It's chromatic too so none of this 'tuned for ukulele nonsense' as it will read any note. Otherwise the screen is nice and clear to read and it has a cool feature that flips it upside down if you want to go totally stealth and mount it on the underside of the headstock. Like most clip on tuners, they can be adjusted to re-tune them (not something I recommend and have come across players unsure why their tuner is off because they changed the base tuning) but I suppose that is useful to get a uke in tune with something hard to tune, like an old piano. Come on, I can't be the only one who thinks that a uke on stage with a hideous looking tuner hanging off it looks - well, bad? You will hardly notice the D'Addario model I can assure you and most of my main ukes now have them as a matter of course. They are so inconspicuous it would be next to impossible to hit them on anything and they can just be left on at all times minding their own business.Īs an added bonus they remove that rather awful look of warts hanging on the end of the uke on stage. (Thanks go to Paul Redfern of uke band The pUKEs who lent me one!) I find them just as accurate as I need them to be (and as any other clip on), but the real boon is how small they are. It was actually a couple of years ago I came across the D'Addario brand micro tuner and they are quite old now, but they have become my staple clip on tuner. I suspect things may change as time marches on, but for now I can't find a better mix for me.ĭ'Addario / Planet Waves PW-CT-12-NS Clip On Tuner (approx £12.00) I list below examples of what I am using now. I'm not just knocking Snarks alone here - most of the clip on tuners out there I find are overly bulky and suffer because of it. It comes, I think, from them being bulky and sticking out from the headstock so much - an accident waiting to happen? On a stage environment I lost count of the amount of times they were ripped from the headstock by a strap, another player or a microphone stand. I could add that they also have a tendency to buzz and rattle before they break which is almost as annoying, but generally, they just don't seem to stand up to regular use. And that is the point - they break very easily, particularly on the hinge that holds the unit to the clip. In fact I don't think I now own one that is still in one piece and I used to have half a dozen of the things. They are also kind of funky looking and I must admit I liked that too.īut they have fallen out of favour with me now. I used to regularly just tell people 'get a Snark' for the simple reason that I found their readout clearer and more accurate than any other (plus they were cheap). I have reviewed a few, from the old favourite of The Snark to the higher end likes of the Peterson Strobe model. They are now much cheaper and, on the whole, very reliable. They just work! Buy one, you really should!īut moving on, we do like our gadgets too (well this player does) and the clip on tuner is a marvel that moves us massively further forward from the days of spending £50 plus on bulky guitar tuners with analogue needles on them. Frankly you never know when batteries will die and a tuning fork will never fail to get you out of a fix. In fact I would say they are a must have piece of kit for the money. I ALWAYS carry one in my gig bag and know how to tune the uke to itself. A combo review if you will.īut before we kick off, I did not intend that to sound like a slur on the use of a tuning fork. I thought it was therefore high time I took another look at ukulele tuning devices and let you know some of the kit I am now using. Things move on in the ukulele world, and as much as people moved on from using tuning forks and pitch pipes to clip on tuners, that world moves on too.
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