Peterson Stroboclip HD Tuner Review and Comparison to Original

[HonketyHank]

As far as I can tell, Peterson Connect utility is only available for the Chrome browser. Too bad.

[Jess L.]

You can reconfigure your tuner to auto shutoff through the Peterson Connect and a usb cord. See the video:
https://youtu.be/UUe-gApJnT0?t=5m7s

Thank you!! I'm very happy to hear that! I already use Chrome, so I went ahead and installed the Peterson Connect extension. That way when the tuner arrives in a few more days, everything will be ready for it.

JL277z, pardon me for saying, but it sounds like you are beginning to regret it already

Lol well I was worried there for a while. Looks like it will be alright though. So, I'm back to being in "looking forward to it" mode.

As far as I can tell, Peterson Connect utility is only available for the Chrome browser. ...

Yeah that is a little odd, almost like reverse-retro to the 1990s, I remember I had to keep a copy of Internet Explorer around (the Mac version no less, yeah MS made a Mac version of IE back then) just because certain essential websites refused to work with any other browser. So fast forward to now and Chrome now has significant marketshare so maybe Chrome is the new IE? lol. Personally, I like Chrome, switched to it a few years back from Firefox and a long string of various alternative browsers on PC, Linux, and ancient Mac. I initially shunned Chrome because I disliked the mandatory auto-update, but now that so many other things do that (including Windows itself) I guess I've sort of reluctantly gotten used to the idea of apps 'calling home' to update themselves all the time. Seems to be the new norm I guess.

[grassrootphilosopher]

So after having been extremely annoyed that my Stroboclip I stepped on a rainbow I finally bought the Stroboclip II. The decission took about a year. Why? Despite the fact that I found the Stroboclip I to be the best tuner on the market I was not pleased with the sturdiness of the design. It was made of plastic of a simpler kind, the swivel-arm felt a little loose, the push buttons were a little "simple" etc. Yet the tuner itself worked like magic (though I found not as well in a loud environment). The tuner itself kicked my hearing up a couple of notches and fouled me up to not so accurate (simpler) tuners. And that is actually why i took the plunge to buy another Stroboclip.

This time I bought the Stroboclip HD (I will refer to it as the Stroboclip II in this post).

I have used it for the last week and I am very pleased with it. The accuracy is extremely nice. I am immediately reminded of my former Stroboclip I. The accuracy and the simplicity of use makes this tuner far superior to any other tuner I have and that I have encountered (especially those minituners that seem to be en vogue out there).

The Stroboclip II features a more minimalistic design with the necessary buttons (on/off, +/-). The buttons let you chose between the different settings. The list of sweetened tunings is impressive. I do use it but I also often chose to just tune one string and then tune by ear, checking afterwards if my ear matches the tuner. It does and thus this method of tuning is a great exercise in hearing.

The Stroboclip II is also very compact and small. It has the swivel-arm that connects the actual tuner to the clamp with which you attach the tuner to the instrument. The swivel-arm is a lot sturdier than on the Stroboclip I. The tuner itself has the appearance of a mini-smartphone. The clamp is very (!) sturdy. It is very tight. So you have to use some power to clamp the tuner to the instrument. (This might be a disadvantage with new(er) instruments that have a not yet fully cured finish...). I have seen no problems here.

The battery compartment is on the back of the tuner. It is fairly easy to access. It was a little finicky to insert the battery. But hey, it´s a small device...

I don´t see anything do disaprove of. Well... I broke my Stroboclip I when it fell on the ground (and apparently the plastic casing came loose and probably pulled some wires or whatever... At least the battery wore down incredibly fast after that and the tuner did not read the frequencies properly anymore). It was not that I dropped the Stroboclip I out of a great hight. It just fell off the table. I understand that a glass breaks if it falls off a table. A tuner should not break in such a situation. If this Stroboclip would fall, I see the slight possibility that the face of the tuner might break as it is a screen of some sort. But I think this chance is negligable. Otherwise I am quite convinced of the sturdines of the tuner (also because of its small size).

There you have my take on the whole thing.

[Drew Egerton]

I used a new HD S.C. for about 2 minutes at a jam this week and I could already tell I liked it better than my original S.C. which I posted before that I am kind of disappointed with.

