What are folks using for tuning?

[The Bard Rocks]

I have always used Intellitouch and they work well on everything I have tried to use them on. Sometimes they balk at the lowest note. If that happens I just hit the 12th fret harmonic. They are bulky by today's standards. I really like that they react to vibrations not sound so I can use them where others are playing.

Recently I was given a TC tuner (thanks) and it of course is far smaller, quite easy to use. But there have been issues with it two times - once on my baritone and once on a banjo.The tuner reads like everything is perfect but when you sound a chord, OMIGOD what a horrible sound. The baritone had two strings off an entire step and the banjo had one. It was like the tuner was telling me I had a D dialed in, but it was really a solid C#. Are these only for regular guitars?

I have a smart phone but use it as little as possible. And it certainly won't pick up vibrations. Let's say I don't get "Good Vibes" from it.

[TBman]

I use a Snark. It adjusts for a capo up to the 4th fret with a few touchs of button. Its quick and easy to use. I have a Stroboclip HD< but it sits in a draw. I also have an app on my phone, Pitchlab Pro, which has a few quirks to the interface, but is programmable. I prefer the Snark to the Pitchlab as it identifies the note that is being played.

[bendandsnap]

Peterson StroboClip HD Clip On Tuner. Works great and I love how you can customize the offsets for True Temperament fretboards.

[carmona_nostra]

I like the unitune quite a bit, bought one and then another shortly thereafter for a different room.

[AndrewG]

A=440 tuning fork and my ears. Too much reliance on the infallible electronic tuner can result in unsweetened tunings which the device will tell you are correct as far as individual strings are concerned, but your ears will tell you are not in tune within certain chords. For example your tuner might tell you that your first position D-chord is perfectly in tune; however an A-minor, unsweetened, will have the top E sounding flat and way out of tune. Conversely an in-tune A-minor will result in the F# of the D-chord sounding unacceptably sharp. This is where our vastly superior ears come into play to tweak tunings to an acceptable compromise.
When I was a kid the only tuning aids available were either forks, pitch pipes (next to useless), or a convenient piano. All beginning guitarists should be urged to learn to tune their instrument using only their ears as part of their tuition regime.
E-tuners absolutely have their place; I use one when doing setups on electric guitars with adjustable bridges, and they are useful in noisy environments.

[Nymuso]

On plugged-in gigs I use my Zoom multi effects box. At home I use whatever - a Snark, a tuning fork . . . whatever is handy. There's also a website that generates pure tones that I've used from time to time. I get the 'A' from there and tune to that.

[FrankHudson]

Since we seem to be revisiting the "what's your favorite tuner" topic here's where I sit these days.

With acoustic guitars I tend to use a Snark most of the time. Easy to put on and take off (I'm switching guitars a lot and I don't leave headstock tuners in place) and I can always get them aligned so that I can read them.

I've got a Unitune and I find it a good unit at a good price, but it's a bit hard to put on an take off for me (fumble fingers), and because it doesn't have the fragile swivel of the Snark, not always as easy to view. Two little things annoy me about the Unitune: short "power saver" interval before it turns itself off. A lot of the time I'm not through tuning. And the idea of using a dot to the left the note letter to show sharp, which just seems unintuitive to me. That last is a little thing, that may bother anyone else, but for some reason it really bothers me, perhaps because I'm doing more alt tunings these days.

I bought a headstock clip on Polytune just to see if it was different with that display oddity, and no, same deal with the dot to the left.

I use a Polytune pedal on my electric guitar pedal board and like it a lot. For whammy bar and neck wringers like myself, the Poly function is useful when things go sour in the heat of battle, and it can indicate which string or strings is the culprit faster.

For setup work I use an old desktop Peterson blue rubber case "strobe" tuner.

My pitch sense is not so acute that I can manually sweeten after tuner tuning. I'll sometimes hear sour, but can't fix it by ear in a practical sense. I do sometimes use Silly Moustache's get the cowboy chord G in tune sweetening method as the tuner is still telling me when I've hit a pitch visually.

It's been some time since I tried using the sweetened tunings on my blue-case Peterson desktop unit. I don't recall liking them then.

