PolyTune 3 Polyphonic LED Guitar Tuner Pedal with Buffer Review

TC Electronics tuner

Best tuner I've ever used!!! Thank you SWEETWATER!!! All these killer pedals came from you!!

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Solid!

Works as it should. Solid build!

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Polytune3

It's excellent, it works perfectly. Greetings from Ecuador

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Meets and exceeds the expectations

Awesome tuner and reliable during live events. Price is very generous for the quality. Satisfied musician!

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Easy, reliable, intuitive - what's not to like?

So, while trying to decide on a good pedalboard tuner, I was waffling between the polytune3, Boss TU-3/Waza, and several others. Of course, Sweetwater came through with a sale price on the polytune3, so I nabbed it for about twenty bucks less than full dime, so that's always great.It takes a standard negative-tip 9v power plug, so it went right into my new pedalboard with no issues.I… read more stepped on the switch, plugged in my guitar, and since it's already set to standard tuning, I was able to tune up with no problem, and zero configuration. You can do a quick visual by strumming all six strings at once, and the polytune3 will show you which string is flat or sharp, by showing a couple of red dots above/sharp or below/flat a green line for all strings. That's a pretty neat trick.Of course, you can also tune each string individually. It shows you a green line sweeping left to right, with a bright green vertical line in the center, signifying 'in tune' and a vertical red line to the left to show if it's flat, or to the right to show it's sharp. When you've got a straight, lone vertical green line, then it's in tune. Super easy.By default, it mutes everything downstream of it on the pedalboard when you turn it on. So, when tuning, you won't hear anything out of the amp. I suppose that's for stage or studio use. I don't really care either way in the bedroom. The instructions sheet is a one-pager, and says to visit tcelectronic to download the full manual. You can switch between three modes - 1) True Bypass, 2) Buffered Bypass, and 3) Buffered Bypass w/Display Always On. I may switch to it always being on, as that's easiest for use in the mancave, but you have to unscrew the backplate and set a dipswitch for that, so I'll have to try when I'm more motivated. It works fine in default mode for now. If you press and hold the footswitch, it will toggle between standard tuning and drop-D tuning, for all of us SRV wannabes, I suppose.The display is nice and bright, and very easy to see. The specs say there's an ambient light sensor built in, so it should automagically get more or less bright as you need. I just use it in the mancave, and it works great indoors, so I can at least vouch for that use case.Looks like there's a USB port in the back, which I assume is used to update the firmware? The tuner worked fine out of the box, so I suppose I'll check the firmware version later, and make sure it's up to date.So, that's it! The polytune3 works great, is super simple to use out of the box, and I got it on sale, so my wallet is happy. If you're looking for a solid tuner, you can't go wrong with this one.

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