Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

An existential question posed for the benefit of precise musicianship.

What tuner?

I have always went some type of korg, and I am actually thinking about purchasing a pitchblack. Probably the PB-02 because it seems to be more accurate. Thoughts?

What do you use to intonate? What is the best?

I use a Boss TU-3 or the inbuilt tuner on my Pod/Flextone. The Boss is used for all intonation work.

I have Grover Slimlines on my 330, I bought an extra set just in case one pot-metals out on me in the future.

Funny there's two different types of tuners mentioned

I use a Boss Tu-2 (ooh, not the latest standard ) and it works fine, so the Tu-3 should do

I'm guessing since the original post mentioned Korg, it's not the type that physically adjust your strings that's of interest here.

Anyway, I've got one of the Korg chromatic ones, works fine. Then I bought some rack equipment on ebay and it came with a Fender RT-1000 rack tuner. That seems to work pretty well too, though I find the "light show" it does when inactive to be a bit distracting (my cats find it fascinating and want to catch the lights).

But, I was at a gig a couple of weeks ago and another bass player there had one of these on an acoustic/electric bass: It looked like a nice unit, seemed to work great too. He said it was really nice since you didn't have to turn your amp down or find some kill switch to silence while tuning, just turn down the volume knobs.

There was a flurry of interest on this forum a short while back, but I wasn't really wanting to change from my rack unit so I didn't pay much attention. But after seeing and messing with one, I'm seriously thinking of switching. Small, light, seems to work great, easy to carry with you, and pretty cheap too. Plus, I really need to free up a slot in my rack for my new reverb unit...

Ah, here's the previous thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=398911&p=665665&hilit=snark#p665665

I have a Peterson Strobo-Flip, a Boss TU-2 and a small Korg tuner.

The only one I use now is the Peterson. It is super accurate, has sweetened tunings and has unique settings for Bass, 6 string, 12 string regular, 12 sting octave, Buzz Feiten (whatever that is), etc.

It has a plug in for your guitar cable, built in mic for acoustics, bridge clip, 120 Volt adapter, a clamp for a music or mic stand and uses 3 AA batteries.

About the only thing it won't tune-up is my car

I've had this one for about ten years and I love it:
I also use one of these:
I often prefer getting one note and using my own harmonics to finish up.

I recently got a TC Polytune and love it! For as long as I can remember, my faithful Boss TU-12 did a fine job, but i like having my tuner in a pedal with a bypass switch and it's great with a 12-string.

At Sunday's practice I found the Snark to be useless while the drummer and guitarist were warming up--the noise overpowered it.
The other tuner I have is a Dean Malarky PT 13 pedal which works OK.

fatcat wrote:At Sunday's practice I found the Snark to be useless while the drummer and guitarist were warming up--the noise overpowered it.

Hmm, I may have to rethink that idea of giving up the rack tuner...

...need another one?

I bought one of the snark's for about 15$, the red one because it was only a dollar more. I like it because I don't have to mess around with cables. I think I still might want to go with a high end tuner. Any more suggestions would be great.

Ilikewater wrote:I think I still might want to go with a high end tuner. Any more suggestions would be great.

How about the Korg DTR-1 I am selling?

Personally, I find tuners ok if there is a lot of other ambient noise or what not and I can't hear the instrument very well But the ol' ears are the best for me. Have you ever watched a piano tuner? The guy that does my piano uses some high end tuner to get close, but brings it the final steps by ear...a lot to do with the harmonics and sympathetic resonances, I guess.

elreydlp wrote:I recently got a TC Polytune and love it! For as long as I can remember, my faithful Boss TU-12 did a fine job, but i like having my tuner in a pedal with a bypass switch and it's great with a 12-string.

I agree. I took the 12-string to the guitar store to find a tuner that worked well with it and bought the Polytune. The TC works equally well with bass, 6-string, and 12-string. Just be sure that you have it in the correct mode (guitar of bass).