TC Electronic PolyTune Poly-Chromatic Tune Reviews

4.5/5.0 based on 23 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Chris Leonard

Tuning all six strings at once saves you time, and gets you straight to playing. I use the TC Electronic PolyTune at all times. Less tuning, more rock!

Ryan Murphy

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? This was made to quickly tune your guitar on stage by displaying all six strings at once.

Sort By Date Sort By Rating

Customer Reviews

Mike
from United States
April 13, 2013Music Background:
Hobbyist

Unbelievably Easy

I never thought a tuner could get me excited until I used this one. So easy to use. T C Electronics makes one the most mundane pieces of gear incredibly cool. Plug it in, strum all 6 strings and boom. In tune!! I only wish I would have bought it sooner!

Gary Jennings
from Hesperia, CA
November 27, 2012Music Background:
Professional musician

The perfect pedalboard tuner!

I was skeptical before I purchased this tuner, that it would be everything they claimed it to be but I think it actually is! It works great and I love how fast I am able to tune now. To be able to see at a glance which string, if any, needs tweaking is amazing.

Spaz - pivot
from
September 20, 2012

Polytune

Blows away the tracking time on my tu2 tuner
Read the manual to figure out how to switch tuner note and standard or drop tuning I have a feeling that might be why people complain about the pedal. Built like a tank and 1000 times easier and faster tracking then my boss tu2

Bruce Grilli
from Golden Valley, AZ
September 14, 2012Music Background:
Play and performed since 4, later produced, now a retired old hack in the desert,

Does everyting they say it will

With exception of occasional open tuning or drop D, it's 440 normal tuning for me most all the time. The Polytune goes beyond intuitive, so easy, accurate and fast to operate, and all in a compact package that is far below the typical boutique price category. Relatively small footprint. Can't ask for more. Oh, did I mention fast? Not only fast in response, but fast to switch automatically between modes. I haven't had time to try to figure it out, all I know is it does what I need it to do on the fly.

I use the linear display, as these old eyes have no trouble recognizing what string and whether sharp or flat, chromatically or with a simple open strum. And this while a rhythm track is playing through the same amp. THAT blew me away! Seems to me no interference. It is, however, subject to to power disturbance, such as fans, computers, possibly even cell phones, but I've found it to be only a minor issue. Click off the pedals, and be aware the if your a/c is running, there may be funny swirling sound in the background. It turns down with your volume and lack of effects. That, and the fact that the plastic visor popped off when I first took it out of the box, held on by some tacky stuff. It's worked fine after I pressed it back in place.

First time doing business with Sweetwater, that I recall, it's it's a bit like Christmas =candy in the package?!! I just bought a Tele, and would liked to have worked with Sweetwater on it. I purchase from a well known online vendor and after the typical set up time and favored string change, I am satisfied. But I intend to do more biz with Sweetwater in the future. I like their style so far.

from
August 30, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician

Poly Tune

Buy it!!! Make sure to read the manual about how to enter and exit Standard and drop D tuning and make sure the pedal is set in the correct tune mode for your guitar or bass. I tried it on a 6 string guitar and a 5 string bass and it works flawlessly. Im selling my Boss 2 now :-)

Todd Dowell
from Washington State, USA
February 13, 2012Music Background:
Amature guitarist for 30+ years. Rock, blues, acoustic, etc.

Fantastic Tuner for the Price!

This is the best tuner I have ever owned. I have used several different tuners in the past, including a stobe style tuner double the price of the Polytune, and I can tell you the the Polytune gives you extremely accurate tuning results and without all the time and frustration of tuning with a strobe. I used my Polytune first, then tested it against my $200 strobe tuner. The results? Dead on. Same accuracy. Don't get me wrong, I still like to goof around with my strobe, despite the occasional frustration. But I don't want to use a strobe and tune each string when I'm jamming and need to get into tune quickly.

Plug it in, strum all the strings, tune up, and in less than a minute you are ready to rock! I use the larger version because it can be powered with batteries in addition to AC adaptor; but they also have a smaller version that takes up less space on your pedalboard if you want.

Highly recommended!

Scott Serlin
from USA
October 20, 2011Music Background:
Hobbyist

Huge time saver for tuning strings

All I can say is that the time I save tuning is well worth the money to buy this product. Having the ability to see the status of all my strings at one shot make it very quick to identify the string(s) that are out of tune and get them back to the correct level. This item is worth every penny.

from
September 19, 2011

Wow!

coolest tuner ever

Rennedy
from Brazil
August 31, 2011Music Background:
Musician

Amazingly fast and accurate tuner

There simply isn't a better tuner out there. I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but tuning with this is a breeze, and much faster. It's as accurate as it can be.

Beret
from Chicago, USA
July 13, 2011Music Background:
Gigging Musician

Excellent Tuner

I've been a dedicated TU-2 user over the years because they're bullet proof and "good enough" in terms of tuning.

The PolyTune is considerably more accurate than the TU-2 and I like the true-bypass feature (for some situations). I highly recommend it.

