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To all of you who use headstock tuners, is there one which is more widely known than others as being accurate? I have a Snark super tight hz tuner that I have used for several years. I thought I was happy with it initially, having run it and compared it with my Peterson Strobe desktop model which is rather old but great. I found that the Snark held its own against the Peterson and was very happy with that. The other day I retuned with the Peterson and compared it to the Snark and the Snark, even with new batteries, was off. The Peterson made the guitar sing.
I find that with my hearing today I rely heavily on tuners for ease and thus the interest in a new clip on tuner. I have had the Daddario Micro headstock tuner previously and was underwhelmed by it.
I recently saw, probably on YT, a clip on the TC Electronic Polytune Clip tuner which itself looked good, but they all do on YT. What do you guitarist say, any favourites that are accurate as well?
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01-18-2024 12:28 PM
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I had the exact same experience with the Peterson clip on vs the Snark. There is no comparison. My guitar sounded more in tune, it sang, compared to using the snark. Luxuries once sampled become necessities so I only use the Peterson now. I made the whole band buy one. Well, except for the drummer!
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I only use Peterson Strobe tuners now. Best tool on my workbench at times. That said, in the end the guitar gets a final check against my ear. I can hear 3 cents off and under that makes no difference in the end. Finger pressure will change the tuning of any note fretted. Nothing compares to a Peterson.
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I have a slightly unusual tuner issue -- I'm colorblind, and have trouble reading some tuners. In addition, I also play outdoors a lot, and most tuners are useless in bright light. I've found that the TC Polytune (which doesn't use color to differentiate between in and out of tune, and is brightly lit) works best for me. I have no idea how accurate it is, but I do know that one I can't see at all has to be less accurate.
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I use the Peterson clip on strobe tuner and have been quite happy as well.
You get what you pay for.
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John, good to hear. Are you referring to one of the headstock tuners or the footstomp type? As I mentioned the vid I saw of the TC Polytuners made them look easy to use as you say, tuning all strings simultaneously.
Originally Posted by John A.
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I use the little black d'dario ones, but it's hard to get it tuned when I'm on stage with drums and bass also setting up while the house music on. Even though I like going from guitar straight to the amp, I'll probably go back to my Boss TU-2 pedal since I like being in tune better.
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I use the clip-on headstock version. Originally Posted by 0zoro
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The TC Polytuner was better than the D'Darrio ones I use now. But playing live things get shared and lost, so I went with the cheaper one after losing a few TC's. The TC Polytuner all string tuning never worked out for me. I still had to go back and retune individually. Originally Posted by 0zoro
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I've managed to neither lose or break the TC for a couple of years now. Before the TC, I'd tried a few different kinds, and I found Snarks to function best, but very fragile (and I lost a few, too). Let's hope this post doesn't jinx the TC (phew! it's still in my gig bag). I find the all string tuning helpful for checking to see whether the entire guitar is in tune, but once I'm tuning one string I'm usually tuning others. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Last edited by John A.; 01-18-2024 at 03:55 PM.
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I have owned both Peterson and Snark. There is a meaningful difference. How important it is, that has to do with how much you want your guitar to be in tune. Being a guitar player I am used to things not being a 100%. I also hear Sax players a little off all the time. Why they are off, IDK.
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I have been using a Korg Sledgehammer pro for several years. Accuracy is spec'd at +/- 0.1 cents.
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I have a Korg Sledgehammer Pro, a Peterson Stroboclip, and a TC Poytune. The Korg sits on a shelf somewhere, battery-less. I use both the Peterson and the TC daily, whichever is handiest. The TC advertises accuracy to .01 cent. Not a tenth, but a hundredth, in strobe mode. All advertised specs aside, I find both to be pretty much equivalent, and it's difficult to get the guitar tuning machines to tune to that accuracy. Even 18:1 tuners are a little too fast, and if you overshoot and have to tune back down a little, the slack which occurs in the string wrap has to be pulled back tight to keep it from detuning slightly. I have no regrets about buying the Peterson, but in truth I think the Polytune is as accurate and usable, for a fraction of the price. I also have D'Addario micro clip-free tuners on some of my guitars, for emergency use if neither of the primary tuners is available, but I don't use them much. They're accurate enough, but not quite on a par with the Peterson or TC. In standard mode the TC isn't quite up to the Peterson, but in strobe mode it is. It just has fewer features.
