Arion HU8500 Stage Tuner

Everything is easy on the Arion HU-8500 Stage Tuner - Easy to operate, easy to read in the dark, and easy to change the battery with with a top access door. A digital readout tells what note you are attempting or are nearest, then LED lights show when you are getting close. The middle light turns green when you are dead-on. Very fast detecting from one note to the next.

No audible coloration of tone. I grade it down a couple of notches because of a pop through the speaker when you step on the pedal.

I have used this tuner pedal four year with no problem. Also, the battery drain is minimal.

Have not needed support in the four years I have used this.

I play bass and don't have to tune as often as my guitar players, so I went for this model because of the low price. I am totally pleased. The plastic body has been durable enough for me, and the quality and value are nice. The switch pop is the only thing not getting all 10s from this judge.

Easy to understand when you see it

Is an excellent tuner and doesn't noteably color the sound. The only annoying thing is Arion didn't beef up buffering design enough so a poping nise can be heard when turning it on until an internal capacitor charges.

The man who inspired me to buy one has one that's about fifteen years old!

Can't find any Arion info, but they have reliable products

Cheap, reliable and accurate, great deal, too bad Arion just went out of business shortly after I got this pedal. Check out Arion's chorus' they are awesome!

Plug it in, step on it. Pluck a string, look down. Easy. Has a pitch button but I never got far enough to use it.....

Doesnt color the sound that I noticed. Clean or distorted. This thing does NOT do alternate tunings. Anyone thinking they can use it to tune drop C should look for something else. Standard tuning works ok, its quick. I tune up with a Korg CA30 and then plug into this to compare. The 8500 reads the tone as slightly sharp, which I know it is not. The little Korg is more accurate.

Who knows... who cares. I don't even want to use it. The plastic is pretty flimsy. They are made in Sri Lanka... and anyone who has had to deal with any kind of computer tech support knows who you're dealing with when you call over there...

Never talked to them

If you have no other choice than to use this, I guess it would work. Its not super accurate and doesn't read certain notes. I havn't used any other pedal tuners yet but I can't imagine them being any worse than this thing. Guess I will stick to my inconvenient little Korg until I can get a decent pedal tuner.

Easy to read display .... reads the signal fast.

It has a mute-out ... a must for a stage tuner. Occasional mild pop, nothing too loud though.

Cheap plastic chassis ... the cover for the battery compartment isn't too hard to break and if you're using batteries and replace them often, you're going to end up ripping the battery leads off of this unit at some point.

bang for the buck makes this tuner the bar gig standard ... I just wish were a little more rugged.

very simple. nothing to adjust, just stomp it.

you can hear the note very faintly when running through the silent output, not really a big deal. if you're playing with reverb, it kind of pops when you turn it on... also not really a big deal.

sometimes when you step it on, the indicator light just flashes and it won't work for anything. if you just disconnect your power supply, then reconnect, it will work every time. just kind of scary.

who knows?

i play in a rock band, and up until this point it has done pretty well. it's just not professional. you know? i mean, if you're playing gigs for less then 100 people, don't worry about it, it will do the job no problem.

Like everyone else knows, you step on it to silence and tune, step on it to bypass, and watch the lights. That's it. Nothin' to it.

I'm kinda new to this electric stuff, but with my Epi Les Paul Standard to this tuner to either an Arion Tubulator OR Arion Stereo Chorus to a Marshall MG10CD I can't really hear any loss of quality of sound.

I'd use it without a backup. Seems durable.

N/A. I can't even find Arion's web site.

I play different kinds of music, and this tuner seems to fit it all. I like the bypass feature, and the lights are nice and bright. Seems like a good overall tuner, especially since it was $21.50 including shipping and a money order.

How easy? This easy. Step on the pedal, twist the tuning key while you twang, wait for the green light, stop twisting tuning key, step on pedal to turn off. This is pretty easy, but I hear Mark Tremonti hires a guy to come onstage and step on it for him, so it might be too complex or energy wasting if you're a rich rockstar. Your roadie will appreciate it though.

I've had this thing for 12 years, and I got it used from my wife, who got it used from a friend of hers, so it's probably about 15 years old. That's an estimate. It still works extremely well for a 15-year-old pedal made of plastic in some mysterious foreign land! It doesn't drain anything from the sound and gives me true pitch. Incidentally, the pitch button moves the pitch flat or sharp from concert pitch, just in case you're one of those people who needs to play in E-flat to accommodate the fact that your singer has a four and a half note range, like Scott Stapp.

After 15 years, plus or minus, of regular use, it has developed a glitch. Occasionally the red light flashes at me and it refuses to work. When it does this, I unplug it from the power supply, wait a second, and then plug it back in. It comes back just fine. The only time I had trouble was when I took this out of the effects chain and tried to replace it with another tuner. The other tuner crapped out within a month, while I was onstage. Fortunately the bass player in our band has a great sense of pitch, unlike Brian Marshall, and I was able to tune to her E. After that I abandoned the other tuner pedal at the gig, and went back to my old Arion.

