Given the accuracy, robustness, and affordability of the Hardwire HT-6, it would be an excellent addition to any working guitarist’s pedalboard.
I remember getting an impromptu lesson from a local professional guitar player several years ago. As I was using the “Mel Bay Method” of tuning my guitar, he whipped out his trusty Boss tuner. He looked at me and said, “You should probably learn how to tune your guitars the way the pros do.” “How’s that?,” I asked. “Use a good tuner,” he answered with a smile.
True enough, check out most professional guitarist’s pedalboard or rack and chances are you’ll find a tuner. After this lesson, I immediately went out and bought the best tuner I could afford. At the time, that meant needle-based tuning, but it was still far more accurate than my ear. Fast forward to now, and it’s easy to find digital tuners that are far more accurate than what I grew up with. Of course, technology marches on. The newest innovation in the tuning world is polyphonic tuning, i.e. tuning more than one string at a time. The newest member of the polyphonic pedal tuning family is the Hardwire HT-6.
The HT-6, like other Hardwire tuners, can be powered either via 9-volt batter or an AC adapter. If the latter, you can also use the HT-6 as a power supply for other pedals (up to 1000mA). The pedal also includes a velcro pad to add the pedal to your pedalboard in addition to a glow-in-the-dark sticker to attach to the on/off switch. These additions show that the folks at Hardware have gigging guitarists in mind. The pedal itself contains a standard vertical E-A-D-G-B-E layout, though several altered tunings are available, including Drop-D and numerous Bass tunings. Unfortunately, no custom tunings are yet available, though the included USB port will likely allow such additions in the future.
When you first turn on the HT-6, you’ll probably be amazed at the brightness of the onboard LEDs. This is a pedal tuner that could easily be used on dark club stages or outdoors. I immediately tested the HT-6’s accuracy using a couple of different guitars (and verified the results with a Peterson Strobe Tuner) and was very impressed at how accurate and fast the HT-6 tracked my tuning. If you pluck a single string, the pedal is smart enough to go into single-string mode so you can focus without the LED lights distracting you. The accuracy and speed is so good that, at this point, my only complaints are the lack of custom tunings and the lack of support for the Buzz Feiten tuning system that my Anderson Classic uses.
Given the accuracy, robustness, and affordability of the HT-6, it would be an excellent addition to any working guitarist’s pedalboard, so long as you’re not using any custom tunings.