I bought a Snark 2 clip on tuner recently. I used to have a no-brand one I got from the local music shop - tuner was called BEAM, they don’t have a website but are in a few shops here - but that took an unfortunate tumble down a flight of stairs and smashed.
So I bought a snark. It SUCKS.
Positives are: it works, and it uses vibration. And I guess it seems more physically durable than my old one.
Negatives: it’s excruciatingly slow. So slow it takes ages to tune. Slower than even tuning apps on my phone.
It’s also inaccurate. I can literally hear a string is out of tune, and twist the peg, and it won’t read it correctly. It might eventually… or it might not.
My old tuner was fast, the amp is fast. This thing sucks.
Some googling found reddit threads with others complaining about the same issue - apparently they used to be good but are now not.
Any recommendations for clip on, vibration based tuners that are fast, durable and rechargeable?
The clip-on I have is a Peterson Strobo. Nice tuner, agrees with the helix, has features I’ll never use. It does use a coin cell for power but not fast unless you keep in on for some reason. They also didn’t understand the idea behind the strobe and how it works in a real strobe tuner. Other than the visuals being goofy, it does work fine.
Pity you’ve had a bad experience with the Snark.
I’ve had one for almost 3 years, and found it great to use, durable, and importantly, highly accurate.
It compares very favourably with my tuner in S-Gear, which has some big wraps.
I have the Snark. On occasion I’ve seen it not be super accurate. I’ll tune with two tuners sometimes. I’ve got a Boss TU-70 and it’s not always perfect either.
Interesting. I suppose with any product, there’ll be differing experiences, depending on how used, expectations etc. Mine is the older ST2 - only difference is it has a built in mic, which I dont really use anyway.
Good luck finding something that suits.
I have a Snark, a D’Addario & a unknown brand that came with my second guitar, years ago. None are rechargeable but all three seem accurate and reliable. The ones that don’t seem so great are the ones built into my acoustic guitars. They don’t really work well!
I’m happy with my fender one, don’t like the pederson strobe tuner at all, happy to sell it at half new price, hardly used, just can’t get used to the strobo
Preferred method though, is using the internal tuner on the Mustang or POD Go. As I’ve just started pushing the acoustic through the POD I get the best of both worlds.
The Micro is a bit awkward to read sometime, depending on light conditions but certainly the most consistent and accurate - an in obtrusive sizewise.
I have two clip on’s one is a Boss, the other one not sure what is. I find them both slow… takes for ever… i have a built in tuner in the guitar that i mostly use. That is also slow.
I find the app tuners to be most accurate and fast. But they are not that good when i change tunings. Then the clip on is preffered.
But i guess its better than the old days when you had to this by the ear more or less
It sucks buying something, however cheap or expensive, and not doing what it says on the tin.
I have a snark that I don’t use too often now (in fact that’s parked in Athens now) but I have a Boss clip on Tu03 tuner and I can recommend it.
It agrees well with the polytune 3 pedal and it also has a built in metronome which I’ve found useful occasionally.
I think it’s good value for money.
Have you checked the battery on the Snark? Just because it is new doesn’t mean the battery isn’t shot.
My timers go all wonky when the battery starts to fail.
I have several tc polytune clip ons. Every so often they come up on sale for $15 or so, or a 2 for 1 bargain. They seem pretty accurate.
I also have this “kliq” clip on. I got it to have a rechargeable tuner. It work fine, locks in when I’m tune so easy to read. I suspect it is a touch less accurate than the polytune, but not meaningfully so. Probably within the accuracy of either tuner. The rotation feature of the screen was fragile and broke quite quickly, but a little super glue worked fine. I jus glued it in the right position for me to see.
I’ve got two of the D’Addario PW-CT-17 tuners posted above and they work well and are not expensive, I’ve also got the TC Electronic Polytune clip on which is my go-to tuner. None are rechargeable but you can get rechargeable button cell batteries so you don’t need to limit your choices.
This is what I use and I really love it. I actually like the auto-turn off because I always forget to turn it off and I would end up killing my batteries every time I used it. As it is, I’ve had mine for three years and have only changed the batteries once.
Well I’m glad I didn’t buy the Boss then as that was the other one I was looking at online!
Fender one I ordered last night so should get it this week.
It’s a USB rechargeable, fully charged. It’s just not a good piece of kit. Although apparently they used to be good. I guess if this was all I had experience with I would just put up with it not knowing any better, but my old clip on was FAST and so is the tuner in my amp & DAW. So the Fender one is coming and hopefully that is better!
