dave_bass5 Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 36 minutes ago, Bolo said: All of them look ugly and unprofessional. I have a Thomann branded one at home and it works barely. What's has looks got to do with anything? Do ugly tuners work less well lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 I find it very important to make sure the foot and clamp of a headstock tuner is flush to the surface of the headstock otherwise it won't read properly , especially on lower strings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolo Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 8 hours ago, dave_bass5 said: What's has looks got to do with anything? Do ugly tuners work less well lol. Opinions were asked and I gave one. I also share what little experience I've had with these tuners. Which are you giving me a hard time for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 Which Snark do people use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Bolo said: Opinions were asked and I gave one. I also share what little experience I've had with these tuners. Which are you giving me a hard time for? Ok, try and unwind a bit. It's not good for your health. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said: Which Snark do people use? Good question! I don’t have the boxes anymore and not sure if the model number is on the unit itself. Think mine are the SN5 or the updated version, SN5X, which can currently be had for a tenner on a well known internet platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naxos10 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I use a Snark S-1 which has the fixed clip and display. It's always attached to the head stock as it's so small,. It responds well but, I don't have a 5'er so can't comment on it's performance on the B string. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I used to like the small Planet Waves micro headstock tuner. Very discreet and gave me something got look at during Mustang sally (i used to try and make it spell out words) but i kept loosing them as they would fall off in the gig bag and either get crushed when the bass went back in, or just fall out of the bag. I went through 5 before giving up. IIR @Dood bolted his to the headstock by attaching it to the base of a tuning peg. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Waves-PW-CT-12-Micro-Headstock/dp/B005FKF1PY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Last rehearsal I found myself tunerless! Shock horror... I had to ask the guitarist for an A then use harmonics! Retro eh? 🤣 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said: I used to like the small Planet Waves micro headstock tuner. Very discreet and gave me something got look at during Mustang sally (i used to try and make it spell out words) but i kept loosing them as they would fall off in the gig bag and either get crushed when the bass went back in, or just fall out of the bag. I went through 5 before giving up. IIR @Dood bolted his to the headstock by attaching it to the base of a tuning peg. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Waves-PW-CT-12-Micro-Headstock/dp/B005FKF1PY Ahh! Close! D'Addario / Planet Waves actually do a version that is designed to fit on to the tuning key mounting! https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories-c2/tuners-c51/clip-on-c490/planet-waves-ns-micro-tuner-clip-free-pw-ct-21-p12335?gclid=Cj0KCQiApaXxBRDNARIsAGFdaB-eVj9D-KyUnbjwpNYMo91nIgi-DhuXjS48CNm0c1wc2qpY2E1A_GEaAjZ1EALw_wcB It's brilliant and means that NO ONE CAN NICK IT!!!!! ha ha ha!! (You can just slide the tuner off the clip to change the battery or what-have-you but don't tell the band mates that!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 32 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: Last rehearsal I found myself tunerless! Shock horror... I had to ask the guitarist for an A then use harmonics! Retro eh? 🤣 In all seriousness, I teach all of my students to tune accurately by ear especially for such times that the tuner fails to switch on. - Just a case of also teaching a student how to get the drummer/guitarist/WhoeverIsFaffingAroundMakingTooMuchNoise to be quiet long enough to get the bass in tune too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 11 minutes ago, Dood said: In all seriousness, I teach all of my students to tune accurately by ear especially for such times that the tuner fails to switch on. - Just a case of also teaching a student how to get the drummer/guitarist/WhoeverIsFaffingAroundMakingTooMuchNoise to be quiet long enough to get the bass in tune too! that was how we used to do it in the good old days - electronic tuners were laughed at as a complete waste of money when I started playing because everybody took an E or A off of one of the other instruments (which we trusted to be close enough to in tune). Though it did mean breaks during gigs while guitarists tuned up (anybody else listened to the live discs from the Motorhead 1979 reissues? Fast Eddie seems to spend half the gigs trying to get his guitar in tune) I've also read a couple of interviews with producers who prefer this when they are recording bands (Brett Gurewitz for one) because it's far more important that the band are in tune with each other than at concert pitch (quite why they can't achieve this by all being at concert pitch is unexplained) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 1 minute ago, Monkey Steve said: that was how we used to do it in the good old days - electronic tuners were laughed at as a complete waste of money when I started playing because everybody took an E or A off of one of the other instruments (which we trusted to be close enough to in tune). Though it did mean breaks during gigs while guitarists tuned up (anybody else listened to the live discs from the Motorhead 1979 reissues? Fast Eddie seems to spend half