Strobostomp 2 anybody?

[MusicChad]

Hey all!

I just got a "bonus" at work (probably for good behavior??) and I've been eying a peterson Strobostomp 2 for a while... Is it really worth the money? If it were say a real live strobe tuner, than sure... but what about the "virtual strobe"... Is it marketing or really better?

For reference, I currently use a Rocktron X-tune to get "close" and then "fine tune" by ear listening to overtones, etc.

Thanks!

[Crunchyriff]

It's well-worth the $$ IMHO. Think of it as a digital, not mechanical (like the old CONN) strobetuner.

I bought my Peterson VS-II oh, 4-5 years ago. FWIW- I'd never want to be without a Peterson Digital Strobe product. So no, it's not just 'marketing'...and, unlike many other tuners, these are quite accurate. Others can have say a 4-5 cent variance between each tuner, even of the same make & model.

Once you get one of these though, you'll want every other string player in your group to get one.

[SAguitar]

Yes, yes. That's the one. :cool:

[MusicChad]

Thanks for the opinion... I'll be picking one up on the way home tonight... I've done some piano tuning (by ear) and am familiar with the pains of equal temperament, stretch, etc. etc. I've had a rocktron X-tuner for about 4-5 years that I wouldn't say was "extremely accurate"... That being said, I've sort of learned how to "cheat" with it just a bit and get reasonable results for the most part playing at church, etc. At the same time, I ABSOLUTELY "tweak it" by ear when I'm done to get it the key(s) I'm in to "ring out" a bit better... I use a Korg tuner that is maybe 10 years old for doing intonation, etc. but again use it more as a "guide" to get "close" before fine tuning by ear... It also helped with ear fatigue to be sure I was on the "right track" in hearing which one was sharp, etc. (Pianos are far easier in that respect as you listen to "beats" more than to actual pitches...)

All told, I think it makes sense to go with a more accurate tuner. From what I hear, the strobostomp 2 is good to a tenth of a cent... (same as the old conn strobe tuner I had?) I think it will be cool...

[SAguitar]

Hmmm... the last time I had "good behavior" I got out earlier... :hmm:

[SAguitar]

I still have one of the original Strobotuners, and it still is accurate. :cool:

[MusicChad]

So, I picked one up Friday... I chained my three tuners together in bypass mode just to check them out "head to head" so to speak... I've got to say, I was a bit surprised... I knew that there was some "play" in the rocktron tuner where it would say "in tune" over a bit of a "range"... No big surprise there... My older Korg tuner proved that pretty comfortably... What I was really surprised to discover, however, is that my Korg tuner was a bit more "all over the place" so to speak... It didn't "drift" much, but each note would register a bit higher or lower relative to what the strobostomp was showing... Accuracy wise it probably a bit better... I say it that way because obviously I WANT it to be better...

In a stright head to head comparison, I'd say that I liked the resulting sound more from the peterson, but again it could be the money spent that is talking...


HOWEVER...


My strat was in need of a setup as I recently replaced the saddle pieces... (Sorry all, the callaham and guitar fetish trem blocks wouldn't fit my thinner body)... I did switch over to nickle plated brass saddles and can definitely hear an improvement... I decided to "skip" the bent saddles as I have a few other options for going "thinner" with the tone and mostly wanted stability and clarity - which the new saddles are clearly aiding with...

OK, so I jumped into setting the intonation with the old tuner as I have many times before and found myself occasionaly thinking "hmmmm I think it would sound better just a tiniest hair higher or lower and kind of fighting it all just a touch... After doing two strings, I switched over to the peterson and went through the process... I can't say with 100% certainty because it is possible that I was just getting "impatient" or my ears were getting tired, but on the remainder of the strings I didn't have that feeling... I then redid the first two and saw that they were in fact a tiny bit off according to the new tuner...

At that point, the new setup sounded great! I then re-did the intonation using the "better but more time consuming" method of fretting at the 5th and 17th frets... I was surprised at how revealing this was and again made pretty quick work of it all... I got curious and tried this with the Korg for a bit and found it all to be "hmmmm... that is OK" but started to have that uneasy feeling of "I'm not sure if I hear something off with that or not"... I just know that I didn't have that feeling with the Peterson and the results were terrific...

