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S.o.s. Guitar Tuner
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21 new or used available from $10.49
Average customer review:
Product Description
The revolutionary Planet Waves S.O.S. Guitar Tuner pulses two out-of-phase LED light beams directly onto the vibrating string. When the string is out of tune, the two lights will visually dance on the string being tuned. As you approach in-tune status, the movement slows down and eventually stops when you are perfectly in tune. This revolutionary visual tuning system enables precision tuning in silent or noisy environments, with the need for audible sound or sensing of any kind.
- Ergonomic pick-sized design
- Light Based Tuning
- Precisely tune in dark or noisy environments
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #4995 in Software
- Brand: D'Addario
- Model: PW-CT-06
- Platform: No Operating System
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: 2.00 pounds
Features
- Ergonomic Pick Sized Design
- Precisely Tunes in Dark or Noisy Environment
- Light Based Tuning
Customer Reviews
What it does, it does well
First the caveats:
1. It only works with strings. ('useless for horns, steel drums, etc.)
2. It only tunes the basic six guitar notes, E,B,G,D,A,E, & absolutely nothing else.
3. The thing has a bit of a learning curve to it.
If you can live with the above limitations, the SOS is pure dynamite. It works by pulsing two LEDs at the frequency of the note you select. They're 180 degrees out of phase with each other, so their light on the string allows one to "see" the vibration until the string is perfectly in tune. The process, once you get the hang of it, is dead-on accurate and works quite well in a dimly lit, noisy environment because it's optical, not sonic. You turn its dial to the note you want, pluck the string with the built-in pic, and shine the two lights at the string. If you practice, it can be quite fast and precise at a level way, way beyond its meager price. I was dazzled. (My wife says I'm easily amused.)
It's ok ... but I'd get something else.
The first thing you should know is that this is not a replacement for your standard plug-through tuner. If you need something to act as your primary tuner for big important gigs, this is not it. Get yourself a Peterson Strobe or a Boss TU-2.
That having been said, this thing is 15 bucks and I bought it on something of a whim. It's a gimmicky little gadget made out of cheap plastic, and it feels cheap. It also takes forever to use. If you need something quick, go with one of those needle tuners, because this thing takes awhile to get right (with a lot of second-guessing on your own part).
PlanetWaves says this has got a 0.4 cent accuracy, which is more accurate than $200 tuners boasts. How can this be? Well, it's a little misleading. First, most guitar tuners aren't sensitive enough to make 0.4 degree adjustments, and Second, there's no big sign that turns on and says "Ding, you've got it right!" so you end up staring at the little LEDs, trying to figure out whether they're still moving or not.
But it does tune, and it does tune accurately (I'd put it somewhere in the 3 - 5 cents range if you take enough time). And it is really tiny, which is nice. And, it's a strobe tuner, which means it doesn't matter how loud or noisy a place is, you can tune away.
Still, it doesn't do alternate tunings, it doesn't work on nylon strings, it doesn't work when it's bright, it doesn't work on 7 string or bass guitars and it doesn't work if you need to tune A away from 440hz. With those sorts of limitations, it's pretty impractical, so unless you only ever play 6 string guitars in standard tuning in low-to-medium lighting with plenty of time to fiddle around with a tuner, I'd go look for something else.
Good for a cheap strobe
This thing works great for a cheap strobe tuner. It works approximately like any other strobe tuner, and takes some getting used to; but I really like it. The needle in my chromatic tuner (a needle drawn on an LCD) wobbles a lot and when it's "close" the display stays stable; with this I can fine-tune a bit.
I really find this thing useful with relative tuning; once I get the low E string in tune, I can use the strobe to check the A string and also visually and audibly compare it to low E at fret 5. I can use it on its own or use a chromatic tuner like the Korg GA-40 to give me a second type of visual reference.
If you need to do non-standard tuning, you'll have to use the strobe against a fretted string; for Drop D tuning, for example, you'll need to fret the low E at 2 and use E6 for comparison. If you want to tune up, i.e. have low E play an F, you'll have to fret it up to D5 (fret 4 in this case). Make sure your intonation's proper if you do this.
