They Appear to be available now from several dealers. Just wondering if anybody has bought one and what they think.
They Appear to be available now from several dealers. Just wondering if anybody has bought one and what they think.
Bob Gray
oh man I too have been anxiously waiting to hear a review. If I don't hear one soon I'm gonna buy one!
Where are they for sale??? Just did a Google search and can't find any in the usual stores and none are on eBay. I wanna see how much they cost. I might buy one if they are not too terribly expensive.
Is this a full tuner or the clip on mic? I have had a Peterson clip on mic for a long time and use it with my old boss or my stroboconn when I fire that up. The clip on mic works just fine and was really cheap as I remember.
street price seems to be about 70 dollars just about everywhere i've looked
I saw them at the NAMM show this weekend. I tried it out on a mandolin, guitar, and bass- they seemed to work pretty well there, but I'd like to give one a real working test out in the trenches for a while. Now that you can get the full Peterson setup as a download for your iphone or itouch for $9, it is hard to look at anything else. I tested the iphone download next to the benchtop model Peterson and the results on the iphone were VERY impressive. It actually worked better than the bench model, mainly due to the fact that the software is much newer. Peterson claims the same accuracy with the new clip on unit.
j.
www.condino.com
I looked them over, but they are pretty high priced for the average musician. However, I did download the Istrobe for Iphone and it seems to work very well. It cost a whole 99 cents and I have it whenever I need it. Is the clip on tuner worth it? I really don't know. I may try one sometime to see how it does. Is it really any better than the other clip on tuners for general use? Don't know.
Have a Great Day!
Joe Vest
To use the iphone app means you have to retreat to the bathroom to tune, at a loud jam, right?
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
In a jam you don't need a Peterson to be in tune. The lesser expensive are quite adequate for that. I like it for tuning and checking intonation in shop settings more than jam settings. If your intonation is not set before the jam it is a bit too late to make much of an adjustment and I don't think any clip on tuner would be best for that. Your ear may be as good as that. In addition, I have a 1/4" adapter for the Iphone and a clip on mic I can use for acoustic instruments if needed. Again, not likely to haul that to a jam session. My "cheap" headstock tuner would be more than adequate for that purpose. Besides, you don't want to be the only one really in tune in a jam session...you may be the only one and sound out of tune with everyone else .
Have a Great Day!
Joe Vest
FYI. I installed the new OS 4.0 for the iPhone last night and my iStrobosoft doesn't scroll any longer. Pretty useless without that. It worked fine the day before yesterday before I "upgraded" the OS. I left Peterson a message. Anybody else have this issue?
MadMarine
The last time I updated the OS, my iTouch would no longer work with my car stereo--had to buy a new stereo. Don't think I'll update the OS any time soon.
Just got a reply from Peterson on the iStrobosoft. Yep, they have an upgrade in the queue but it has not been approved for release by Apple yet. Sigh. OTH, I'm still waiting for the release of Stroboclip. The release date was originally schedule for end of April. Sigh...
MadMarine
They are advertised as currently available for $69.99 at Elderly and Musicians Friend. Sounds like they haven't landed in any mandolin players hands yet (at least the ones here). I might just have to spring for one and be the guinea pig I guess.
Bob Gray
Bob:
They are not available yet. I've been in the Elderly queue since Feb. Here's the verbage on Elderly website for the Stroboclip:
"on order, expected arrival date unknown"
MadMarine
Thanks for pointing that out. I now see that Musician's Friend says Availability: Expected: 07-09-2010.
Bob Gray
Petersen website says that the Stroboclip is shipping. My order with Elderly says that the order is processing. So, it looks like it is indeed shipping.
MadMarine
Yup, mine shipped from Elderly this morning. The manual (all one page of it) is up in pdf form on the Peterson website. The manual states that there are sweetened tunings for both banjo and MANDOLIN! I think these weren't available in earlier Peterson tuners, or were they?
Not on the ones I have (original VS, StroboFlip, StroboStomp). It might make sense on a 5-string banjo, since they're so often retuned to a specific key, but I don't see how it could be useful for a fretted 12TET instrument like mandolin playing in different keys. I have enough tuning clashes as it is, playing with fiddlers who tune in perfect 5ths by ear, off a reference "A" note. If anyone has a chance to measure what the mandolin sweetener does, please post it here.
