A tuner shootout: TC Electronic Unitune vs. Peterson StroboClip
A tuner shootout: TC Electronic Unitune vs. Peterson StroboClip HD
While tuning today I thought of the tuners thread going on in this same forum. It inspired me to do a little head-to-head between the TC Electronic Unitune and the Peterson StroboClip HD, two of the better clip-on tuners that seem to come up occasionally. My testing wasn't particularly formal, but since I was tuning anyway it seemed maybe worthwhile. I did use the same instrument and strings, in the same room, one tuner after the other, back and forth. Hopefully this writeup might be helpful for anyone considering one or either of these. (Don't laugh too much at how mundane this is - I had a bit of free time on a Sunday afternoon and I did enjoy playing the mandolin for a while once it was tuned so no opportunity was lost!)
TC Electronic Unitune is clearly a good quality well-made machine. Nice stainless clip mechanism and a monolithic-feeling body. It's reminiscent of something the Apple design lab might come up with. It has a bright and easy to read multicolour display that works in either standard or strobe mode, and orients itself vertically or horizontally depending on how you position the unit. The tuner doesn't rotate on the clip so that's something that could maybe be improved. Locking onto a note is fast and tuning precision seems excellent. Very easy to use - give this to anyone who has used an electronic tuner before and they won't need instructions. It just goes. Claims 0.02 cent accuracy which is incredible. $US 25. (or $US 21 ea in qty 3+)
Peterson StroboClip HD is also a good quality well-made machine. It's a bit bigger than the Unitune and has no metal body or clip (everything's plastic and rubber on this) but it all seems very well done. It has a high-speed monochrome display that only works in strobe mode. Has the "sweetened tuning" options. The tuner can rotate on the clip. Locking onto a note can be fussier than with the Unitune. Like the Unitune, tuning precision seems excellent. Claims 0.01 cent accuracy which is even more incredible than the 0.02 cents claimed by the Unitune. $US 60.
The StroboClip HD "sweetened tuning" feature is extremely subtle... so subtle it's hard to pin down. As far as I can tell it seems to consist of sharping the A strings just very slightly. I could be wrong - whatever's changed is tiny so it's very difficult to hear a difference between this and regular chromatic tuning mode. There may be more to it beyond that but I'm not sure what it would be if there is. I tried both tuners in chromatic mode against the "sweetened" tuning and neither of them seemed to be able to resolve much else except maybe the very slightly sharped A strings (if in fact that's what it is!) This is confounded by the fact that both tuners are precise enough in strobe mode to detect moment-to-moment variations in tuning. These minor variations may be enough to obscure whatever the "sweetening" may be changing - so in that sense the "sweetening" may be "below the noise floor". In any case whatever it is might be able to be accomplished by making the final fine adjustments by ear which many players do anyway.
The StroboClip HD manual recommends plucking rather than picking when tuning - I definitely agree with that. It's much harder to use with a pick since it can have a tough time locking onto a picked rather than plucked note. Too many harmonics maybe? In any case, plucking the strings one at a time with the left corner of my right thumbnail seems to work best. This is definitely a case of RTFM before using the product. Before reading the manual and figuring out how to use my thumb with it I had a lower opinion of the StroboClip HD. I'd bet there may have been a few of them returned by irritated customers since someone who didn't know about using it with a finger rather than a pick might the StroboClip HD quite frustrating.
My personal view is I don't think you can go too far wrong with either the Unitune or StroboClip HD. In a noisy, bright environment or where durability is at issue I'd pick the Unitune. It's also faster to use and requires less thinking than the StroboClip HD. It's not fussy. It just starts, locks on and tunes right away. Awesome precision and totally intuitive.
For at home on the sofa with better lighting, a quiet environment and no rush the Peterson is a treat. Its default strobe setting is really nice - and the ability to get down to 0.01 cent is tantalizing. The Peterson is also a great tuner, no question about it - and for ultimate performance in ideal conditions it could be the winner. (Although to be fair I 'm pretty sure I can't resolve that last 0.02 cents never mind 0.01 cent!)
For value, I think it's an easy win for the Unitune at $US 25 or $21 each for 3+ of them. Easily the best $/performance I've seen in a clip-on tuner. It's not too much more expensive than the various Snarks I've had but I think it totally outclasses all of them. No comparison. From the value perspective it's an easy win going the other way too, since if you want you can have three Unitunes for the price of one StroboClip HD.
Like many of us I've worked my way through a few (lots of) different tuners over the last years. The Unitune and StroboClip HD are huge steps forward from everything else I've tried. If I had to have only one it would be the Unitune. As it is I'm glad to have both - they're definitely the best two clip-on tuners I've found.
Enjoy!
Last edited by Aaron Bohnen; Dec-09-2019 at 3:31am.
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