the gigs trying to get his guitar in tune) I've also read a couple of interviews with producers who prefer this when they are recording bands (Brett Gurewitz for one) because it's far more important that the band are in tune with each other than at concert pitch (quite why they can't achieve this by all being at concert pitch is unexplained) Absolutely! My first tuning device was a set of pitch pipes!! Many years later my first electronic tuner had a big switch to select the string you wanted to tune and a needle bobbed all over the place wasting my time whilst attempting to bring the bass in to tune. Yeah I can kinda understand the producers thing certainly for tuners of yesteryear. The "cheap stuff" available at the time for us poor musicians varied in accuracy between brands. Unless everyone used the same tuner then yes, tuning discrepancies were obvious even to my relatively young ear in music. I recall trying to talk a guitarist out of using their tuner because it was either shockingly inaccurate or broken! Hopefully those issues should be less of a problem today, or rather, it's less likely to be the fault of the tuner itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I used to spend half my life tuning up a cheap guitar, by the time I'd got to the high E the bottom E was out of tune again, electronic tuners are marvellous things. I do get exasperated at open mics when the 'performer' decides to do a song in drop tuning, then spends 5 minutes tuning up by ear, Mr and Mrs Silly Billy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staggering on Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 (edited) 49 minutes ago, Dood said: Ahh! Close! D'Addario / Planet Waves actually do a version that is designed to fit on to the tuning key mounting! https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories-c2/tuners-c51/clip-on-c490/planet-waves-ns-micro-tuner-clip-free-pw-ct-21-p12335?gclid=Cj0KCQiApaXxBRDNARIsAGFdaB-eVj9D-KyUnbjwpNYMo91nIgi-DhuXjS48CNm0c1wc2qpY2E1A_GEaAjZ1EALw_wcB It's brilliant and means that NO ONE CAN NICK IT!!!!! ha ha ha!! (You can just slide the tuner off the clip to change the battery or what-have-you but don't tell the band mates that!!) That looks like a good idea. I love the Planet waves micro and have several and use them on my EB,EUB,DB, guitar, banjo and mandolin and have never had a problem. I occasionally use a pedal tuner but most of the time I prefer the D'Addario which is almost invisible to everyone but me, I don't like big things stuck on my instruments and I find them distracting when I see people using them at gigs, but that's just me. Another good thing is that I can leave them on the instruments when I put them in their cases or gig bags. Edited January 23, 2020 by Staggering on 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Dood said: Absolutely! My first tuning device was a set of pitch pipes!! Many years later my first electronic tuner had a big switch to select the string you wanted to tune and a needle bobbed all over the place wasting my time whilst attempting to bring the bass in to tune. Yeah I can kinda understand the producers thing certainly for tuners of yesteryear. The "cheap stuff" available at the time for us poor musicians varied in accuracy between brands. Unless everyone used the same tuner then yes, tuning discrepancies were obvious even to my relatively young ear in music. I recall trying to talk a guitarist out of using their tuner because it was either shockingly inaccurate or broken! Hopefully those issues should be less of a problem today, or rather, it's less likely to be the fault of the tuner itself. the best/worst one was a guitarist from one of my very first teenage bands, who's not very good playing was made even worse by his refusal to tune up mid practice/gig. He'd done so at the start, and despite playing an 80's Strat (with not the most stable of trems) he saw needing to tune up again as some sort of weakness, an indication that he wasn't any sort of musician if he couldn't hear that he wasn't in tune (not helped by the fact that the other guitarist had perfect pitch and didn't need any sort of tuner at all). In fairness he proved his point - he wasn't any sort of musician and couldn't hear that he wasn't in tune But he did have a unique tone - you could hear one note and know it was him playing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 3 hours ago, dave_bass5 said: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Waves-PW-CT-12-Micro-Headstock/dp/B005FKF1PY This is one that prompted my post! I love the size but performance is a bit carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I tune at the beginning of each set and forget about it. Some of you folks must have bendy necks or something 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 57 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said: the best/worst one was a guitarist from one of my very first teenage bands, who's not very good playing was made even worse by his refusal to tune up mid practice/gig. He'd done so at the start, and despite playing an 80's Strat (with not the most stable of trems) he saw needing to tune up again as some sort of weakness, an indication that he wasn't any sort of musician if he couldn't hear that he wasn't in tune (not helped by the fact that the other guitarist had perfect pitch and didn't need any sort of tuner at all). In fairness he proved his point - he wasn't any sort of musician and couldn't hear that he wasn't in tune But he did have a unique tone - you could hear one note and know it was him playing 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Brilliant!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I did once take smug pleasure in telling a guitarist his g-string was out of tune 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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