Sabine AX2000 User Manual

AX2000 Series Contact AutoTuner

AX2000

Now that you’re the owner of a patented Sabine AX2000
Contact AutoTuner, the most unique and innovative chro­matic tuner available, you’ll find tuning your instrument has
never been easier. This removable, business card-sized
tuner is always at your fingertips.

The AX Tuner’s highly accurate advanced digital technol­ogy allows superior performance when tuning most stringed
instruments, particularly electric or acoustic guitars, banjos,
mandolins, violins and bass guitars.

Operating Guide

AX2000-W

OUTSTANDING FEATURES

• Highly Accurate

• Mounts Directly on Your Guitar

• InTouch™ Contact Microphone Picks Up Your

Instrument's Vibrations

• It's Cordless!

• Easy-To-Read Three-Color LED Display

• World's Smallest Tuner

• Full-Range Chromatic Scale

• Automatic Recalibration

• Automatic Power Down

• Longest Battery Life

• Quartz Accuracy

• Available with Rich Wood Finish (AX2000-W)

INSTRUCTIONS for TUNING

CAUTION: The AX Tuner is not recommended for use on
instruments with antique or cracked finishes. See cautions
on reverse side.

1. PLACE THE TUNER DIRECTLY ON YOUR INSTRU-

MENT WHEREVER IT IS MOST CONVENIENT AND
EASY TO SEE. You will want to experiment with the tuner
to find where its peak performance can be reached on
your particular instrument. For example, the tuner may
work best on your guitar when placed near where the
fingerboard meets the top or on the side next to the neck's
heel.

2. PRESS THE POWER BUTTON ("P") TO TURN ON

YOUR TUNER. When the power is turned on, the D#
note indicator will blink once per second. Tones gener­ated by both acoustic and electric instruments are de­tected by the AX Tuner’s InTouch™ sensitive internal
contact microphone. The AX Tuner picks up vibrations
from the top of the instrument rather than the air so it is
less affected by background noise than other tuners. It is
therefore not necessary to play loudly; plucking the string
lightly once per second usually gives the best results.
Heavy plucks may make tuning more difficult.

THE TUNER WILL TURN ITSELF OFF AFTER TWO
MINUTES. However, if you wish to defeat the power down
timer to have the tuner stay on throughout the perfor­mance instead of automatically turning off after two min­utes, turn the tuner off; then hold down the calibrate ("C")

button and press the power ("P") key. Release the power
key first and then the calibrate button. Two LEDs will light
initially to indicate the tuner is in the non-timer mode.

3. LIGHTLY PLUCK THE STRING YOU WISH TO TUNE.
Adjust the instrument’s pitch until the desired NOTE INDI­CATOR LED lights. For example, if you wish to tune a D
string on a guitar, pluck the string and tune it until the "D"
LED lights. Pluck the string every second or so to keep
the note "fresh" and to prevent the note from fading flat.
Also, to eliminate extraneous overtones, mute the other
strings after each pluck.

4. SLOWLY ADJUST THE INSTRUMENT’S PITCH UNTIL
THE DESIRED NOTE’S LED TURNS GREEN, INDICAT­ING THE STRING IS IN TUNE.

Note that the LED turns yellow when the tone is flat and
turns red when the tone is sharp. The LED blinks rapidly
when the tone is far from being in tune and blinks slower
and slower as the tone approaches being in tune.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other notes until the entire
instrument is tuned.

5. TO REMOVE THE AX, GENTLY TWIST AND LIFT THE
TUNER. Store the AX in its DomeHome™.

RECALIBRATING your AX TUNER

Most other tuners allow the user to recalibrate only a few
Hertz from standard A = 440 Hz. They are almost useless if
you wish to tune to an instrument that is more than a few
Hertz out of tune. However, you can recalibrate your AX
Tuner to match the pitch of any reference instrument simply
by touching the calibrate ("C") button.

Example: If you wish to tune a guitar so it will be in tune
with a certain piano, place the tuner on the piano, defeat the
two-minute power down timer, play an "A" (or any other note)
and wait a moment for the note to register on the tuner’s
display. Then lightly press the calibrate button on the tuner.
The "A" LED will turn green, indicating that the tuner now
considers the piano to be in perfect tune. Now if you tune
your instrument to the tuner, your instrument will be in tune
with the piano.

Note: To reset the tuner to standard a = 440 Hz, press the
power button to turn the tuner off and then back on. The ax
tuner always returns to a = 440 Hz when it is turned on.

CLEANING THE SafeMount™ PAD

Only dampen the pad. Do not immerse the tuner in
water or place it directly under a faucet. This may dam­age the tuner and will void the warranty. If the tacky

material gets dirty, there are two ways to clean it.

1. Use a little isopropyl rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush

(preferably an old one!). For quick & easy cleaning, carry
around some foil pack alcohol wipes to clean the pad.

CAUTION: Make sure the alcohol has dried completely
before placing the AX Tuner on your guitar. - or -

2. Place a dab of

soap on your finger and spread the soap on the material.
Then rinse your finger and use it like a squeegee to clear
the pad of soap. Allow the pad to air dry for about 10
minutes. The SafeMount™ becomes tacky again when it
dries.

To keep the pad tacky longer between cleanings: Keep the
guitar surface clean, avoid touching the SafeMount™ pad,
and keep your AX Tuner in its DomeHome™ when not in
use.

