Peterson VS - II - repair

Bob Lawrence · Post by **Bob Lawrence** » 15 Mar 2005 7:16 am

Has any sent one back for repair? Just trying to find out if it's worth a send back from Canada or just purchase a new one. All I get on the display is a C# and no response to any input.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 15 Mar 2005 9:28 am

Is it still under warranty? I got one as a Valentine's gift last year that did something similar to yours and sent it back, they just sent me a new one. Good folks, great customer service.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 15 Mar 2005 11:45 am

I sent mine in and it was back in one week. The service is the best you'll find.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

Bob Baringer · Post by **Bob Baringer** » 15 Mar 2005 12:24 pm

my Peterson 11 went bad right after the warranty run out, they took it back and repaired it and reestablished the warranty as new, it works great, great service...

Jerry Erickson · Post by **Jerry Erickson** » 15 Mar 2005 12:50 pm

Mine went out during the warranty period. I sent it back and it was returned within 5 days. Being one day UPS delivery from the Chicago area helped, but their service was GREAT!

Tony Rankin · Post by **Tony Rankin** » 15 Mar 2005 1:02 pm

Go to the Peterson web site, under support, and email them about your problem. I just did that and they told me to send mine in for a free repair. (Mine did the same thing as yours, except mine was hung on a C note instead of C#.)

Tony

Jim Whitaker · Post by **Jim Whitaker** » 15 Mar 2005 1:07 pm

I emailed them with my problem, they emailed me back with their address. I sent the tuner & it was back in a week. The tuner was over a year old & they didn't charge me.
I call that pretty good service.

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JIM
"Zum SD10 3/6 """ "74" LTD & Session LTD, Nasville 400, Profex II "53" Esquire, "63 Epiphone, "63" Precision,
"77" Jazz

Larry Robbins · Post by **Larry Robbins** » 15 Mar 2005 2:16 pm

Same story here. Needed service, sent it in was back in about 10 days, and this was during the Thanksgiving Holidays!If thats not great service I dont know what is!

[This message was edited by Larry Robbins on 15 March 2005 at 02:17 PM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 15 Mar 2005 2:20 pm

I called them because my VS-II died. When I described the problem the guy I talked to knew exactly what was wrong. They replaced mine with a new one. I had a slight delay but that was because of the Christmas/New Years holidays and the fact the factory was closed between Christmas and New Years.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 15 Mar 2005 9:23 pm

The Peterson folks are the greatest to deal with! Send it off to them Bob and they'll take good care of you~

Tim Harr · Post by **Tim Harr** » 15 Mar 2005 10:54 pm

Mine went out after a few weeks. I bought it from musiciansfriend.com.

I sent it back and they replaced it no questions asked!

I love this thing!

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Tim Harr
Carter D-10 8p & 9k w/ BL-705s, Hilton pedal, PODxt, Webb 6-14E Amplifier

http://groups.msn.com/TimHarrWebPage/yourwebpage.msnw

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 16 Mar 2005 3:05 am

Although Peterson obviously stands behind their product, the number of people that have posted with problems seems to be relatively high.

Electronics components do fail (there would be no need for warranties or techs if they didn't), there seems to be some inherent design issues.

I've been using commercial tuners since the old Korg WT-12 came out and have never experienced a tuner failure until I got the Peterson. Being a tech, my tuners are never exposed to high levels or some signal that potentially would harm the unit, however my apparent problem was the input circuitry or op amp, according to the tech and he also commented "we have had some failures in this area as we don't know what people are inputting to the units".

Another area I've had problems with is the power switch. I've opened the tuner case several times (I don't use the large blue (smelly)surround case that comes with the Petgerson's) and found the switch was accidentally turned on and the batteries were dead (I have a friend with a VS-II and he too has experienced the dead battery issue). I've since resorted to putting a small "block" in the switch so it can't accidentally get switched on.

Although I think the Peterson is the best tuner on the market for Pedal Steel Guitar, it's design does need to be revisited. The unit should be almost "bullet proof" and the power switch should not be so easy to be switched on, and it should have a "time out" circuit so if the unit is left on it will automatically turn itself off after a pre set time (many tuners on the market have the time out circuit). Again, I base my observations from a tech's viewpoint.

