About
How It Started
On June 17, 2024, Boyd Timothy stumbled across a small preamp kit that Ryan Schultz was selling on the Acoustic Guitar Forum Classifieds. Impressed by the clever design of Ryan's "T-Pre" kit, Boyd reached out, and the rest, as they say, is history.
What started as a simple message turned into a full-blown collaboration. When Ryan floated the idea of creating a DIY guitar tuner kit, Boyd was all in. The two began trading ideas, testing ESP32 dev boards, and refining circuits late into the night, for months.
After nearly a year of prototyping, tinkering, and fine-tuning, Q-Tune was born: the world's first DIY guitar tuner pedal kit. It's built for makers, tinkerers, and tone chasers who want more than off-the-shelf gear.
Q-Tune: A pro-level tuner that YOU build yourself.
Why Q-Tune Exists
If you've ever looked at the tuner pedal market, you've probably noticed something: every option is a sealed, mass-produced box. You buy it, you use it, and that's it. No way to customize, update, or make it yours.
Meanwhile, the DIY pedal world is thriving. You can build your own overdrive, your own delay, your own fuzz. But a tuner? That option didn't exist. We thought that was a shame.
We also wanted a tuner that could get better over time. Because Q-Tune runs on an ESP32 microcontroller, we can push firmware updates that improve accuracy, add features, and refine the experience long after you've built your kit. Your tuner isn't frozen in time the day it ships.
And accuracy matters to us. If you play guitar, you know how much intonation affects your sound. We wanted a tuner that takes precision seriously. It can't just be, "close enough," but dead on. That's the standard we hold ourselves to.
Meet the Makers
Boyd Timothy
Software Engineer
Boyd is a software engineer and musician based in Highland, Utah. He writes the firmware that makes Q-Tune tick, builds the website, handles the USB-C firmware update flow, and co-designs the circuit, schematic, and PCB layout with Ryan. He's the kind of person who'll spend a weekend optimizing a pitch detection algorithm and then pick up a guitar to see if it feels right. If something about Q-Tune works smoothly, there's a good chance Boyd was up late making sure of it.
Ryan Schultz
Mechanical Engineer
Ryan is a mechanical engineer based in Knoxville, Tennessee. He designed the T-Pre preamp kit that started this whole partnership, and he and Boyd collaborate on Q-Tune's circuit, schematic, and PCB layout. Ryan has a knack for making complex electronics approachable — his instincts for clean, well-documented, DIY-buildable designs shape every kit that goes out the door. If the kit feels like something you can build and be proud of, that's Ryan's influence.
Here's a picture of some older prototype versions of Q-Tune we experimented with:
What We Believe
Building is better than buying.
There's something deeply satisfying about using gear you assembled with your own hands. We want more musicians to experience that.
Your gear should grow with you.
Firmware updates mean Q-Tune keeps getting better. New features, improved accuracy, refinements based on real feedback from real players.
DIY shouldn't mean "figure it out yourself."
We write clear instructions, answer every question, and design kits that are buildable. The challenge should be fun, not frustrating.
Small and independent on purpose.
We're two guys who love playing guitars and building things. Every decision we make is strongly influenced by how we use Q-Tune ourselves.