What is a Tune-Bot? A Tune-Bot is an electronic tuning device made specially for drums and the drum set by Overtone Labs. It quickly shows what pitch or note value each lug of the drum is at so you can adjust and get the drum in tune fast — great for beginning players who don’t have a lot of experience tuning drums. The Tune-Bot can not only help you get your drums in tune, but can also be a nice tool to help train your ears to what pitches work for your drumkit.
Simple
The Tune-Bot is compact and easily connects to the rim of the drum using the attached clamp on its back. Put in the included AAA batteries, turn the unit on, and you’re ready to get tuning. The top panel has a clear and easily read LED screen and the six buttons below that are clearly labeled.
Very easy to use
The Tune-Bot’s LED screen looks like a guitar tuner. There are two modes: Absolute mode (ABS) and Difference mode (DIFF). ABS mode tells you the pitch at each lug and DIFF mode lets you know the difference in pitch between each lug. It really is just that simple.
To tune a drum, you connect the Tune-Bot to the rim of the drum with the finger grips on the back of the unit, then you strike the drum about two inches from the rim. Tune-Bot reads the pitch and displays the frequency in Hertz. If you want to see the actual musical note, just press the Note button, and if you press the button again it goes back to Pitch mode. Continue to strike the drum at all of the other lugs and tighten or loosen each lug to get iy as close as you can to the same as the first lug. All the lugs don’t have to be exactly the same. In Pitch mode, it’s really easy to see the small differences and it is fine if they are off by just a little.
That is all you have to do! Repeat the procedure for all of your other drums and you will be rocking in no time with your drums in tune.
Other nice features
The Tune-Bot allows you to save the pitch settings for up to ten drums for easy recall. It also lets you scroll through your settings for the top and bottom heads so you can really zoom in on the perfect pitch for your particular drum.
There is also a Filter mode that lets you tell the Tune-Bot to reject a certain frequency. That way, if you find a pitch that you don’t like, the Tune-Bot will remember it and get you to the better pitches for your drum.
Wrap Up
The Tune-Bot is very easy to use on any drum on the kit. I quickly got around my whole six-piece drum kit in no time and was able to spend more time playing rather then tuning. The Tune-Bot is indeed a very cool product for drummers.
