User Recommended Pedal Steel Guitar Tuners
StroboStomp LE
$169.99
Featuring the largest tuning display Peterson Tuners has ever incorporated into one of their pedal tuners, the StroboStomp HD boasts a high-definition, LCD screen that incorporates a variable color LED backlight. The user-selectable colors can be used to personalize the tuner or to increase display viewing quality in different levels of ambient lighting depending on the usage environment. The vibrant screen colors can also be assigned to stock or user presets to significantly reduce menu navigation time and increase on-stage tuning confidence at the gig.
For tone purists, the StroboStomp HD provides a 100% silent, true-bypass operation mode to keep precious tone safe, as well as, eliminate the often annoying “pop” experienced when engaging such a feature in other products. It uses a unique series of timed relays incorporated within its circuitry to shunt the signal, draining the cause of the popping sound prior to breaking the connection, and effectively shutting the tuner down for direct play through without affecting tone quality.
The StroboStomp HD also includes a long-time, user-requested buffered output operation mode that can be user engaged. The buffered mode can be used in or out of monitor mode. It is designed to boost instrument drive to overcome potential tone loss in signal chains that incorporate multiple low-impedance guitar pedals or those that utilize long cable runs. The buffered output modes preserve sonic quality all through the instrument range and keep prized core tone intact.
The StroboStomp HD features over 100 exclusive Sweetened Tunings™, as well as, numbered guided tuning presets for a large variety of instruments and playing styles. Sweetened Tunings are exclusive to Peterson tuning products and are designed to help correct inherent tuning issues exhibited by many instruments. The new "Guided Tunings" mode allows the StroboStomp HD to display numeric string values instead of traditional note names making for sure-fire intuitive and rapid re-tuning to any number of open and alternative tunings. The Guided Tuning mode was instituted for beginners who want to experiment with popular alternate tunings, as well as, experienced players who employ multiple tunings in rapid succession. Numerically expressed scales are also included.
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StroboPLUS HDC
$179.99
The StroboPLUS HDC encompasses decades of tuning authority and technology to deliver the ultimate strobe tuner/metronome combo!
The StroboPLUS HDC’s 0.1 cent tuning accuracy will tune any instrument with the utmost precision. Featuring a high-definition, multi-color display with variable color LED backlight, the StroboPLUS HDC display can be seen easily across the stage, bench, studio or classroom. Over 200 exclusive Sweetened Tunings® and Guided Tunings on-board accommodate a variety of instruments, temperaments, and musical genres.
The highly configurable metronome features precise 0.1 BPM adjustability in eighth notes, quarter notes, dotted quarter notes or half notes, a tempo range of 10-280 BPM, over 100 subdivisions, accent patterns, and polyrhythms. The StroboPLUS HDC can also be used to play thousands of bars of tempo maps, programmable from the Peterson Connect Web App. A single tempo map can play an entire score of meter changes, accent patterns, subdivisions, bar colors, silent bars and gradually curved tempo changes like accelerandos and ritardandos. The StroboPLUS HDC is the perfect tuning, ear training and rhythm tool all in one package!
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StroboStomp HD
$149.00
Featuring the largest tuning display Peterson Tuners has ever incorporated into one of their pedal tuners, the StroboStomp HD boasts a high-definition, LCD screen that incorporates a variable color LED backlight. The user-selectable colors can be used to personalize the tuner or to increase display viewing quality in different levels of ambient lighting depending on the usage environment. The vibrant screen colors can also be assigned to stock or user presets to significantly reduce menu navigation time and increase on-stage tuning confidence at the gig.
For tone purists, the StroboStomp HD provides a 100% silent, true-bypass operation mode to keep precious tone safe, as well as, eliminate the often annoying “pop” experienced when engaging such a feature in other products. It uses a unique series of timed relays incorporated within its circuitry to shunt the signal, draining the cause of the popping sound prior to breaking the connection, and effectively shutting the tuner down for direct play through without affecting tone quality.
The StroboStomp HD also includes a long-time, user-requested buffered output operation mode that can be user engaged. The buffered mode can be used in or out of monitor mode. It is designed to boost instrument drive to overcome potential tone loss in signal chains that incorporate multiple low-impedance guitar pedals or those that utilize long cable runs. The buffered output modes preserve sonic quality all through the instrument range and keep prized core tone intact.
The StroboStomp HD features over 100 exclusive Sweetened Tunings™, as well as, numbered guided tuning presets for a large variety of instruments and playing styles. Sweetened Tunings are exclusive to Peterson tuning products and are designed to help correct inherent tuning issues exhibited by many instruments. The new "Guided Tunings" mode allows the StroboStomp HD to display numeric string values instead of traditional note names making for sure-fire intuitive and rapid re-tuning to any number of open and alternative tunings. The Guided Tuning mode was instituted for beginners who want to experiment with popular alternate tunings, as well as, experienced players who employ multiple tunings in rapid succession. Numerically expressed scales are also included.
