If you’re like me, you probably don’t have perfect pitch hearing. Sure, we’re good enough to play and sing the tunes we do but getting a guitar in tune perfectly isn’t one of our talents. That’s where the Roadie 2 guitar tuner comes in. While there are a ton of tuners on the market, the Roadie 2 offers better precision. Don’t get me wrong, my old Boss TU-3 still does a great job and the tuner in my VOX pedalboard is decent. But sometimes you need something on the go and this little gadget is great for moving musicians. Read on for the full review of the Roadie 2 guitar tuner!
Specifications
The Roadie 2 guitar tuner has the following features and specifications
- Metallic gearbox: Built with a 300:1 gear ratio motor that ensures Roadie 2 will turn those rusty pegs for you. The motor can turn in micro-movements to achieve unparalleled precision.
- Battery: Powered by a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery (included). Lasts 1 month on a single charge. Includes a battery indicator to show you how much juice is left.
- Charging: USB-C
- Haptic feedback: When a string is in tune, Roadie will give you a little shake to move on to the next string.
- OLED screen: Invisible when off, lights up beautifully as soon as you turn Roadie 2 on.
- Knob interface: Intuitive and fast to scroll through your instruments and tunings.
- Weight: 3.2 ounces
- Dimensions: 3.4 x 3.0 x 1.0 inches
What’s In The Box
- Roadie 2 guitar tuner
- USB Type-C to USB-A cable for charging
- Manual and Documentation
Video Review
Design
The Roadie 2 is a fairly basic looking design that sort of reminds me of a small power drill. Though the handle is much larger and the stem much stubbier. It’s constructed pretty much of all plastic. These plastics do feel high-quality and not cheap at all. The Roadie branding is subtly placed on both sides of the handle and in this case, I sort of would have liked a bit bolder branding.
On the bottom of the Roadie 2, you’ll find the USB Type-C port for charging. YAY Roadie for keeping up with the times! There are also two LED indicator lights on the bottom that show if the battery needs charging and when the battery is charging.
Moving to the top of the device you’ll find a knob on the back of the stem. This knob houses a dial and a button with the Roadie logo on it. Pushing the button powers the Roadie on and off and it glows blue when it is on. The dial scrolls through options on the OLED display and the button selects options.
Speaking of the OLED display. That is located at the top of the Roadie 2. This is where you’ll find all your instruments and tunings and where you can choose your options. It’s nice, simple, bright, and easy to read.
Overall, this is a simple design with not a lot of flair but it’s well built and doesn’t feel cheap.
Ease of Use
The Roadie 2 can be used straight out of the box without even downloading the included app. The device comes with 2 presets for acoustic and electric six-string guitars in standard tuning, which is probably going to be what most people use. Once you unbox the thing and get it charged up, the quick start guide can get you going in a matter of minutes.
Should you want to dig deeper, you can download the app and get started with alternate tunings and other instruments. We’ll cover the app in a later section but it’s also very simple and intuitive allowing you to sync the app with the Roadie 2 thus saving everything to it.
Overall, this device is dead simple to use right out of the box. Jumping into the app only gives you a library of new options which are all easy to learn but will take time to swim through.
Performance
The Roadie 2 has a solid build quality and nothing feels cheaply made. The core of the device is its built-in motor that turns the machine heads. The motor feels strong and had no issues turning the heads on my Schecter electric or Takamine acoustic. You might be careful with a guitar that’s been sitting around for a while and has stiff machine heads. I would get those looked at before using this device on it.
As far as tuning the guitars, this thing is spot on. I love that Roadie gives you three separate ways to indicate that your strings are properly tuned:
- Roadie logo on the back turns green
- LED light on the front turns on
- Roadie 2 vibrates
This is particularly helpful for guitars whose machine heads are positioned on either side of the headstock. When you’re tuning the bottom row of strings the Roadie logo is facing away from you so you can’t see it turn green. The LED light and vibration are then your indicators that the string is in tune, very user-friendly.
Overall, the Roadie 2 performs really well. It has a solid build quality and is user-friendly. If I had one suggestion, it would be to make the grip more ergonomic instead of just square.
Software/App
The Roadie app is very well designed and beautiful to boot. The home screen is sort of like a newsfeed with links to the Roadie blog, tutorials, and videos. Along the bottom you’ll find tabs for the following:
- Instruments: This is where you can add the instruments you want to tune. Such as an electric guitar, acoustic guitar, ukulele, and more. You can name these instruments how you like.
- Sync: This will sync the data between your Roadie 2 and Roadie app
- Tunings: Here’s where you’ll find all of your available tunings for different instruments and string configurations
- Guitar
- Standard Ukulele
- Concert Ukulele
- Tenor Ukulele
- Baritone Ukulele
- Mandolin
- Banjo
- Settings: Settings for the app itself as well as firmware updates
Overall, the app is super easy to use and offers up a lot of granular options you can dig through for quite some time.
Price/Value
The MSRP on the Roadie 2 is $129USD and it is worth the money especially when you include the app. I do think the company would really have a hot seller if they sold these at $99USD but $129USD is a fair price.
Wrap Up
Roadie 2 is an amazing little gadget that is going to be a musician’s best friend. If you happen to have perfect pitch and can tune your stringed instrument by ear then you’re better than most. For those who can’t this thing is a godsend.
*We received a sample of the Roadie 2 guitar tuner for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on September 3, 2020.
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