Case Studies

Background

Clip-on tuners that attach to an instrument’s headstock are a mature market, with countless products from countless makers. Function and accuracy barely set them apart, so the starting question was “how do we differentiate?”

The thread PEC found was not surface decoration but rethinking the configuration itself — aiming to stand out on the essential feel of the tool: slim, light, and stable.

Approach

1. Separating the display from the battery — We worked the exterior design and the housing mechanism together, not apart. By splitting the battery off from the display, we made the display extremely thin, and by placing the battery on the clip side we lowered the center of gravity. “A slim, light look” and “stability when clipped on” were achieved at once, from both the design and the structural side.
2. The moving-display mechanism, and protecting against wire breakage at the hinge — We adopted a display that swings to a comfortable viewing angle (up to 120°). At the hinge, we routed and relieved the cabling so repeated rotation wouldn’t damage it, building it into a moving mechanism that won’t break a wire.
3. Tuning the holding torque — giving the hinge “grip” — A display that merely moves will drift out of position with use. By giving the hinge the right resistance — a deliberate “grip” — it holds firmly at any angle while still moving smoothly. We dialed in that feel through the mechanism itself.

Outcome

• An ultra-thin, lightweight display that still sits stably on the headstock, with a stylish presence
• A moving display that holds its viewing angle reliably and keeps working through repeated use
• The original Pitchclip became a clip-on-tuner staple, and the origin of a long-selling series that continues through the Pitchclip 2 and 2+

Working Style

What made the difference here was not splitting design and mechanical engineering apart, but working back and forth between them in one set of hands.

The harder you push “slim and light,” the more the mechanical hard spots appear — wire breakage at the hinge, the holding torque. Usually the design intent and the mechanical constraints turn into a tug-of-war between separate teams. Because PEC held both, we could keep up the back-and-forth of solving it on the mechanism side without compromising the intended form — all the way through. The product reached production exactly as first envisioned because of that way of working.

And this involvement went well beyond a one-off design proposal. PEC stayed with the project as part of the engineering team, from concept through mass production, putting forward concrete mechanical proposals at each turning point — the slim-and-stable balance, the hinge’s wire-breakage countermeasure, the holding-torque “grip” — and, through rounds of prototyping and evaluation, backing KORG’s technical decisions. Carrying the first concept all the way to a production product was the result of that continuous, hands-on collaboration.

A tool stays out of the way of playing the more it is slim, light, and sure. PEC supported the foundation that keeps Pitchclip a lasting staple — from the housing and the mechanism.