I have never actually dealt with Arion. I know they're an overseas company but oddly enough I can't find any information on the company itself online. Probably made in Korea or China.

This is a great pedal. I've been using it for literally years, and only recently has it become a little wonky. I intend to get a new one very soon, but keep the old one on the back burner. The Arion is easy to see onstage and it's accurate. This is probably one of the most reliable and useful pedals that I own. Overall, the Arion is great. Even if your band has a loud, talentless drummer like Scott Phillips, you can still see when you're in pitch by the bright green light display. Overall, I highly recommend this pedal.

Step on it. Play a note. The tuner will tell you which note it is and how out of tune it is.
The pitch button is so you can tune slighty flatter than normal if you want. Some bands like to tune flat. But I've never used it.
The unit is easy to see, the led's can be seen from the floor and it's actually easier to read than the BossTU2 or Fender tuner.
It tracks regular notes (E, A, D, G, B) flawlessly. Response time is fast and accurate. However the unit will NOT track notes C or F. If you use alternate tunings this tuner will be useless for you. For a chromatic tuner this is a flaw.

Doesn't suck tone any more than any other stompox. You will notice a slight loss if you use more than 4 non true bypassing pedals, this one included.

I've noticed that stepping on the pedal doesn't completely mute the sound. If I have my amp full volume or use a booster pedal you can hear a VERY quiet sound of your note being tuned. The quiet sound is distorted and sounds filtered in this mode. I actually used it to record an odd lo fi guitar sound once (I had to turn up LOUD, use a booster and mike it up well). But under most uses you may not notice. You really have to have your amp quite loud. This is only present in the silent tuning mode. When the pedal is off the sound is normal. However the silent tuning mode is flawed for this reason.

It's a plastic pedal. This doesn't neccessarily mean that it will break immediately. I've used plastic pedals with no problems. It's not something you will really stomp on like a fuzz pedal. If it's on a pedalboard it will last you. I would be happy to drop it and it still work. It's more dependable than an EH pedal. MUCH better than a Dano mini.

Never tried.

I had a choise between this and the Boss tuner. This one was half the price and I didn't think it would matter that much for a tuner. I would never usually buy a plastic pedal otherwise unless I was only going to use it in the studio.
A tuner is essential, even if you tune by ear it's always best to check before recording because being even slightly out of tune will spoil your music. After a long session everyone can make a mistake. In live situations you can tune up mid song if you wish. A tuner really can save a gig. I HATE the sound of a guitar being tuned.

I am disappointed the pedal does not track C or F (or sharps or flats for that matter) and that the "silent tuning" mode is not fully silent. I do not really use different tunings but if I did I would have to buy another tuner. It will be able to do drop D. However for the price it can't really be beaten. The display is clear and it's good VFM. It does the job which is all you need really from a tuner.

Stomp to mute, stomp again to bypass. I got this without the manual, so I have NO IDEA WHAT THE PITCH BUTTON DOES! Other than that it works GREAT! It even tracks the LOW B on my 5-string bass!!! Most tuners go bonkers with a low B, but this hit it dead on.

No tone coloring at all. Mutes very clean without a large pop or noise. Also, when I disconnected my bass and plugged it back in it didn't pop either, pretty cool when you want to swap axes.

I bought this on ebay. The battery cover tabs were broken from either abuse or just plain stupidity, I don't know which. Seems pretty durable though.

I'd like an owners manual, but I don't know where to look.

Meh, works great, exactly what I wanted, but not as expensive as the Boss pedal. Great value.

Extremely easy to use. A manual is not necessary unless you want to change the pitch. Works great on gigs. Stays in place on the floor for quick tuning in the middle of a set.

Does not alter the sound in any way. No noise. Perfect tuning all the time. I play Strats through Fender vintage tube amps.

Always reliable. Have been using it on gigs for 14 years. I don't understand those who state they have problems. Other musician friends of mine agree with me. They only flake out when the power gets weak. Check your battery!

n/a

I play mostly blues. I have been playing for 30 years. I own 2 Strats, 72 Fender Deluxe Reverb, 69 Pro Reverb, Guyatone OD-2, and a Dunlop Rotovibe. That's enough for blues. This is my 2nd Stage Tuner. My first one shorted out after about 7 years of gigs. The one I have now is about 8 years old. Totally gig worthy. I would never use anything else. Those small light ones are a pain in the ass on gigs. A slight tug on your guitar chord sends the tuner flying. The lights on this are bright and exact. No mistaking when you are in tune. I like it even more that I don't use batteries any more and it is part of my pedal board with a power supply. It may not be made out of metal, but it is very sturdy. The on off pedal is big and solid too. For those having problems, this will start to flake out when the battery gets low. The battery keeps discharging while plugged in, whether tuning or not. This may be the problem some are having. Worth the money, no matter the price.