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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Does anyone have any experience with this new tuner? New planet waves pick shaped tuner
What do you think? |
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Location: gods country..west virginia | i been wanting to try one..im to lazy to go across the street and get one :mad: |
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Location: Scotland | Ovation did this 30 years ago with "The Tuner" The Planet Waves tuner is much smaller than the Ovation but works on exactly the same principle of phase cancellation. Basically the LED ocillates at the same frequency as the string but 180 degrees out of phase. When the string is out of tune the light flickers. When the string and light are at the same frequency the light appears static. I have an original Ovation version, it's works fine, the PW version will be no different. I got my Ovation on Ebay for about 5 bucks. It still has the original price sticker of $62.50. That was a lot of dough back in the '70's. |
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Location: gods country..west virginia | i think i seen one of them on ebay |
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Location: East Tennessee | Looks interesting. :cool: Give an update if you buy one.
OFC logo won't fit on the strap. :( |
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Location: Central Massachusetts | One of the grunts in a local guitar shop showed one off to me last time I was in there.. he was very excited about it.. downside is it only handles standard tunings. In fact, you have to tell it which string you are tuning with a little rotating wheel. It was pretty cool though, just pick a string and tune it until the motion stops. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Seems like ambient noise, like from a fan or humidifer could confuse it a bit. |
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Location: Orange County, California | These Guys had been making them for awhile, and used to sell them online I wonder if PW bought them out? |
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Location: Orange County, California | Originally posted by stephent28:
Seems like ambient noise, like from a fan or humidifer could confuse it a bit. Nope, no sound involved. Just the frequency of the string moving and the blinking of LEDS being the same. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | So you are saying that the frequency cycle for an overhead fan would have absolutely no effect unless it happen to be at exactly A440 (or whatever string setting it was at)? |
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Location: Tampa, FL | ST28 you are baffling me. What makes you think the fan would have an effect at all? The whole concept is essentially a strobe effect that, when the strobe (LED flash) freq is matched to the mechanical string freq., makes the string appear stationary. Where does the fan or any other external phenomena come into play? |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'm trying to decide between this and an on headstock tuner. All my other tuners depend on vibration and sound, this one depends on vibration and light. Might be worth getting one. With shipping it's 20 bucks, plus you get a strap. Might be worth it, or would my 20 bucks be better spent on one of those headstock tuners from the other thread. |
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Location: Orange County, California | Ok, you've got to try this yourself.... Get a good stobe light (the kind with the speed adjustment on the back). shine it up at your ceiling fan and adjust the speed of the strobe. When the fan looks like it has stopped, the strobe is firing at the same frequency as the fan blades passing in front of it. if it looks like it's moving forward slightly, the strobe's frequency is to low. If it looks like the fan is moving backwards slightly, the strobe is (you guessed it) TOO HIGH, which is exactly what my parents thought I was when I figured this out for myself.
Now the tough part. You have to imagine that you only had a cheap strobe light (no speed adjustment) and the moron electrician you hired wired the whole ceiling fan (not just the lights on it) through a dimmer switch (this wouldn't really work). You would have to adjust the speed (frequency) of the fan to match the fixed frequency of the blinking light to get it to look like the fan blades are standing still.
Enter the Strobe tuner concept into your brain.
This is how they all work to some degree or another, and we are now all much smarter aren't we? (I am still deeply fascinated by the 6 wheel Peterson Strobe tuner...)
The little lights on the pick blink back and forth at a preset frequency (depending on the string you selected). When you get the frequency of the string right, they appear to "freeze" on the string. Go watch the demo video from the Strobotron webite. It's pretty cool. |
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Location: NJ | Harsh flourescent lights might have some (slightly negligable) effect on it, but not a ceiling fan . . .
It's a $20 tuner for crissakes!!! |
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Location: Orange County, California | Originally posted by an4340:
I'm trying to decide between this and an on headstock tuner. All my other tuners depend on vibration and sound, this one depends on vibration and light. Might be worth getting one. With shipping it's 20 bucks, plus you get a strap. Might be worth it, or would my 20 bucks be better spent on one of those headstock tuners from the other thread. I ordered one (heck, the strap is worth $20) You might not be able to see it in bright light. Ive seen Contact tunners like this . They work pretty good too. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | This is why I have a peterson strobe tuner.
Thanks for the explanation fellows...guess my brain was only partially engaged! |
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| fred - does this mean that a low tension nylon flatwound steel 16 top E vibrates/oscillates identically to a 9 top E Ernie Ball Slinky and a D'Add high tension nylon and a Savarez tape wound and a 13 EXP ???????
