Hello there, and welcome back to yet another cool gear review for you! This time, we will examine, in my opinion, the most accurate clip-on tuners ever, the Peterson StroboClip HD. If you play any instrument, it’s almost 100% guaranteed that you have been using a tuner since you started. There is nothing worse than playing an instrument that is completely out of tune. It not only hurts listeners’ ears but also completely misguides and misleads your ears while you practice your instrument. Almost all instrument players need to tune up. For sure, there are exceptional situations in which an instrument player (such as an acoustic piano player) may not be able to tune their instruments themselves. But in most cases, you definitely need a tuner! With the advancements in software, now we have tremendous amounts of accurate, affordable tuners that come in software (as a plugin or a standalone software) or hardware formats.
Table of Contents
Software plugin tuners work really well; however, you always need to connect your instrument to your external audio interface (if you have one) or use the built-in microphone on your computer to tune up. Even though this is an affordable way to tune up your instruments, it’s not always the most accurate way. On top of that, it’s not easy to transport this tuning system with you everywhere you go. For these reasons, musicians need to purchase tuners that come in portable and hardware tuners that they can carry around. If you play an electric instrument, such as an electric guitar, bass or acoustic guitar with an onboard preamp, you can actually consider buying tuners that come in guitar pedal formats. This may be handy for most players as they can easily add these pedal tuners to their pedalboards. However, some instruments don’t feature an output jack, so you simply need to attach a clip-on microphone, get a tuner that has a built-in microphone, or simply get a clip-on tuner. Personally, I have been using software guitar tuners for a long time. There are freeware and paid options such as GTune (freeware), Aurora DSP Tuna (Freeware), TC Electronic Polytune (Paid), or Peterson StroboSoft (Paid). 
But I don’t find these products as practical as pedal tuners or clip-on tuners. Back in the day, I was also using a Boss TU-2 (now replaced by the TU-3 series), and I actually really liked the practicality of these, as my guitar would always go through this tuner, and I could immediately start tuning up my guitar without even worrying about turning the unit on. On the other hand, my experience with clip-on tuners was not so nice. So far, I always gone for more affordable, entry-level clip-on tuners and I always found it difficult to tune. The reason for that was simply that these clip-on tuners were not so responsive, and I would spend a lot of time waiting for the tuner to understand which string I was about to tune up.
Having said that, after having researched this topic for some time, I discovered that there are also many competitive clip-on tuners by industry-leading brands such as TC Electronic, D’addario and the subject of this article, Peterson! Having used and sold (when I was in the musical instrument business) TC Electronic and D’addario, as well as entry-level Thomann clip-on tuners, I could easily go for the TC Electronic Polytune, as I liked it the best out of the other options. I decided to wait for a bit longer and just also went through user reviews of the Peterson StroboClip HD clip-on tuner. 
I was actually already aware of the Peterson brand as I saw their strobe tuners in some of the instructional guitar videos, such as Paul Gilbert’s Terrifying Guitar Trip video. Back in the day, I would never have been able to see someone around me using a Peterson tuner, but it kinda stuck with me that the Peterson was the ultimate tuner brand.
About Peterson
Peterson Tuners was founded by Richard H. Peterson in 1948. In the beginning, it mainly focused on general audio and electronic engineering since the tuner market was pretty limited, as most tuners were very simple, primitive analogue devices. Musicians and technicians struggled to precisely tune instruments, especially in professional environments where tuning accuracy was critical. Peterson identified the challenge and started working towards this ambition to create the most accurate tuners on the planet! He started experimenting with strobe technology, which would become the cornerstone of the Peterson brand. Even though he has been able to advance this technology to what we know the Peterson Tuners are for, he has already laid the groundwork for the company’s future as the ultimate leader in tuning technology. In 1967, Peterson introduced the Model 400, which was a revolutionary strobe tuner, one of its kind in the industry. Unlike traditional needle or LED tuners, the Model 400 used a spinning disk illuminated by strobe lights. These strobe lights created a unique effect where musicians could see the pitch, whether it was sharp, flat or perfectly in tune, by monitoring the motion of the pattern on the disk. 
While the music industry and technology evolved, Peterson’s tuners also advanced continuously. The company introduced various tuners targeting specific instruments, such as pianos and pipe organs or targeting specific use cases, such as for orchestra use, and large concert halls, which resulted in the company gaining a huge reputation in the music industry. Peterson Tuners also started incorporating advanced electronics into their tuners. With the introduction of solid-state components, Peterson Tuners became more durable, reliable and consistent. These improvements further solidified Peterson’s niche in the high-end, professional-graded tuning devices in the music industry. Around the 1990s, Peterson Tuners also began investing some resources in the digital domain. The Virtual Strobe series, such as VS-1 and VS-2, successfully brought strobe accuracy to a portable digital format, combining the digital display and high-precision strobe technology. These digital strobe tuners maintained extreme precision and real-time display, which had already become the industry standard, but managed to transfer into a smaller, portable format, allowing musicians to carry them virtually anywhere they liked.
The digital domain also enabled Peterson to expand the tuning capabilities, such as utilising different tuning systems, scales and custom tuning approaches aimed at different instruments in the same unit. Peterson also successfully translated the same accuracy into their StroSoft software for computers, allowing musicians and technicians to perform ultra-precise tuning at home and in studios without the need for a physical Peterson tuner. Since the 2010s to this day, Peterson Tuners has never stopped innovating and kept releasing StroboClip HD and StroboPlus HD, which target different needs and instruments from guitars and ukuleles to brass, wind instruments and even folk instruments. These recent developments have also given us one of the most popular products by the company, StroboStomp, which is the signature Peterson tuning algorithm in a guitar pedal format. The company also developed apps for smartphones and tablets to bring the most precise tuning algorithm to modern devices. 
