Replacement Excel

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

As some of you know, I was to take delivery of my new Excel Superb model at last yrs ISGC. Sadly on the way to the show, my wife took ill and died in a hospital on the way.

When I got home (and after the funeral), I received the guitar in the mail. Through a terrible error on my part (in not making my requests to Mitsuo more clear), there was a major mistake made in the construction (size-wise) of the cabinet.

Needless to say I was devastated. But bad things have a way, through the grace of Jesus, in turning out well. At the Gulfport show, last spring, Mitsuo agreed to replace the instrument and correct the mistake.

I am going to Stlouis to pick up the guitar.

While there I am also going to to do what I had planned to at last year's show. And that is to do a thorough check out (A/B) test on the Peterson and Precision Strobe tuners, in a side by side test, to see which I like better.

Feel welcome to come and help me decide which one I want Smile

I will leave there having purchased one of them I am sure. Below is a link to the Precision Strobe tuner.

http://www.precisionstrobe.com

Also, you may wish to check out the Excels in the Excel room. I will be happy to answer any question(s) you may have. They are incredible PSG's. Hope to see you there.

carl
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A broken heart + † = a new heart.

Mike Vallandigham · From: Martinez, CA

Hello Carl,
It's been a while since we talked. I'd love to be in St. Louis to check out the new Excels...mine is such a mind-blowing piece of engineering. I hope you'll take lots of pictures if Mitsuo's new axes as well as your new one. Can't wait to see them.

I also hope to get more info on the new 4 tuning changer (I think) that you mentioned a while back. Mitsuo's genuis is never ending.

basilh · From: United Kingdom

Glad to see you're getting the Excel sorted out Carl.

As for the tuner, I'd be VERY wary of buying anything from a company that doesn't even know the correct spelling of "temperament".
The "Precision Strobe Tuner" isn't very precise in the terminology used, Temperamant on the web page and temperament in the pdf manual.

1 in 12 letters incorrect COULD equate to an inbuilt inaccuracy of 8.33%

I have both the Peterson StroboFlip and the VS-11 since their inception and have found the only fault to be a little perceptible distortion/background noise whilst in circuit and turned on. It's the electronics "ranging" and hunting the frequency, quite noticeable in some tuners and less in others.

BTW Real diligence in the spelling and terminologies used on the Peterson web site. It shows who cares IMHO.
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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Basil said:

basilh · From: United Kingdom

True Lee but then again I'm not making a living constructing web sites or tuners.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

I have been sent 2 PST-4's for evaluation and testing. I am going page by page, line by line in the owner's manual. And yes there are some typos in the manual as well.

I spoke to Jim Campbell (the builder) and he was aware of the typos. In talking with him, I found him to be a very brilliant young engineer. He personally designs the circuit board. NO easy task; and requires great knowledge AND great physical skill.

Then he has them built and mass produced by a company strictly in that business. Then he assembles them, (in the metal case he designed built by another company) and then tests them before shipping. Having an electronic background myself allowed me to get deep into the theory of how this tuner works.

So far I am very impressed. Last year I had the opportunity to try out my son's Peterson, made for regular guitar. I did not care for it.

Later on I had an opportunity to try out the Peterson StoboFlip for just a few minutes, and so far I am much more at ease and impressed with the PST-4.

But.....................

This does not mean I will not buy one in Stlouis. Just a preliminary observation. However, I intend to do a full side by side A/B test of both the StroboFlip and the PST-4. I fully intend to leave there with the best of the two.

One of the things I am most impressed with on the PST-4 and not on the Peterson is that EACH octave is shown separate and there is NO question which octave (given string being tuned) you are looking at. I found this somewhat confusing on the Peterson.

Another that is most impressive to me, is that the PST has 40/88 note memory "banks". Would you believe I find myself already needing 7 of them for my standard D-10 (E9th and C6th) and confliciting strings (two different shifts in the same octave and same note). The same for my S-12 Universal and its conflicting strings. And for my 7 string lap steel.

As far as I know, the Peterson only has two presets. But I could be wrong. And I am not sure whether these can be programmed differently. ALL 40 of the PST-4's can be reprogrammed on demand. And instantly. I find myself already able to do it very quickly. Which is a big plus. Incidently, it did appear at first to be complicated, but doing it several times made it quite simple.

