In Praise of the TC Electronic UNITUNE CLIP NOIR

  • Thread starter ChicknPickn
  • Start date
  • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

ChicknPickn

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Apr 16, 2007
Posts
9,549
Age
62
Location
Coastal Virginia
Finally got tired of the imprecision of cheap clip tuners. If I'm going to bother using one, I don't want to have to tune my guitar after I tune my guitar, if you know what I mean. This one is not cheap, but what a difference! I especially like the strobe function.

1678037254497.png
 

Winky

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Posts
1,103
Location
Canada
That what I have (I think). Mine looks the same but the brand on mine is "Polytune". It's been really good. Not the cheapest out there, but small change in the scheme of things.
 

marc2211

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Jan 30, 2018
Posts
1,844
Age
47
Location
Switzerland/France
Polytune here, have had one for years and love it.

There was a problem with one batch about 4 years ago where once the battery was replaced it would never turn on again, had mine replaced under warranty super easily.
 

G Stone496

Tele-Afflicted
Silver Supporter
Joined
Aug 2, 2022
Posts
1,350
Age
29
Location
NYC
Finally got tired of the imprecision of cheap clip tuners. If I'm going to bother using one, I don't want to have to tune my guitar after I tune my guitar, if you know what I mean. This one is not cheap, but what a difference! I especially like the strobe function.

View attachment 1092422

That what I have (I think). Mine looks the same but the brand on mine is "Polytune". It's been really good. Not the cheapest out there, but small change in the scheme of things.

Polytune here, have had one for years and love it.

I'm using a polytune as my main tuner for a good few years. Best one so far. Sold all my pedal tuners.

Great stuff!
Trufe dat! About a year ago Sweetwater was blowing out the Unitunes for $9.99. So I snagged a bunch of ‘em. I think the regular price was $30.

The Unitune is a stripped down version of the Polytune without polyphonic tuning. But if all you use is chromatic and or strobe tuning mode like me, it’s just as accurate and fast.

73BEE89B-AF5D-49D4-BCC4-F55B5510BE4E.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Michael Poche

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Posts
5,331
Location
Louisiana
These tuners, Poly or Uni, are cheap enough that I have a couple; depending on herd size, one per guitar is not unreasonable.

In general, clip-on tuners, regardless of brand, are one of the best gadget innovations for guitarists in decades.
 

GearGeek01

Tele-Holic
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Posts
836
Location
Detroit
All of my guitars but one Alvarez acoustic are all electric guitars. I generally always have some type of pedal board, so I'm a hard core KORG Pitchblack user, and have been for as long as I can remember.

I have a Snark something or other, and it works "OK"... but I have over a dozen guitars, and using a clip-on is a PITA to me, having to swap the thing to other guitars. Or... plug in to the same pedal board, and bah-duh-bing... it's just a matter of switching the phone plug for one guitar output jack to the next...

I had a KORG clip-on as my first clipper, and it was a piece of crap. No matter what I tried, the low E string would not register on the thing. I have used KORG tuners since the GT-6 back in the 70s. But in my experience their clip-ons suck donkey hooves... As is the case with just about every clip-on I've ever had. Not to mention its another thing to forget at home or leave bouncing around in your case.

When I gave guitar lessons years ago, I tried numerous different tuners to use during a lesson. The older type of tuner with a VU meter needle is about useless in that venue. You have to squint too much to see the needle. I next tried a Peterson StroboStomp pedal tuner... what a piece of crap... it said on the packaging and industry marketing hype "true bypass" but as soon as you turned it off it sucked tone really bad... NOT my idea of true bypass...

The main reason I like the KORG Pitchblack is the size of the letter readout. The LED letter is about an inch tall. Great for reading standing up next to your pedal board. No stooping or squinting or getting on your knees with a flashlight in a dark bar to tune your guitar.

When I did finally discover the Pitchblack, I velcro-ed it to the corner of the table next to my lesson chairs, every student and myself could use it and see the readout plain as day.
 

howardlo

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Posts
2,889
Location
Hobart, IN
Finally got tired of the imprecision of cheap clip tuners. If I'm going to bother using one, I don't want to have to tune my guitar after I tune my guitar, if you know what I mean. This one is not cheap, but what a difference! I especially like the strobe function.

View attachment 1092422
Been using them for years. Have one in my music space and a number of them in my guitar cases.
 
Last edited:

Colo Springs E

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2003
Posts
21,087
Location
Colorado Springs
Any of you who perform live, do you keep one on your guitar? I always just used my pedal tuner back when I played out. I wouldn't want that on my headstock when playing live, it would bug me.

My guitars largely stayed in tune during a gig, seldom needed an adjustment.
 

Jakedog

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Posts
28,993
Location
The North Coast
Finally got tired of the imprecision of cheap clip tuners. If I'm going to bother using one, I don't want to have to tune my guitar after I tune my guitar, if you know what I mean. This one is not cheap, but what a difference! I especially like the strobe function.

View attachment 1092422
I have two of these, and a couple polytune clips. They’re all over the house and/or attached to various instruments.

For gigs I use a pedal tuner. But I never plug in an amp or set up my board at the house, so these are great to have around. And yeah, every other clip-on I’ve tried was total junk compared to these.
 

unixfish

Doctor of Teleocity
Ad Free Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2013
Posts
19,142
Location
Northeast Ohio, USA
Asked for and got four for Christmas. Ive got one at work in the studio, one downstairs in the living room guitar's case, one out upstairs in the guitar room, and one backup. Enough? :D

Bob

The formula for the number of tuners you need = x + 1, where x is the number of tuners you have now...
 

Jakedog

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Posts
28,993
Location
The North Coast
Trufe dat! About a year ago Sweetwater was blowing out the Unitunes for $9.99. So I snagged a bunch of ‘em. I think the regular price was $30.

The Unitune is a stripped down version of the Polytune without polyphonic or strobe tuning. But if all you use is chromatic tuning mode like me, it’s just as accurate and fast.

View attachment 1093556
I bought my two on the same sale!
 
Top