SNARK heads for the trashcan

[Ron McMillan]

I picked up my red Snark tuner today to use it for the first time in several weeks, only to find that the red dye has become sticky to the touch, and the colour is coming off on my fingers. It has never been exposed to high temperatures or been out in direct sunlight, and now it's headed for the trashcan. I paid 20 pounds (about $30) for it a couple of years ago, and I am not pleased. I had already had to coat the pads on the clip to stop it digging into the headstock finish, but now it is unusable. Lousy quality control.

[Cheryl Watson]

Did you fill out the warranty to get your money back from Snark? Snarks eat batteries too quickly for me, but I have only owned the black ones.

[bigskygirl]

I have a blue one that lost the rubber caps right out of the box, I pasted some felt to it so I could use it but have switched to the Planet Waves mini one.

[Ron McMillan]

I stupidly didn't hang onto any documents that came with it, so of course I'm to blame for treating it as a disposable item.

[Bill Baldridge]

Regrettably, a $15 tuner, the going price around the Internet, seems to be a disposable item. I like the Planet Waves mini because of the size. I don't find a difference in performance between it and the Snarks. If you makes you feel any better, although I don't know why it would, I found myself retuning after ever song and started cursing my mandolin. Turned out the mini had lost any relevance to true pitch. Threw it in the dead tuner pile and replaced it. Love my mandolin again.

[tangleweeds]

My Planet Waves mini gets pretty schitzy if its battery starts to get low, but so far replacing the battery has always returned (retuned?) it to sanity.

That's kind of icky, though, about the red snark going gooey on the OP. Plastic tuner ooze can't be good for you.

[Jim]

2 years on a red Snark, replaced Battery once. Has not begun to melt yet. It sits out in my little bedroom studio and gets used for most of the tuning that happens at my house, by myself or friends who visit to jam/ record.

[Jim Roberts]

Since it is an electronic gadget, you may want to consider disposing of it accordingly instead of the landfill via the trash.

[Bill Baldridge]

My Planet Waves mini gets pretty schitzy if its battery starts to get low, but so far replacing the battery has always returned (retuned?) it to sanity.

That's kind of icky, though, about the red snark going gooey on the OP. Plastic tuner ooze can't be good for you.

I should have added, "after replacing the battery to no effect", I tossed the mini and replaced it with another mini. I still hold that the general quality of these kind of tuners is roughly equivalent of a free watch from McDonald's. Some last me a few years, some a few months. I keep a spare around.

Now back to the Snark Attack.

[Jim]

I still hold that the general quality of these kind of tuners is roughly equivalent of a free watch from McDonald's. Some last me a few years, some a few months. I keep a spare around.

+1 on that opinion, I have several brands none better or worse than the other. Have one for every case & gig bag.

[UsuallyPickin]

Yeah I have several brands also....... all get silly when the battery gets low so I keep a spare battery or two in my main case. I never have had one that the plastic failed on.... that's interesting. I like the Snark that has a mic as well as a transducer so I can check my fiddling intonation as I warm up.. it's red so .... I guess I will wait and see...can't say for sure how long I've had it .... a few years anyway. .. R/

[SincereCorgi]

I never have had one that the plastic failed on.... that's interesting.

Yeah, first I've heard of it, too. Franky, I can't think of any molded-plastic item I've owned where the color started coming out. For what it's worth, Snark is really good about replacing defective tuners, although I suppose that might be more difficult if OP is in Thailand.

[Jim Garber]

The only time I leave a tuner (any tuner) on a headstock is when I am playing at a gig and that only on guitar. I don't like the extra weight on fiddle and hate the way it looks on guitar. Still I would not leave it on the headstock of any instrument for more than an hour or two and never in a case. I know that is not the problem that the OP posted about but just my thoughts. I see lots of fellow musicians leave their tuners on their instruments all the time.

[Cheryl Watson]

Well, I did not save mine either.

I stupidly didn't hang onto any documents that came with it, so of course I'm to blame for treating it as a disposable item.

[dan in va]

Mine seems to work fine, but one of the tabs on the back on the back broke that holds the arm and clamp.

[Colin Lindsay]

Hate all of mine - two black and one blue - due to the short battery life. It may - in all honesty - be down to the crappy batteries available today, but I’m still looking for a good tuner, not clip-on, that I can use on all my instruments.