I just may have to give the new one a try, though I am still annoyed at the money I spent on the first one.

[Phil Goodson]

It would be a really nice gesture if the Peterson Co. would give a partial trade-in value for those who want to "trade up" to the new model. (Anyone from Peterson noticing this seed planting?)

Maybe would increase long term customer loyalties?? (I know that I have appreciated their good customer service when a clip on my "Stroboclip-I" broke.)

[grassrootphilosopher]

I´d like to ad one or two things.

If I am to careless to drop my tuner, the damage is on me. I would have liked a product that is more sturdy but still it is my responsibility to take care of it.

I have found one weak spot. It is the "swivel thing".

You´ll put the tuner on the headstock of your instrument. You´ll like to fold out the monitor device. Here lies the "problem".

Regarding the attachment device the arm of the tuner folds out at a 90 degree angle. It also rotates. But the attached monitor only rotate one its pivot point. If you will try to turn the monitor to an angle it will break.

As I post this I have thought a little bit about the rotating an the swivelling and the angeling. But putting the exact thing into words has failed me (yet).

I just wanted to point this out because I allready have allmost "twisted" the thingy too much.

[Jess L.]

... I have appreciated their good customer service ...

+1 on the good Peterson customer service.

I got my new Stroboclip HD last week and had some problems figuring out how to do stuff, regarding the Peterson Connect website utility. At first I was a little ticked off and I was real close to sending the thing back and getting a refund, but before doing so I figured I'd go ahead and request assistance via the Peterson support-ticket system.

That worked great - the reply they sent contained exactly the info I needed to solve the problem.

So, it looks like I have me-self a nifty new tuner.

I like how smooth the tuning works, the tuner display is really easy to read.

Thankfully it's *not* jumpy like a friend's old Peterson strobe clip. He's bought nearly every Peterson tuner that's ever existed, he's accustomed to the strobe thing and he's never had any problems with reading the display on the old tuners. But I could never make any sense of them, watching him use those tuners was like seeing some futuristic sci-fi thing, I just figured strobe tuners weren't for me. But that changed with this new HD version they have.

So I'm very pleased with how the new Stroboclip HD works.

Although I have not yet tested noisy backgrounds, no clue about that, I will keep my Polytune just in case there's any issue there.

For other people's possible benefit, the question I'd asked Peterson tech support, was: *How* do I access the "Advanced" settings so as to change the power-off timing. I couldn't find the "Advanced" button anywhere on the Peterson Connect page after logging in and connecting my tuner. The official Peterson video clearly shows an Advanced button, but for me it was nowhere to be found.

Turns out the ANSWER (paraphrased/summarized, not exact quote) is:
You first have to create a custom sweetener - doesn't matter if you need/want one or not, just go ahead and create one, and only *then* will the "Advanced" button appear. (Weird but true, at least at the time of this writing.) Make sure to also add back in the other default settings you want, such as EQU (the standard equal temperament) etc. Also, before logging out of that webpage, make sure to click the little thing that makes the webpage update the tuner, so that the tuner matches the changes you've just made on the webpage.

Also, for me anyway, the settings seem to 'stick' better if you turn off the tuner before logging out of the webpage, not sure if that's something specific to my system though, but that seems to work better here. Before that, I'd log out of the webpage, with the tuner still turned on, and found that my settings hadn't taken effect, even after later turning the tuner off and then back on again.

So, that's solved, the tuner is now set the way I want it, and I will probably never need to log in to the Peterson Connect webpage again (assuming that the tuner hopefully retains its settings after changing the battery - don't know, haven't tested battery-removal yet), but at least now I know how to work the Connect webpage if I ever do need to access it again for some reason.


---
NFI in any of the brands mentioned. I've previously said all kinds of glowing good things about the TC Polytune, because I like how it works, and now I *also* happen to like this new Peterson tuner. Can't a girl have both? Lol. Although I'm leaning towards the new Peterson HD as my everyday home-practice "go to" tuner. Especially now that I got the auto-shutoff set where I like it.

