Magnetic PolyTune

[pit lenz]

Since there is a vivid discussion going about tuners, their battery life and durability going, allow me to show a solution I came up with.

I am a long time user of Peterson floor tuners for Pedal Steel, but not a fan of the mechanics of the Clip they built later.
I was quite thrilled when tc released the PolyClip, small sturdy and accurate.
The only thing that I liked more with the even smaller PlanetWaves tuners was their (almost) invisible form factor. But I found them hard to read in plain sunlight: That, besides the strobe mode, was the reason I got the tc.

Yes, you can't bend or tilt them in any direction, so I decided to ditch the (excellent) clip and attatch the tc to the mando's tuners by two neodym magnets I salvaged from a magnetic name tag.

It is readable in an perfect angle


and can simply be flipped over flat to store the mandolin in the case.


How-To:
The clip can easily be removed by opening the screw at the side. I then took out the two plastic parts inside the clip`s scroll and re-attatched them (just without the metal clip) to give a base to glue on the lower magnet. In another version I took the effort to shape and drill a wooden part to perfectly fill the gap but this works just the same.

The magnets have to be attached with the right spacing to meet the tuners.


When I first put it together, I thought I broke the tc by having opened it out of curiosity. But then I discovered that the magnets interfered with the tuner's electronics, so I re-opened it (easy, two little screws,) and glued in a copper coin to shield the pcb from the magnetic field. Not pictured, I then put a piece of tape on the coin to prevent any electrical shorting by the coin.


There you have it:
the magnets (strong little buggers) hold the tc in place securely,
it is COMPLETELY invisible from the front,
won`t damage your headstock,
it "locks on" just as good
and the reading angle is perfect...

[MediumMando5722]

Very cool!

[Explorer]

When I first put it together, I thought I broke the tc by having opened it out of curiosity. But then I discovered that the magnets interfered with the tuner's electronics, so I re-opened it (easy, two little screws,) and glued in a copper coin to shield the pcb from the magnetic field. Not pictured, I then put a piece of tape on the coin to prevent any electrical shorting by the coin.

Just to note, the 2-cent European coin shown is actually copper-covered steel. Coper won't interact with such a comparatively weak magnetic field as the pictured magnets, but it's possible the steel is doing so. A steel washer from the hardware store, not of the non-magnetic stainless variety, might do as well for those outside of the EU.

[pit lenz]

You're right about the steel coin, thanks for the detail.
The 2cent coin was just around and the cheapest quick investment to do the job...

[Ray(T)]

I was thinking of going back to my old tuning fork but you can't get the batteries nowadays.