FWIW, I do sometimes use the "1/2 Dobro sweetened" tuning on my StroboFlip, for a resonator tuned in open D. That's halfway to perfect thirds (I think?), and it can be useful on a slide guitar played in just a few keys. For a fretted instrument played in many different keys... not so much.
the iStrobe for iPhone app has now been upgraded. The bugs are gone. It works VERY well with the iPhone built in mic in a quiet room. Hard to beat the price if you own an iPhone. Also, with a clip on attachment plugged into the iPhone you can use it in a noisy room, no worries. I must say, when I am at a jam I prefer a quick down and dirty clip on type of tuner. Has anyone given the new Peterson clip on a good work out? How does it compare to other clip on tuners out there?
Rob G.
Vermont
I got my Stroboclip in the mail today. First thing I did with it was tune using the factory settings (equal temperament). Similar results to my Korg AW-2: not dead-on, but it works quick and you can do it in a noisy environment.
Then I switched over to the Mandolin sweetened setting, and it basically asked me to flatten the D and G pairs a bit. Played a few chords: Noticeably better. Checked 7th fret unisons to open strings: Closer than before. Then I went to the Peterson website, to see if they say anything about what they're doing. Here's what they say the sweetened tunings do for a fretted instrument played in many keys:
"This sweetener allows for the different degrees of string deflection which affect each string, and will add consonance to chords played."
So, what you're getting is not only the ability to tune in a noisy environment, but Peterson's educated guess on how to get it to where it would be if you were tuning open strings to fretted notes on other strings. Of course action height and string gauges and things like that all affect string stretching or deflection, so it can't be dead-on for every instrument. However, I can report that the mandolin sweetener did in fact get my mandolin better in tune with itself, because it made some compensations that I would have made myself had I tuned one string to a reference pitch and then tuned the instrument using fretted notes against open strings. Yes, you could figure out how much to compensate the same way by just tuning those strings a certain amount flat using almost any electronic tuner. But this thing helps you do it quicker and for a variety of instruments.
The tuner itself seems to be built pretty stout, but it's a little big as clip-ons go these days. This doesn't bother me much since I usually have it clipped to a mic stand unless I'm using it, but those who crave a small, unobtrusive tuner may not like it.
Joe, do you always check the intonation and make adjustments before jam sessions?
Bob
re simmers
I got mine today too. I was disappointed when I took it out of the box because its silvery plastic case looked cheesy to me. (I guess the plastic cases of the other tuners looked less cheesy because they're black...
I decided that if I didn't like it I'd return it, so I didn't take off the plastic film protecting the display. That was a mistake! Because the plastic film has all kinds of illustrative display items printed on it, which confused the heck out of me, until I finally realized what was going on, these items were printed on there, and then I peeled the film off. For example, the plastic film has A 442Hz printed on it and I got frustrated for a while trying to change that to A440! Suffice it to say, take the film off immediately.
I first set the StroboClip to GTR sweetener and tuned up my guitar. I've used a StroboFlip and the display on this StroboClip is much easier to read and use; better dampening, less touchiness. The guitar tuned up nicely!
Now for the mandolin. I play a lot of old-time music so I like the first position open chords to be in tune, and for me the x-x-2-3 G chord is one of the hardest to get sweet-sounding with most tuners. On a StroboFlip I've tried both EQU and VLN sweeteners and not liked them. What I eventually settled on was programming a StroboFlip sweetener that has the D string pitched 5 cents sharp. That gave me a sweet sounding G chord. So with the StroboClip I tried the MAN(dolin) sweetener, which wasn't too bad, then tuned using EQU temperament and just sharpened my D string a trifle. Sounds pretty good for first position chording and melody playing.
One problem I noticed is that the strobe display itself seemed to disappear a few seconds after I struck a string, and would reappear when I struck it again. It seems that if the unit's piezo element doesn't detect a signal, the strobe display will disappear, leaving just the orange illuminated panel. I was gently plucking the strings with my thumb. The manual says "the StroboClip features a unique SUSTAIN mode which extends the screen display time beyond the actual duration of the note played." I put it into sustain mode and the display stopped going on and off... but it seemed almost too stable, as if I couldn't quite trust what it was saying.
Anyway, I think this tuner does a good job. One thing about it that's different from most tuners is that if you're at a session and someone asks to borrow your tuner, you may have to change a few menu items before giving it to them and then, when you get the tuner back, change the menu settings back again. The manual is available on the Peterson site under the Support heading, so you can see what's involved in doing that.
Here's an image so you can get an idea of the size and appearance. The photo on the Peterson website makes it look a little more romantic than it actually is. My initial opinion though is that though it's not ideal it does a good job. One and a half thumbs up.
Last edited by buckles; Jul-24-2010 at 11:48pm.
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