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Min-ETune / G-Force tuners: any disadvantages?


papaschtroumpf

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Gibson is now making those standard. Old dogs, new tricks, "I don't need them" issues apart, has anyone used them?

I'm trying to keep an open mind, and as someone that has wished I had more guitars rather than switch between tunings on my one guitar, are there disadvantages to having them?

It's one more thing to break for sure, but what else? It looks like you can still tune manually if you prefer or if your battery goes dead,

From an Anderton Music review on youTube of the Min-Etune, it looks like it has a very high gear ratio, at least on the video it looks like the tuning machine is turned more turns than maybe would happen in a normal tuner, but maybe they just had it way out of tune to start with.

The review claims it doesn't affect the neck balance, which would have been my #1 concern.

 

With Gibson putting so many requirements on retailers to be an authorized Gibson dealer, I no longer have a Gibson dealer around, so it's not like I can go out and try them at the store.

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I thought you were referring to the new type. I've played Gibsons with the Etune device and they tuned fine and played fine. I think purists will put them down regardless. It's going to the market that determines whether putting them on a lot of models will be good or bad. I personally don't like the new logo, but that doesn't affect playability.

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I've reviewed a couple of Min-ETune equipped Gibsons, and while I was skeptical at first, I've really come to appreciate the system. Going to an alternate tuning is quick and painless, and it really is faster at tuning than manual tuning is. You can even tune completely silently while concentrating on talking to the audience, not on staring down at your pedalboard. About the only downside is that it relies on a battery, and the tuners feel a bit "gritty" if you have to tune manually (and the ratio is super-high, so manual tuning takes a lot of turns), but the battery lasts a long time - 100 tunings or so - just remember to recharge it once a week and you should be fine.

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Thanks Phil' date=' just the kind of hands on feedback I was hoping to get. I'llnalao check out the mylespaul site.[/quote']

 

Happy to help. :) I should have given you a link to the review where I concentrated on Min-ETune - here it is:

 

http://www.harmonycentral.com/expert-reviews/tronicaltune--gibson-min-etune

 

If you have any questions about anything, I'll be happy to do my best to answer them. I do have one Min-ETune equipped guitar, and have plans on buying at least one more set for one of my other guitars.

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I got one of these guys early cus my brother in law works and Gibson and I took his since my main guitar was in the shop lol I've never really used the G-Force before or I guess the Min-Etune and i'm pretty hooked. To answer the questions if your battery is dead or you simply turn it off its just a normal guitar which is kinda cool i think that it doesn't mess up the gears or anything. It weighs nothing which idk how that did that but I feel no difference compared to a normal Paul or SG the balance is the same. I play in a cover band and we have 6 tunings so i'm trying to talk him to letting me keeping it or snagging me one lol but yea its fantastic!

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I have a lefty Studio with Min-Etune ( yes they make a lefty) One of the tuners stripped the first time I changed the strings. Gibson overnighted a new one and it was easy to replace. I am very happy with it. It lasts a long time between chargings. I play an hour or two 5 days a week and I have only had to charge it three times since I got it 7 months ago. Actually, I have never needed to charge it because it ran out of power. I just did it because it seemed like it would be better than to have it drain during a performance.

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  • 5 weeks later...
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I've been lucky enough to get my hands on the GFORCE and i have to say that it is a GREAT piece of technology. i play and practice in multiple tunings, so it has always been a struggle to find the balance between buying many guitars, hauling all of them around, paying for setups, learning to setup the guitar or just learning to live with 1 tuning. the new GFORCE takes care of all that. now, one guitar is able to do the job of MANY. i really like being able to jump back and forth between standard, drop D, drop C, standard D, drop C#. there are also open-tuning settings that ive never been able to explore before i had a GFORCE. the battery doesnt take long to charge.

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I agree with @Drop D Dave. I personally play a lot of heavy music from punk to metal. Modern music calls for a variety of drop tunings, so I was hooked when I got to try a G-force. It's such a convenience to be able to jump from tuning to tuning in the blink of an eye. This device also gives the ability to the player to preform in different tunings live, but with only one guitar. Tuning use to be a pain, but G-force fixed that as well. The tune up mode winds up the strings for you and tunes it when it's close to the right tension. I have yet to run into a problem with mine.

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I agree with @Drop D Dave. I personally play a lot of heavy music from punk to metal. Modern music calls for a variety of drop tunings' date=' so I was hooked when I got to try a G-force. It's such a convenience to be able to jump from tuning to tuning in the blink of an eye. This device also gives the ability to the player to preform in different tunings live, but with only one guitar. Tuning use to be a pain, but G-force fixed that as well. The tune up mode winds up the strings for you and tunes it when it's close to the right tension. I have yet to run into a problem with mine.[/quote']

Of course you do, you're probably the same person, working for Gibson. Funny how the 3 posts which aggressively defend this apparatus all have less than 3 posts. C'mon.

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  • 1 month later...
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Well I have one and the system weighs a little LESS than the Grover locking tuners so I was really into that cus it helped with the balance. As far as function it was super easy to learn and works fantastic. I've seen a lot of people having issues but its just them not knowing how to use it. its like a tool for example someone who's never seen a strobe tuner may do more harm than good when trying to tune.

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  • 4 months later...
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I'm interested in trying this out.

 

 

 

A friend has tried it and said it's "not for him" and is willing to sell the system very cheap.

 

 

 

but...i don't have a gibson guitar. I'm actually wondering if it would work on an acoustic? Specifically for an Ibanez J-200. Thoughts?

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I'm interested in trying this out.

 

 

 

A friend has tried it and said it's "not for him" and is willing to sell the system very cheap.

 

 

 

but...i don't have a gibson guitar. I'm actually wondering if it would work on an acoustic? Specifically for an Ibanez J-200. Thoughts?

 

Yes, you can use the Tronical / Gibson MinETune / GForce tuners with an acoustic, but I doubt what he has will fit your guitar. There are different models made to fit different sized headstocks. Unless the spacing and layout of the tuners is exactly the same, his unit won't fit on your guitar.

 

Tronical has specs for all the various guitars that their models work with, as well as accurate headstock layout templates in the download section of their website. You can have a look at those and see if the unit he has will work or not, but again, I doubt they will.

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Of course you do, you're probably the same person, working for Gibson. Funny how the 3 posts which aggressively defend this apparatus all have less than 3 posts. C'mon.

 

Have you tried them? :) While I understand - and once shared - your skepticism, I've owned a Min-ETune equipped guitar for over a year, and while the tuners aren't perfect, I generally like them a great deal.

 

I have not tried them personally yet, but I hear the G Force tuners are supposed to be even better, with updated hardware and software that gives them new features and makes them even faster than Min-ETune.

 

Here's a review I wrote last year about Min-ETune if you'd like to check it out.

 

http://www.harmonycentral.com/expert-reviews/tronicaltune--gibson-min-etune

 

 

 

 

 

PS For the record, I wrote this review (and I bought the review unit, FWIW) well before Gibson had anything whatsoever to do with this site... :wave:

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I like that you can program your own unconventional tunings into it and I also like the idea of being able to "freshen up" the tuning after a hard played live piece without having to work out which string has gone off.

When the pocket book allows I will get a Tronical and probably spend a day just watching it work with autistic fascination :)

 

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