Reading a pure sine wave is a slightly different game than reading all the harmonic content of a complex instrument tone too. The two tuners in the FXIII are already known to disagree because one focuses more on the fundamental.
my fm3's is tuner it out too. my other tuner and reaper tuner agree but not the fm3's. when the guitar is in tune, the fm3's tuner shows the values as follow:Hey everybody,
in my band we're currently suffering from tuning deviations.
I started to investigate what happens and right now I'm kinda stuck cause I have no idea what's going on.
I compared single strings (of same instrument) tuned according to
- My setup (Axe Fx III mk2)
- Other guitarists setup (FM3)
- a TC Polytune 3
I verified that for both axe tuners, no micro offsets are enabled and both are calibrated to 440 Hz.
I am confident my picking is causing max ~2 cents of deviation.
(We use drop D tuning so I'll name tone/string "low D" below)
I tune the low D according to the FM3 until it reports to be within +-1cent range.
Then I plug into my own setup and the III reports that low D is tuned around 10 cents too low.
I tune according to my III then.
Both FM3 and the Polytune will now report it is tuned too high ~10 cents.
Comparison by ear, to a guitar tuned according to the FM3, is clearly dissonant.
FM3 and Polytune seem to tune identically, so I think it is my III which is off.
what could cause such behavior? Did anyone experience similar tuning problems?
On higher strings, the problem exists too, but deviation seems a bit less extreme (but still too much), in range of 5-8 cents.
As a temporary fix, I offset my tuner to 438.5 Hz and the overall tonality between instruments improved.
But that's no true solution.
I'm happy for any ideas, assumptions or speculation of what could cause this.
I'm curious if that's a voice in a larger ensemble like an orchestra or choir, or a note in a chord. I also wonder if that's most people or most musicians. When you layer on distortion there's a big difference between a power chord that's exactly right as just slightly off.
I had the worst luck with a TU-12. I bought a blue and grey one brand new in the 90's. Spent big bucks on it at GC thinking it had to be super accurate. Turns out it would always tune flat. I could always hear that I sounded off even though I was a newbie but never figured to replace the tuner. I swear that that was the reason I stopped playing guitar for years.
I had the worst luck with a TU-12. I bought a blue and grey one brand new in the 90's. Spent big bucks on it at GC thinking it had to be super accurate. Turns out it would always tune flat. I could always hear that I sounded off even though I was a newbie but never figured to replace the tuner. I swear that that was the reason I stopped playing guitar for years.
The TU-12 model can be calibrated, which obviously mine wasn't when I bought it. Here's how to do it:
To this day I still have PTSD about being out of tune and cross check every tuner. I wish I could've Googled the solution so easily back then.
Compared to what?
Laxu, regarding the ST-300. I assume the display on yours is stable, thus you continue using it, correct? I bought one not too long ago, and ended up sending it back. With 5 different guitars/pickups, I could not get a stable display on the ST-300, which drove me nuts. No such problem with my Peterson HD or my FM9.
Yeah, I should have been a little more detailed. The simple answer is, because it sounds more in tune.
I think if you took a poll on whether to improve the tuner or make the amps/FX on the AF even more exactly accurate, everyone would agree that the tuner can take a back seat. It's mostly serviceable in the majority of cases.
I used to feel the same way about Peterson, but couldn't afford one. While I've had a Boss TU-12 or 2 that responds well to a 440 Hz tuning fork, I always mistrusted other notes to a small extent. I haven't fully rebuilt trust in the Axe FX III tuner since the days when the fundamental and octave harmonic appeared out of tune with one another on the display, but it definitely seems OK nowadays.I wasn’t really complaining about anything. I have the Peterson
, I'd kind of love it if I felt confident to use the Axe FX to set the intonation on a guitar I had just set up. It might be that we are already there. However it's one of those things where I trust my muscial ear to some extent, but trustworthy electromechanical or electronic verification is invaluable.
