Staying in tune is one of the most important aspects of playing live, and a bass guitar pedal tuner is the easiest way to do it.
Pedal tuners work better than clip-ons in loud environments, and they silence your signal so that the audience doesn’t have to hear you tuning up during a song.
The Pitchblack
The Pitchblack is one of Korg’s most advanced tuning pedals. It offers extremely accurate tuning with a detection range of +/-0.1 cents, which is impressive for a pedal tuner. The pedal also has a large display that’s easy to read in any environment, and it comes with multiple meter displays and high-brightness modes for maximum visibility on stage. It also has true bypass, which eliminates the signal path for a clean sound. The Pitchblack also features an internal buffer amp that can supply up to 200 mA of power to other effect pedals, simplifying the power wiring on your board.
The founder of Pitchblack Playback, Gomori, explains that the concept for the company came after his experience listening to Amon Tobin’s ISAM at a cinema in London. He found that being in a big comfy chair with a massive screen and visuals made the experience exhilarating and immersive. He wanted to create a way to provide this kind of experience to musicians and their fans at home.
Kozmotis Pitchiner, more commonly known as Pitch Black, is the Nightmare King and main antagonist of Rise of the Guardians. He is a tall, lithe figure with silver-golden yellow eyes that resemble an eclipse and dull pale-gray skin. He has long, glossy black hair and a sharp spiked headdress. Pitch has a vicious sense of humor and he frequently torments his enemies, often playing with their worst fears. He enjoys watching them squirm and is often seen smiling in his henchmen’s presence.
In the film, Pitch is a powerful sorcerer with a large library of spells at his disposal. His main magic is the ability to control henchmen and manipulate people psychologically to elicit their fears and compel them into doing his bidding. He also has a deep jealousy of the other Guardians and loves to torment them, which is evident when he tries to distract Jack by using his worst fear of being forgotten to turn him into a Nightmare.
The Pitchblack is an affordable, versatile and durable pedal that’s well-suited for bassists. It has a wide variety of meter display and brightness modes, plus a cable checker function to help prevent broken cables. It also features true bypass for a clean signal, and it includes four meter modes to accommodate any situation onstage or in the studio.
The BigMini
The BigMini is another small pedal from Ibanez that offers a lot of functionality for its size. It’s a compact chromatic tuner with needle and strobe modes that will save you space on your pedalboard. Its tuning range extends all the way to C8, which allows it to detect the low B of a 5 string bass guitar, and its LED display is bright enough to be seen on even the darkest stages. It also has an adjustable flat mode and a true bypass switch to provide the cleanest signal path possible.
This pedal is not only accurate, but it’s one of the fastest tuners on the market. It’s able to respond quickly to the strings being played, making it easy to tune your bass without disrupting your song or performance. It also works well with drop tunings and other alternate tunings.
Its simple design and rugged build have made it a popular choice among bassists and other musicians that need a reliable tuner on the road. The BigMini isn’t as fancy as some of the other pedals on this list, but it’s an excellent value for its price.
The Boss TU-3 is another popular choice for guitarists looking for a solid, accurate tuner. It’s a little bigger than the previous two pedals on this list, but it still fits well on most pedalboards. The TU-3 is also more affordable than the Polytune and is accurate up to +/- 1 cent, which is plenty for most situations.
In addition to being a very accurate tuner, the TU-3 has a few other useful features that make it an excellent option for anyone on the hunt for a new pedal. It has a “STREAM/CENT” button that lets you choose between how the pedal displays pitch (center or stream) and a “MODE” button that provides several tuning modes, including the ability to tune for drop tunings.
If you’re in the market for a new pedal, be sure to check out our selection of bass guitar pedals. We have a wide variety of brands and styles to suit any style or budget, and all purchases are covered by Reverb Buyer Protection for your peace of mind.
The Boss TU-3
The TU-3 is an evolution of the world’s top-selling stage tuner, and it builds upon its predecessor by adding improvements where needed. Built into a tank-tough BOSS stompbox body, the TU-3 features a smooth 21-segment LED meter and a High-Brightness mode to cut through the harshest outdoor glare. With Chromatic, Guitar and Bass modes (including a string name indicator), flat-tuning support, and more, this pedal is a reliable choice for guitarists of all styles and abilities.
Besides the rock-solid, no-nonsense approach to tuning, the TU-3 also serves as a power supply for up to seven other BOSS compact pedals to keep your pedalboard neat and tidy, and your power strip free of messy wall warts. Plus, it has a tone-saving buffer and can be used in bypass, which is great for situations where you want to use the pedal but don’t want to lose high frequencies due to long cables or other factors.
Despite being a great option for a pedal that will serve you well night after night, the TU-3 has one small flaw in our book—its standard display brightness is not particularly bright, which can be a problem in some lighting conditions. The good news is that you can turn up the brightness on the TU-3, but it still doesn’t compare to the brighter displays of the Korg Pitchblack X and Polytune. If you’re looking for a pedal tuner with a better display, you should check out the Pitchblack or Polytune instead. The TU-3 also has a buffer output impedance of 1 kOhm, which can cause some loss in high frequencies when plugged into the end of your signal chain. You can avoid this by using the TU-3 in bypass or by connecting it directly to your amplifier.
The Polytune
TC Electronic made waves in the guitar effects market when they introduced the Polytune back in 2010. This was the world’s first polyphonic tuner, a game-changing tuning breakthrough that would have players wondering how they ever got by without it.
Essentially, the Polytune allows you to tune all of your strings simultaneously by strumming them in unison. The unit then tells you which ones need tuning. This is a huge boon for guitarists who want to get in and out of tune as quickly as possible, so they can rock out with the crowd.
The Polytune features a traditional chromatic tuning mode in addition to its polyphonic offering. This makes it a great choice for guitar players who use dropped tunings or who need to quickly check their tuning before taking the stage. It also comes with a high-precision strobe tuner that can be used for string by string tuning.
The pedal offers a battery or external power output that can be used to daisy chain other pedals and devices. This means you can keep the pedal in your rig and still power other pedals that require a lot of current (like reverb and distortion pedals). Using an external power source will also ensure the unit runs at its optimal performance level, so it stays as accurate as possible.
Another cool feature that the Polytune offers is the ability to store your preference settings, such as pitch reference and tuning mode. This will stick around even after you shut the pedal off, so when you turn it back on again, everything is ready to go as you left it.
The Polytune is a fantastic pedal that gives bassists the ultimate tuning experience. It is a highly versatile and reliable pedal that can be used for both acoustic and electric basses, as well as other types of instruments. The pedal is also very affordable and does a superb job at making the often-neglected task of tuning a bass guitar quick, easy, and precise. Whether you’re looking for a high-quality chromatic, polyphonic, or strobe tuning, the Polytune is definitely worth checking out.