I will concede there have probably been a lot of VS-II's sold and what has been posted here is a small minority, but the fact there is this many posted, just on this forum, suggests the reliability needs to be "looked at". I still carry my Boss TU12H tuner in the car in case the Peterson dies again.[This message was edited by Jack Stoner on 16 March 2005 at 03:09 AM.]

Tony Rankin · Post by **Tony Rankin** » 16 Mar 2005 7:54 am

I agree completely with Jack. I hope Peterson is listening.

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 16 Mar 2005 7:21 pm

For what it's worth, I have a Peterson VS-I (same as the VS-II but without the metronome and presets). In over two years of ownership, I've had zero problems. Best tuner I've ever owned.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Vann Ray Cranford · Post by **Vann Ray Cranford** » 22 Mar 2005 2:00 pm

I was introduced to Peterson strobe tuners in 1975 by my friend, Clyde Mattocks. I worked my way through college playing music, and I used a Peterson 400 strobe tuner. In fact, I still have that tuner. In April of 2004 I bought my first VS-II, and I have not had any problems so far with it. I like it so good that I just recently bought a second VS-II as a back-up. Of course, if they both fail on a gig, then, I can get my Korg MT-1200 out. By the way John Norris at Peterson told me that Peterson is now in charge of repairing Korg tuners. That information might be helpful to some of you that have a Korg. Anyway, Peterson has been a good company for me to deal with since 1975.
I have contacted Peterson about making the rubber boot in other colors than blue. It clashes with many guitars. I also agree that the on/off switch should have a safety device to prevent it from coming on unintentionally. I would also like to see the VS-II with a headphone jack in it like is on the Peterson V-SAM. However, I run a Y-plug from my guitar to the tuner and to the volume pedal. I by-pass using the "Thru" jack on the Peterson because it takes away some "highs" on my particular set-up. I use a MXR Micro Amp to power the headphones. This allows me to see the strobe and hear the harmonics while I am tuning prior to a gig. Therefore, if another musician wants to bang on his/her instrument while I am trying to tune, then I don't have to worry about interruptions.[This message was edited by Vann Cranford on 22 March 2005 at 06:08 PM.]

Larry R · Post by **Larry R** » 24 Mar 2005 7:10 am

I bought a Peterson at the TSGA show several weeks ago. Went up to my room to test it and nothing came up on the blue screen. Took it back down to Peterson. John tested it and sure enough, he declared it a misfire. Gave me another one out of his stock but this time he tested it himself. You guessed it, misfire #2. Then he gave me the display model that he had been using. He declared that it was possible that a box of defective ones had been combined with good ones. At any rate, he said if I had any problems, just return it and they would repair it. I have no doubt that they stand behind their product and their word. But I do find it unusual to have that many failures. I'm wondering if they have a quality control problem or if it is a component problem.

Jeff Peterson · Post by **Jeff Peterson** » 24 Mar 2005 8:30 am

..[This message was edited by Jeff Peterson on 24 March 2005 at 07:10 PM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Mar 2005 9:04 am

Jeff, re my comment about the number of problems. The steel community, percentage wise, like most accessories is a very small percentage of the total number of devices sold. There is only a small percentage of the overall steel community that posts on the forum, consequently the number that have posted they have a problem, although a small number is significant.

The number of overall that have had reported problems would only be known by the manufacturer.

Product improvement, such as the power switch, is not a "repair issue", but I mentioned it and the fact someone else agreed says it may be a legitimate issue.

Jeff Peterson · Post by **Jeff Peterson** » 24 Mar 2005 6:31 pm

..[This message was edited by Jeff Peterson on 24 March 2005 at 07:08 PM.]

Tony Rankin · Post by **Tony Rankin** » 28 Mar 2005 11:30 am

My VSAM was repaired and returned to me in about ten days from the time I shipped it to them. It was repaired at no charge even though I have owned it since May of 2003.

Great product and great service!