Behringer’s owner has filed a lawsuit against Boss and parent company Roland over its use of polyphonic tuning technology in several of its amp modeling and multi-FX pedals.
The lawsuit is from Empower Tribe, which owns Behringer and TC Electronic, and claims Roland has produced a “knock off” of its patented polyphonic tuner.
As a result, Boss has removed the feature from many of its flagship devices, including the GT‑1000, GT‑1000CORE, GX‑100, and GX‑10.
The story was broken by YouTuber John Nathan Cordy, who was prompted to go down a series of rabbit holes when a fan bemoaned that the polyphonic tuner feature had been removed from one of their Boss pedals.
This removal has been confirmed to be related to the court case by Boss in a statement provided to Guitar World.
“As of March 2026, in light of pending litigation concerning certain aspects of polyphonic tuning functionality, we have decided to remove the polyphonic tuner function from the GT‑1000, GT‑1000CORE, GX‑100, and GX‑10,” the company says.
Legal documents can be found on CourtListener.com, with the first complaint issued October 9, 2025.
Empower Tribe claims that Boss has wrongly infringed on TC Electronic’s patented tuner, the PolyTune – in particular its ability to tune multiple strings simultaneously. The pedal was first launched in 2011 and today, the latest version sits atop Guitar World's list of the best tuners in the game.
“Although Roland [which owns Boss] has developed many patented products on its own,” the lawsuit documentation reads, “it decided that instead of creating a polyphonic tuner itself, it would simply knock off Empower's patented device instead.”
As Cordy notes, the PolyTune isn't the world's only polyphonic tuner, and the Boss pedals it formerly existed in weren't direct competitors; tuners were simply one feature among many. The Boss GX-10, for instance, offers 32 amp models, a monophonic tuner, a looper, and multiple effects. So the waters could be deemed a little murky here.
“[The] defendants have never sought or obtained a licence of the patent, and are not authorized to practice any claim of that patent,” the documentation also attests.
It also goes on to say that Empower Tribe had contacted Roland about “reaching an amicable solution,” but claims that Roland “denied infringement” and “refused to negotiate a potential settlement.” This month, Boss removed the polyphonic tuners from those devices, although the units still feature a monophonic tuner.
The lawsuit is steeped in irony, given Behringer has a reputation in the guitar gear community for making cheaper versions of iconic pedal designs – in 2006, Boss sued Behringer over its entire stompbox line, forcing the German firm to redesign its devices. Just last year, it launched a clone of the Boss CE-1.
Behringer was also recently the subject of a lawsuit by Klon Centaur creator Bill Finnegan, forcing the firm to make changes to its Klon copy in an apparent attempt to avoid legal repercussions.
Notably, the Klon versus Behringer case was ultimately dismissed, so we may see a similar outcome repeated in this instance, too.
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