Tuner Etiquette

[jim1960]

The tuner stays on the headstock while I'm playing. Taking it on and off with every tuning seems like an annoying waste of energy.

[gmel555]

I leave tuners on at home. If I'm playing out I'll take it off (unless I'm having a "tuning challenged" moment). Regarding uncut string loops...to be fair to me and some of my 70's era colleagues, this was done sometimes when proper snips weren't around and we'd gotten tired of ruining all our nail clippers .

[phydaux]

I recently purchased four D'Addario NS Micro tuners and attached one to each of my acoustic guitars and one to my mandolin. I leave them there 24/7. They even stay on when I put them in their cases.






The only downside was when I was at my last jam and another attendee asked to borrow it. They're designed to be left on, and it took me a while to manipulate the catches to get it off and pass it to him.

[phydaux]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Some people do leave their tuners up there, attached to their headstock

Justin Guitar has his tuner left on the headstock in may of his videos.

[dwalton]

Things are getting pretty bad here when this kind of ridiculous stuff shows up.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

I'm thinking of switching to open gear tuners to save weight on the headstock.

Glad to see Im not the only one who calibrates their tuners!

[Quickstep192]

It drives me nuts when I go to a show and I’m trying to see what kind of guitar the player has and I can’t tell because of the tuner!

Oh, the humanity of it all!!

I have a nylon string guitar that need to be tuned before every us for the first year after strings are changed and I have an alto tuning guitar. Both have those little D’Addario soundhole tuners. They work great.

[Rudy4]

I always clip them on so they are visible from the back of the headstock.

If you want to leave them on they are hardly noticeable from the front.

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

As if I do not have enough real things to worry about, two and a half years into my guitar journey, and four months into fingerstyle work, I just can't get this question out of my head.
When I tune my guitar with a headstock device, I attach, tune and remove. But, I see that others skip the final step. They leave that plastic digital device clamped unceremoniously to the top of the their impeccable, hand-crafted, fully pampered, wooden object of desire. Frankly, it looks to me like some orphaned after-thought of a plastic star placed atop a lovely fir tree otherwise painstakingly trimmed for Christmas.
Am I right. Or is this just another thing in my life that I need to put in my rearview mirror. If I can.
David

You don't have to have it perched in front of the headstock, hanging out there. It's easy to clip it so that the display is behind the headstock, with the only thing showing in front being the small prong of the clip. I don't think it looks at all bad that way.

EDIT: Rudy4 beat me to it, but the point stands.

[L20A]

It all depends on the situation for me.
There are times where leaving the tuner on the guitar is necessary.
The rest of the time, I tune up and then take the tuner off.
So does that make me a Liberal or a Conservative? LOL

[Kyle215]

I take mine off when I’m just in the living room, but I’m a jam situation, especially outdoors, you want to keep an eye on your tuning… literally

[rllink]

I don't have a set in stone tuner rule. Sometimes I take it off and sometimes I'm lazy and leave it on.

[Nama Ensou]

Don't like the look of untrimmed strings or electronic tuners sticking off the end of the headstock, but I leave others to do as they will and pay attention to my own instead.

[guitarwebguy]

+1 to Quickstep - each of my guitars have the tiny D’Addario sound hole tuners, with no effect on my playing and always ready to be used if needed, I also have a Petersen if I need to clip onto a headstock ….

[TTiimm]

Sometimes I leave the tuner on the headstock when the guitar is put back in the case.

Then the next day I pull the guitar out to practice and can’t find the tuner.

It gets humidified in there.