TC ELECTRONIC
POLYTUNE MINI
BY JORDAN WAGNER
TC Electronic’s Poly Tune polyphonic tuner is, in my opinion, one of
the coolest tools out there for guitarists
and bassists. Getting a good pedal tuner
should take precedence over buying any
other stompbox, and the Poly Tune’s amazing accuracy, bright readout, and super-handy—and truly revolutionary—
polyphonic tuning capabilities make it one of
the clear winners in the pedal-tuner arena.
But TC Electronic isn’t content to rest
on their laurels, as evidenced by the company’s new Poly Tune Mini—essentially a
standard Poly Tune model that’s shrunken
for the space-conscious player.
Micro-Managed
Make no mistake: The Poly Tune Mini is
freaking tiny. Not so tiny that it’s difficult
to see or use, but enough to turn a few
heads when you break it out. It’s a hair
shy of 4" long—noticeably smaller than
the original Poly Tune. Like its big brother,
the Mini offers true bypass switching, but
the switch has a smoother feel—gone is
the clicking sound and feel of the switch
in the first Poly Tune.
The pedal packs in many of the same
features as the bigger model, such as chromatic tuning with 0.5 cent accuracy, five
semi-tone flat tunings, a bright and legible
LED display, and, of course, the famed
polyphonic tuning mode.
In addition to its super-small footprint,
the pedal features the new version of the
Poly Tune software with Capo Tuning and
a massively requested Drop-D mode. As I
write this, the software update hasn’t been
released for users of the larger Poly Tune,
but there’s a chance it might be an active
download when this review goes online.
All of the tuning modes can be accessed
from a small grey button on the top right
side of the pedal.
Tune in Next Time ...
The Poly Tune’s polyphonic tuning modes
were pretty remarkable when the pedal
first hit the scene, but the new Mini steals
some of its thunder with more accurate
software and a noticeably smaller footprint. That said, there are some considerations to take into account if you find
yourself trying to choose between the
Mini and its bigger brother.
Wielding a 2011 Gibson SG Classic,
I purposefully tightened and loosened
the tuning pegs in a random fashion,
engaged the Poly Tune Mini, and hit all
In addition to its super-small footprint,
the pedal features the new version of the
PolyTune software with Capo Tuning and a
massively requested Drop-D mode.
the strings at once to activate its polyphonic mode. The screen readout was
bright and legible with a distinct clarity I
wasn’t expecting from such a tiny screen.
It was really easy to make out each of the
string’s readouts while I was standing up,
and watch how they smoothly moved up
and down as I began to tune the SG to
standard pitch. Compared to my original
Poly Tune, the newest software was even
more accurate. That’s saying a lot—one of
the biggest strengths of the big Poly Tune
is its pitch-perfect tuning ability. With
the new software, however, the accuracy
has improved—not dramatically, but
enough to prevent the “swaying” of the
