TronicalTune (Tronical Componants GmbH)

I got an email from Tronical Components GmbH (noted similarity to Kemper GmbH, so it's a German company, what does GmbH stand for?)

Anyhow, it was a birthday gift from my brother. Anyone hear of it? I was thinking of seeing of one of the templates fits my Taylor 510.
Having alternate tunings at the touch of a button or close enough to start sounds kind of cool.

Anyhow, as soon as I match up the holes I'll order it and tell you guys what I think:

http://store.tronical-components.eu

I just ordered one for my Taylor 510. Figured I'd use alternate tunings on that more than anything else. Came to $378 ($30 shipping)

So my question is: Is there any Custom's charge for a US delivery? If so, how do they do this? (Germany -> USA)

I assume it's transferred at some point via Air to a US carrier, UPS or FedEx or USPS.

Is there a custom's charge and how do they take it?

If so, I'm usually NOT home, so that presents a receiving issue unless they can re-direct it to my workplace.

Thanks!

Arrived straight from Germany, price on the website, done.

Install was easy. Very easy. You DO need to just read and be aware of the direction of putting the unit on, how the battery goes in, that the tuners don't turn all in the same direction, never turn the tuners while it's auto-tuning, and that stringing goes on in a certain order (all visuals in the guide so you can see immediately how to do it: good instructions)

The tuner works quickly. If it's already pretty tuned, retuning takes less than 5 seconds. Turning a total change, Standard -> Open D takes about 15-20 seconds. It gets about 3-4 strings on 1-3 strums and you individually strum the others one at a time while muting the rest of the strings. You can see what's tuned and not by the color (Green vs Red)

I've never been able to tune so fast going from Standard, Open D, Open G, etc.

They recently (past week) came out with a "Plus" version for another $100 that is faster and had a wider frequency range that can do lower tuning much better. When I did down to C# (Sabbath, 3 half steps down) it sometimes had trouble with the little e string. But eventually got it. One time it tuned in 15-20s. Another took about 1/2 a minute. PLUS probably can do this w/o a problem.

Is it worth it? Well, for acoustic and folkies, I can see it being very worth it. For electric, only if you have one guitar and need to change tunings a few times w/o a capo.

Anyhow, for me, a really cool Birthday gift. Something I might not have bought for myself, but have found cool and very useful.

In the end, if NOT playing a song because re-tuning is a be-otch, then this thing gets you playing the songs in different keys w/o letting laziness get in the way.

Anti-Sloth Technology!

I was playing around with this and yes, the low E is often sharp, but the rest are ok. Good point. It's not really noticeable most times, but if you re-tune after just tuning them, it gets sharper.

*UPDATE*

Well, something had a problem. The "A" tuner is cycling back and forth a semi-tone. I suspect it's just this mechanical tuner. The system has 6 mechanical gears that attach to a plate of plastic & electronics which has a battery. Started with Open E, then eventually went to Standard tuning, same tuner. It goes E, A, D etc so since it gets stuck on the A it won't progress.

I've sent a few notices to the company so far with no word back, but I'll give it a few more business days.

I've used the tuner about 30 times, since I most often play electric, and it was certainly very cool while it works. When it's not working, it's gear ration makes tuning about twice as many turns manually.

That's all, just thought I'd report on their quality control. Will get back to their customer service when contacted.