TC Electronic ::: Polytune Clip ::: 2015

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Flink_PoydFlink_Poyd Frets: 2490
edited February 2016 in Other Reviews

 The TC Polytune Clip was released with much fanfare last year so I duly jumped on the bandwagon. Price at time of purchase was a quite hefty £35 but the marketing and hype won me over so I handed over the cash to my local PMT and walked out a happy man. Then I opened the box. It was smaller than I thought and to be honest felt a bit cheap and flimsy, clever marketing and photography had me hook line and sinker.


  I ended up emailing TC with the quality concerns as the case wasn't flush and battery cover didn't sit flush either so PMT swapped it for another, same issues so I decided to stick with it. Generally it feels a bit cheap, the 2 side buttons are small but the main On/Off button is easy to find by feel.


Quality concerns aside it's a good little tuner, the clip part is design wise ugly but robust, sadly it's just fold open and closed, no universal 360°swivel type joint which is disappointing but hasn't caused any problems. There is a warning in the manual that the rubber pad on the clip may affect nitro finishes if left on for extended periods The display is nice and bright, colours (red and green) stand out OK in low light and make it clear to read. I don’t gig so it's only been used at home


It has a decent amount of functions, tuning can be done by single string (Chromatic) or strumming all at once (Polyphonic), as well as having a strobe tuner for uber accuracy. I haven't used it for alternate tunings but it does support them.


I'm still a bit miffed that I paid £35 for a clip on tuner that feels cheap but they can sometimes be picked up new for £20-£25 which is a much fairer price. The positives do outweigh the negatives.


Good Points


Light with a bright and easy to read display.


Display automatically flips so makes no difference if you’re right or left handed.


Chromatic, Polyphonic and Strobe tuner (claims +/- 0.02% accuracy) all in one unit.


Guitar and Bass mode


Supports alternate, flat and capo tunings (not tested by me yet)


Free Polytune plug in for DAW (MAC or PC)



Bad Points


Pricey at £35 but can be found cheaper


Build quality a bit suspect


No 360 degree swivel joint


Manual difficult to read so download the PDF version.

Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.....


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Comments

  • Flink_PoydFlink_Poyd Frets: 2490
    edited February 2016
    image
    Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.....


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  • Flink_PoydFlink_Poyd Frets: 2490
    edited February 2016


    This isnt my video but shows the free Polytune plug in you get with it for free


    Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.....


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  • How do you do the bass mode? I could do with figuring that out! I certainly wouldn't gig with mine on ( usually tele style headstock) for fear of it going flying, although as a guitar tuner it seems pretty good. Anyway, nice review. :)
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • Flink_PoydFlink_Poyd Frets: 2490
    edited February 2016
    How do you do the bass mode? I could do with figuring that out! I certainly wouldn't gig with mine on ( usually tele style headstock) for fear of it going flying, although as a guitar tuner it seems pretty good. Anyway, nice review. :)
    This is from the PDF manual which can be found here


    Setting instrument type
    (guitar or bass)

    "By default, PolyTune Clip is set up for tuning guitars. To tune a bass, press and hold the Display Mode Button for more than 5 seconds. The sec- ondary display will display “B”.

    To return to Guitar Tuning Mode, press and hold the Display Mode Button for more than three seconds again. The Secondary Display will dis- play “G”.

    The selected instrument type will be stored and preserved even when you change the battery. "

    The display button is the one on the side closest to the hinge


    Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.....


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  • That worked! I had tuned my bass in the chromatic mode and it does it but takes a while to settle. I'm not a big manual reader!
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • That worked! I had tuned my bass in the chromatic mode and it does it but takes a while to settle. I'm not a big manual reader!
    Me neither. Although after getting the manual out of the box I remember why, its just a folded up sheet with tiny writing. The PDF is much easier to read
    Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.....


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