[Purfle Haze]

Originally Posted by Shishigashira

Still, when my brother in law came over to jam he immediately said my guitar was out of tune, which I thought odd. I retuned with GuitarTuna and but no dice. So I used his clip on which was telling me I was off.

So which tuner was the brother-in-law using?

Anywho, long story short, what are others using and any issues with GuitarTuna?

Never tried GuitarTuna. My favorite iPhone tuner is Airyware. It has a nice interface, and the guitar sounds just right when I use it. I also have the Peterson iStrobosoft on my phone, but prefer the Airyware. It's $5, worth a try.

But mostly I use the TC Unitune clip-on tuner. I find it more accurate in the strobe mode, but use the "needle" mode from time to time too. I wish it stayed on just another thirty seconds before auto-shut-off, but that's not a dealbreaker.

Tuning is physics up to a point, and then it's an art. You can use almost any digital tuner to get "in tune," but does it sound in tune to you? I tune to both open and fretted strings; I tune the low E to the fretted G, I tune the B string to the fretted D, and so on. Mr. S. Moustache does something similar, he tunes strings fretted and open to a G chord. There are lots of tuning methods. Lots.

But at the end, does it sound right to you? If not, sweeten to taste. And avoid the canned ACU sweetener on the Peterson products, at least until you have developed an ear for what sounds "in tune" to you. Then try ACU if you want and evaluate. I think its sounds dreadful, but it has its proponents.

Best of luck!

[captain_jack]

I believe the TC tuners had been hard to find for a while last year but if anyone is looking both polytune and unitune are in stock at Sweetwater, and for a reasonable price (I see a unitune on amazon for $68?!)

[doublescale1]

All my acoustics (3) have pickups, so I use t TC mini Polytune on the small board that also has a chorus and Boss RV6 on it for acoustic nights out. Or I'll use a Snark or a D'Addario clip on that came with string purchases if I'm just practicing on the couch.

[colins]

Start with a snark, then use harmonics, ear and the sympathetic resonance of the guitar (as you can guess, I don’t play in noisy venues!).

I always find the B string the hardest one to get right.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

And the idea of using a dot to the left the note letter to show sharp, which just seems unintuitive to me. That last is a little thing, that may bother anyone else, but for some reason it really bothers me, perhaps because I'm doing more alt tunings these days.

I bought a headstock clip on Polytune just to see if it was different with that display oddity, and no, same deal with the dot to the left.

It’s only to the left if you’re attaching the tuner so that it’s behind the headstock (assuming you’re a right-handed player). If you attach it so that the tuner is to the front of the headstock, the dot is to the right of the note letter (because you’ve inverted the tuner).

I always attach tuners so they’re to the front of the headstock because, if they’re behind, my ‘tuning’ hand obscures my view of the tuner a lot of the time whereas, in front, it’s always visible with no difficulty. And the dot is in the ‘right’ place!

[Zissou Intern]

TC Unitune

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by colins

Start with a snark, then use harmonics, ear and the sympathetic resonance of the guitar (as you can guess, I don’t play in noisy venues!).

I always find the B string the hardest one to get right.

Me too, I usually end up tuning the B and sometimes the high E just a hair flat open, which generally seems to make them just a tad sharp when fretted on a lot of guitars. Never really found a need to sweeten with the low E, but theres enough folks talking about it on this thread I might try giving it a bit more attention in the future.

Some packs of heavy electric strings come with a wound and unwound G string, I find that often the unwound G string will be tough to tune, but responds better to bending than the wound G string.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

It’s only to the left if you’re attaching the tuner so that it’s behind the headstock (assuming you’re a right-handed player). If you attach it so that the tuner is to the front of the headstock, the dot is to the right of the note letter (because you’ve inverted the tuner).

I always attach tuners so they’re to the front of the headstock because, if they’re behind, my ‘tuning’ hand obscures my view of the tuner a lot of the time whereas, in front, it’s always visible with no difficulty. And the dot is in the ‘right’ place!

Hmmm. I'm a habitual "behind the headstock" guy. Since I take it off after tuning (another habit, but then I do switch guitars a lot) there's no reason for my behind habit.