And don't be so bloody cheeky in your pms - you can call me sir. |
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Location: Orange County, California | No,
Those all oscilate VERY differently, but at the same fundemental frequency (329.6Hz). They will sond different because their 2nd,3rd and 4th order harmonics vary quite a bit due to some problems with the even tempered scale, and the fact that none of these strings are going to decay (slow down) at the same rate. I'm not making this $4it up. Search for "guitar string frequency" on the internet, and you'll find oodles of physics pages and such about guitar strings and strobe tuners.
I appologize for being so curt in my email. It's not a good excuse, but I was in hurry, and just wanted to thank you for the notification.
Hope you understand.
"Over there", if you do somenthing cool and somone knights you, you are dubbed "Sir"
"Over here", just about everybody is your "cuz" or "home boy" but very few are ever elevated to "uncle" status. :D |
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Location: Madison, Wisconsin | Fred..do you do PBS specials on the side? Could you explain String Theory to us too? Next year at the jam, I want to take your class. All this in kidding, great job with the explanation. By the way, I have one of those "stick on" tuners for my Martin. It works OK but never seems to want to stay stuck for a full tuning. |
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Location: NJ | Templeman's got one (a "stick-on") that works rather nicely. (a Sabine?) |
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Location: Scotland | The Sabine has a tactile rubber pad (similar to the silicone rubber we use for G-band capos) these tuners and the clip-on types have a piezo pickup built in which senses vibration. They work OK but can get confused easily by loud ambient noise, so they are not great onstage with a band. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by willard:
Could you explain String Theory to us too? Think of a guitar string, tuned by stretching the string under tension across the guitar. As you know, depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, different musical notes are created by the string. These musical notes could be said to be excitation modes of that guitar string under tension.
In similar manner, in string theory, the elementary particles observed in particle accelerators could be thought of as the "musical notes" or excitation modes of elementary strings.
In string theory, as in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in spacetime, they aren't tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension. The string tension in string theory is denoted by the quantity 1/(2 p a'), where a' is pronounced "alpha prime"and is equal to the square of the string length scale. String theory is the most promising theory that unifies all particles and forces in nature, including gravity, in a way consistent with the laws of quantum mechanics and relativity. String theory answers fundamental questions about the symmetries of nature, the quantum behaviour of black holes, the existence and breaking of supersymmetry, and the quantum treatment of singularities. In string theory all the forces and particles emerge in an elegant geometrical way, realizing Einstein's ultimate dream of building everything from the geometry of space-time. Recnt progress has pointed to the importance of membranes and other higher-dimensional objects and has led to a solution of the black hole information paradox. So, you see, Willard, playing the guitar is the path to understaning the nature of reality... Rock On. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Thank you Mr. Spock. ;) |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Live long and prosper. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Zzzzzz......hummana...hummana...hummana...
Don't get me wrong...I'm glad someone can explain the theory of relativity as it equates a ceiling fan to a guitar tuner and I'm insanely impressed that a couple of those who can do that chose to hang out here but the cells I have left are still trying to conquer those pesky 2006 IRS changes. My theory? When the green light go on, that one's an E. The rest are done by ear. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Originally posted by Jeff W.:
Live long and prosper. May the Schwartz be with you. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Amoraim Skywalker became Darth Talmud. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Rock on, Darth. |
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Location: Madison, Wisconsin | I KNEW I was smarter than people think. I chose guitar over drums. There is probably a stretched head theory as well but it's no where near as elegant as string theory. |
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Location: Wooster, Ohio | Our local music store had one and I bought one last month. It is kind of cool. It works well but you got to get used to it. Best part is it is so small and cheap. Worst part is that you have to dial the note and the printing is pretty small for my 50 year old eyes. Still not many tuners are this much fun and it is dead on once you get the hang of it. Bought one for my son for his birthday last week, younger eyes.
Steve |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | What the hell... for 22 bucks including strap and shipping I bought one. I never had one of those thin retro straps before. Will give a review, but based on comments here should be positive. |
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Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Ok, Ovation. Here's what you do...embed these in the top of the guitar, maybe right in front of the bridge, or maybe after the 21st fret on the fingerboard. Then you can just press the "tune me" button: The system "hears" which string is plucked, and activates that string's strobe.
Easy, huh? |
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Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | I got mine last week. It's kinda gimmicky at first but it works well enough. I use it to get me close in a hurry then adjust by ear. The strap is very thin and light. I like it on the 1537 when sitting.
Certainly worth the price for the package. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Well ... the strap is nice and light but the tuner arrived broken. Called fqms. I tried to talk them into letting me have the strap for free but they refused. I then tried to get a planet waves tuning fork instead of a tuner, plus refund my excess money, but they refused. I then tried to get them to send me a korg tuner for the same price, but they insisted I return the strap. But they did say, an alternative is that I could keep the defective tuner and keep the strap! I told him he was funny. He said that's the problem with lost leaders. So ... I'm keeping the strap and exchanging the tuner for a new one. Will let you know how, and if, it works. They'll pay for all shipping costs. |
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