BFTS Tuners Recommended in 2022?

[Carl]

I am planning to order a BFTS-enabled tuner for my new Guardian Angel. Reading the various forum posts as well as instructions on the official TAG website, it looks like Korg DT-7 is no longer manufactured, and most of the instructions are written around the ST-300 tuners. I believe the ST-300s are getting a little long in the tooth (released in 2015), and I see some people struggling to get through the initial offset programming for BFTS.

Question 1: Is the ST-300s are still the best/recommended option in 2022, or is there something newer & easier that comes pre-loaded with the BFTS offsets?

Question 2: If I choose something with pre-loaded BFTS offsets, will they be slightly different than the ideal offsets that Tom and the TAG crew worked out for use with TAG guitars? ...and if so, will it be a meaningful difference?

thanks in advance for any help!

--Carl
(in Thousand Oaks)

[tom]

We have not found anything more accurate or faster than the St-200,300. they do come preprogrammed with the open offsets in the cust 1 setting.

[Carl]

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll take another look at the ST-300.

[Carl]

I just ordered a brand new ST-300. Hopefully, I will have it in a week or two :-)

I was really tempted to get the ST-300 Mini, but my fear is that without a battery, I would be too lazy to use it. It's easier to grab a clip-on tuner than it is to find and plug in a power supply AND guitar cable, so the larger form factor wins for me.

[Carl]

We have not found anything more accurate or faster than the St-200,300. they do come preprogrammed with the open offsets in the cust 1 setting.

I received my ST-300 3 days after ordering :-) So far I am loving it. You're right, the tuner is FAST. At first, I wasn't sure why that was even important, but now that I am following your advice of tuning to the attack, I get it. This is the first guitar I have had with BFTS, and I will say that my D chords never sounded so in tune . It's tempting to dwell on the intro to "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty for way too long.

Regarding the programming, mine did *not* come pre-programmed. Looking at the owner's manual that came with the tuner, that seems to be the norm. CST1 has all offsets set to 0.0, and CST2 has drop-D tuning (also with all offsets at 0.0). There is a method described in the owner's manual to reset the tuner with tempered tunings, but that loads a different set of offsets meant for use with the true temperment necks.

No worries, however, as the ST-300 USB programming was very easy using the ST-300 Editor program from Sonic Research. I found this to be way easier than the long sequence of button presses, although the utility only works on a Windows PC. The Editor lets you download the current settings from the tuner so that you can see everything it has loaded, make edits, then upload back to the tuner. For anyone that wants to load the TAG-recommended BFTS offsets, you can paste the text below into the ST-300 Editor and upload it to the tuner with one click.

-----SETTINGS-----

A4Default: 440.0000
Transpose: 0

GUIT: OpenTuning
BASS: OpenTuning
CST1: OpenTuning
CST2: OpenTuning
CST3: OpenTuning

PASSTHROUGH_MODE: 0
STAY_ON: 0

--------end--------


--------OpenTuning--------

Mode: GUIT
Name: Guitar 
A4: default
Transpose: default

1:  E4    +0.0
2:  B3    +0.0
3:  G3    +0.0
4:  D3    +0.0
5:  A2    +0.0
6:  E2    +0.0

--------end--------


--------OpenTuning--------

Mode: BASS
Name: BASS-5 
A4: default
Transpose: default

1:  G2    +0.0
2:  D2    +0.0
3:  A1    +0.0
4:  E1    +0.0
5:  B0    +0.0

--------end--------


--------OpenTuning--------

Mode: CST1
Name: TAG-Open
A4: default
Transpose: default

1:  E4    +0.0
2:  B3    +1.0
3:  G3    -2.0
4:  D3    -2.0
5:  A2    -2.0
6:  E2    -2.0
7:  D1    -4.0

--------end--------


--------OpenTuning--------

Mode: CST2
Name: TAG-12th 
A4: default
Transpose: default

1:  E5    +0.0
2:  B4    +0.0
3:  G4    +1.0
4:  D4    +1.0
5:  A3    +0.0
6:  D3    +0.0

--------end--------


--------OpenTuning--------

Mode: CST3
Name: TT For1
A4: default
Transpose: default

1:  E4    -1.0
2:  B3    -1.0
3:  G3    +4.0
4:  D3    +2.0
5:  A2    +0.0
6:  E2    -2.0

--------end--------


--------Temperament--------

Mode: GUIT
Name: JUST INTONATION
A4: default
Transpose: default

C:   +15.6
C#:  -13.7
D:   +19.5
D#:  +31.2
E:    +1.9
F:   +13.6
F#:   +5.8
G:   +17.6
G#:  -11.8
A:    +0.0
A#:  +33.2
B:    +3.9

--------end--------


--------Temperament--------

Mode: BASS
Name: EQUAL
A4: default
Transpose: default

C:    +0.0
C#:   +0.0
D:    +0.0
D#:   +0.0
E:    +0.0
F:    +0.0
F#:   +0.0
G:    +0.0
G#:   +0.0
A:    +0.0
A#:   +0.0
B:    +0.0

--------end--------


--------Temperament--------

Mode: CST1
Name: Thidell
A4: default
Transpose: default

C:    +2.0
C#:   -4.0
D:    +2.0
D#:   -4.0
E:    -2.0
F:    +0.0
F#:   -4.0
G:    +4.0
G#:   -4.0
A:    +0.0
A#:   -4.0
B:    -1.0

--------end--------


--------Temperament--------

Mode: CST2
Name: D.W.G.
A4: default
Transpose: default

C:    +5.9
C#:   +1.4
D:    +2.0
D#:   +0.6
E:    -2.0
F:    +7.8
F#:   -1.4
G:    +3.9
G#:   +0.2
A:    +0.0
A#:   +3.9
B:    +0.0

--------end--------


--------Temperament--------

Mode: CST3
Name: MeanBlu
A4: default
Transpose: default

C:    +0.0
C#:   +0.0
D:    +4.8
D#:   +0.0
E:    -2.6
F:    +0.0
F#:   +0.0
G:    +7.2
G#:   +0.0
A:    +0.0
A#:   +0.0
B:    -4.0

--------end--------

[Carl]

A few notes on the setting above for those interested... The ST-300 has 10 memory slots for alternate tunings, 5 for "open tunings" and 5 for "temperament tunings". Only 5 can be active at once, and the switches at the top of the settings file determine which ones are active. I left everything as it was in the factory settings, but replaced the open tuning settings for CST1 and CST2 with the TAG recommendations. With this settings file, those 5 temperament tunings are not active.

Note also that there are both global and local settings for A4 pitch and transpose. You set the global settings at the very top, but each tuning can have its own local setting further down. If you don't want to deviate from the global setting, just leave it as "default". If you change the global setting at the top, any tunings set to "default" will follow that setting.