Q-Tune DIY Tuner kit

[Rpschultz13]

Last summer, @joulupukki and I began developing a tuner pedal with the intention of making it a DIY thru-hole kit. Since we both frequent this site and have benefitted from advice from many of it's members, we wanted to share here first. Stay tuned

 

[Gordo]

Wait...what??!!

 

[Harry Klippton]

You know I gotta ask. What's it gonna cost?

 

[DailyDovetails]

Well now I guess I need to wait until this comes out to order a new tuner for my board.

 

[Rpschultz13]

The design is done, last round of prototypes coming in this week. Getting our web site, inventory, etc set up.

• Pre-order (initial 20 kits) first week in June.
• Ship within 45 days, but likely by the end of June.
• Introductory price: $149. Full price $179.
• Live stream event on YouTube this upcoming Thursday, May 29 @ 8 PM Eastern (meet Boyd & Ryan, project history, and demo)

 

[szukalski]

Looks awesome but that’s a price premium over a Polytune 3.

I guess that’s why it’s never been really tackled in DIY, it’s not a simple circuit to implement. It’s nice to see a DIY option.

 

[Feral Feline]

GODOT BLESSINGS BE UPON YOU! — TopJacks!

PM Me When Ready please, I will order immediately — in fact, I'll buy one right now.

 

[Rpschultz13]

Looks awesome but that’s a price premium over a Polytune 3.

Thanks for the feedback!
We totally get that Q-Tune isn’t in the same price bracket as something like the PolyTune 3 — and to be fair, that’s a great pedal. But Q-Tune is a different kind of product: it’s DIY, and it offers more features than any tuner we know of. It's made for builders and tinkerers who find way more satisfaction out of building than buying.

 

[Rpschultz13]

I guess that’s why it’s never been really tackled in DIY, it’s not a simple circuit to implement. It’s nice to see a DIY option.

This is a great comment. Tune in to the live stream event Thursday, we'll talk about this a bit.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Some questions that I have, and I’m sure others will be interested in too:

1. What’s the accuracy?
2. How fast is it?
3. Does is have preset space available for custom setting of:
   1. Sweetened tunings?
   2. Custom temperaments such as various meantone systems, just intonation, and xenharmonic/microtonal temperaments (ie: 19edo, 22edo)
4. Does it have modes for both muted tuning and constant tuning monitoring?
5. What’s the current draw?
6. Any fun additional features such as a screensaver mode (ie: walrus canvas tuner)?

Definitely will be tough to sway me away from the strobostomp, but if it’s customizable enough I may be on board. Either way good luck and wishing yall success!

 

[jwin615]

If you can also make it fart and sound like a little Japanese girl, you'll make millions.

 

[Rpschultz13]

Some questions that I have, and I’m sure others will be interested in too:

1. What’s the accuracy?
2. How fast is it?
3. Does is have preset space available for custom setting of:
   1. Sweetened tunings?
   2. Custom temperaments such as various meantone systems, just intonation, and xenharmonic/microtonal temperaments (ie: 19edo, 22edo)
4. Does it have modes for both muted tuning and constant tuning monitoring?
5. What’s the current draw?
6. Any fun additional features such as a screensaver mode (ie: walrus canvas tuner)?

Definitely will be tough to sway me away from the strobostomp, but if it’s customizable enough I may be on board. Either way good luck and wishing yall success!

1) Accuracy is tough to measure because when a string vibrates it varies +/- a few cents. So a tuner that advertises 0.1 cents, is incredibly difficult to measure that. We feel that if you are within +/- 1-3 cents, you are very in tune. That said, using a reference tone, Q-tune is as accurate as any other tuner. I'll be doing a comparison of Q, Poly3, TT and Peterson soon.
2) Comparison vid soon will show relative speeds.
3) Sweetening's, custom temperaments are all possible future upgrades in the software, via USB flashing.
4) Yes, True Byass, Buffered Bypass and Monitor mode.
5) 165 mA nominal while tuning, spikes up to 170. Recommend a 180 or 200 mA source.
6) It has 5 screen savers (one is interactive).
7) It has 5 tuning styles (see demo).
8) Screen rotations options: Normal, Left, Right, Upside Down
9) Reference pitch adjustment (Default is A440)
10) In-tune threshold can be set from +/-1 to +/-6 cents

 

[Synchrony Pedalworks]

Oh, wow.... This is so temping... Great idea and I look forward to hearing more about the details.