G. D. Pobst
from Buford, GA
October 9, 2010Music Background:
Songwriter, Producer, Guitarist, Keyboardist

My Guitars Have Never Sounded This Good Before

Something about tuning all the strings together in context produces better results than the old-fashioned one string at at time tuning. I love this thing, because it helps me play in tune all the time!

CDD
from Brooklyn NY
June 2, 2010Music Background:
GUITAR PLAYER - Home & Live weddings etc.

THE BEST BEST TUNER ON THE PLANET.

i bought this tuner here on sweetwater omy its just amazing i used it at home and live on a job this think is something thats irreplaceable ....just try it out ones & boom u stay with this baby for life...rock on

Nathan Knox
from Niagara Falls, NY
March 14, 2013Music Background:
Guitarist.

tc electronic polytune

I've had this tuner since shortly after it's debut. It's accurate and rugged and you can very quickly get your instrument in tune using this pedal. Nice lighting so darkness isn't a problem. Anyone who is playing serious music will say that they don't want to mess about getting in tune. It's got to be fast and accurate. TC Electronic makes great products and this pedal gets it done. Great product!

Sweetwater's service is always excellent, top quality!

Hutch
from Little Rock, AR
May 14, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Sweet tuner!

Pretty sweet when you can tune all strings at once! Want to do one string at a time? Well, that can be done as well!

Only wish the led's were a little bigger when tuning all strings at once. All my other tuners are backups now!

Brian Schubbe
from IL
January 21, 2012Music Background:
Gigging musician

If your guitar has whammy bar, this is the ONLY way to tune

Guitars with whammy bars are notoriously hard to tune because, changing the tuning of one string affects the spring tension, which affects the tuning of all of the other string - sure it's slight, but it's enough to put you back out of tune. With this, you get a snapshot of all strings and can see the effect of this in real time. MUCH faster, much better in tuner when you're done.

Doctor Nerve
from New York , NY
December 2, 2011Music Background:
band leader, composer

Polytune excellent

I get a kick out of the 6 string mode, and that works fine. But I find myself bowing to old habits and plucking/tuning each string individually, and for that the big display is excellent, easy to read, accurate, and stable.

from Chester, NJ
October 17, 2011

Easy to use

Easy to use, works as advertised

J. Mancine
from Maine/USA
July 19, 2010Music Background:
pro musician

Roadworthy & Accurate

First and foremost, this tuner does its job well. The polytune feature takes some getting used to, but it is very useful. The individual string tuning is accurate, fast, and easy to read.

It is also built VERY well. One of the most roadworthy tuners on the market.

And the bonus -- it has extremely good battery life. In fact, better than any tuner I have ever used. I use this tuner almost daily for shows and one battery lasts me 3+ MONTHS! The savings on batteries will probably pay for the tuner over its lifetime.

Nick
from Delaware
March 14, 2010Music Background:
Song Writer

Beats the competition for three reasons

First, It's true bypass. Second, You can get a quick overview of which strings need attention with a single strum. Lastly, You can dial in via 'cent' to a .5 cent accuracy, any more accurate and you are probably going to have to tune via 'stream' mode. (Which is a pain in the...)

MK
from MI
February 7, 2012Music Background:
Guitarist

Great tuner in compact design

Great tuner. The polytune feature is great for a quick check, then you can zero in on any strings that are off. I like that it's smaller than the standard Boss tuner too. A pedal like this doesn't need to take up much space on your board.

Thomas Nelson
from KC, MO USA
March 11, 2010Music Background:
Player, Writer

Yes, faster tuning, but ...

Here's the proviso: the poly mode is great for a quick overview, but I find that I stlll have to isolate individual strings for finer accuracy. That's okay and still handy, though not quite the revolution I had hoped. Upside is very bright LEDs.

Wendell
from Washington, DC
March 25, 2013Music Background:
singer/songwriter, performer, engineer/producer

good, but popping noise a nuisance

Works fine, though I found I don't use the polytune function much. Only drawback--and kind of a big one--the unit makes a popping noise sometimes when I engage/disengage it. So if my guitar is plugged into a loud PA, it can be quite loud for the audience. Annoying.

Dave
from Rochester, NY
February 25, 2010Music Background:
Engineer/Musician

Acoustic Players be weary

I just recieved my polytune from sweetwater and got it really quick, no suprise there, since this is sweetwater. But I had bought this to replace my boss tuner pedal for acoustic use since the boss is not true bypass. So I figured, get something that would increase tuning time on stage by doing all strings at the same time. While this tuner works as expected on my electric guitar, its a little sketchy with my acoustic. It works in polytune mode when i strum all strings which is good. But this tuner does not support drop D tunings in poly mode. Which means you must hit single strings to trigger chromatic needle mode and tune conventionally. Problem is, with my 2 taylor acoustics, when I hit the low E or A strings, it comes up with poly mode and does not allow me to tune chromatically. This basically means I'm out of luck for drop D tunings on my acoustic.