Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

[DinoTrousers]

I'm wondering everyone's thoughts on forgoing the traditional pedal tuner on your board in favor of the now plentiful market of affordable, accurate clip on tuners.

I've got my trusty old Korg DT10 on one of my boards, and I love it. It's plenty accurate, bright, and muting my signal is a really handy bonus.

But when I put together a rig for my church group, I just grabbed one of my Reverb.com $4 clip on tuners. Whenever I tune, I just turn down my Strat's volume, and I haven't had any issues.

And when I'm at my store, we tune everything in the shop using Snark tuners or Planet Waves. These newer clip on tuners are as accurate or more so than most pedal tuners.

I suppose part of it is the look. They look kinda goofy if you leave them hanging on (which is why I picked up a Planet Waves Micro Tuner). But just about everyone I know uses them for acoustics, so why not electric? One less thing in the signal chain. One less pedal to power. Yet I find myself still kind of wanting a pedal tuner.

Thoughts?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Same story for me. I just use a Snark, but if we gig it looks goofy to me.... But probably literally no one else would notice.

On the plus side, no pedal tuner = another spot for a pedal that doesn't mute your guitar!

 

[dystrust]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Pedal tuner for me. Longcat and I currently have 2 Korg Pitckblacks, and I intended to have one on each of my boards. It takes up real estate, but I'm pretty minimalist on the pedal front anyways. I also don't need to worry about forgetting or dropping it.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have a tuner on my board, but I just about always tune with the Polytune Clip. Considering how many pedals I have fighting for board space, I could probably set the pedal tuner aside for now.

 

[DinoTrousers]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have a tuner on my board, but I just about always tune with the Polytune Clip. Considering how many pedals I have fighting for board space, I could probably set the pedal tuner aside for now.

I've been looking at the Polytune Clip! I've seen pictures of Steve Vai's tour rig with one on each of his guitars

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have like four of those cheap reverb.com clip-ons and they're pretty handy. Seem to be accurate too. For some reason, though I trust the tuner in my Zoom G5 (multi-effect) more, though and it doesn't take up any extra real estate because it's just part of the pedal itself.

Still, I use my clip-ons quite a bit for when I'm noodling without amplification or if I'm playing one of my acoustics that doesn't have an onboard tuner.

The other guitarist in my band uses a clip-on pretty exclusively and we're never out of tune with each other. I guess it just comes down to what you're most comfortable with and what makes the most sense for your situation. I think they're both perfectly viable alternatives.


[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[chadd]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I use clip on tuners at home, but prefer my pedal or rack tuners when playing at volume.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have the PW micro tuners as well. They aren't a very good fit on a PRS headstock, haven't got a Gibby on hand so can't say if it's a good fit for those but on fenders & similar headstocks they fit perfectly, as well as on most acoustics. I haven't felt the need to carry a tuner pedal to gigs anymore.

You can touch the guitar that needs to be tuned with another guitar that has the micro on it & perform the tuneup. I bet that should work for other brqnd clip on tuners as well.

 

[DeadandBuried]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have 2 pedal tuners, the Boss TU-2 and a TC Electronic Polytune Mini. Both work very well for me and I'm happy with them. Soon to be getting the full size Polytune as I'm due to do some guitar tech'ing for a mate's band in the summer and dark stages aren't the best environments to be using a Korg TM-40! Also my TU-2 is velcro'd into my main board and the mini doesn't take a 9v battery which doesn't serve well if standing off-stage with no power source.
Not owned a clip-on before and I find they don't react well to certain woods, I have several guitars so all might get a different reading.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Not owned a clip-on before and I find they don't react well to certain woods, I have several guitars so all might get a different reading.

Which woods have you run into that with?

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I've been using the blue Snark Tuner exclusively. It has been great on every guitar I've tried it on. I like the clip on tuners especially on acoustics as you don't have to worry about other noise influencing the reading.

 

[DeadandBuried]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Which woods have you run into that with?

Mahogany, Alder, Agathis, and some of my student's guitars (I'm a guitar tutor)

 

[Mincer]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I use the one on my pedalboard. For playing unplugged at home, a clip on works. I don't like the way it looks live though.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Mahogany, Alder, Agathis, and some of my student's guitars (I'm a guitar tutor)

I have three mahogany guitars and they all work just fine with the clip-ons. My clip-on tuners are pretty cheap ones though, and seem to be calibrated to only work well when you're getting close to the target tone. For instance, if I'm moving from standard tuning to drop-D the tuner shows nothing as I move through Eb until I start approaching D. It also seems to recognize D better if it's the normal open 4th string rather than the octave down. This is the same on all my guitars, but again, it's an el-cheapo and I assume that a better quality one would be more able to react to such variations. Still accurate though, once you get the hang of it.

