Who uses a tuner pedal?

d8m

I'm on a downsizing kick(again)

Bad monkey has been kicked off the board(lack of use may sell on)

My chain is now:

TU-2 > DS-2 > Digidelay

I've come close to selling the digidelay in the past but given what I could get back on it It might as well stay for a bit of variety!

Given that I only play at home(with the dog as the audience) I am wondering about dropping the TU-2 in favor of my Snark clip on.

Just curious to see if anyone else has abandoned a pedal tuner

mart

Yep. Clip-on might not be as accurate, but it's good enough.

fretmeister

I have a clip on (D'addario) and it's fine, but as it works with instrument vibrations I find it less accurate in a noisy setting when there are other loud things about - no doubt the instrument is vibrating differently. So for that I have one the the tiny TC pedals.

Other than that though - the clip on is fine. really useful when playing with an orchestra.

EricTheWeary

The bass player in my old band went from tuner and compressor on the floor to just a snark - although I guess staying in tune is a bit less of an issue on bass. I have been tempted but I suspect on a gig I'd knock it and my snark would fly off into the audience.

MattG

I find that they are quite good as mutes for between songs when playing live or at a jam session.

richardhomer

I often use the TC Polytune app on my phone. Well worth £3 of anyone's money....

Alnico

Clip on's are great..............until another guitarist plays at stage volume or worse, the bass player.

This vibrates your own guitar and confuses the clip on tuner, thus messing up your tuning, assuming you are tuning up at that moment in time.

I use a TU-3 which has an excellent buffer in it but also gives me the absolute confidence that i'm in tune. I've got in the habit of using it in between every single song. This gives me a solid mute between songs which helps to keep (my part of) the set clean and means i can hit the strings with confidence that the last thing i did was check tuning.

I would never abandon my pedal tuner. It's my most important pedal.

An out of tune guitar sounds awful and a clip on doesn't always work the way it should.

Roland

Floor tuner is great in a live situation. You can check tuning between, or even during, songs; and they are more reliable than clip-ons

shuikit

Op says he only plays at home to his dog, so I would say a snark would happily do the trick. I bought a couple of them and am generally happy except one of them broke when I put it into a compartment which was a bit too tight, so my own fault really. The plastic that holds the arm in snapped but I've managed to super glue it and it still works, though it now lives on my desk.

There are other makes that don't have the arm bit, so less to break and I was thinking of trying one of those next if I ever needed another

Voxman

I have an excellent tuner in my pedalboard  (Boss TU12H) and floor access to decent tuners in my Vox Tonelab LE, and the VC12 floor-controller of my AD120VTX Valvetronix.   But I have been meaning to get a clip on for convenience too.  

I had a look on E-Bay and there are lots between £3 - £12.  Is there any real difference and what features should I look for?  They are all chromatic, LED (mostly), swivel to face you etc.  This one is under £4 and seems as good as any - thoughts?

stickyfiddle

I use Planet Waves NS Micro on acoustic when that's just being DI-ed. Works very well except if there's something amplified being played close by. Fine for tuning between songs though. Mine's an older version than the current one but I can't imagine the tech they're using has been downgraded.

I'd never go without on electric though - I have a pedalboard anyway, and a PT Mini takes hardly any space. Useful as a mute pedal too.

dindude

I took my pedal tuner off my board around 6 months ago in favour of a Snark. I too mostly play at home, with occasional outings, and it's fine. I miss the mute facility most, but I have discovered my amps standby switch when swapping guitars. Don't regret taking it off.

I do still keep an accurate tuner for set up or deep-tuning duties.

I've got one of these Korg Pitchblack Portable's, very accurate! 

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/tuners_detail.asp?stock=13011713572032&gclid=COS2i7mz-cECFcGWtAodglAALg

And here's a tip for these, every guitar shop seems to sell them for £70 - £80, Amazon sell them for £40, amazing value for a 0.1 cent accurate tuner!

english_bob

I won't be taking my tuner pedal off my board any time soon, but then I'm in a gigging band. I don't like the idea of a clip on tuner in that context because I'm sure if I left it on the headstock it would get bashed about and broken, but clipping it on and off during a set seems like a ball ache compared to just having the Polytune mini on the board taking up almost no space.

Having said that, if I was only playing at home I'd be happy with a clip on tuner. The Snark is nicer than the cheapo clip ons I've seen- it feels sturdy, has good features and tunes accurately without doing that irritating thing where the needle wavers all over the dial. If it were my money I'd say the extra outlay for the Snark was well worth it.

english_bob

^ LOL. Hadn't realised that the"extra outlay" was the difference between a fiver and a tenner! Snark is still the nicest clip on tuner I've used.

gubble

I tried to go from using a tuner pedal to a clip on during gigs. After two gigs the pedal returned to the board.

I missed the ability to mute between songs and also the pedal is simply more convienient in a live setting.

NervousJohn

I play in a band and the mute on my TU-3 is just too handy.

Jalapeno

I do, I have 3 boards and a TU2/3 on each.

Wisdoms awarded for the on-stage mute calls - very useful.

joeyowen

Out of interested OP, what difference does it make having the tuner on or off?

Is it powering / size / OCD?

Clip ons are probs find at home, but if you have a tuner, why get rid to get a clip on?

ROOG

NervousJohn said:

I play in a band and the mute on my TU-3 is just too handy.

What you mean you managed to fit it to the drummer?

downbytheriver

It's the mute I miss having gone tuner pedal free. I don't go out of tune much so a good tune before each half is all I require.

timmysoft

I always had a pedal tuner but now I just use the one in my pod pro, I do have the pw micro on my headstock too.