The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Forumites,

Looking for some advise on my pending tuner upgrade. I have a Boss TU-12, but looking to get a Peterson. I see both the StroboFlip and the StroboPlus HD in use... is there any big advantages to either one of them? Any reason not to get either one of them? Anything else I should be aware of?

All help would be appreciated!!

Hay Joosten

I personally like the StroboFlip.
It is small, compact and when you close the lid, the screen is protected.
I believe both have the same tuning values installed.

I agree with Bill 100%. I've used the StroboFlip for years.
One of my students has a StroboPlus and I don't care for it.
I don't know why, but he spends 10 minutes tuning his steel
and I fully tune mine in about 1 minute. Never a problem.

Hay, the flip is older model no longer in production, believe the suppliers for the chips in them stopped production.The plus is newest model, and incidently cheaper than the flip was, have had both and prefer the older flip for reasons Bill mentioned, but both are excellent as is the customer service provided by Peterson and Their tech rep Sue Haslam in particular.

Sorry double post

Strobo Plus is better if you want to keep it inline as you play. Flip will degrade the sound.

I have the Strobo Plus HD and really like it.
I keep it in line also.

They're both great , and everything said above is true. I can't see why it could take any longer to tune with the HD. Likely "pilot error." You can buy the HD new, and you can't the flip.

The leg mount for the flip was free and worked great. The one for the HD costs you $40 and sucks.

The HD uses a rechargeable built in battery which holds a charge forever. The flip used AA's, or a wall wart that could make the needle bounce a bit, in my experience.

I own both, Flip for the travel, HD for home and practice. The clam shell design for throwing in your pac-a-seat is hard to beat. Sorry to hear they are out of production.

I use a battle scarred Flip that was purchased here on the forum and it works like a charm. It's connected via the tuner jack in my Stage One pedal. The geek in my would like to try the HD but really, this is as accurate and easy as it gets for me.

And yes, the service from Peterson is outstanding.

Ken Pippus wrote:They're both great , and everything said above is true. I can't see why it could take any longer to tune with the HD. Likely "pilot error." You can buy the HD new, and you can't the flip.

The leg mount for the flip was free and worked great. The one for the HD costs you $40 and sucks.

The HD uses a rechargeable built in battery which holds a charge forever. The flip used AAA's, or a wall wart that could make the needle bounce a bit, in my experience.

Thank you everyone for the advise!

Ken, you say the adaptor throws off the tuning accuracy? 😳 Or just the initial needle response? Thanks!

I quit using the wall wart because I was getting what I would guess was 60 Hz vibration on the display. I don't think it would necessarily have affected tuning accuracy, but being a little obsessive, it bugged me.

I have both tuners, and they both function just fine.

I also don't care for the HD leg mount but I bought a little leg mounted shelf off the Forum some time back and I've placed the tuner on that. Works great!

I have the Strobo Plus HD, and I will address two thing that haven't really been discussed in this thread:

• the online interface you get with that unit and
  the multi purpose function of the unit.

When I connect mine with via USB to my computer and log into the Peterson site, I can customize the tunings that are stored in my tuner. I can add, delete ones I don't need, and download tunings posted by other peterson users.

Also needs to be said that I use it for steel, but also guitar, banjo (as if it is possible to truly tune a banjo...) mandolin, resonator guitar and more. I have multiple guitar tunings stored on there as well. These are all "sweetened" tunings, so they are quite specific. And if you have created your own particular tuning, you too can upload it to the website and share it with others.

The Peterson site has tunings for everything from bagpipes to lute to sitar - you name it. So you can access them if you want to and put them on your tuner. Or not.

The unit is great if you do your own setup on any instrument as well.

So really, this is a multi-purpose unit. If all you are doing is tuning your PSG in one particular tuning, then this unit is probably overkill - but it is crazy accurate, so that alone may be enough reason to get it if you are in search of that perfectly sweetened tuning.

Me, I'm glad I bought it. Whether or not it is right for you really depends on the extent of your needs.

That's my two cents...
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The fact you recharge the battery like a cellphone is another plus - even plug it into the cigarette lighter socket in your car and charge it on the way to the gig