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Boss Tu-2 Tuner Pedal : Tips For More Accurate Guitar Tuning

By  Bob Glastetter | Published  07/23/2006 | Guitar Effects and Pedals
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Boss TU-2 Tuner- Tips For More Accurate Guitar Tuning

?The Boss TU-2 tuner is pretty much the industry standard tuner now for gigging and recording. This is a great product from Boss and I hardly ever see a pedalboard without one! The only problem I've noticed is?that their accuracy can be a bit inconsistent and here's why. Boss states that the tuner is accurate within + or -? 5 cents. Cent is a?measuring mark used to see how close to?pure pitch?the note is in. Well if every string is + or- a couple cents off? then the whole guitar won't sound as well tuned. That's why sometimes with this tuner all the lights look right but tuning is a bit off then you may retune with the lights showing good and then it sounds better. That's because the deviance in the + or - ratio. Peterson tuners are MUCH more accurate because they are?within 1/100th?cents closer to each note.?Now for most average rockers they are just too expensive but have no fear this is what I have discovered.

?A great buddy of mine Pat who is a Pro guitar tech tuned me into to this. He tunes before the show and the song with the Peterson strobe tuners. But the bands also have in their pedalboard the Boss TU-2 simply because if they needed to touch up?their tuning it's faster in the live rock band situation just to hit the Boss and go. He discovered that on the Boss tuner?by using the "STREAM" mode instead of the "Cent" mode it's actually much more accurate. So when your plug in your cord?and hit the ?"Stream"/ Cent" mode the stream mode is the one you want and all the lights will start moving like crazy. The point is that as the note gets closer to being in tune the lights SLOW DOWN and if they are farther from being in tune they speed up, very?similar to a strobe tuner so it's really reading the note better. It's a bit weird at first to get used to?but after 15 minutes you'll have it down cold. Here's the great part we actually linked up the Peterson and the Buss tuners together and discovered that in the "STREAM" mode the Boss is actually much more?accurate, ?within 2-3 cents and that's BIG. Not as accurate as the Peterson but?for most rockers close enough. So spend some time using this mode and I'll think you'll hear the difference! Consult?your Boss TU-2 owners manual if needed.

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