So I bought a digital clip-on tuner from eBay. Tuning accuracy: ±0.5cents it said. Nice clear display. Looked really good. Only one problem. Most of the time when it says the guitar is in tune it isn't. It may be accurate to ±0.5cents but I am sure it doesn't read to anywhere near that.
If what I understand is true, I'm not uspposed to be able to hear less than about three or four cents, but my hearing is certainly better than this tuner. It's not that it ever says that I am out of tune when I am in, but it seems to have a very wide range of what it considers "in tune".
So, finally, to the question. Are they all like this or did I just choose a rubbish one?
If there is any consensus on what is a good one, and preferably not too expensive (expensive is out of the question at the moment) I would be very grateful.
Just as a little foot note, the tuner function in GarageBand works well, but restricts me to being attached to my computer.
Replies
They're accurate, but...
1) They don't like banjos. They often respond to overtones rather than fundamental pitch.
2) They're in tempered tuning, which is fine if you're playing with pianos, but if you insist on tuning your string band or cigarbox trio to them you'll always sound a bit jangly. 'course maybe you like jangly.
3) Electronic tuners have subverted the time honored musicians' social order. Used to be, the musician with the best ear would tune up and everyone else would tune to them. Social organization was reinforced by physics and vice versa. Now any tin-eared 4th grader is capable of tuning to a gizmo (slightly out, as noted above) and a valuable communal ritual is lost;
4) get used to tuning with a gizmo and your ears will become weak and pale.
end of rant.
Tom
Hi Tom.
Good and interesting points, but aren't most fretted instruments fretted to an equal temperament scale? Just messing around I find I can tune a three string CBG easily by ear, but a four string with the extra string tuned to the third is quite a bit harder. The other reason why tuners may be an advantage is if you are tuning up in an environment which you can't actually hear your own playing (noisy club where another band is currently playing).
Good rant though.
Hi John,
Thanks. I admit it, I'm a reluctant tuner user and I agree about their usefulness on stages, in jams that involve a range of musicians, and other clamorous environments.
As for fretted instruments, yes and no. It's true that frets are laid out equally, but you can tweak your tuning depending on the key you're in by tuning your tonic chord. Say you're playing a song in D. A good ol' open D chord on a guitar will sound slightly out of tune if you use your Snark. But if you 1) tune your D string, then tune the rest of the guitar so that the D chord is in tune, you'll be pretty much in tune on the closely related chords as well. You don't end up with dead-on just intonation, but it comes closer than the electronic ear. I learned this years ago when I played in bluegrass bands. String quartets do it too, but of course they don't have the fret issue.
cheers,
Tom
I am a big fan of clip on tuners, but I also have a very accurate 20-year-old Korg GA-20' and an equally-aged Sony with an actual, as opposed to digital, needle. Both of them work well, each with an advertised accuracy of 1 cent, but interestingly, have calibrations that differ by about 5 cents.
I have had a large number of clip-on tuners over the last 5 years. I started with the $14 Planet Waves versions, that were basically a large plastic jack, with a 1/4" attachment that would plug into an electric's input jack, fit into a standard acoustic's soundhole, or clip to a headstock. These worked reasonably well in a noisy environment, but went through CR-2052 batteries really fast. Then I picked up a nice Optimus for about $80; it had an actual needle as well, was very accurate, long battery life...but the clip wouldn't open up enough for some of my thicker headstocks. And apparently grew legs a couple years ago during a spate of gigs with different bands / venues.
I have since determined through trial and error that any of the clip ons that cost more than $30 seem to have comparable stated accuracy (+/-0.5 cent), legible low light displays (some have selectable red, green or blue displays for different lighting conditions - I have 3 of these, can't remember the manufacturer, but can only find 2 of them on my workbench at the moment), and have nice rubberized jaws that can accommodate a wide variety of headstock thicknesses. Anything that sells for under $30, just won't stand up to even casual gigging.
Right now, I'm using the $39 Snark clip-on on both my CBGs and commercial guitars, and really like it. I have 4 of these (I put a tuner in each gig bag / guitar case). They have virtual needle dials that are visible (just) in direct sunlight or very low stage lights, red, green and yellow histogram bars that indicate flat, in tune or sharp, are fully chromatic, and also have selectable A reference frequencies from about 438 - 444 Hz. I also have an old Samsung digital tuner / metronome that ran about $75 15 years ago, that works great.
Basically, the higher priced Japanese tech translates into greater accuracy and reliability. The mid priced $40-60 Chinese tech is almost as good. Anything below that, I wouldn't bother; you might get a good one, but I wouldn't bet that way.
BTW, accuracy of +/- 0.5 cent = range of 1 cent. If you've spent years listening to classical music, your hearing is actually sharper than you think. What you're hearing are harmonics and overtones that sound good - to you.
Wow, right before Christmas, a person could have gotten 4 snark clip on tuners for $40
My Snark SN-8 arrived yesterday. It is in a different league to the previous chinese cheapie. It claims to be their most accurate and fastest to date. I haven't had a Snark before, but this certainly seems both fast and accurate. It seems to cope quite well with the bass string that I have on my double neck guitar. The other tuner would sometimes get completely confused about which note it was supposed to be - not good. So, a bit of a thumbs-up for the Snark.
Snark seems to be the favorite brand at UkuleleUnderground. $10 bucks or so and it's being used on some very precision ukes, as well as many not so precision. Get SN2...works great
G-Strings is nice, I used it for a long time. But lately I've been using DaTuner the display is a little cleaner and seems a little easier to identify the exact point of being in tune for me.
Paul Monaco said:
Hi Paul.
Thanks for that. My phone is a steam powered (but environmentally friendly) basic thing. No possibility of aps on it. I have, however, just bought a Snark SN-8 tuner on fleaBay. It is supposed to be their most accurate and fastest yet. I will report back once it has made its way across the pond.
Thanks again.
John
Paul Monaco said:
If you have an Android cell phone go to the Android market and download G-string to your phone (its free). It works pretty good and you will always have a tuner on hand.
Android market Guitar tuner
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