acoustic guitar tuner

bovril · 15-01-2005 3:56pm #1

Can anyone recommend a good acoustic guitar tuner? I am trying to teach myself to tune by ear, but in the mean time I am having problems with the 2 tuners I have. They are both cheap ones and both differ in tuning slightly. The mic in one of them isn't very sensitive either.

many thanks
B

dublinario · 15-01-2005 5:52pm

I would recommend the Fender tuner. I had it for a couple of years and was very happy with it, and then some b*stard nicked it last year at Oxygen. Since then I have had a Boss tuner, which I thought, going by the name, would be excellent. It's not. It's absolutely sh*t. I mean, like most tuners, it's fairly ok if you are plugged into it, but the Mic is very dissapointing.

Basically, the Boss tuner will tell you the string is in tune, even when you know by ear that it isn't. If you then stop the string vibrating with your hand, wait for the tuner to return to rest, and then pluck the contentious string again, your aural suspicions are confirmed, that the tuner was incorrect to suggest it was in tune. Long story short, it can't be trusted, and you have to double check the strings are actually in tune, which is really crappy.

Also, Guitars aside, inexplicably, the Tuner (bare in my mind I've had it for almost a year) has never, ever once been able to pick up the G-string on my Bouzouki. I have no idea why, and suspect it is something to do with the frequency at which the Bouzouki length strings, as opposed to Guitar length strings, modulate at. But I also have a Mandolin, in the same tuning as the Bouzouki, and the tuner picks up the G-string on this instrument fine. I have also used friends tuners, and they have picked up my Bouzouki's G-string fine.

I know I've gone on a bit of a rant, but has anybody else found any weird behaviour from a Boss tuner?

Creamy Goodness · 15-01-2005 6:01pm

i recommend the KORG CA-30 it was 30 euros a good bit back in goodwins in capel street but it's brilliant and it can be used for electric guitars too.

bovril · 15-01-2005 6:09pm

The 2 tuners I have are a fender one (AG-6) and a BOSS one TU-80. I was happy with the fender one until after tuning it at the start of my lesson with the fender tuner I was told by my teacher it was slightly off. He tuned it for me. I bought the boss one because I thought the fender one had seen better days (I have it nearly a year) and found the boss one to be a pile of sh*te. The mic only works in complete silence and even then it's exactly as you explained dublinario, it says the string is in tune and you try again and it's it says it's not.

I posted the same question on another site's forum and got this as a recommendation

http://www.music123.com/Intellitouch-Chromatic-Tuner-i81236.music?t=4

has anyone ever had any experience with this tuner? (not experience of music123, I have read previous threads)

david · 15-01-2005 9:23pm

Theyre supposed to be really good but don't you have to clamp that big ugly protruding piece o' plastic to your headstock? Sounds too awkward for me. If your guitar has a pickup, you may be best off just getting a high quality electric guitar pedal tuner.

Dave · 16-01-2005 12:04am

I've a korg one, never lets me down.

daram · 16-01-2005 1:48am

I have an intellitouch. Got it as a present a few years back from a relative who'd been in the states. Its pretty sweet. Works off vibrations so it works in noisy areas without being plugged in. Also, it folds, so it can hide behind the headstock of your guitar, but I just clip it off.

Pros: Accurate, Works in all conditions, Backlit Screen
Cons: No low battery warning other than it just getting stuff wrong, and also, it takes two ****in watch batteries.

acoustic guitar tuner

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