[Drew Egerton]

Well, I've decided to order one despite the very mixed reviews on Amazon. Some of the complaints were specific to classical guitars (clip not big enough, different tunings, etc.) so not applicable to me. Will report back after it arrives and I've played with it a while.

[Phil Goodson]

+1 on the good Peterson customer service.

I got my new Stroboclip HD last week and ......
NFI in any of the brands mentioned. I've previously said all kinds of glowing good things about the TC Polytune, because I like how it works, and now I *also* happen to like this new Peterson tuner. Can't a girl have both?....

FYI:
For those of you who really like the Polytune but don't really need the "poly" function, Sweetwater (NFI) is now exclusively carrying the "UniTune" tuner, which is a Polytune without the Multistring tuning function. Sells for $20 LESS than the Polytune.
Just another option.

[Jess L.]

FYI:
For those of you who really like the Polytune but don't really need the "poly" function, Sweetwater (NFI) is now exclusively carrying the "UniTune" tuner, which is a Polytune without the Multistring tuning function. Sells for $20 LESS than the Polytune.
Just another option.

Now that is interesting. Wait, it's not April 1st or ?? Ok so it's presumably real... hmm. Well...

I like the way the prices are headed - lower - on both brands (TC and Peterson) tuners.

Tuner wars?

TC making a non-poly one-note-at-a-time version is a clever idea, I bet a lot of people are like me in that they never use the multi-string 'poly' mode anyway, I'd just been using the Polytune as a single-string tuner like any other tuner.

If I'd known about that before buying the Stroboclip HD... mmm I'd probably still have bought the HD... maybe... since the Peterson price had been lowered too...

It's interesting to watch to see what new toys these companies unleash for us musical sorts to play with. I know, these items aren't actually "toys", they're fairly high-tech well-designed thingies I guess. But sometimes I feel like a cat batting at a feather cat-toy, finding some degree of joy, amusement, and usefulness in everyday items.

[fatt-dad]

I got one incoming the mail. Along with the white TF140 and some exp74cms.

What I'll do for free shipping. . .

f-d

[Perry]

Both Petersons still huge...I prefer the TC Electronic PolyTune Clip. It is much smaller and less noticeable and now comes in stealthy black at Guitar Center.

[MontanaMatt]

Both Petersons still huge...I prefer the TC Electronic PolyTune Clip. It is much smaller and less noticeable and now comes in stealthy black at Guitar Center.

I agree. It would be awesome if the clip was low profile like the PW attachment. The mechanism sticks out too much. Even when tucked away it still looks odd sticking out the top of a f peg head

[Jess L.]

Both Petersons still huge...I prefer the TC Electronic PolyTune Clip. It is much smaller and less noticeable and now comes in stealthy black at Guitar Center.

I agree. It would be awesome if the clip was low profile like the PW attachment. The mechanism sticks out too much. Even when tucked away it still looks odd sticking out the top of a f peg head

Not sure what "PW" is, but anyway yeah the clip is what makes the StroboClipHD more noticeable than the Polytune. The actual *tuner* part is nearly the same size though. Of course the clip is also what makes the StroboClipHD swivel... personally I don't need the swivel functionality but some people probably prefer it (that was one of the complaints I'd read about the Polytune, is the lack of swivel).

Anyway... here are some quickie low-res cellphone pics of the two tuners side by side, with cheesy Android-app text labels to identify them. NOTE: the tape-measure is in inches because we don't have any proper rulers here at the house & I didn't want to make a special trip to town just to buy a ruler - but as a workaround reference, pic 1 & 2 include a flatpick (standard guitar pick) & USB plug to show scale. The classical guitar in pics 3, 4, & 5, is a mini Yamaha, peghead is 0.75 inch thick. The usual click each pic a few times to make it big enough to see:

[Phil Goodson]

As far as function, I like the Stroboclip HD better than any tuner I've ever used, including the original Stroboclip.

But, I really love the "made like a tank" design of the Polytune, which I use in the 'strobe' mode. I'm told that there are no plans to produce a black Unitune model, but we'll see I guess.

My perfect tuner would be a Stroboclip HD with a black cased Polytune clip. (If it swiveled, it would be icing on the cake!!)