So in the end, I'm not sure what percentage of improvement could be attributed to the peterson and what to the newer method of setting intonation... I just know that when I was done, the guitar sounded stellar all the way up the neck... period...

As far as the "Sweetened" tunings go, I found it to be COMPLETELY disconcerting for a while... It didn't "feel" right at first because I could hear that it was just the tiniest bit different that what I was used to... That being said, when I didn't think about it and just tuned a played, the results of what came out of the instrument sounded REALLY REALLY nice... I'll have to play some more with it...

All told, I think I'm really pleased...

I also have thought some about the ST-200 pointed out elsewhere in this thread but am essentially coming to the conclusion at the moment that the added accuracy may be somewhat irrelevant as I fight things right now like if I BARELY touch the neck, the pitch change shows up on the peterson... If I look down too much, I can see the pitch dropping because of the warmth of my breath... If it is sensitive to pick that up, it may be well within the range of what is reasonable already... So... anyway...

There are some thoughts...

God bless!

[MusicChad]

Incidentally, the active DI is surprisingly nice! at least in my basement...

[SAguitar]

Chad, your next assignment is to play an open note, and then to just "think" it sharp, and then flat. Then, return it to the correct pitch with your mind. Let us know how that goes.

Yes, the Peterson units are friggin' accurate.

[MusicChad]

I'll work on it! I have proven in the past that it is easier to think "flat" than it is the be a "sharp" thinker...:dunno:

[SAguitar]

Yeah, that's what I've found in the past, too. And that result seems to hold up in lab tests as well.

[Crunchyriff]

double-blind? :D

[Crunchyriff]

I did some checking on that Turbo Tuner thing. Looks cool, I never heard of it before this thread. If its gtr tuning temperment preset is proper, I may retire my VS-II for home shop duty and put a TT on my short wish list. My only gripe with the VS-II is that it takes AA batteries (or the 120v convertor) and likes a steady diet of them... the TT is a nice, small unit powered by a 9V battery. This thing would be better in my gigbag. :)

[MusicChad]

I wonder how a guy would do a double blind test with a device that requires you to look at it... Hmmmm... <grin> The closest I could come was to crank up a CD and do "silent" or "muted" type tuning with an electric where I couldn't hear what was going on, just visually watching... Those results were pretty surprising! The StroboStomp's results were truly better... I couldn't believe it, so I did it about 10 times with a few different guitars, detuning and retuning, etc. EVERY time with the peterson, the results were very good if not great. With the other two tuners I have, the results were more mixed with a few "clunkers" mixed in...

If you check out peterson's website, they have some audio examples of guys who did something similar and then played a "chord"... My results were slightly less dramatic, but not a ton... I'm surprised at just how much I "compensated" for my old stomp box tuner... I'd almost always "tweak" it...

I AM having one small problem that I didn't expect... I didn't realize how often I would do things like "deliberately" leave a particular string a tiniest bit flat according to my old tuner because I knew it would sound better for a particular key etc. in the end... I have been "catching" myself subconsciously doing the same thing with the peterson yielding slightly less satisfying results... When I think about it and completely lock it in exactly per what the tuner is telling me (per the quasi blind/deaf test above) the results with the peterson really are better...

I'm going to live with this thing for a little while longer before I go all out in support of it... I've been able to coax decent results out of my old tuner by compensating slightly, but will admit that I occasionally would tune up at church only to finish the first song and say to myself "I am SO GLAD that song is over so I can try this whole tuning bit over again..." If that thought doesn't pop into my head in the next few months, then I'll be an all out believer... I will say, I'm EXTREMELY pleased with the new intonation I did on my strat... again, some of that may be the new tuner, some may be the new method... Either way, it sounds really really great!

[scooteraz]

Well, they are great for setups and intonation. And if you have a guitar with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System, it is pretty much de rigueur. But, I find using mine on the stage is a bit disconcerting. So, I use mine for my one acoustic that has the BFTS. For my electrics, I use other "standard" tuners.

Never quite got used to the Peterson sweetened tunings. It is really rugged. They used to have a video on the Peterson website where the hit one a couple of times with a baseball bat (like it was the ball) and picked it up and it still worked. Pretty impressive.