Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-300 - Good/Great Tuner?

Dave Merrill said:
My understanding is that "sweetening" is about different compromises to deal w the fact the guitars (at least ones with normal frets) aren't physically capable of playing fully in tune, because of the physics involved. It's always a compromise, but there can be different approaches, and different ones have been recommended by different well respected people, to the point of having various systems built into different tuners.

However, my understanding is that many people think completely straight "unsweetened" running isn't as attractive as some other systems.

That makes me curious about this idea that the Sonic Research tuners are so much more accurate that no sweetening is needed. I don't get it.
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Don't know if you were responding to my post, but if so--sorry, I didn't mean to imply that (that SR tuners are so accurate, no sweetened modes are needed).

I, personally, only "need" Feiten and normal tuning modes. I don't know how many sweetened tunings the SR tuners will store, either. And I know that the Petersons seem to make it easier to have several tunings available.

I'm not even sure that the extreme accuracy of the SR tuners isn't overkill, even for doing intonation. Lots of folks doing setups with Petersons and other tuners.

So if having lots of sweetened tunings built in is more important to you than that extra iota of perhaps-irrelevant accuracy, you might prefer other options. Since you're on a FAS forum, I assume you have access to the onboard Fractal tuner already; I don't know, maybe it's accurate enough that anything more is just a matter of features, so maybe having lots of alternate tunings on hand should be a primary requirement for another tuner.
 
Dave Merrill said:
My understanding is that "sweetening" is about different compromises to deal w the fact the guitars (at least ones with normal frets) aren't physically capable of playing fully in tune, because of the physics involved. It's always a compromise, but there can be different approaches, and different ones have been recommended by different well respected people, to the point of having various systems built into different tuners.

However, my understanding is that many people think completely straight "unsweetened" running isn't as attractive as some other systems.

That makes me curious about this idea that the Sonic Research tuners are so much more accurate that no sweetening is needed. I don't get it.
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If your guitar is intonated on fretted notes only ie 3rd to 15th fret and the nut placement, action and set up are "correct"(read not detrimental) you don't need sweetened tunings because you have sweetened things as much as any guitar can be in the intonation already . If this is done properly a tuner as good as the turbo will just make sure you are "in".
 
Andy Eagle said:
The fractal is fine for in between songs live but I wouldn't set up a guitar with it and at home I don't use it without feeling the need to tweak the guitar to be "in".
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Tuner update coming in the next firmware 😄
(No knowledge about this, just based on typical Cliff behaviour)
 
Dave Merrill said:
My understanding is that "sweetening" is about different compromises to deal w the fact the guitars (at least ones with normal frets) aren't physically capable of playing fully in tune, because of the physics involved. It's always a compromise, but there can be different approaches, and different ones have been recommended by different well respected people, to the point of having various systems built into different tuners.

However, my understanding is that many people think completely straight "unsweetened" running isn't as attractive as some other systems.

That makes me curious about this idea that the Sonic Research tuners are so much more accurate that no sweetening is needed. I don't get it.
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This is my experience. I've had both the 200 and 300 models over the years on various board and they are bulletproof although the one I currently have sometimes makes a popping noise when I hit the button. I am not in love with the tuner on the FM9 compared to other tuners.
 
I own 2 st-300 minis and don't really care about other tuners. I also prefer it to the Fractal tuner because it reacts more quickly (including compared to the fractal imitation strobe display). I don't find it jumpy at all, but maybe I'm just used to how fast it reacts. I tend to over-correct with the Fractal tuner...I have to slow down and wait for it to catch up to try and avoid that.

It's the last "real" pedal on my FM3 board, and despite the fact that I'm now using one expression pedal as a dedicated volume and can do tuner on heel down...it's staying. I actually just ordered a voltage converter to power it off the faslink 2 port. That'll be tomorrow's little project.
 
marsonic said:
I actually just ordered a voltage converter to power it off the faslink 2 port.
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If anyone cares, it works flawlessly.

I bought this from amazon: Yinpin DC 24V/12V to 9V 3A 27W Step Down Converter Voltage Regulator Waterproof Car Power Buck Module. I probably over-paid, but I wanted something that looked/seemed solid.

A few minutes of lazy soldering (cut an old XLR cable and pulled one of the plugs that came with a GigRig Isolator). Powered right on, and it works like a tuner. I should be able to plug in the isolator and run at least a few pedals just off the faslink2 port if I want to.

Plus, now I have a nice power supply lying around if I want to build another board for some reason.
 
DiedTrying said:
Well, I ordered the ST-300 tuner, and a one spot power plug from Sweetwater. Thanks!

:)
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Something that is also useful about the full sized ST-300 is that with a battery installed, it only draws power when the tuner is engaged, meaning that battery life is great if you're only using it for tuning. If you're using it as a mute switch between sets or something, you'll want to use a power adapter, but I play out several times a week and a single 9V battery lasts me about a year before the first low battery warning gets displayed.

The manual says runtime from a single alkaline battery is about 12 hours, so depending how quickly you tune, that could potentially be 1,000 - 2,000 tune ups.
 
npx said:
Something that is also useful about the full sized ST-300 is that with a battery installed, it only draws power when the tuner is engaged, meaning that battery life is great if you're only using it for tuning. If you're using it as a mute switch between sets or something, you'll want to use a power adapter, but I play out several times a week and a single 9V battery lasts me about a year before the first low battery warning gets displayed.

The manual says runtime from a single alkaline battery is about 12 hours, so depending how quickly you tune, that could potentially be 1,000 - 2,000 tune ups.
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Same with the ST-200. In fact, I'm more worried about the battery becoming corroded than it losing juice, as lifespan is years if you don't leave it on.

I've had the ST-200 for 11+ years; I replaced the original cheap battery once, in 2016 I think, and the "new" 7 year old Duracell still has plenty of juice. And I have never powered it with an adapter--with 7+ years battery life, why bother?
 
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