Why do peeps use an external tuner in their rig ?

Smittefar said:
FWIW, I use the Ax8 tuner at home, and it works great. It is only live, I need the slightly faster operation of the polytune.
Click to expand...
Should probably modify my opinion to exclude tuners with a vastly different function like the poly tune. I suppose that is a different story.
 
jzucker said:
No, it's really not. Sorry - I know I'll be blasted for saying this but the tuner really isn't one of the strong suits.
Click to expand...
I don't have an AX8, so I can't comment on that specific tuner implementation. I do have an AxeFX II XL, and I have performed an A/B comparison with its built-in tuner against (1) a Peterson strobe tuner (mechanical) (2) Peterson strobostomp and a (3) Turbo Tuner.. In answer to the question "why so many tuners?", I have access to a pretty nicely equipped studio, and I also have had a few (ahem) stompboxes on my pedalboards previously.

I found the Peterson strobostomp and the Turbo Tuner to both be amazingly fast and accurate. Those were great tuners for my rigs, and great for tuning guitar, bass and Warr guitar (an instrument with nearly the range of a piano). The AxeFX appears to be on par with those specialized tuners for response time and accuracy. I tested the tuners using my instruments, and also with a sine wave generator. The instrument's signal is obviously more complex, and much less pure, but it's more of a real-world application for me. The reason I used the sine wave generator was to determine the smallest variance in fundamental frequency that could be detected by the tuners. My informal results indicated the strobostomp and Turbo Tuner could both detect when the pitch was off by as little .2 cents, and so could the AxeFX. It seemed to me those two pedals may have been a tiny bit faster in pitch detection, but if there indeed was a difference in time, it was a mere fraction of a second, which isn't meaningful to me in terms "how fast can I tune my instrument". Also, I'd argue that my guitars are rarely closer than .2 cents to being in tune anyway, owing not only to the inherent errors in equal temperament tuning, but because they're imperfect... the frets are expertly crowned, but they're still a curved surface, the same is true for the bridge saddles, my guitars have trem bridges (a complex set of interactive physics in itself) and merely touching the strings localizes some body heat that changes the tuning of that string, which rebalances the floating trem, etc.

If I recall correctly, Cliff posted some time ago that while the tuner implementation in the AxeFX is very fast and accurate, in the communication protocol between AxeFX and MFC-101, the tuner messaging is a low-priority thread. That doesn't mean it takes forever, but that it might not feel as responsive as the AxeFX display will be. As I said above, I don't know how the tuner is implemented in the AX8, so I could be talking out of turn.

I can understand the desire for an always-on tuner on the pedalboard. I happen to like the simplicity of running a single XLR cable from AxeFX -> MFC-101. The only items on my board are the MFC-101, three continuous controllers, and a double footswitch. If I added a dedicated tuner to my board, I'd need to run an audio signal from the rack (where my wireless receiver is located), and also would need to power the pedalboard tuner somehow. For my needs, the built-in tuner does a great job. The greatest challenges for me in terms of staying in tune are more related to the ambient temperature of our stages.
 
I never had a problem with the builtin tuner on the Axe Fx II either. When I used the MFC I would almost always turn to the Axe Fx II screen instead because of the lag between the MFC and the Axe Fx II. When I switched to a RJM MMGT/16 controller that went away because the tuner communication between the MMGT and the Axe Fx II is definitely faster for some reason with no apparent lag. The convenience of running a single cable between the Axe Fx II and the controller would also far outweigh the benefits of a separate tuner, or any other pedal for that matter.

But with the Ax8 that convenience changed because we have to run both power and audio cables from the Ax8 anyway. So with both power, guitar signal and space available on the board, it's almost a sin not to do anything with that space, isn't it :). So I contemplated adding a compressor, a boost or drive pedal, an H9 (which wouldn't quite fit) but what I think will make things the most convenient for me would be to add a TC Polytune. I'm all about convenience and ease of use :).
 
jzucker said:
No, it's really not. Sorry - I know I'll be blasted for saying this but the tuner really isn't one of the strong suits.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, well I tested it with my Korg Pitchblack+ and they both were just as accurate. I don't use the Axe tuner much as I prefer the Korg in my pedalboard but it seems pretty accurate. YMMV.
 