Peterson StroboClip HD
You may also be wondering about the Strobe Tuners. To be honest, before I got myself a Peterson StroboClip HD, I never used a strobe tuner before, and I was kinda hesitant to get one. But in fact, it’s just a way more accurate approach for tuning instruments. Strobe tuners are simply tuning devices or algorithms that use a strobe light to tune musical instruments. They work by using a high-speed strobe light to display the frequency of a given note. Basically, the light is shown as a concentric circle series. While you are tuning your instrument, you will be watching the spin of that strobe light.
When a given note is perfectly in tune, the light will not spin and stay still. If the note is sharp or flat, the light will spin in either direction, indicating that the note is not in tune. So the faster this spin moves, the more out of tune or further away that note is from the pitch centre. Strobo tuners are notorious for their accuracy as they allow users to precisely measure the frequency of a note. When you first get a strobe tuner, you may find it difficult to adapt to this better approach to tuning a note. But after a while, I guarantee that you will fall in love with it and never look back. So no more flashing lights or indicators jumping left or right that give you a headache while tuning your instrument! If you want to find out about Peterson StrobeClip HD, please check out their official video down below!
Before I provide you with my brief review and experience with Peterson StroboClip HD, I also would like to share a tech specs table below. 
Tech Specs
| Peterson StroboClip HD | Tech Specs |
|---|---|
| Tuning Type | True strobe |
| Accuracy | 0.1 Cent |
| Instruments | Works on every instrument |
| Unique Features | Compatible with Buzz Feiten Tuning |
| Display | HD display with backlight |
| Visible in direct sunlight | |
| Calibration | From 390 Hz up to 490 Hz |
| Custom tunings | Over 50 sweetened tunings |
| Alternative tunings | Drop Tuning and Capo Settings |
| Battery | Includes battery, CR2032 |
| Made in | China |
Review
At first glance, Peterson StroboClip HD looks like just another clip-on tuner. However, the experience and the options you get out of this tiny product are what stand out from the competition. I think there’s no better clip-on tuner that offers so many options and the smoothest experience. It comes in a neat box with the included single-page manual and a CR2032 battery, which is really cool. You may also notice that it has a USB input, which you can use to customise your sweetened tunings and also upgrade the firmware.
It doesn’t come with a USB cable, but this requires only a standard USB cable that you can find anywhere. I have one USB cable that fits in almost any electronic device, so I actually used it for firmware upgrades. My first impression was that the experience was one of the smoothest. As I mentioned, I kinda got lost with the strobe tuning approach, but I immediately liked it. Peterson StroboClip HD is extremely responsive and accurate down to 0.1 cents! As it is stated in the introduction video, you may find it difficult to adjust the strobes so precisely that they don’t move at all. This is exactly what I experience with this tuner; it’s not easy to tune up to this precision at first. But then I got used to it, and now I can really adjust it quickly.
It immediately recognises the strings and the pitches. I must say I have never experienced such responsiveness out of any clip-on tuners. One of the most impressive experiences was upgrading the firmware.
I immediately checked their website and found out that you simply need to connect your Peterson tuner to your computer via USB and then go to the Peterson Connect page. It immediately recognises your tuner via the browser. Yes, you heard that correctly! It upgrades the firmware via your browser in a matter of seconds! Really cool!
The one thing I need to mention in order to keep everything transparent for you is that I had to tighten the screw that holds the tuner in position. Out of the box, it came out a bit loose, and it caused some ringing noise while tuning. But after quick tightening, it became very firm and now doesn’t cause any ringing noise. In terms of pricing, as I mentioned, it’s not the cheapest clip-on tuner around. It’s definitely pricey! But you should understand that you are getting the Peterson strobe tuning algorithm in a very compact package and actually paying for the accuracy and the smoothest experience ever! 
In my opinion, I can justify this high cost. But for sure, you need to make your own judgment. If you are planning to buy a pedal format tuner, I highly suggest you check out their stompbox tuners as well. I think they are also not the cheapest, but it’s definitely worth it! Overall, I highly recommend that anyone consider purchasing a Peterson StroboClip HD tuner. You will not regret it, I promise! I actually liked my clip-on strobe tuner so much that I wanted to invest in another Peterson tuner, this time in a pedal format! I got myself the limited edition StroboStomp pedal, and I haven’t used anything else since then. It’s always there for me, ready to tune my guitars! It also features an additional power outlet, which I use to power up my CAE Wah pedal, saving me a single slot from my Cioks DC7 power supply!
Check out my Peterson StroboStomp review here
Pricing & Availability
As almost always, I got mine from Thomann. However, not so long after, StroboClip HD got a huge price drop, and the company released a newer version, this time featuring a built-in, rechargable batter. This model, StroboClip HDC (C for chargable, I guess), is naturally priced a lot higher than the original one. But I think it’s a good investment, especially if you don’t want to deal with buying batteries all the time. Also, note that the original StroboClip HD is no longer available on Thomann. Not sure if they will ever come back to stocks!
Check out Peterson StroboClip HDC on Thomann‘s website
You can also try searching for the Peterson Tuners, and you might come across some used ones. Also, some sellers still list brand new StroboClip HD, as well as the HDC version.
Check out Peterson StroboClip tuners on Reverb
I hope you enjoy this article and find it insightful! Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
