New Music Gear Monday: Roadie Automatic Guitar Tuner

Roadie guitar tuner on Bobby Owsinski's Music Production BlogWhether you’re a guitar or bass player or someone that records them, the one thing that you must deal with almost on a minute by minute basis is tuning. With the proliferation of inexpensive clip-on tuners like the Snark, tuning is less of a problem than ever, but there’s still the manual factor involved where one’s interpretation of “in tune” may be different from everyone else’s. As a result, an instrument may be in tune with itself, but out of tune with the band or track. The next step in stringed instrument tuning is here though, with the Roadie automatic guitar tuner.

The Roadie basically combines a clip-on tuner with a string winder. You pluck a string and the device’s vibration sensor determines the frequency, then automatically turns the tuning peg and you’re in tune just that fast. It works on all sorts of stringed instruments and also tunes to 40 alternate or open tunings, and even your own custom tunings, so just about every tuning situation is covered.

There are 3 versions of Roadie. Roadie 1 tunes all guitars and stringed instruments, but requires the accompanying smart phone app to work. Roadie 2 has a built-in display that doesn’t require a smart phone to use (although it can augment the on-board programming). Roadie Bass is identical to Roadie 2 but also has an extra heavy motor for tuning bass guitars, and also works on all electric and acoustic guitars as well. All units can also be used as a string winder, and contain a rechargeable LiPo battery.

The Roadie automatic guitar tuner is already used by some of the world’s best guitar techs and guitar players, as fast precision tuning is a requirement for touring. Roadie 1 sells for $99, Roadie 2 goes for $129, and Roadie Bass for $149.

You can find out more here, or check out the video below. If there ever was a product destined to be part of every guitar player’s or studio’s kit, this is it.

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