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StroboPLUS HD
$149.99
The Peterson StroboPlus HD (SP-1) is THE premier desktop digital tuner on the market! Equally as comfortable on a tech’s workbench as it is in a player’s guitar case, this tuner, with all of its features, is no exception to Peterson’s reputation for being THE most accurate in the industry — don’t let its demure palm size fool you! Players of both acoustic and electric instruments can rest assured— a built-in electret condenser microphone and ¼” input jack provide excellent connectivity. Gone are the days of having to carry extra batteries and tripping over power cables during a performance! This tuner is rechargeable via computer bus or outlet power, and its large, circular screen is easily viewed in both the darkest and brightest environmental conditions. Features such as Auto Off, easy menu navigation, tripod mounting capability, over 90 of our Sweetened Tunings, tone generation ability via built in speaker, and a headphone output jack round out the package. Finally, future-proof updating and parameter editing is made possible by the tuner’s unobtrusive side-mounted USB jack. And for those feeling exceptionally adventurous, this tuner can be upgraded to also feature our super flexible Body Beat metronome option, along with both audible AND tactile mode operation. Hear the beat or feel it…the power is in your hands. This tuner is fit for the most discerning of players and technicians for sure!
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iStroboSoft (iOS)
$9.99
iStroboSoft™ offers the unmatched accuracy of a mechanical strobe tuner for the highest degree of precision available in a software tuning application. Plug in your electrics or use the built-in mic for acoustic instruments to quickly and easily tune with 1/10th cent accuracy.
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StroboSoft 2.0
$49.99 - $99.99
The Peterson StroboSoft2 Tuning Suite gives you the power to route your audio through your DAW on an insert point or to strap it across your buss and tune with unrivaled accuracy. Getting your instrument into your computer is as simple as plugging in up to two sound cards at once (stereo input), and selecting a sampling rate up to 96kHz. If the output level of your instrument still isn’t high enough, we have you covered. You can boost signals up to 24dB and achieve an ideal tuning lock. Sharp and flat tuning indicators make “at a glance” tuning a breeze. Gone are the days of needing to use an external compressor to tap-tune backboards, braces, and tone bars. Our “Average” function does away with any measured outliers. The “Standard” downloadable version of this software offers basic chromatic tuning, Cent/Hertz/MIDI note number output, noise filtering, and selectable concert A reference. Our “Deluxe” version offers 38 Sweetened Tunings, themed skins to personalize the tuner to fit the best look for your style, the ability to import/export Sweeteners and temperament to share with friends, and oscilloscope/spectrum analyzer utilities!
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Strobe Tuning a Pedal Steel Guitar
The pedal steel guitar is usually tuned to either E9 or C6 - or both in the case of a double neck, but there are other tunings. The most common pedal steel guitars have 10 strings, followed by Universal 12 string instruments which purport to offer the same versatility as a double 10 string instrument, 8 stringed instruments were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s, they are less popular nowadays.
Central to the pedal steel guitar is its ability to change tunings mid song with the help of foot pedals and knee levers which change the tension on the open strings thereby altering the tuning. Setting up and tuning a pedal steel can be a daunting task without a special tuner designed for pedal steel guitar tuning. Many seasoned professional steel players “tweak” their tuning to improve their sound; we call this “Sweetened Tuning”.
Because the steel guitar is a fretless instrument, it does not need to conform to the same compromises as regular fretted guitar is subjected to. The flaws of Equal temperament reveal themselves primarilly when major or minor thirds are played, and the long sustained tones produced by the pedal steel guitar show up these flaws more than pretty much any other instrument, many players aim and strive to eliminate these flaws by tuning their steels using special cent offsets for each string. Some players tune “straight up” meaning that the major thirds are sharp and the minor thirds are flat, but most prefer not to forego the sweetness of these intervals and tune them so that they are totally beat-less and consonant.
No matter what method you use, an accurate tuner is a necessity. Peterson Tuners have been used for many decades to tune the open strings, pedals and levers on pedal steel guitars, they are programmable and already feature several preset tuning settings for steel guitars using accepted systems like those originally devised by Jeff Newman and Emmons for E9, C6 and Universal tuning. There is no need to note any settings or use any charts.
Begin with E9 tuning. The first string, if you’re right-handed, is located furthest away from you when sitting behind the steel in the normal playing position, plug your tuner into the steel and select the S-E9 preset.