[Steve Ostrander]

Not a fan. If you search the forum you will find several my Snarky rants.

[JeffD]

I picked up my red Snark tuner today to use it for the first time in several weeks, only to find that the red dye has become sticky to the touch, and the colour is coming off on my fingers. .

This is the first time I have heard of this. I used a red Snark for many years without any issues, and now use a black one and would recommend it.

I had seen this color issue with a external USB mouse I bought on line. A major name brand. But I have never seen it with a Snark.

[allenhopkins]

When I bought my first chromatic tuner it cost $79 and was half the size of a brick. It wasn't pitch-adjustable, had only a microphone (no clip-on feature), didn't have a metronome feature like the red Snark, used a 9v battery and didn't fit in any of my instrument cases.

We now have a wide range of choices of small, affordable, accurate chromatic tuners. The red Snark can also be switched to "microphone" mode, as UsuallyPickin states, which I find useful in tuning Autoharp and other instruments with limited clip-on access points.

And if you don't find the Snark satisfactory, there are many alternatives. I own five red Snarks now, and if I don't forget to turn off the mic feature, they don't use batteries at an unreasonable rate.

Back in 1963 or so, I watched Mike Seeger tuning his Autoharp to the "weighted average" of several Hohner Marine Band harmonicas; I used to use the piano in the student union at Colorado College when I was an Autoharp-playing Sp4 at Fort Carson. We've come a long way in terms of technical sophistication and affordability.

Which doesn't excuse using poor quality plastic that softens and "bleeds." But I am grateful for the overall improvement in tuner technology.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Ron - I've been using a Red Snark for close to 3 years,it's still looks like new & works perfectly. I can't understand why the 'red dye' as you call it is coming off. I just scratched away a tiny bit of the red finsh from the underside of the bottom 'clip'. The 'red' 'whatever' has a silver undercoating over what looks like an opaque plastic. The finished coating is so evenly applied to the surface,even the tiny nooks & crannies,that it's either vacuum deposited,or,if the silver is a metal (Aluminium) then the finish could be an Anodic finish 'proper' (IMHO).
Anodising is a method of inducing a microscopic layer of oxidisation onto Aluminium. The oxidised coating can then be dyed various colours. Unless the finish had been exposed to some form of 'solvent' i can't figure out why it's coming off,especially if it is a dyed anodic finish,in which case the actual colour is formed of ''dyed metallic oxide'' = nothing to melt or dissolve = very weird !!.
As for battery life,i'm currently on my 2nd battery in 3 years,which is pretty good & the rubber pads have caused no marks on either of my mandolins,but i use it & take it off, so it's only ever on my mandolins for a couple of minutes at a time,
Ivan

[Ron McMillan]

I'm a bit surprised by it all, too, Ivan, but whatever has happened to the coating, it has become soft and sticky, and able to be rubbed off with my finger, leaving deep red colouring on my skin. In the indentations on the 'thumb and finger' parts of the clip, where the coating is perhaps much thicker, it can be scraped off with ease. Same on the curved bracket that links the clip to the tuner heard. Whatever's going on, it's not going anywhere near any instruments any more.

[dang]

Ron, this may be another climate issue for your locale...?

If it lasted 2 years at $30, that's only about 4 cents a day

[Ivan Kelsall]

Ron - The Snark is a brand marketed by British Company ''John Hornby Skewes & Co.''
If you go to their website & contact them,they might even replace it for you - it's worth a try,
Ivan
http://www.jhs.co.uk/qwiktune.html

[houseworker]

I doubt that quality control has anything whatever to do with this problem. It sounds as though the tuner has been exposed fo some sort of fumes that have attacked the plastic. I'd be surprised if the cause is anything other than environmental.

Even if you still had evidence of your warranty it wouldn't get you very far unless you have a local distributor. The Evets Corp. only provide warranty service for those living in the US. Frankly at around $15 these are disposable items and should be treated as such. You could vote with your wallet and buy another brand if you're that bothered.

[AlanN]

I have a red, a black and this one. They are what they are (although mine has never bled the dye...yuck)

The son of snark is pretty handy, although not terribly accurate. And it doesn't rotate, so takes a bit of mandolin re-positioning/neck craning to view the display. I, too, never leave them on the headstock. I use it and lose it.