Last edited:
Personally, I find that the tuner on the AX8 (and the Axe FX) does not visually track as quickly as my PolyTune 2. Not a big deal, but it makes tuning slightly more difficult because I find I overcompensate while the visual display takes a bit of time to catch up to the actual pitch. Once it does, I've sometimes tuned a bit sharp or flat and have to readjust. I have to do that much less often on the PolyTune. Hopefully that's a software issue that can be improved in future firmwares.
 
Some people are used to using a volume pedal (heel back/toe up) to tune and always have the tuner on. Really a preference thing.

I use headstock tuners and my volume knob rolled off to tune. To each his own. I'd rather clean up my pedalboard real estate no matter what type of setup I'm using.
 
The Axe's built-in tuner is very accurate and responds very quickly. It responds to small changes in string pitch that most other tuners miss completely. When it seems to take a while to settle into the string's pitch, it's actually the string itself that's settling in. Most other tuners are like shock absorbers: you don't feel all of the bumps in the road. That's a good thing for quick tune-ups in front of an audience, but not for precision.

By the way, the Axe's tuner is tight enough for intonation. Stage tuners aren't.
 
AX8 tuner works great for me.
I check tuning at the start of the set and my guitar doesn't go out of tune during the set.
6 point floating trem is very stable with all sorts of wang bar usage.
Maybe people should fix their guitars so they don't go out of tune so much...? :D
 
Doesn't matter what tuner I use .... I still get wrong notes. Hope someone brings out a decent one to cure that soon, it's amazing they've got away with it this long.
 
talent-booster_zps25531be4.jpg
 
I like the little peghead clip-on tuners. Right there by the tuning machines, easy to adjust on the fly without looking anywhere else: plus I'm used to them with acoustic instruments. I do look forward to the precision of the AX8, though.
 
I found that the tuner on the AX8 is very accurate, but too slow to respond. Tuning between songs with new strings is a must for the first few songs of my sets. For that reason alone, I needed to find an alternative. I went with a Shure wireless unit with a tuner that is much faster and seems to work well. My other board had a turbo tuner that I loved. The Shure seems to be very close as well.
 
mmpete said:
Hi AX8 headz.

Looking at all of the lovely Rig Pics, I notice that numerous people are incorporating a separate tuner into their rig. Looking at the manual (my AX8 is still enroute) I see that the AX8 has an inbuilt tuner so I'm wondering whether;
  • the AX8 tuner function is not very good / accurate;
  • AX8 tuner is cumbersome to engage in a gig, or;
  • this is a symptom of people finding it hard to downsize the pedal board because some primeval (guitarist) need is surfacing and making people have more stuff ;)

Anyhow - just interested in why

Thanks, Peter
Click to expand...
I use the Turbo Tuner and am unlikely to switch. It's just so darn fast, plus I like the visual method better than the one on the Axe. The Axe/AX8 one may be accurate, but it's also a lot slower (don't jump all over me people, I'm not saying it's slow, just slower than the TT). Plus I can have it always on, which is a plus.
 
Now I have my unit, I see what you mean about the tuner. it is a lot more jumpy when tuning - and a bit slower to respond. I'll see how it goes at a few rehearsals before deciding whether to keep the polytune or snark.
 
Akstrat said:
I found that the tuner on the AX8 is very accurate, but too slow to respond. Tuning between songs with new strings is a must for the first few songs of my sets. For that reason alone, I needed to find an alternative. I went with a Shure wireless unit with a tuner that is much faster and seems to work well. My other board had a turbo tuner that I loved. The Shure seems to be very close as well.
Click to expand...
I like the Ax8 tuner way better than the glxd16 tuner. The share one feels as a Korg PitchBlack to me.
 
With any tuners are being jumpy (with new strings for example), I tend to put the guitar on the neck pickup and turn that pickups tone off completely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom