy to find an angle where you can see it.

The Peterson strobostomp hd or whatever it’s called is great in the light.

I just bought a Peterson Strobostomp and I love it!!!
It comes with a bunch of presets for various tunings.
https://www.petersontuners.com/products/stroboStompHD/

From their website:
"Can We Go Outside and Play Now?
The multi-color display on the StroboStomp HD is easy to see - even in direct sunlight!
The strobe image and note name appear monochromatic in direct sunlight making it very easy to view what is going on with your tuning when playing outdoors."

Man I want one of those Petersons just because the screen and graphic look cool af

I’ve never liked the strobostomp tuners until this one. Super fast tracking, easy af to see, accurate… one of my better purchases of the last couple years.

My sonic turbo sucks in the sun, so i play under a tent.

I played a few day time outdoor gigs back when I had a pitch black and never had an issue.

Got a pitchblack rack mount that you could see from the moon. I also have the strobostomp, and yeah, you can see that thing in any level of lighting.

the strobostomp mini looks great.... will probably grab one the next time I place an order from Sweetwater

Marc G wrote:the strobostomp mini looks great.... will probably grab one the next time I place an order from Sweetwater

Whoa, I like the format of the Mini. Kinda wish it had been available when I got my HD

New tuner. Not a Strobostomp, but it killed two birds with one stone.

Ironically, I have no idea if it's good in bright sunlight... but the display is big, and I'm getting old.

Let me know how you like it. I'm seriously considering buying this system.

GuitarBilly wrote:Let me know how you like it. I'm seriously considering buying this system.

So far, so good. It's really intelligently designed for actual gigging. The receiver is metal. The bodypack is metal. They have a new battery door design that's not as flimsy as the older packs and is on the bottom, so less issues with taping the pack to your strap. The battery lasts for almost 12 hours and can be charged inside the pack. A 15 minute charge is good for 1.5hrs, so you could charge between sets if you had to. There's a visual display on the floor unit that's always showing how much charge is left. The antenna is solid with no flex, and the cable is threaded on. The clip can be flipped so you can invert it on your strap if that's your preference. In an emergency you could plug in a cable and it mutes the transmitter. Solid design.

Audio is good. Clear with low noise floor (digital). You can hear a momentary artifact (and the Rx light flashes) when it hops to a new channel. It's periodically moving around to avoid interference, which in some ways is good since it's automatic, and some ways is indicative of the problem with using 2.4/5.8g bands. I'm using this thing 2 feet from my internet router and I might hear one every few minutes (router is closer to my pedalboard than I am). Curious to hear how often it happens on stage.

The transmitter has no boot up, so when I turn the transmitter it on it almost immediately syncs and passes sound. I don't need to manually sync channels, when I turn on the transmitter it talks to the receiver and gets put on the correct channel. If I'm having problems mid set I can scan for an open channel on the receiver and the transmitter will automatically switch (might be an issue if you have multiples of this unit on stage). If you're a high roller, you can run multiple packs off one receiver.

As a tuner, the display is large and it's fast (I've been using a TU-2, so everything seems fast).

Big thing for me is the headroom. My old unit (Shure PGX-D) couldn't handle the output of my bass, even with the transmitter on it's lowest setting. This one handles everything I can throw at it.

For now, my only complaint is the fucked up shape. It's long, which makes the top mount jacks awkward since they make it even longer.

Not an issue for me but might be for someone, they provide a courtesy port for charging the bodypack on the left side... which is where other pedals typically sit. Don't know why they didn't put it on the right side, where it would've made more sense.

Anyway, that's my nickel tour.

Just build a little sunshade on to your existing tuner

Nice write up thanks man!!! My mind is pretty much made up about getting this tuner.

Devin wrote:Just build a little sunshade on to your existing tuner

Duck tape and a toilet roll and you're golden

Zozobra wrote:

Devin wrote:Just build a little sunshade on to your existing tuner

Duck tape and a toilet roll and you're golden

screamingdaisy wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:Let me know how you like it. I'm seriously considering buying this system.