I know of only one pedal steel guitar player who has purchased the PST. And his comments are on the website I gave in my original post. His name is "Skip Cons". So far EVERY word he said has been verified by my preliminary tests. On the other hand there are a kadzillion players that have bought the Peterson. Admitedly, this fact cannot be taken lightly.

If the preliminary testing on the PST-4 continues, I will consider its price (twice that of the Peterson) to have been well worth it, and I will buy it.

On the other hand if the Peterson shows me some things that are better, then of course I may end up buying it.

Time will tell.

Come join me (if you are going to be in StLouis) and let's PUTT 'em through a real knock down test. "Own to?" Confused

I would enjoy that. Very Happy

I will put them in series so both will operate at the same time. I will alternate which one is first in the connections. And then also, I will test one at a time.

c.
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A broken heart + † = a new heart.

Per Berner · From: Skovde, Sweden

Hi Carl, good to see you posting!

...on the other hand, Peterson seem to make their "typos" when building their tuners. My VS II worked fine for ten minutes, then nohing but gibberish on the screen unil it died soon after.

I got a new one on warranty, that one works just fine (though the manual is just about indecipherable, apparently written by "rain man" computer geeks for other computer geeks, with a few stages of bad translation to Japanese and Portuguese and back to Computenglish inbetween Wink

The forum on Petersons' website is very informative, concise and hands-on, though – there you can quickly find out how to use them. Too bad they didn't let the same people write the manual. ) But no matter how you are instructed, it is still a very un-intuitive, if very precise and capable, machine – obviously built from a production perspective rather than a user perspective.

Apparently, quite a significant percentage of these tuners (VS II and V SAM family) were faulty; my dealer had already replaced three before mine. And he didn't sell that many!

I hope and believe their newer Strobo Stomp tuners are much better in all these respects.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

On Wednesday I drive to Nashville to visit and spend the night at Kayton Roberts home. As some of you know, Kayton was Hank Snow's steel player for over 30 yrs.

On Thursday I will drive to St louis to pick up my guitar and test side by side the Peterson and Precision Strobe tuners. I will leave there with one of them. As well as receive my new "replacement" Excel.

If you will be there, do join me and visit. I would like that. I will probably spend most of my time in the Excel booth (or room). Come see me Very Happy

May Jesus richly bless you all,

c.
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A broken heart + † = a new heart.

Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

Brother Carl I look forward to seeing you Thursday.
Ben

Mark Eaton · Posted 1 Sep 2009 7:50 am

Carl, I look forward to your report on your A/B findings between the tuners.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to mention that the Peterson sells new for about $200, and the Precision retail is literally almost 2 1/2 times that amount: $490. Shocked

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Mark

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

Thank you so much Ben.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

If money was no problem, I found the PST-4 to be the clear winner in my limited tests at the ISGC.

Since the Peterson is less than half the price of the Precision Strobe, then of course it is clearly the better choice (I am sure) for MOST steel players.

For piano tuners, I know of NO tuner that come close to the PST. But we are talking steel. And for steel it does not have the need for "stretch tuning", that is part of piano tuning, so much of the accuracy and features of the PST is centered here.

I love it because of my complex Universal tuning. So I elected to purchase it, since it fulfills my needs better. I do not care for the strobe display on the Peterson, but that is just me. I found the auto lock and memory feature on the PST to be easier and the red circular strobe to be much easier with my tired old eyes, particularly in "Peripheral Vision" situations.

I wish to thank the Peterson folks for kindly letting me test it out. For anyone who may have come to see this test on Saturday or Sunday, I apologize. Same for Friday, for it was very late when we finally got the room. Then I had to come home early Saturday morning for personal reasons.

Please accept my sincere, humble apology.

Mitsuo only brought 2 Excel steels with him this year, not sure why. One was Mitsuo's personal steel that I wrote about after the Gulfport show this past spring, where ALL tuning is done from the right end plate.

For those of you who have not seen it, check out the following photos. The other pictures are of his new black D-10 Superb with 5(R) and 3(L) changer capability. Also I saw nothing new, except for a better way of dealing with cabinet drop at the right end plate.

I may elect to show this and write it up at a later time. Not sure.

Jesus bless you all,

c.
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A broken heart + † = a new heart.

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