TC Electronic PolyTune 2 BlackLight

The TC Electronic PolyTune 2 BlackLight is a polyphonic tuner pedal from TC Electronic, announced in June 2015 as a visually distinct addition to the company's line of polyphonic tuners¹. Functionally it is the standard PolyTune 2 in a different finish: MusicRadar reported at launch that "the BlackLight features the same features as the standard-issue PolyTune 2"². What sets it apart is the look, with the same circuitry housed in a black metallic enclosure¹.

For a player, the pedal does two things. Its polyphonic mode lets you strum all open strings at once and read which are out of tune from a single display¹, and its chromatic and strobe modes cover conventional one-string tuning and precision work¹.

What polyphonic tuning does

Polyphonic tuning is the mode TC Electronic built its PolyTune line around. Instead of plucking one string at a time and waiting for a chromatic readout, you strum all open strings together and the display shows every string's status at once. Guitar Interactive described it in the BlackLight announcement as "the game-changing polyphonic tuning mode that lets you tune all strings at once"¹. The same mode appeared on the original PolyTune, where Guitar World's reviewer noted that tuning all strings simultaneously was the feature that set it apart from conventional chromatic pedal tuners³.

Tuning modes and accuracy

The BlackLight carries the PolyTune 2's three tuning modes, each with its own accuracy figure¹²:

The strobe mode is the precision tool. Reviewing the standard PolyTune 2, MusicRadar's Dave Burrluck called its strobe display mode "a new ultra-accurate strobe display mode that tunes to 0.1 cent accuracy: perfect for setting your intonati[on]"⁴. A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, so 0.1-cent resolution is fine enough for saddle adjustments, where a 0.5-cent chromatic tuner would leave you guessing.

Display and the ambient light sensor

The BlackLight's display is a super-bright blue-and-white LED unit with an ambient light sensor for easy viewing². The sensor matters in practice: a display bright enough to read on an outdoor stage can be glaring in a dim rehearsal room, and the sensor adjusts for that. The standard PolyTune 2 has the same idea, with MusicRadar noting its "auto-sensing light feature also stops you needing to wear shades when you tune in more normal situations"⁴.

How it differs from the rest of the PolyTune line

The BlackLight sits in a family of PolyTune 2 variants that differ mainly in enclosure and size²¹⁵:

• PolyTune 2: the standard full-size pedal, a more accurate and easier-to-read version of the original PolyTune, at $99 street when reviewed by Premier Guitar⁶.
• PolyTune 2 Mini: the same tuning functions shrunk into one of TC's mini enclosures, at $89 street⁵, with an upgraded display of 109 ultra-bright LEDs⁷. It is no longer made, as That Pedal Show noted in a 2019 demo⁸.
• PolyTune 2 Noir: a black pedal carrying all the functions of the PolyTune 2 Mini⁷.
• BlackLight: the full-size PolyTune 2 feature set in a black metallic enclosure¹².

The BlackLight is therefore the choice of format, not of circuit: full-size like the PolyTune 2, black like the Noir, with the standard pedal's features throughout².

Price and availability

MusicRadar reported the BlackLight would be available from the end of June 2015, priced at £65 in the UK, $99.99 in the US and €89 in Europe². That placed it at the same level as the standard PolyTune 2's $99 street price at the time Premier Guitar reviewed it⁶, and $10 above the smaller PolyTune 2 Mini⁵.

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