Not mentioning 2 or at least one drawback nor doing some *serious* playing on it, IMO makes for a less believable review. Some "endorsed reviews" put one or more in to at least *appear* believable
I can't make it out at this speeds, but does it (also) tune going down and just stop, or does it go a bit further down and then tunes back up (like we manually should)?
it doesn't include some way of string stretching?
I doubt that after using this system, a series of serious minor third bends on a few strings would still have me in tune? That is what you have to demonstrate.
To me, this kind of stuff (being still in tune after 20 secs and some minor third bends) is way more important than having easy open tunings, etc.
I hope I'm wrong and it's a cool evolution for sure.
Is your Strat setup with the bridge floating? How well does it handle a floating bridge?
hey Cooper, let me rephrase my question concerning capo's.
every time I throw a capo on a guitar it's 99% never in tune. I've tried lots of different types of capo's claiming to just clamp on and still be in tune.
So far, I've had the best luck with the G7th, but I was wondering if I put a capo on anywhere on the neck, will hitting the tronical tune button compensate for any issues using a capo would cause?
If so, that would be a dream come true. If not, I'd still buy it just so I don't have to spend so much time tuning live and killing any momentum of the show.
thanks
Jeff
I recently bought one of these and used it "live", for the first time, during last night's gig.
It's not working very well for me - it's hit or miss with regard to how well it tunes my guitar. I've got a Don Grosh ElectraJet, set up for dive only. I played with it for an hour yesterday, prior to the gig, trying to get it to work more consistently, but still had to tune by hand last night. For instance, there's a calibration step to teach it how you plan to strum the strings during tuning. Since its built-in tuning presets are consistently sharp (on my guitar, with my unit, at least) compared to the Axe-Fx's tuner, I created my own standard, drop-D, and drop-D-up-a-half presets in the user bank.
There are two tuning modes: multi-string and single-string. Single-string (tune one string at a time) can work better when multi-string isn't happy. Note that Tronical recommends single-string tuning in noisy environments, though I'm not sure what constitutes noisy. The singer (my wife) hissing "why aren't you in tune yet?"? (kidding, honey).
I agree with the other elements of the review - it's lightweight, installed easily, doesn't get in my way, etc.. (Though it does get in the way of some guitar hanger hooks.) I showed it to my engineering colleagues and they were suitably impressed. Mine shipped to me without a battery, which Tronical promptly remedied by overnighting me two - from Germany!
A couple of other points - when tuning by hand, it takes many more turns compared to a standard machine head, and the turn direction is reversed from normal. The "user interface" of buttons and LEDs is, understandably, a bit cryptic and I found that I needed to write my own sheet-cheat to better understand the steps. I also have to twist and push my guitar away from me a bit in order to push the buttons and watch the LEDs.
All said, if this thing tuned my guitar better, I'd give it 5 stars. The engineering is very, very cool. I suppose I should lube my nut to verify that's not my problem, after which I should contact Tronical.
I'd already checked and tweaked the intonation, so that's not it. (And I'm not sure why intonation would effect the tuning of open strings.)Ricky, it sounds like your guitar's intonation is off. The tronicle was tuning mine a bit sharp as well until I double checked my intonation and it was a little out. As far as lubing the nut, tronicle recommends in the manual that you do this to ensure the tuner works accurately.
I'm surprised that you had trouble using Multi string mode live. I used it last night at a very noisy gig and it worked fine. I imagine it may not work as well when standing right next to a drum set or amp cab, but when standing at the front of the stage, I have not had any problems.
I do agree that it takes some getting use to to have the two lowest machine heads turn the opposite way, but with the tronicle, I don't plan on using the machine heads anyway and I didn't think it was a big enough issue to take up time in my review.
I'd already checked and tweaked the intonation, so that's not it. (And I'm not sure why intonation would effect the tuning of open strings.)
I just lubed up the nut, did some Eb to E retunings, and still have a problem. I even bought the Peterson iStroboSoft app since it gives a cents readout and is, presumably, accurate.
I'll have to contact Tronical I think.
Thanks
I'm not sure I see why it wouldn't work with a capo now - as long as you're within the tuning range, and you create a custom tuning for it to match the actual notes you want when the capo is in place. Ah, maybe what they're working on is support for going beyond the current tuning range, for use with a capo.Cooper (and others wondering the same thing)
here is the response I got from Tronical today about having a guitar retune itself with a capo on:
Hello Jeff
We are working on a capo mode and we hope that we can release it in 2014.
By the way I use Elliott capos. Expensive but precise
Thank You
Best regards
Guenther Klahr
Tronical GmbH