Turbo Tuner True Strobe

[MP Migillicuty]

http://www.turbo-tuner.com/


I have been doing alot of shopping around for tuners lately. Mostly I have been bidding on Peterson Tuners on E-Bay. Since I have not won one yet for the price I am willing to spend. I started doing some more research and I came across the Turbo Tuner. It has all of the features and really looks promising. I was just wondering if anybody had any experience with it??

[seveneight]

Yes! And it is great. It's now my only tuner. I tried the Peterson StroboStomp and returned it after a month. It was defective right out of the box -- three different problems. Very poor construction.

The Turbo is just as accurate as a Strobo. No longer can Peterson claim to be the most accurate out there. The Turbo is different, though. You may or may not like the "spinning" strobe lights. I actually prefer them over the Peterson's virtual strobe bands.

Also, I have spoken with Roger, the Turbo's designer. Very nice guy. He is planning a stompbox version for next year. The only downside to the current model, IMO, is that it's not a stompbox that you can engage with your foot. However, it's easy to just leave on all the time, which is what I do.

Oh, one more downside. If you play live and want to be able to tune silently, you'd have to create some kind of side chain to route your signal to the tuner only. You'd need something like and A/B box, or you could just put a volume pedal after the tuner in your chain.

So the current Turbo Tuner is not perfect, but it's still great. It also costs much less than a Peterson. Definitely worth a try. And if you can wait a while, you might want to watch for the stomp version. Roger says that model will allow for silent tuning.

[lactose]

Interesting. I have been contemplating the Peterson because of the Buzz Feiten thing, since I will soon have a megatar. I didn't see mention of BF compatibility on the turbo site. Then again, I am not sure what a tuner has to do with that anyway. I think all that BF calls for is being able to accurately detune a couple of strings.

I use my shortwave radio to keep my digital watch accurate to the second. Now, with BF, I can obsess over my tuning.

[lactose]

After reading the manual for this device, it looks like it might be great for the megatar. Looks like you can adjust the pitch target for individual notes to be some number of cents sharp or flat.

[seveneight]

I've hardly looked at the manual. I just plug in and tune up in chromatic mode. Yes, you can set it up with custom tunings, and it comes with many alternate tunings already programmed. But even without all that, it works great with no mysteries to figure out. My axes are never too far out of tune, so for me it's just a matter of fine tuning before I play. I bought the Turbo primarily for its accuracy and small size, but it has deeper features if you need them.

[MP Migillicuty]

I appreciate the feedback. I have looked the tuner over for a while and it looks like it has everything I need. I will also be using it for a Megatar (mainly). I will post my results on it as soon as I can use it. I will be out of the Country for the next month. So I have alot of time to look forward to it (Megatar and tuner included)

[lifestudent]

Added custom setup for Megatar with tunning offset :) works :D

thanks for the infos :D

[lifestudent]

When adding the Megatar tuning to the Turbo Tuner, I learned that it responds better when store sequence of the string is from the thinest string to the thickest (or highest string to the lowest)

:)

[scabbott]

Thank you so much for posting this, I had never heard of this tuner before. I have been so frustrated with my Strobosoft and ordered this TurboTuner on Sunday night.

I am amazed at this product. I just got it this morning (in just 2 days) and within 10 minutes had my Inverted 5th's tuning setup on it for the Stick. The quickest, easiest, and most accurate tune I have ever had. I love this thing.

Now for the bad news...

My ears are ringing. After tuning up with the built-in microphone and becoming so overjoyed with this product, I decided to wire it into my system. I plugged a stereo cord into the output and was pleased that I still got both sides of my Stick with the product turned off.

Then, the fateful moment that yielded a household-wide scream with a wake of ringing ears... I turned it on. Instantly a screaming feedback ensued as I hastily fumbled for the power switch on my amp.

Lemons into lemonade...

Within minutes I was on the phone with Roger (the developer) and he confirmed my suspicions that yes, the external mic was still on and that it was on because of the Stereo cord that I had plugged into the output. Roger informed me that a mono cord into the output is the internal trigger that switches of the mic. Quick fix, silly me, and it works even better (imagine that) with a direct input.

I say lemonade because meeting Roger was a treat. We got to talking and I had an overwhelming sense that this is a guy you can rely on. No wonder he made such a great product, he's been in Electrical Engineering for over 30 years and created this product because no other products on the market were quite up to his standard.

Summary...

I highly recommend this product for anyone who needs a tuner (or a better tuner). In you have more than 6 strings it will pay for itself over and over again in saved frustration. This thing is super fast and easy to use. Roger is a joy to work with.

Buy this tuner you will love it. The reason you get a 30-day entirely risk-free guarantee is because you won't need it at all because you won't want to part with this jewel.

-Curtis

[seveneight]

Glad more people are discovering the Turbo. I still swear by mine. I haven't spoken with Roger since I bought a Turbo. I agree with everything you said above -- great guy. Did he say anything about the planned stompbox version? Seems like it should be materializing about now.

[scabbott]

He is definitely working on it and personally that is not the model I was interested in so we talk about it very little. The only thing that came up on it was that the current prototype has a single digit LED display and was not set up for programmable presets above 9 strings. We mentioned a few work-arounds that would make the stompbox version more perfect for 12+ String tapping instruments. It was not a brain issue but rather a mere display one, so perhaps a simple single LED indicator could allow display functionality up to 19 with an indication that the numerical display is now indicating the ones side of "+10".

What I said above is allot of conjecture because we spoke very little beyond the second and third sentence above and briefly on that subject to boot.

Awesome product. Best tuner I have ever seen or used by leaps and bounds.

-Curtis