 

[joulupukki]

I realize that for some of you watching a build will be boring, but in case you've literally got nothing else to do today... (haha)

I'm going to be live streaming a full prototype build of our latest circuit board this afternoon at 3 PM Mountain Time. It's taken me about 2 hours in the past when not being recorded so hopefully I'll be able to come close to that! If you're interested in tuning in:

 

[BryGuy]

It’s dope. Love the different layout options. Can’t afford one myself currently but it would make a great addition to any board.

 

[DailyDovetails]

Definitely will be tough to sway me away from the strobostomp, but if it’s customizable enough I may be on board. Either way good luck and wishing yall success!

Let’s not look past the fact that they have somehow engineered the impossible here and put both the DC and quarter inch jacks in the correct place on the back.

 

[Feral Feline]

1) Accuracy is tough to measure because when a string vibrates it varies +/- a few cents. So a tuner that advertises 0.1 cents, is incredibly difficult to measure that. We feel that if you are within +/- 1-3 cents, you are very in tune. That said, using a reference tone, Q-tune is as accurate as any other tuner. I'll be doing a comparison of Q, Poly3, TT and Peterson soon.
...

Add a Sonic Research Turbo Tuner to that list, SVP.

I realize that for some of you watching a build will be boring, but in case you've literally got nothing else to do today... (haha)

I'm going to be live streaming a full prototype build of our latest circuit board this afternoon at 3 PM Mountain Time. It's taken me about 2 hours in the past when not being recorded so hopefully I'll be able to come close to that! If you're interested in tuning in:

I've got a couple of errands to run, so I'll be "tuning in" late, but looking forward to it.





One of your product's best features, IMO, is the ability to change the viewing orientation of the screen — I've seen a LOT of pedalboards that could use that feature; though I've never needed it myself, it's be good to have.

 

[Feral Feline]

OKAY, I'm watching — priorities, after all.

 

[Rpschultz13]

Add a Sonic Research Turbo Tuner to that list, SVP.
I've got a couple of errands to run, so I'll be "tuning in" late, but looking forward to it.
One of your product's best features, IMO, is the ability to change the viewing orientation of the screen — I've seen a LOT of pedalboards that could use that feature; though I've never needed it myself, it's be good to have.

TT means TurboTuner. Yes!

Comparison vid coming later this week:
1) Q-tune
2) Turbo Tuner
3) Peterson Mini
4) Poly3

 

[Feral Feline]

As asked for, Feedback concerning the live feed (sorry no YouTube account so I'm commenting here instead of in the live-feed):

PRE-ORGANISATION: Like how a cooking show will have pre-chopped ingredients... pre-organising the components and having them laid out ready to go so you're not fishing through component-drawers would speed things up for the overall actual live-feed/build-time.

VOLUME: I've got my laptop speakers CRANKED and barely able to hear it above ambient neighbourhood noise (sitting on front porch with doggo and breeze in the trees and neighbours windchimes are almost drowning you out.
\\

Easter-eggs: let the end-buyer-builder-user find 'em. (Neighbour just fired up their weedwacker... very difficult to hear now. (3:37)



(6:23)
Sorry to see it didn't fire up right out of the gate. I'd be up for a live-stream of it being debugged — there's nothing like being under the pressure of a LIVE performance and something goes wrong.

I hadn't watched the intro-vid in the OP, so it was a surprise to me to see it had a touch-screen.

- How robust is the touch screen, and what if my boot is touching the screen while turning the tuner on/off?

- Will buyers be able to choose which size? 1590B vs 1590N1?

I'd prefer the N1 size.​