So far, so good. It's really intelligently designed for actual gigging. The receiver is metal. The bodypack is metal. They have a new battery door design that's not as flimsy as the older packs and is on the bottom, so less issues with taping the pack to your strap. The battery lasts for almost 12 hours and can be charged inside the pack. A 15 minute charge is good for 1.5hrs, so you could charge between sets if you had to. There's a visual display on the floor unit that's always showing how much charge is left. The antenna is solid with no flex, and the cable is threaded on. The clip can be flipped so you can invert it on your strap if that's your preference. In an emergency you could plug in a cable and it mutes the transmitter. Solid design.

Audio is good. Clear with low noise floor (digital). You can hear a momentary artifact (and the Rx light flashes) when it hops to a new channel. It's periodically moving around to avoid interference, which in some ways is good since it's automatic, and some ways is indicative of the problem with using 2.4/5.8g bands. I'm using this thing 2 feet from my internet router and I might hear one every few minutes (router is closer to my pedalboard than I am). Curious to hear how often it happens on stage.

The transmitter has no boot up, so when I turn the transmitter it on it almost immediately syncs and passes sound. I don't need to manually sync channels, when I turn on the transmitter it talks to the receiver and gets put on the correct channel. If I'm having problems mid set I can scan for an open channel on the receiver and the transmitter will automatically switch (might be an issue if you have multiples of this unit on stage). If you're a high roller, you can run multiple packs off one receiver.

As a tuner, the display is large and it's fast (I've been using a TU-2, so everything seems fast).

Big thing for me is the headroom. My old unit (Shure PGX-D) couldn't handle the output of my bass, even with the transmitter on it's lowest setting. This one handles everything I can throw at it.

For now, my only complaint is the fucked up shape. It's long, which makes the top mount jacks awkward since they make it even longer.

Not an issue for me but might be for someone, they provide a courtesy port for charging the bodypack on the left side... which is where other pedals typically sit. Don't know why they didn't put it on the right side, where it would've made more sense.

Anyway, that's my nickel tour.

Yeah, nice detail, and I am going to piggy back off of that to give my experience, having owned mine for about 3 years, now.

I initially made the switch because the main venue that we play at here in town got a new wireless sound system. No cables from stage to sound booth, just from mics to the panel on the side of the stage. This caused havoc with my Line 6 G50, which I'd used since 2009 lol. It was probably time for an upgrade anyway. I also got sick of using clip on tuners.

I only use this on stage. At home and practice, I still use cables. I have a separate pedal board for each situation...one that stays home, one that stays at the practice space, and one in my live rig bag. That board consists of this unit, a Fortin Roach, and a Fortin Zuul. I power this board with a pair of Warwick Rockboard batteries, I think. Works so fucking great and convenient, especially since the board just sits on top of my amp.

I have never had this cut out thanks to the signal switching feature. I also will say that I haven't ever noticed any artifacts on stage with it, like what you're describing. It's been completely, 100% flawless in that sense.

Everything about the build and design, I 90% agree with. The size hasn't really been a problem for me, but yeah, I guess I could see how it might be for some. I also REALLY wish they had a second output on this thing. That would eliminate my need for the Roach, since the Zuul needs the key input from the guitar signal to work properly.

Anyway, for like a consumer level wireless, I think this thing is impossible to beat. Too bad prices went from like $350 to $500 or whatever they are now. Still worth it, but much nicer back when I got mine lol.

Out of curiosity I looked for the differences between the GLXD16 and the 16+.

Basically, came down to the + version being dual band (2.4 and 5.8GHz) and the addition of the cable input so you can still use the tuner in the event you can't use the wireless.

Random pieces of information I never saw in the manual....

Channel group 1 has the lowest latency. Channel group 2 has slightly higher latency and increased resistance to interference. Channel group 3 has the highest resistance to interference.

When scanning, if the display shows a numbered channel you're on 2.4GHz. If it's a letter you're on 5.8GHz.

If you use the + version in 2.4GHz mode battery life goes up to 17 hours.

screamingdaisy wrote:the addition of the cable input so you can still use the tuner in the event you can't use the wireless.

That's the biggest selling point for me. I really only use wireless on gigs but I want the tuner available on my board all the time.