Petersen Strobostomp

[Scott_F]

Okay, I pulled the trigger on one of these new Strobostomps. Great tuning pedal. I just sold my Boss TU-2.

Accuracy is incredible. It also has all the sweetened tunings, capo tunings, drop tunings, buzz feiten tunings, you name it. True bypass, DI output. Runs off a 9volt boss style adapter and has a power output for daisy chaining. Quiet tuning like the boss.

Take the boss and make it 100 times more accurate and you're getting the picture. I went out and reintonated the goldtop last night when I got home. I had just intonated it with the Boss. 4 of the 6 strings had to be readjusted.

Also, the sweetened guitar tuning helped to nearly eliminate that pesky sharp fretted notes on the first or second frets. I had been working on lowering the nut slots on the 3rd and 4th strings in order to help eliminate that slightly out of whack sound on my first fret barred F chord. The sweetened tuning helped to get it that much closer.

I was thinking of going with a Buzz Feiten system, but I'm not sure I will now. Thought I'd post a review.

 

[casblah]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

+1. The new Peterson digital strobe tuners are the $#!t ! Great accuracy, with good features. Nice score, Scott.

 

[theodie]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

After I got my peterson VSII, I decided that other tuners that I have used in the past were crap.

 

[Lee_M.]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

Nice review, Scott. It caught my attention recently and I'm waiting to pull the trigger on. I'm tired of my old Boss. I need some new technology!

 

[rspst14]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

Peterson tuners are the best, I couldn't imagine playing without one. Oh yeah, and if you really want to solve the intonation problem for good, check out www.earvana.com.
Cheaper than the Feiten system, you can install it yourself, and they are every bit as accurate from my experience.

Ryan

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

My Petersen strobotuner is the only thing out of my late 90s rack that I still have

 

[Ez74]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

how is the quality of the pedal itself... it looks like it is plastic. I want 1 of these but i also want to make sure it will last

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

these are like strobe lights that blink at faster speeds according to how close you are to the proper pitch? Sounds really cool. How much?

 

[rspst14]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

these are like strobe lights that blink at faster speeds according to how close you are to the proper pitch? Sounds really cool. How much?

Uh, not exactly.

The Peterson Virtual Strobe series of tuners are meant to emulate a true strobe tuner. When you play a note, you'll see the strobe bands move up if it's sharp, or down if it's flat. The idea is to get the bands to stay as still as possible. The Virtual Strobe tuners aren't actual strobe tuners, but they emulate them in a handheld tuner, and they are every bit as accurate. They are accurate to within +- 1/10 of a cent, which means they are 30x more accurate than a Boss tuner. I haven't looked at prices for the Strobostomp, but the VS-2 runs about $200, while the VS-1 is a bit less.

Ryan

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

Strobostomp is made out of metal. There's a video on the Petersen site where the product manager tosses it up and hits it with a baseball bat, then uses it.

Priced at 189 all over the net. MF is selling it and throwing in a Visual Sounds One Spot and 5 way daisy chain for free if one is so inclined. (dealing with the devil, i know)

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

http://www.petersontuners.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=465

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

how is the quality of the pedal itself... it looks like it is plastic. I want 1 of these but i also want to make sure it will last

It's made of aluminum. I have one too, you can't do any better (at least not in a pedal).

 

[aleclee]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

how is the quality of the pedal itself... it looks like it is plastic. I want 1 of these but i also want to make sure it will last

I have a buddy who loved the functionality but had problems with the jacks and battery cover crapping out.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

They went from screw on jacks to snap on jacks. Apparetnly on the first ones, there weren't enough threads exposed to keep the jacks screwed in place.

Simple fix if you don't mind sending it back to them. They seem to have excellent customer support. Check their user forum.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

After last night, I've completely reintonated two guitars using this thing. The "sweetened" tunigs are very subtle, but they'll make your guitar sound like..it's hard to describe... perfect is the best sound I can come up with.

Bump for excellence.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

Glad you like it Scott... I like mine a lot too! The only thing I dislike is how touchy it is. The only way I could get it to be in tune right was by plucking the string with my thumb by the 12th fret. On the high E, I have to turn down the volume quite a bit so that the screen doesn't flash with "#" or "b". Besides that, I have found it to be extremely accurate.

 

[proxy]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

Hmm this "sweetened tuning" can to you try to describe it?

 

[rspst14]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

One thing I've found is that you need to switch to the neck pickup, roll your volume and tone controls down to about 7, and then pluck the string lightly with your thumb in order to get the best reading. If you pluck too hard with a pick, the reading gets kind of jumpy. The neck pickup is better for tuning than the bridge pickup because of the greater string movement at the neck pickup.

Ryan

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

I hear ya Ryan. I should have mentioned that as well, you're right about the neck being better than the bridge. The jumpiness is the only thing that I dislike about it, but I have to learn to treat it differently than other tuners (like the Boss where I can tune with a pick).

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Petersen Strobostomp

The pedal version is supposed to be less sensitive to input voltages. The other Peterson tuners suggest that you roll down the volume and barely touch the string. This is a stompbox first and foremost for guitar and bass. Take a look at that forum site I posted above. You don't have to roll down the volume on the guitar now, it is not a feature rich as the other peterson tuners from what I can read, but it is as accurate and it's damn near indestructable. Made for stage use. Check it out.


The sweetened tuning is their electronic version of a compensating nut from what I can tell. It tunes the strings such that there is an ever so slight adjustment, mainly to the 3rd and 4th strings from what I can tell. Helps with that sharp noting effect you get on some guitars 1st and 2nd frets. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sounds brilliant when you hear the effects with your own ears. It's subtle for sure, but my guitars just sound perfect for the first time. The Boss TU2 couldn't come close to this thing.