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First Time Gibson Owner - Problems With Min-Etune


Craig Mackay

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Hi everyone,

 

I'm new to this board having just bought my first ever Gibson. A 2013 SG Standard with min-Etune. Love the guitar but I seem to be having problems with min-Etune and wanted to ask if anyone else has the same trouble. It always tunes the guitar slightly sharper than it should in every tuning. The strings are all in tune relative to each other so it works for casual playing but I couldn't rely on it for studio or live use.

 

Does anyone know how to calibrate min-Etune? Page eight of the manual says to refer to page 28 to see how to calibrate it but there is no page 28 on the manual. #-o

 

Currently, I have set up a couple of custom tunings in the custom bank but it means I'll only have a potential 6 tunings to choose from (probably enough for my uses anyway) rather than 18.

 

Thanks for reading and any help!

Craig

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Hi

 

My tuner or the min e-tune?

440 is the only mode available on my tuner and I can't see anywhere in the min-etune manual to say that it can be changed. So, I'm assuming it can't be changed.

 

OK, fair enough. Now are you getting sharp notes with the strings open? or just when playing fretted notes?

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Still the factory strings. I don't know how to re-calibrate it. If I knew how to it would make my day! Page 8 of the manual says "For retuning, strum ALL strings in the manner you did in calibration mode (page 28)" but there isn't a page 28 or any other reference to calibration. If anyone could tell me how to do it I would be most grateful.

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Thank you so much vexorgtr! I will give that a shot tomorrow :-)

 

No worries. I like heavy strings on an electric guitar...... I use what most would call a Medium or '11' set. My robotic guitars do well with those.

 

The differences between the pre-min e tune gibsons and the minetunes is.......... The Original Robot, Darkfire, Etc. all "listen" to the strings at the bridge. They have individual piezo's in the saddles of the bridge. It is REALLY accurate.

 

Min-Etune has a disadvantage... since it's 100% in the headstock, it listens for pitch in the same style as a clip-on headstock tuner. It gives it a disadvantage in discerning all the different notes at once. Fatter strings would actually help it out a bit... since they create a stronger vibration throughout the guitar.

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Cool, I actually have a set of 11's here that I am planning to put on as the 10's that came with it feel more like 9's. I'm used to playing guitars with a longer scale length which I'm assuming has something to do with it. Hopefully it will help. First time using any kind of robotic tuner for me. The technology amazes me!

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Seems to be limiting to have to use a certain gauge of strings, no? Neat technology so don't get me wrong but it does seem curious to me.

 

Hello

 

The MinETune held up my purchase for several months while I waited (amongst many things)to actually get my hands on one....then within minutes of trying it I bought a guitar without one anyway ha!

 

Consider the space inside the machine heads, how amazingly strong those tiny little gear wheels are and how much force is applied to each one during tuning by the 6ft lever that is your average guitarist . Then imagine that you've removed 50% of the gear wheels mass (and so its strength maybe?) and replaced the 6ft of muscle with a pretty week little motor. Then add some extra tensile/lateral forces on the machine head/motor combo by switching from say 10s to 11s.

 

Alternatively, look at the increase in force YOU have to apply to get a full step pitch bend using 11s when you've played 9s for years.

 

My guess is that they reckon heavy gauge strings would just put too much strain on the mechanics and I'd wager they're probably right.

 

 

Regards

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Fix is to recalibrate, and also to make sure you follow the string attachment guide.

Also intonation is critical for the accuracy of tuners. I checked mine and the intonation was off by quite a bit, did intonation and found that tuning became more accurate.
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  • 9 months later...

Hi,

I might be chiming in too late, but I just bought Epiphone Classic T with Min Etune, and am debating whether or not to keep it.

 

Very nice guitar, well made with good action and sound. Min Etune is fascinating technology - fun to watch and use, however, consistent accuracy is a problem. Two passes at same tuning usually gives two slightly different results. The problem is usually 1 ,2, or 3 strings are sharp, usually within 3 cents, but sometimes as much as 8 cents. The accuracy setting doesn't seem to make any difference in accuracy- it just takes longer. The 3 cents makes a huge difference in chords, and requires manual tweaking.

 

Another gripe is single string mode. It seems that the tuning accuracy is better in single string mode,and I would like to use single string mode to correct a couple of out-of-tune strings from multiple string mode, but you have to go thru low to high string IN order- cant just pick the problem string. This can make previously in tune strings go out of tune, plus it takes longer than I would like.

 

I also worry about eventual breakdown with this delicate mechanism.

I think the claim of +/- 1 cent is just plain wrong.

 

Any other experiences with the accuracy of this system?

Thanks.

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  • 5 years later...

HI All,

I am having the same issue where my low E and A strings are tuning sharp.  The E string in particular is almost a half a note sharp.  I cannot for the life of me find any instructions on how to calibrate this thing and the link given above seems to longer work with a 404 error being shown.  I found a YouTube video on how to calibrate the newer Gibson G-Force model but not the Min-e-tune model which I have and those instructions don't seem to work on this model.

What is really frustrating is that the Tronical website is very unhelpful and getting contact info for them is also impossible.  Seems that you can no longer register an account on their website which is very strange and also slightly concerning.  I wonder if they will be around much longer.

Any help would be great before I rip out what little hair I have left and throw this thing away.

Nick

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