NONABRASIVE, NON-MOISTURIZING

Take the AX Tuner off your guitar and store it in its
DomeHome™ when not in use.

DO NOT LEAVE IT ON THE INSTRUMENT

The AX Tuner is not recommended for use on
instruments with antique or cracked finishes.

Instrument finishes have the potential to become loose.
Sabine will not be responsible for instruments where

CAUTION

the finish has lost integrity. The Sabine AX Tuner will
not harm a normal finish.

CHANGING THE AX'S BATTERIES

CR2432 Lithium
coin-cell battery
(3-volt)

The AX Tuner's battery should last for approximately 1,500
tunings, or one year. When you find it necessary to change
the battery, locate the battery door (exposed on the bottom of
the AX Tuner). Place the bottom end lip of the DomeHome™
in the door's slot and turn the door counterclockwise until it
opens. Slide CR2430 Lithium coin-cell battery with negative
sides down into place on top of negative terminal strap (long)
and under positive terminal strap (short) as shown in drawing
above.

KEY POINT: Batteries must have negative terminals face
down, and must be sandwiched between the long negative
terminal and short positive terminal.

NOTE: AX2000 Contact AutoTuners manufactured
after January 15, 2002 require only one CR2430 Lithium
coin-cell battery (included). For AX2000 manufactured

prior to this date, 2 CR2430 batteries must be stacked to­gether with negative sides down and placed between the
positive and negative terminal straps.

Slide battery under
positive terminal tab
and replace battery
door.

TUNING TIPS

Many musical instruments have peculiarities that cause
annoying tuning problems. Most of these peculiarities are
overcome by following these simple procedures:

1. Pluck one string at a time.

2. Pluck the instrument once per second to keep the note

"fresh" while you are tuning. Notes go noticeably flat a
second or two after being plucked. If tuning a higher­pitched instrument (such as a mandolin), pluck a little
faster; for a lower-pitched instrument (such as a bass),
pluck slower.

3. Do not pluck loudly. Your AX Tuner’s sensitive contact

microphone can pick up light to medium volumes, and
heavy plucking may overpower the microphone or pull
the note sharp.

4. Pluck the strings with the flesh of the thumb. Fingernails

and flat picks add overtones and slow the tuning process.

5. Tune from a pitch that is flat up to the pitch you desire.

This procedure removes any slack in the gears of the
instrument’s tuning heads. If you tune from SHARP to IN
TUNE, the gears will slip as you play, and the instrument
will go flat after a few minutes of playing.

6. If you have difficulty getting a note to register on the tuner,
try touching the other strings lightly to stop their sympa­thetic vibrations. This will eliminate any extraneous over­tones that may disturb the tuning.

7. Use good strings. Old strings lose their uniformity and do
not vibrate evenly. New strings stretch flat as you play.

8. All sources of friction cause tuning problems. For ex­ample, if the slot in an instrument’s nut is too tight, the
string will be pulled flat as it is played. A tight nut (or capo)
will cause the string’s pitch to change in steps rather than
evenly.

9. Avoid pressure on the instrument while tuning. Even
moderate pressure on the neck of a guitar will cause a
noticeable change in pitch. Also, press the strings straight
down to the fingerboard. Bending the strings sideways is
very common, especially on difficult chords, but causes
the strings to be pulled sharp.

10.A note for advanced fretted instrumentalists: Almost all
fretted instruments, and most other instruments, are con­structed to play an "even-tempered scale." Sabine tun­ers are also calibrated to this scale. The even-tempered
scale places equal tonal spacing between all notes in the
scale so that the musician will not have to retune to change
keys. A disadvantage, however, is that the third note of
the scale sounds a little sharp (14 cents, to be exact). For
example, when playing in the key of G, the B note will
sound sharp. If you tune the B string so that it sounds
correct in an open G chord, other chords using the B
string will sound out of tune. The musician may choose to
optimize the tuning of a particular key or to use the even­tempered scale. Much depends on the musician’s style,
but generally it is best to tune exactly as your Sabine
tuner indicates.

SPECIFICATIONS

Models: AX2000, AX2000-WB, AX2000-WR, AX2000-WT
Dimensions: 3.3 x 1.8 x 0.4 in. (8.4 x 4.6 x 1.0 cm)
Weight: 1.25 oz. (36 g), with batteries
Scale: Even-tempered, 12 notes per octave
Accuracy: + one cent (uses quartz crystal)
Battery: One CR2430 Lithium coin-cell, 3 Volts (included)
Tuning Range: 5 Octaves

LIMITED 2-YEAR WARRANTY

If your AX Tuner fails because of a manufacturing defect
within two years from the date of the original purchase, please
return it to your dealer. If you need to return the tuner to
Sabine, call for a Return Authorization number.

Then send it,
postage prepaid, to Sabine for replacement with a new or recon­ditioned product.

You must include your full name, address,

proof of purchase and the nature of the defect. This

warranty does not cover damage caused by accident, mis­use or defective batteries.

Sabine, Inc.

13301 Highway 441 • Alachua, FL 32615-8544 USA

Phone: [phone] • Fax: [phone]

Covered by U.S. Patent Numbers 5,388,496 & 5,396,827

AX2000-OpGd-040706.pmd - mkb

© 2004 Sabine, Inc.

www.Sabine.com

MADE IN

USA