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The drummer doesn’t tune his drums? ? Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I have gone from the Ned Steinberger design ones to the TC Polytune clip on. In strobe mode I find it is quite accurate, as accurate as my old guitar tuner that I've owned for about 30 years or more (I think it's a Sanyo). in the other mode, it is not as accurate, and it's easy to hear the difference. I think the Polytune will do some "sweetened" tunings too, but I have not made any effort at those since I put a lot of care into making sure my guitars are intonated. (with my classical or flattop that's not as doable, and I think that is the target market for sweetened tuning).
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I use a D’addario rechargeable headstock tuner to get in the ballpark and then I “sweeten” the tuning by ear.
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after all that praise in this thread for the Peterson clip on i couldn't resist ordering one too ..... so far i liked the Snark HZ. Curious if this will change after i get the Peterson
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I have to admit that i like the saxplayers to be just a tiny little bit flat, especially the alto players, but i hate them to be sharp. Originally Posted by st.bede
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Sweetened tunings are fine if you only play in one key, or a couple very close together. If you play in lots of keys all over the neck, equal termperament is better, even though it sounds worse when just strummed with open strings. This problem has been known for centuries, and it's especially a problem with pianos. Equal temperament was invented to try to get the best sound on a piano in all keys, on all keys. It's still the best we have for general playing. If a guitar is tuned so that all the open strings are perfectly in tune with each other, they won't be in tune when played up the neck, or keys other than E, maybe D and A. The tuning has to be compromised to get all keys in all positions to sound equally good (or bad). An electronic tuner intentionally tunes to equal temperament, not just temperament, and will result in a guitar that plays more closely in tune in all keys, if that's important to the player. It's also possible to use just temperament, to give a better sound to a particular key, if that's more important. Tuning by ear results in just temperament, and can sound very good with cowboy chords, but not so great for jazz. Personally, I tend to tune with the tuner at the 5th fret, because that's close enough to the center of where I play most often, and I get an acceptable intonation all over. Not perfect, but acceptable. That's certainly not the only way to do it, and each player is responsible for tuning his/her own guitar. I also tune open strings with the tuner if I'm in more of a hurry and a little less picky. I have no particular tuning religion.
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I use the tc electronic polytune in strobe mode, and it works great. Its not the cheapest, but it works well and for me is easy to see and use.
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I have the Peterson Stroboclip HD but mainly use it to get the A string right. I try to tune the rest of the strings by ear with respect to the A string following Martin Taylor's recommendation. The Peterson Sweetened Tuning mode doesn't really work for me. I hear sharp notes as being in tune. In other words, A440 I hear as a flat note before the tuner verifies it is in tune. It may stem from a time in my youth when I was starting out and was given a tuning fork that was A443. I hear notes sharpish.
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I put a clipless D’Addario on my Tele, because the clip on D’As kept getting loosened or knocked off taking the guitar out of the gig bag on stage. I gave up on Snarks because they eat batteries and break. The little D’A is a decent tuner if you wait a second or two for it to stabilize. I was amazed at how slowly they respond to slight changes. If you don’t realize this, you end up chasing yourself because the tuner hasn’t yet reached the actual pitch of the string and you’ve already gone to the next one. The head is the same on both the clip and the screw mount, so there’s no difference in lag.
I carry a clip-on D’A in each gig bag for my archtops, but I don’t leave it on because I’ve seen several good guitars with visible finish differences under the clips if left on for months or more. I use a strobe tuner on my recording desk, but I don’t like having a big tuner sticking out from the headstock.
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Today the Peterson Strobo Clip HD arrived and i gave it a short test. Initially a bit awkward to use, after a few times going through all strings i got used to the delicacy of fine tuning with the strobe display. Comparing it to the Snark HZ i'm not sure which i like more. The Snark is somewhat faster, the display does not allow as much accuracy, and with the Snark HZ i would tune the D, and G string a tiny little bit higher. However, i do not, as some other people do, get the sensation of the guitar being much better in tune after using the Peterson.
As for the manual and usage of the Stroboclip, i think it's designed logical, not complicated, but for users of the sweetened tunings it will be necessary to have the manual close as there are many options. https://www.petersontuners.com/media...N_Outlines.pdf
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IME there is no such thing as a fast tuner, unless you consider the automatic tuners that Gibson used. I put a set of those on my Epi ES175, and they were fast and accurate, but they were fragile and kept stripping the gears. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not capable of tuning a guitar quickly. I can get it close, but getting it properly tuned requires patience and small movements of the machines. I just can't quickly wind to the perfect pitch, regardless of the tuner. Some are a little faster and easier than others, mostly because of the response time, I think. Slow response means much longer tuning time.
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