Have I reached the limits of clip-on tuners or do I just need a better one?

[Rev Roy]

What’s the best clip-on tuner is a perennial AGF thread...and time and again the top recs are TC Ploy/Unituner and Peterson StroboClip. Both are accurate and easy to use and read. Can’t go wrong with either.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by dwasifar

....tuned the D-55 using the VS-II's pre-programmed (and supposedly proprietary) "GTR" temperament....

Originally Posted by Purfle Haze

...I have found Peterson's ACU tuning, which "compensates for for string deflection caused by fretting and capo use" to sound terrible....

I often flatten my own A string a hair so my C chord sounds in better tune. I think my $10 snark works fine.

[rmp]

I too have a pile of tuners,

I also had one of the very first Gen VS - 1 strobe tuners (Still have it but it lost the control wheel.)

I bought the Petersone strobe clip and it's really accurate, and does a better job than any of the others (Snark, D'Addario)

it's also 3x the cost..

[Parlorman]

I’ve compared lots of clip on tuners to my studio rack mounted tuner and they were all off. I use the TE Tuner app on my Galaxy phone and iPad and it’s always been spot on and is incredibly versatile. My pro trumpet playing son uses it as well.

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

Honestly, you have probably reached the end of the internet.

There’s always radio waves from space, or subspace communication we have not tapped into yet. Probably some fantastic guitar tuners out there in the galaxy and beyond

[GuildF20Guy]

Here’s something you can try for free and chances are it will work like a charm. Tune each strings A to A440. High e 5 th fret A, b strings 10th fret, g strings 2nd fret, etc. I do this on all my guitars and it sounds great. Mark at Folkway showed me this years ago, he explained it as spreading the temperament across the fret board. Try it, I offer a money back guarantee!!!

[musicman1951]

It may be time to give up the idea that you can tune the open strings of a guitar with any tuner in the world and then play a chord that sounds perfectly in tune.

[RalphH]

I just use my phone. It is FAR more accurate than a clip-on tuner.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by Rev Roy

What’s the best clip-on tuner is a perennial AGF thread...and time and again the top recs are TC Ploy/Unituner and Peterson StroboClip. Both are accurate and easy to use and read. Can’t go wrong with either.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What the Reverend said.

[Misifus]

Sweetened tunings can sound nice - if you only ever play in one key, which some folks do. So-called standard tuning is knowingly a compromise allowing an instrument to be played in all tunings and sound largely in tune.

This is what J. S. Bach was going on about when he wrote “The Well Tempered Klavier”. It demonstrated that with tempered tunings, he could play music in all 24 keys without having to re-tune the instrument.

[hairpuller]

Love both the TC Unitune and the Peterson Stroboclip. The Peterson gets more use because of the sweetened tunings. I find the Snark to not be nearly as accurate.

scott

[emtsteve]

I'm just now reaching the point where my ear is trained sufficiently to hear the need to temper individual strings. I also recently bought a couple of the Unitune devices after using exclusively Snarks. The Unitune is so much more precise.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

Honestly, you have probably reached the end of the internet.

No kidding. Watch out for the DEAD END sign. It's just up ahead.

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by Rev Roy

What’s the best clip-on tuner is a perennial AGF thread...and time and again the top recs are TC Ploy/Unituner and Peterson StroboClip. Both are accurate and easy to use and read. Can’t go wrong with either.

Thanks! I never knew there were decent ones. I've just ordered a Peterson StroboClip

[MC5C]

I just use a snark, or tune to some other guitar that I tuned recently (open E sring and go...). I honest don't understand all the fuss about sweetened this and flattened that. I virtually never play open chords, so the whole fuss about compensated nuts doesn't seem to make sense to me. I play in many different keys, so flattening the sharp major third is flattening the minor third in the next chord over, so exactly wrong. I play all over the neck, so intonation became a huge issue for me, then that went away when I realized that what I was actually chasing was inharmonicity in the thick strings played above the 9th fret or so. They ain't in tune with themselves, so how the heck can I get them in tune with something else. Close enough is the best you can do. I always thought the piano was the reference point, then I found out that piano tuners sweeten the treble strings on pianos so they sound in tune with the bass strings, which are out of tune due to inharmonicity (again!). Then I started playing slide guitars, lap dobro and sometimes lap steel, and discovered the solution to everything - a nice wide vibrato makes everything in tune, on average!