Tuner of choice? Peterson

Lyle Clary · Post by **Lyle Clary** » 1 May 2014 3:10 pm

Is the Peterson SP Strobo HD Programable the tuner of choice for a pedal steel player? I am thinking of getting one.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 1 May 2014 3:32 pm

Petersen certainly ranks high up there, and has excellent customer service.
If you use a smartphone, there are many programmable tuners for free or under $5 (Petersen sells a $13 adapter to plug guitar into phone).
If I had need of a standalone tuner, it would be Petersen. Because of their history of supporting the steel community, I'd happily buy their android app, but it doesn't exist.

Charley Hill · Post by **Charley Hill** » 1 May 2014 7:14 pm

PETERSEN HAS MY VOTE! FAST AND ACCURATE!

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 6 May 2014 8:27 pm

Yep, I have the HD but also the Stroborack in my racks - best tuners on the planet

Malcolm McMaster · Post by **Malcolm McMaster** » 7 May 2014 1:16 am

Have both the Stroboflip and HD, great tuners and even better service from Peterson, and from the lovely Sue.

Eric Philippsen · Post by **Eric Philippsen** » 7 May 2014 3:13 am

I have used Peterson tuners for many, many years. I don't intend to ever change that preference basically for two reasons:

- They have outstanding customer service along with a dedication to this little niche we have called steel guitar.

- The accuracy of their tuners is 1/10 of 1% which, I believe, far exceeds any other tuner that I have ever encountered. Interestingly, I can tell the difference when, on rare occasions, I have to use another brand.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 7 May 2014 3:52 am

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/StroboPlusHD ... lusHD.html

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 7 May 2014 4:45 am

My favorite was the Sonic Research ST122a until the Peterson StrobeOPlusHD came out. Both are equally accurate but the Peterson, with the on-line programming, wins over the Sonic Research which can only be manually programmed.

Peterson support and in particular Sue Haslam, wins in that area.

Charley Hill · Post by **Charley Hill** » 7 May 2014 5:01 am

I concur on the assessment of Sue. Never met her, but made a call to her about a technical issue....... Very Nice and pleasant to deal with and resolved my issues in an expeditious manner.

Paul E. Brennan · Post by **Paul E. Brennan** » 9 May 2014 2:57 am

Lane, what do you mean by saying Peterson's android app doesn't exist? They have the iStroboSoft app. Do you mean it's no use?

I confess I still use an ancient Boss Tu-12 to tune my E and C strings and do the rest by ear. I downloaded the iStroboSoft recently out of curiosity but haven't had time to play with it much.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 9 May 2014 3:23 am

The last time I'd looked, obviously before last Thanksgiving (Play Store shows a release date of Nov 27), Peterson did not serve the android platform.
Admittedly I don't spend any time on the New Products forum, and this is the first time I've heard that they have an Android app.
I'll give it a whack.

Jerry Van Hoose · Post by **Jerry Van Hoose** » 9 May 2014 4:29 am

Whenever I first began playing steel, I used a pitch pipe, then a Zen-On Chromatina (anyone remember those?), next was a programmable Korg MT-1200. Whenever the Peterson Stroboflip was introduced, I purchased one and am presently using it. Peterson has excellent product & customer service(Sue)!

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 9 May 2014 4:41 am

Is there a mute button on the Peterson HD?

Keith Currie · Post by **Keith Currie** » 9 May 2014 7:59 am

Tuner of choice?
E-tuning fork and your ears,my choice.

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 9 May 2014 8:48 am

Sue Haslam of Peterson Tuners is an absolute star when it comes to customer service. I mislaid my Stroboplus tuner at the Dallas Show this year. A kind person found it and handed it in to Sue, who checked the serial number against her database and sent me an email telling me where my tuner was. She is so helpful with all of the Peterson products, and doesn't do a hard sell job. She just lets the products sell themselves.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 9 May 2014 11:23 am

I remember the tuning fork and pitch pipe days. Been using a Peterson Stroboflip for the last couple of years.

Keith Currie · Post by **Keith Currie** » 9 May 2014 3:57 pm

I guess I just thought if you cant tune the thing by ear how you going to play in tune when it is basically a frettless instrument so I have always worked at it. I do have a Korg tuner when I need it because of other noise, then I tweek where I need to.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 9 May 2014 9:58 pm

To me, a tuner is a necessity. I play a lot of gigs where they have a DJ cranking out tunes for dance lessons or just for fillin music while people file into the club.

It would be impossible to tune by ear under those circumstances, unless you cranked up louder than the DJ. But then, you would probably be looking for a new job.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 10 May 2014 12:59 am

Indeed. In fact, I'd say that if you can't tune by ear, preferably without harmonics, you probably don't have enough ear training to play this thing successfully.
BUT you don't always have the quiet to tune by ear, and either a programmable tuner or tuner and a chart will enable you to tune silently.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 May 2014 3:01 am

On stage, in front of an audience, silent tuning with a tuner is the best option.

Before the advent of the small electronic tuners most "professional" bands had a Conn strobe tuner that all the band members used to tune before a show.

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 10 May 2014 5:12 am

If you tune to straight up or a compromise between JI and ET it`s next to impossible to do that by ear....

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 26 May 2014 2:29 pm

Olli Haavisto wrote:If you tune to straight up or a compromise between JI and ET it`s next to impossible to do that by ear....

I usually just ignore all the alphabet soup and tune things so they sound right.

Drew Pierce · Post by **Drew Pierce** » 27 May 2014 2:36 pm

I've used a lot of different (and expensive) tuners and complicated tempered tunings over the years. After all that, I'm now using a simple Snark clipped to the body of the guitar -- exactly like this: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ight=snark

It's cordless, independent of the volume pedal and works well in all but the noisiest environments. Since I'm also tuning to basically straight up A440*, it works just fine.

*I still like my G#/A change (3rd and 6th strings) just a tad south of 440.

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Tuner of choice? Peterson

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