Guitar tuner?

[Deleted]

I"ve now been playing the slide guitar for three months! I have a total of five numbers learnt! My entire repertoire is .1 Can't be satisfied,
2 Crossroads, 3 Cut my wings, 4 Walking man, 5 Started out with nothing. My next project is Death letter! I have a lighting guitar. The ends of my fingers have been painful now for as long as i can remember!! I'm lucky with my job, because i run a Circus i tend to have a load of time during the winter. So i'm able to play for several hours a day. I did my first performance before an audience last week and it was a very lovely thing! I have been used to playing classical music on the piano.
I'm not used to people laughing and clapping when i played Chopin! This type of music is just such FUN!! ( Death Letter..Fun?)
I'm so hooked and pleased to have discovered something so pleasurable. Next season i'm going to workout some way i can play in the Big-Top. Perhaps accompanying my daughters hoola hoop routine? So i have a question. Can anyone recommend a good tuner. I bought a "clip on" one which was ok'ish! but it was not very reliable. My ear is pretty good but i would like to have a tuner which i can rely on!
Happy new year to everyone.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Billybonkers1,

I am pleased that you are enjoying your MM guitar.

The best clip on tuner is the INTELLI IMT-500

......the cheaper GUITARMAN GM11 ones are okay, but do not work as well as the INTELLI.

One piece of advice with the GUITARMAN, in fact with any of them, is to replace the factory-fitted batteries with good ones. It really makes a lot of difference to how they perform.

Talking of performing, I am interested to know more about your circus. Can you tell us about it, is there a website?

Shine On
Michael.

[honeyboy]

I've owned a variety of clip on tuners, but they all seem to constantly struggle to pick up certain lower register notes (such as low D low E low C etc) - They seem especially bad when used on resonant acoustic instruments.

I've found the Korg AW-2G to be an excellent chromatic tuner.



It picks up the low C or D cleanly every time (no need to find the octave harmonic and pray like the Intellitouch tuners), and has the switchable combination of a microphone or a piezo sensor for reliable use in noisy environments.

The display is large and clear, and the battery life is very good (just using a simple cr 2032 battery). It works fine on noisy acoustic instruments with a variety of weird tunings. And at around £22 it is a sound buy. There are cheaper clip on tuners, but none that can cleanly pickup a low C every time, in my experience.

[Michael Messer]

....that Korg tuner does look very good.

You are right about the low notes Honeyboy. I always do 12fret harmonics to tune the low strings with a clip on tuner.

I'll have to get the Korg and try it.

Shine On
Michael

[Stevie]

You could try plucking the string at different points along its length. Try with and without picks too. I have one of the Intelli tuners. The early one that was quite long (and expensive at the time) . It worked for a while until the coin cell went flat. I have a Peterson "Stroboscopic" tuner and that is a beast! Even the manufacturers admit that you have to learn to interpret the readings. The message here is that I'd play around a bit more with it before splashing out on what may be more of the same. They are just another tool. Maybe clipped to a reso in a noisy environment is causing the problem? I know how much my MM rings when I sneeze in the same room. Could be that background noise is feeding back into the tuner in much the same way that a loudspeaker can also be used, after a fashion, as a microphone.

The Boss TU-2 (or newer model TU-3) are both highly regarded, and the new Korg Polytune seems to be getting rave reviews too, but I suspect that despite the fact that you didn't specify, you really want an alternative clip-on?

[Deleted]

Stevie- I was not definitely wanting a clip on. I wasn't specific enough about my previous one a Tiger jt-128. It just gave up on me! Just stopped working. I tend to use different open tunings and it never was happy with Fsharp! So i'm looking for a tuner that is good quality and does the job. Will definitely look at the ones already advised.
Michael you ask about my Circus.
www.fredsflyingcircus.co.uk
You can see the website and also there are loads of youtube films.We do loads of things, well anything that pays basically. I was on "never mind the buzcocks" last week. I was once the warm up act for Madonna.

[SoloBill]

Hi,
See also this thread -
michaelmesser.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=talkingblues&thread=2968&page=1.
I bought a Zoid (from the USA over the internet) after reading that and it does the job.
A wider search on the internet came up with quite a few people who weren't happy with intelli tuners although mine was fine for quite a while then seemed to stop finding the low notes. (Maybe Michael's comment about making sure the battery is fresh applies here).

[Stevie]

I think that Peterson do a clip on "strobe" tuner. They are in many respects professional bits of kit and you'll need a wallet to match! They also do a Strobostomp which as a halfway house might be ideal. I can only speak for my Peterson "V-Sam" though. It is undeniably accurate but requires a little familiarisation. Thankfully, the Buzz Feiten offsets that are programmed into it are not really necessary with a slide on your finger!

Your circus is fascinating

[blueshome]

I have an Intelli, it has no problem picking up sounds, it will even pick up low A on my down tuned 12-string if I need to go that low.

For setting intonation or studio work I use Peterson strobe tuner app on my iPhone.

[Deleted]

I now have an intelli clip on IMT-500. It does NOT pick up the low string. This string tends to stay in D because i'm normally in open D or G. So it's not the end of the world. However i don't see why it doesn't pick this string up. Even the next string, either G or A , it only occasionally registers!
Maybe they vary from unit to unit!

[slidenpickit]

With mine it sometimes depends on where it is clipped on. But, generally I also use a 12th fret harmonic to se the low strings.

The Petersen clip on tuner can be set to sweetened tunings for resonators etc.

[gaucho]

Is there such a thing as a tuner that you can set to tune to to an open tuning like G?

[slidenpickit]

Yes, the Petersen has a preset for that sweetened tuning.

[snakehips]

Hi there !

Santa brought me the Peterson Stroboclip tuner.
It is excellent - and I own quite a few clip-on tuners, including the Intelli thingy.
You don't need to use harmonics on the wound strings with this tuner.
It handles even the 6th string as easily as the rest.
It is now my best + most reliable tuner for gigs.
I haven't yet tried the "sweetened" tunings yet (the standard" one works good anyway !)
www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Electronic_tuners/Peterson_StroboClip_Tuner.html

[daddyslide]

Jan 12, 2011 8:05:29 GMT snakehips said:

Hi there !

Santa brought me the Peterson Stroboclip tuner.
It is excellent - and I own quite a few clip-on tuners, including the Intelli thingy.
You don't need to use harmonics on the wound strings with this tuner.
It handles even the 6th string as easily as the rest.
It is now my best + most reliable tuner for gigs.
I haven't yet tried the "sweetened" tunings yet (the standard" one works good anyway !)

www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Electronic_tuners/Peterson_StroboClip_Tuner.html

I have the Stroboclip too.
Now, it is interesting how you tune your guitar.
only chromatic or with the stroboclip function "sweetend & DBO ( what means for open tunings )".

so I really like the normal chromatic tuned guitar more.
for me, it sounds more like blues.