

Other LED tuners have a ‘strobe mode’ that emulates the appearance of a strobe. Other companies, such as Sonic Research, TC Electronic, and Planet Waves, sell highly accurate LED-based true strobe tuners. The best known brand in strobe tuner technology is Peterson Tuners who in 1967 marketed their first strobe tuner, the Model 400. Anyone who had to move this tuner around was less inclined to like it because of its size and weight: two record-player-sized cases of 30-40 pounds each. Wind instrument repair people liked this tuner because it needed no adjustment to show different notes. (The other discs were all gear-driven off of this one.) Incoming audio was amplified to feed a long neon tube common to all 12 discs. When set at A 4 = 440 Hz the tuning fork produced a 55 Hz signal, which drove the four-pole 1650 RPM synchronous motor to which the A disc was mounted. These weights permitted setting it to different reference frequencies (such as A 4 = 435 Hz), although over a relatively narrow range, perhaps a whole tone. The fork had sliding weights, an adjustment knob, and a dial to show the position of the weights.

This tuner had an electrically driven temperature-compensated tuning fork the electrical output of this fork was amplified to run the motor. The gearing between discs was a very close approximation to the 12th root of two ratio. They had 12 strobe discs, driven by one motor. However, these strobes are now mainly collector pieces. The first strobe tuner dates back to 1936 and was originally made by the Conn company it was called the Stroboconn and was produced for approximately 40 years. The strobe tuner detects the pitch either from a TRS input jack or a built-in or external microphone connected to the tuner. The accuracy of the tuner is only limited by the internal frequency generator. Even the slightest difference between the two shows up as a rotating motion in the strobe display. A strobe tuner shows the difference between a reference frequency and the musical note being played. There are three types of strobe tuners: the mechanical rotating disk strobe tuner, an LED array strobe in place of the rotating disk, and “virtual strobe” tuners with LCDs or ones that work on personal computers.

Strobe tuners (the popular term for stroboscopic tuners) are the most accurate type of tuner.
