« Mediocre but Reliable. »

The Boss TU-2 is a workhorse of a tuner. It’s no wonder it’s the most widely used touring pedal tuner in the world. While it’s not my favorite tuner, I understand why so many people use it. This thing is built like a tank. Metal input jacks, a metal housing, hefty switch, and a durable screen makes this, like most Boss pedals, nearly indestructible. Accounts of these pedals having reliability issues are very rare. I used mine for several years of gigging before upgrading to a Korg Pitchblack. The Korg beats the Boss out in my book because of the stream and speed of the reading along with being easier to read and being true bypass. The Boss TU-2 has a buffered bypass circuit, but I have never noticed a large loss in tone when using it. Eleven small LED show how far the guitar is out of tune by the speed and direction of the lights. Right of center is sharp and left of center is flat, using the standard set up. Streaming meter display is also an available option, though I stick with the regular style. A larger seven segment LED displays the note names and is fairly easy to read from far away. The tuning mode and display choice is stored in the memory when powered off, so you don’t have to reset that every time you decide to power on the pedal. Tuning modes include chromatic, guitar regular, guitar flat and double flat, bass regular, and bass flat and double flat. The calibration of the pedal is able to be set from 438Hz to 445Hz and the pedal offers the option to power other pedals off of it’s power via a daisy chain plugged into the top of the pedal. The TU-2 can be powered off a 9 volt battery or a power adapter. The pedal is average Boss size and does not take up a lot of room on a pedalboard. Overall this pedal is built to handle the road and works very well, but is just slightly topped by the Korg Pitchblack which is in the same price range and has better features and usability.