The Steel Guitar Forum

After hearing so many great comments about the Peterson tuners with both E9th and C6th tempered tunings incorporated in their software, I dropped into my local "opium den" (Milano Music Center in Mesa, Arizona) to evaluate one. There happened to be two in stock at the time, both still in the boxes. We opened the first box and I noticed that the display would "scramble" randomly from time to time - with blue squares and blank squares jumping around the display. After checking the power source by substitution with another Peterson "wall wart of the same type", we concluded that something was indeed wrong with the unit. We then opened the 2nd box, the display seemed solid as a rock and the menuing worked as-advertised. The store folks mentioned that they would send the first one back to Peterson for replacement. I bought the 2nd unit and hustled out to give it a try. I tuned three steels, two guitars and two bass guitars with the tempered tunings and they were fantastic! I tried it several times over the next few days and each time it worked well. Then yesterday I pulled it out and turned it on - and while the left side of the display looked "normal" (rolling up and down), the right side of the display was slightly scrambled and "scanning" incorrectly - with what should be at the bottom of the screen appearing at the top of the screen and the rest of the information shifted down a line or two. I tried turning it off and on many times, I installed new batteries and did all the normal things I could think of to try. Sometimes when I turned it on, it would look like it was going to work, but when I plugged an instrument into the input jack and hit a string, it would go nuts again and stay that way until I turned it off. The menuing was similarly scrambled. Finally I called Milano's and explained the problem. Great people! They were still familiar with the first one they had just sent back to the factory, so Jim Minch said he would call and check on it. About 10 minutes later Jim called me back and said that the factory had told him that they had a batch of defective displays that were recently installed and shipped in new units and that they would send the store four new units with good displays. It sure is nice to have good people to deal with like Jim Minch and Milano's! They offered a stright exchange for a new unit. I hope to have the replacement by the middle of next week. So, if anyone on the forum has a unit whose display is cutting up intermittantly, you might want to contact the company and either exchange it or have the display replaced - as required. When mine worked, it was great!

Dave Beaty
Mesa, Arizona
Mullen Laq D-10, 8+6, Sho-Bud Pro-1 3+5

I would like to get one, I tried one out at Rick Troyers Hummingbird music studios on my old beat up MSA and it made it sound like a brand new guitar.

Dave B-I take it that your tuner is the VS-II ? John Norris informed me that some problems first arose with units that he brought to the Texas show-In effort to keep up with demand Peterson made some small changes integrating some modular parts-these turned out to be the problem and Peterson has returned to using the soldered components as before-Anyone who buys one with problems can return it for a new replacement-They are great to deal with for warranty coverage of their strobes-PW

I'd like to add my 2 cents to this and second Paul W's advice. I also have a VS-II with the same issues that Dave described. Today I e-mailed Peterson and within 1/2 hour I had 2 voice messages and an e-mail. Talked with Sue Haslam and she said they would replace the unit. I was absolutely floored by the speed of reply and they are great folks to work with. I described the problem in the e-mail and Sue told me to call for raplacement instructions. Thanks, Paul W. Just one more reason this forum is so great!!

Paul; Yes, my unit is a VS-II. It seems to be temperature sensitive as well, if it warms up, it will start working intermittantly, but at some critical cooler temperature, it goes berserk and stays that way. Nice to know the problem has been identified. I wonder if Peterson has told anyone how to look at the unit and tell if it is potentially a "problem" unit or not? Is there a serial number range? Or, could a person look at the printed circuit board to tell? It is sure helpful to have the additional information submitted by other forum members. This is truly a great service! Thanks!