The Steel Guitar Forum

Is there any real difference between the StroboStomp and the StroboPlus other than the way the tuner is packaged. It seems like most people choose the StroboPlus because it mounts to the steel legs with a bracket, where the StroboStomp requires some sort of pedal board.

Is there any other difference. I suspect the Peterson is having a problem introducing a new version of the StroboPlus seeing how the StroboPlus has not been available for quite a while.

Thanks

Hi,

I have both, and the tuner work equally well, the strobo plus HD has the option for the Metronome which is nice and is a touch easier to cycle through the sweeteners. The strobostomp has a built in buffer option and once you use your favorite sweeteners a few time it remembers them and keeps them near the front of the list. Tha strobostomp is built like a tank... I like them both.

Patrick

There are a few other small but perhaps significant differences from what I can tell.

StroboPlus has a rechargeable battery, built in mic for acoustic tuning, headphone jack, internal speaker for metronome (optional) and tone generator, and a manual note mode - which I like for bringing new strings up to pitch. I wish the metronome and tone generator were a bit more pleasant sounding BTW - it would be good to have a range of usable drone sounds for practice.

It looks to me like the Stomp comes with “guided tunings” which display string numbers but none supplied for steel. As a result it has more built in sweeteners overall (but the same steel guitar ones). It can save more user presets for quick access (limited to 10 on the Plus). Has true bypass, buffered and always-on modes and a 9v out for daisy chaining fx boxes. And you can change the display colours.

Other than that it’s down to different form, same (pretty excellent) function.

I'm considering buying the Strobostomp HD because I already have a pedalboard I use all the time. On top of steel I play guitar and baritone guitar through the same rig at shows and I'm just wondering if it will be easy enough to quickly change between a sweetened pedal steel preset and a regular chromatic setting for guitar. Any advice from those who own the Peterson Strobostomp HD would be much appreciated! Worst case scenario I can always have two tuner pedals on my board but that seems a bit excessive!

Thanks,

Tom

The Strobostomp HD is an excellent tuner. I own both the Stobostomp HD and the Stroboplus HD. The stomp is the best choice for a pedalboard. The rocker switch on the right side of the stomp lets you quickly switch presets. As Patrick mentioned the stomp keeps recently used presets near the front of the list. I regularly switch between two presets and if I remember which way to switch (up or down), the other preset is always the next preset.

Karlis

Thanks Karlis. I'm sold!

Tom

Tom, you might want to consider the StroboClip HD too. I own a StroboPlus HD and a StroboStomp HD, they're both excellent, but with the exception of the metronome option mentioned above, the StroboClip HD does all the same things without need for the extra cable, power supply, etc., and you can get three of them on Peterson's website for the same cost as one Strobostomp. You can have multiple units for your different instruments if you don't want to switch them around. The clip works great on PSG, it's significantly smaller and more flexible, and is fully programmable via USB and their Connect app just like the bigger units so you can add your favorite custom presets and delete all the unused clutter. Mine have only my two PSG presets and the default equal temperament. They're $60 ea, but only $55 if you buy two or $50 if you buy three. I know some folks out there will scoff, but based on my own experience will all of these units, the clip is highly recommended in my book.

I have a Stroboplus HD and a StroboClip HD.

I like the Stroboplus HD as it has a larger display, but the clip works just as good with my JE9 program installed.

Thanks Ian and Jack! I ended up grabbing the Strobostomp and I think it will be a good solution for me. I've played a '76 Sho-Bud S12 for many years and believe it or not it played pretty well in tune for my style by making a few slight modifications to the readings of a standard chromatic tuner. However, I recently picked up a '73 MSA classic and it is an entirely different beast! I've been using the Peterson app for iPhone and wasn't entirely satisfied with any of the built-in sweetened presets I tried. Also, I often play in noisy clubs and wanted something that would plug in directly. So yesterday I hooked up the Strobostomp with the Sid Hudson setting and Wow! Very nicely sweetened indeed! It's definitely the most in tune that guitar has been up to now. I might make a small modification or two but this is the best compromise I have heard so far. Curious which presets others are using. Has anyone ever found that certain makes of guitars like certain sweetened tunings, or are they all individual more or less?

Tom

I've used the Newman sweetened on all the guitars I've owned. Actually its my "JE9" which is the Newman sweetened opens, pedals and knee levers plus some common knee lever changes that were not included in the Newman's into one program except for the 4th string (E) F# that is in a separate program (JKL) as there is already an F# with different setting. The JKL is rarely used as that string rarely needs tuning.

JE9 and JKL are listed in the Peterson user tunings.

I've used JE9/JKL and JC6 (Newman sweetened combo for C6th) on a D-10 Franklin, a D-10 GFI Ultra, an S-10 GFI and now the SD-10 GFI.

There are others that are also using my programs.

Thanks Jack, I'll definitely check out your tunings!

Tom, e-mail me and I'll send you my tuning chart.

The most meaningful difference for Steel players is that the StroboStomp can’t be used to measure offsets or cabinet drop, which is something that the StroboPlus can do. In fact, that’s the reason I kept my old Stroboflip.

Why is this important? Because sweetenings must be measured for each guitar. The Newman sweetenings will only work for you if your guitar has the same amount of deflection that Newman’s guitar had.

Let’s say my pedal steel has 4 cents of cabinet drop and yours has 10 cents. How can we possibly use the same sweetenings? Which is why you need to measure your cabinet drop and sweetenings using something like the Stroboflip or strobo plus. Every guitar is different, so I go through that process every time I get a new guitar, or everytime I want to mess with some variation on the equal/tempered tuning spectrum.

Alex Cattaneo wrote:The most meaningful difference for Steel players is that the StroboStomp can’t be used to measure offsets or cabinet drop, which is something that the StroboPlus can do. In fact, that’s the reason I kept my old Stroboflip.

Why is this important? Because sweetenings must be measured for each guitar. The Newman sweetenings will only work for you if your guitar has the same amount of deflection that Newman’s guitar had.

Let’s say my pedal steel has 4 cents of cabinet drop and yours has 10 cents. How can we possibly use the same sweetenings? Which is why you need to measure your cabinet drop and sweetenings using something like the Stroboflip or strobo plus. Every guitar is different, so I go through that process every time I get a new guitar, or everytime I want to mess with some variation on the equal/tempered tuning spectrum.

From published reports, supposedly Newman had some big name Nashville steeler's tune their guitars and then he measured them with a Korg WT12 Tuner. How he came up with his original chart. Later chart changed to 442.5 and the "sweetened" is a Peterson originated term.

On the C6th I tuned with the Emmons harmonic method then checked with the Newman settings and they were the same. Maybe Emmons was the basis for Newman's C6th chart?

I started using the Micky Adams sweetener (MA9) on my strobostomp HD and I love it. It tunes both open strings and pedals without having to change sweeteners. I have used the Newman sweeteners prior but my steel has never been more in tune since I started using Mickey’s.

Thanks for all the input, I appreciate it. Once you start playing more guitars you realize every single one has its own thing going. So far the Sid Hudson tuning seems to be best for my MSA but I haven't tried the Micky Adams one since getting the Strobostomp. I certainly appreciate the simplicity of having one setting for both open strings and pedals since I am sometimes playing regular electric, twelve string electric and baritone on top of steel. Curious to try some new sweetened tunings on my Sho-Bud as well. Looking forward to a little downtime over the holidays to try things out!