I guess I'm asking if you're sure it's the woods and not just variations in tuner quality?


[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[DeadandBuried]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I have three mahogany guitars and they all work just fine with the clip-ons. My clip-on tuners are pretty cheap ones though, and seem to be calibrated to only work well when you're getting close to the target tone. For instance, if I'm moving from standard tuning to drop-D the tuner shows nothing as I move through Eb until I start approaching D. It also seems to recognize D better if it's the normal open 4th string rather than the octave down. This is the same on all my guitars, but again, it's an el-cheapo and I assume that a better quality one would be more able to react to such variations. Still accurate though, once you get the hang of it.

I guess I'm asking if you're sure it's the woods and not just variations in tuner quality?


[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

It might be yeah, I mean I do also play in a lot of low tunings, so with you said with about the low string tuning to a D and all that, it might be a factor.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I also use one on my phone... an app called "Tuner Lite" that is extremely accurate and you can even calibrate it to NOT be A440 if you wanted to. I like it for doing stuff like setting intonation where you start worrying about being very exact.

Edit: oh yeah, forgot to mention that it's FREE!

[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[Aceman]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Looks goofy, can fall / get knocked off, can't be used as a mute, can be tough to read.

Handy? Yes. For a show? Never.

 

[DinoTrousers]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Anyone had any luck with their clip on tuners and 5-string bass? I've found the Snark SN-8 Supertight to work decently, but often I use a 12th fret harmonic to make an average clip on tuner work.

I've got a couple super cheap ones that get blown out on Amazon for $2, and they work as well as a good ol' TU-2 for my guitars and bass, but they can't read a 5 string at all, and I've had issues with the Reverb tuner doing the same.

I've found myself liking the Planet Waves micro tuner a lot. It's barely noticeable from the front, it's clamped on tight, and I don't have to take it off to put my guitars away. At this point I'm only really using that one on 6-in-line headstocks. I haven't tried it on a 3 x 3.

I plan on keeping my old Korg on my A rig, but I just can't seem to justify the need for a pedal tuner for my B rig. I could maybe see getting a polyphonic tuner like the Polytune or Pitchblack Poly, or something like the Pitchblack Plus with the built in A B pedal. I could also see myself getting something ridiculously accurate like a Strobo stomp or something for when I'm playing with more keyboards and synthesizers that are always tuning accurate, but the new Snark Hz tells me my accuracy down to a 10th of a hertz.

I still find myself looking for good deals on the Pitchblacks and the Polytunes, and if I found one for the right price, I would probably snatch it up no problem.

 

[DinoTrousers]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

I also use one on my phone... an app called "Tuner Lite" that is extremely accurate and you can even calibrate it to NOT be A440 if you wanted to. I like it for doing stuff like setting intonation where you start worrying about being very exact.

Edit: oh yeah, forgot to mention that it's FREE!

[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

I've got an app called Tuneable I like a whole lot. It was a couple bucks, but worth it to me as something I use fairly regularly. I really don't like to tune with my phone if I have another option, but it's an indispensable back up! There's just no excuse to not be in tune these days!

 

[chadd]

Re: Thoughts on Pedal Tuner vs Clip on?

Now that clip-ons are widely available in a very affordable price and superb accuracy, I can't find any plausible reason to use a pedal tuner. And I can't never find a reason to buy a pedal that costs on par with a distortion pedal, but the only thing it does is tuning; let a lone a rack tuner. 100 bucks for a tuner? Come on...

I have been using Korg PC-1 for almost a year now. It's accurate, very convenient; don't need to go over to my board to check my tuning; and it's so cheap I'll just get a new one if it breaks. Plus, since the screen is reversible, I can put it on in reverse behind the headstock.

My rack has a power conditioner in it, so the rack is always with me. My amp has a tuner out/mute button on the footswitch, making it easy and convenient with multiple guitars without having to change anything. I never have to worry about a dead battery or broken clip, as I've had before with clip on tuners. The display is huge and bright, making it easy to read in almost any situation and the strobe mode is great for intonation work.

In short, Iit's a great option for me. I can see where some other people might not be in the same situation and would opt for other solutions.