Anyone know what the heck this thing is???

[Sonno]

This is screen capture from the "David Gilmour In Concert" DVD.
What is that thing? Anyone?

[TD_Madden]

A very cool Conn Strobe-Tuner

[TD_Madden]

maybe not a Conn, though....but definitely a Strobe-Tuner

[Sonno]

Thanks. I googled that and DG and came up with "Peterson Strobe Tuner".

[Enzo]

But it is NOT a Peterson, it is indeed a Conn. That is a Conn ST-11. I have serviced hundreds of them, believe me. And I am a Peterson dealer, and that is not one of theirs. The Conn ST-11 is laid out vertically, while the Petersons are laid out horizontally.

Here is a picture of one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Conn-ST-...QQcmdZViewItem

IN the lit window is a spinning wheel with a black and white pattern on it. Like the pattern of dots around the outside of some turntable platters. It spins at a steady speed, the actual rpm being selected by one of the knobs. Each of the 12 notes of the scale has its own rotation speed.

Behind the wheel and shining through it is a few neon bulbs - just like the neon bulbs in a Fender tremolo opto bug. The signal you feed into the thing from your instrument drives the neons, so they strobe at the freq of your signal. When you play at the same note that is selected for the motor speed, then the pattern on the wheel strobes in stable. Like the old wagon wheels in a cowboy movie or airplane propellors on some old movie.

SO set the Conn to E, plug the guitar into it and strum an E. Now tune the guitar until the pattern on the Conn stops moving. It is very simple, and just about every orchestra classroom in a public school has one.

There were earlier versions - ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, etc. Some looked a bit different, but they all worked the same. Peterson strobe tuners work the same, but look different.

Conn used to make a 12 wheel tuner, the 6T5. It was based on vacuum tubes - as were the early ST models. In fact I have three or four of hte 6T5s here. Peterson makes a 12 wheeler too. COnn is long gone, but Peterson remains.

The 12 wheel tuner has 12 wheels, each spinning at the proper speed for one note of the scale. SO you can play into it, and whatever note you want to tune will have a wheel ready for you. This was great for the band teacher since he didn't have to go set the knobs. Just play a note and the appropriate wheel would strobe into view. You can see the pattern stabilize from quite a distance actually.

Conn dies when neon was still the thing. Peterson remains and they went to LEDs instead of neon. LEDs won't darken with age like neon, and they can be quite bright, UNlike neon. Now in the latest models Peterson has gone to an LCD display. Nothing really spins, but the image of the strobe wheel on the LCD does.

Here is a Peterson LCD model:
http://www.petersontuners.com/produc...vsam/index.cfm

And an LED model:
http://www.petersontuners.com/produc...l590/index.cfm

[Sonno]

Wow! Thanks for the info, that had been driving me wonky.

[famp69wv@yahoo.com]

Perfect for me!

I've had one of those for years. Enzo's dead on as usual. This is the perfect tuner for those of us who not only demand, BUT REQUIRE, such simplicity in our lives to keep us sane.

[Regis]

There used to be one of those in my old high school band room.

I played guitar in a local version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" when I was in my twenties, and they brought in one for us to use. It was the first time I ever used an electronic tuner.

[johnnyslide]

st11 strobe tuner by conn

I have to shake mine to get the wheel to spin, and then I can't get a stable calibration. Is my $10 flea market find a waste of money, or is there an easy fix? I'm kind of mechanically/electronically inclined! If anyone out there can respond, I'm at john@merringer.com thanks.

[Enzo]

Make sure the little hub at the center of the disc is tight on the motor shaft. MAke sure the disc is not rubbing against the window or anything.

I replace the motor caps often as not in those.


The note selector switch sets the disc motor speed, so spray some cleaner on its contacts and spin it a few times to clean it.

A little drop of very light oil, or even - gasp WD40 - on the motor shaft bushing can;t hurt.